Unhallowed city

[Ania]

Today, city for unhallowed

From left: city lvl1, city lvl2 + palisade, city lvl3 + walls



And how it looks in the game:

[Happerry]

Honestly doesn't look like a city to me. If just looking without titles and names I'd guess it was a plain old graveyard that you could loot for fun and treasure.

[Gazz]

Alas, I have to agree.
Level 1 and 2 are definitely undead lairs with and without a wall around it.
Level 3 doesn't know what it wants to be.

There is no mass to it. No living space.

One way to make undead cities structurally different from others would be to concentrate on a single central building like a mesoamerican pyramid.
You know, the one you see in the closing shot of From Dusk Til Dawn?


I could see a palisade or the city walls being made out of gravestones. That would be a fitting use of the undead's unique "natural resources". =)

[jamoecw]

i guess the only issue i have with it is how it will look compared to the city screen where all the buildings are displayed. the cities clearly lack buildings, so if they don't show what has been built in the city screen then it will look empty even when full. if it does show the buildings then it is perfect for the base city of undead, empty when empty, full when full, with little extra 'living space' for things that don't live.

edit: i suspect the later, due to the in game shot not matching any of the city types (an extra building).

[Troy_Costisick]

edit: i suspect the later, due to the in game shot not matching any of the city types (an extra building).

Actually, I think that building is in the third city. I hate to be the contrarian, but I like what I see.

[jamoecw]

true, but both the second and third have other pillars as well, and if you look at the main crypt and the headstones you will see they match the first city. so it is the first city, except it has the tower from the third. i haven't noticed any human cities looking different on the strategic map due to buildings, but i am hoping that either the unhallowed are different, or that i simply didn't pay attention enough.

the city would look weird with living space, and being empty means it is easy to spot discrepancies between city screen and strategic map icon. a collection of crypts would be better i think if buildings don't show up in the icon. given that walls show up on the icons i have hope though.

[Cirno9destiny]

I quite like these designs. City level 1 does look a little bit barren sure, but that is the point isn't it? I really like cities level 2 and 3, the former looks really forboding and the latter really looks the part of a magical undead city.

[Happerry]

They don't look like a city though, and that's the issue. Sure, undead don't need houses, but they still need smiths to make weapons, barracks to store troops, boneyards to make the bone catapults, temples to the gods of evilness and undeath, the Tourney of the Damned for the undead knights, and so on.

All that is is a collection of graves and pillars, not a settlement, not even an undead settlement. You need buildings for a city... and that doesn't have any.

[Cirno9destiny]

You do raise a good point there Happerry.

[jamoecw]

undead don't need the typical filler buildings though, which is why i am hoping for the building built show up on the map thing (at least for undead).

another explanation that is typically used for undead nations is that they are underground. though i think a bit of a mound would help with that idea. if buildings don't show up on the map i think having a few scattered buildings amid gravestones would work well (as i would like the unhallowed cities to appear rather barren, but happerry is right about the need for some buildings).