AoS in cityscape

Ok I'm making terrain for a playable map that is set in a city, so I'm wondering do you have any tips on how to make AoS in such environment.

OK we got 2 alliances: 1blue, 1 red. Blue is the King, red are the rebels.
Behold a Crappy sketch up... down.

Specific questions.
1. The passage from the Tower to the Throne room, should it be indoors or outdoors?
2. Does the Blue Tower seems viable enough? Or should I place something else instead?
3. I envisioned three routes but should they go in a straight line or should it curve through the side streets?
4. Will urban environment with many side streets and many open areas disturb the balance due to large number of hiding places, escape routes etc. Should I try to minimize this.
5. In the center there is a pool of shallow water over which looks the large fountain thingy is. The fountain has four waterfalls on each side and it is possible for someone to hide in its base. Is this good gameplay wise seeing the fountain actually heals.

You should post atleast a concept art or a sketch of what you want it to be so terrainers won't have any problems trying to understand harder :D

Hmm can pastebin be used? I forgot the pass to my photobucket account ><

You can just attach stuff to the post as well. No need for pastebin.

Added as suggested. I completely forgot this site has upload attachment option. Plus I get to bump this thread.

1. If you want, though you might not want to put it outdoors, since... How to put it... Then you will have a big hole in your city wall. If you mean like a park-area which leads to the tower, well then, it's your map, it's your preference.

2. Actually I'm completely unsure how gameplay will work, since each team gets control over one lane since their outpost is in that lane - can you take over the bases? Also, how would you implement sewer lines? Those are underground.

4. If it's a city, then it's a city. You don't have to do side streets, but it would be nice to have some - and the occasional dark alley. If you're concerned about people hiding too much - either implement it into your game or block them off with fences, trees, walls, etc. Barricades, even, because the city is being laid seige upon.

5. I'm concerned about how realistic this is, however, enemy heroes auto-acquire targets to smack around, so, meh. The fountain may also prove to be imbalanced towards the group that takes control of it.

This is a concept art thing I kind of drew.



Green stuff is tree, park area with birds and benches and whatnot. The one which is kind of black/red/orange/yellow is on fire. There are two towers, one of which is destroyed and made into a bandit encampent. The bottom half is completely destroyed and should be considerably darker than the top half. There are two dark alleys where you can put "secret" merchants. Not much else to say, really. There are side streets so you can go from lane to lane and there is plently of space for you to edit.

Tnx for great comments there is one thing though, most of the town will be on fire since the rebels are actually fighting for some time already. Generally I hate the good/bad stereotypes so basically the king is like lawfuly evil and rebels are chaotic good. The rebel base shouldn't be that much darker but still it will be burning.
1. I agree but is that green stuff between a king and the king's outpost a forest or a wall?
2. No, you can destroy the bases which are spawn points and crucial for victory, I consider it as bad enough. There will be guards or towers on crucial points and once destroyed you could try and make a new where the old was in place. Well It won't be much of a real sewer (with canals going through each part town) it will be like a lowered terrain with some water doodads with enough fog and doodads it will look like a sewer.
4. I don't worry that much. I think side streets and alternative roots are good but if it is like a maze people will get lost. I might implement a side street or an alley. But baricaddes are always good for that.
5. Hmm pushing towards a fountain will work on very limited range and I could make that creeps go around its side thus not healing too much. Fountain is designed as a more Hero vs Hero part. Also fountain isn't owned. I mean if you play around the fountain it heals you both.

Rep given.
I like your plan very much but what do the crosses mean and why is fountain circled? And you didn't mentioned city gates. What are their purpose? I like the burned tower for base it will be interesting to implement and balance wise seeing it is best to keep the base high above ground.

I would like to hear more oppinions. Also I would like to answer two more questions.
6. Diagonal side streets?
7. Should I make canals through entire town?

After reading what you wanted, I whipped up a little layout for ya. Due to my laziness, I didn't label anything on the pic. Thus here's a legend:
Top center area = Castle base.
Bottom center area = Rebel base.
Orange-ish color = paths, fairly simple to tell what are the main routes and what are links/back roads.
Blue-ish color = Canals
Circular shapes = Suggested places for your bases.
Finally, the gray are building/debris and the green would be plant life; mainly for parks/outside the city.


Do whatever you want with the image... or even nothing at all. Just something I whipped together real quick-like, and even partway through I got lazy, as you can see.

And, I think I incorporated everything you wanted...

Eh it was supposed to be a park like, I guess, in Stormwind. You know, you build a path, plant a couple of trees, grow bit of grass and flowers, plant some benches and make little villagers go to it on dates and stuff

City gate is just there because every city needs a gate . Also, the two towers (king outpost and rebel main base) are on either side of it.

The red and blue x's are Bases and the yellow ones are merchant areas. I circled the fountain by accident.

Mm, nice one Sintaman. I like that layout. Nothing much wrong with it, other than alot of space that is blocked off. Say, you should make a city layout for me someday


Say, it would be cool actually, if you made giant chunks of buildings - like a big square with buildings on the outside where the streets are, then on the square itself, put more buildings on the edges, hollow out the square and then put a courtyard inside, so people can hide, and you can use your city blocks wisely. And since I know that was very hard to understand, here is another lame diagram.



Side streets are always good so you can go in between lanes.

If you want canals, then you have to make them look realistic as well - and use them wisely, since canals should block up an entire street, or even be used as a path to transfer lanes.

Ok great stuff guy thanks a lot for help now I need to find some pics of markets and simmilar stuff...

@Sintanan: Great Image the only problem is that I want it all in cityscape and second I like sewers idea a lot. Though in the end your suggestions seems more likely.

It would almost be impossible to implement sewers unless you make the entire map in underground, otherwise, you'll have canals.

Canals are fine, though.

wait wait wait, im confused here, if the people living in the castle hates their king and decides to rebel against him, why bother burning their own houses?
I know a way you can put a sewer directly under a lane...every single unit would be kind of well, annoying to suit it. Not really made for gameplay in other words, it works, but very very choppy.

It's because their retarded children tried to help them and they accidentally killed themselves with fire.

Canals are fine, just add some green stuff and some shit floating around and they're good to go.

lolol
anyways, i forgot to attach my picture, i think totally different from what you came up with.
and actually, i just found a good easy way of making a sewer. one lane would be lowered into the ground and covered in archways, good.

key for my ...thingy?
brown = wall / cliff
blue = water
lb = buildings
gray/grey = roads
green = fields

P.S. i dont get why do you people upload picture to another site then the get the url and copy n paste it on here when u couldve just attached it directly, like me.

Covered in Archways = you can't see under them

I didn't want to attach because then I would forget to unattach when I need more room, and that always happens. And it's annoying.

And I like photobucket.