# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  September-October Challenge: Post Apocalyptic NY

## Sapiento

I'll go for an old and ruined NY.

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## Aval Penworth

You just can't wait for Armageddon, can you?  

Looking forward to your next masterwork.  :Smile:

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## mearrin69

I'm looking forward to it too...though it's going to put my P-A map to shame  :Smile:  You doing the whole city or just a piece of it?
M

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## Sapiento

> I'm looking forward to it too...though it's going to put my P-A map to shame  You doing the whole city or just a piece of it?
> M


Oh..this put some pressure on me.  :Wink: 
I'm not sure. Maybe I make some connection with my Noramerika map. Maybe not. I guess I concentrate on Manhattan.

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## Sapiento

> You just can't wait for Armageddon, can you?  
> 
> Looking forward to your next masterwork.


I'm patient. Really.  :Wink:

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## tilt

sounds cool sapiento - looking very much forward to it  :Smile:

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## Sapiento

I'm searching for good iso maps of NY at the moment, as I try to make some illustration for the map. Besides the one Diamond uses as inspiration I haven't found very much at the moment. I guess I use some photos of Manhattan.

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## mearrin69

I found this one for mine. It's perspective, though, not ISO. I didn't see any of those during my reference searching but I imagine there must be some. There was one book/collection but it was for purchase...and much to detailed, as you might imagine.
M

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## Sapiento

Thanks, mearrin. This is one of the maps I consider as base for my entry.
I found two others.

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## mearrin69

I saw the second one but it was quite small and had only a few buildings so I skipped it (it is ISO though). The first one you posted is pretty cool! I snagged it if only because it better shows how the individual buildings look than mine. Nice find.
M

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## Sapiento

First idea.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Copycat ;P Yours will probably beat the heck out of mine though. 
M

_N.B. I'm just kidding about the copycat thing, BTW...how many ways are there to draw New York?_

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## Sapiento

;-)

It's really hard to find a good base map with the right angle.
I'm not completely sure where this will go.

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## mearrin69

I hear you. I'm not sure where mine's going either...or rather how I'm going to find the time to get it there. I am beginning to consider zooming in a bit.
M

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## RecklessEnthusiasm

If you happen to have Sim City 4, I bet you can download people's custom New York maps and take a screenshot of various sections. That has almost the correct angle, I think.

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## mearrin69

I did think about that. I think it comes with NYC (and SF and some others) but I can't recall for sure.
M

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## Immolate

Why not just go in Google Maps and get the angle and elevation right from there?

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## mearrin69

Well, now that's fancy. The wonders of teh Intarwebz will never cease.
M

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## Sapiento

I wasn't aware that Google map can do this.

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## Jaxilon

I know Google Earth can. Not sure about the map but it might be able to as well.

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## Sapiento

I couldn't get the inspiration to continue on the previous draft, so I started with something new. Still post apocalyptic, but now a birds-eye-view, maybe taken from an airship.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Cool. Water looks great and the colors are nice. Looking forward to seeing where you take it. I'm *very* afraid that I've bitten off a project that's too big for me with my perspective sketch thing...
M

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## Sapiento

Thanks, mearrin. Please, don't give up on your project, it looks great so far.

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## mearrin69

I'll hang in there. Just gotta find some time to plug in the Intuos and fire up Photoshop. We need a heck of a lot of maps for this show so I plan to finish it...and encourage everyone else to do it too. Nice to see some maps nearly done (Juggernaut and one other I can't recall at the moment).
M

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## Sapiento

I have now a rough concept for the map. I will put them in line with Noramerika and Lando maps.
Hattn Harbor is an important outpost, administrated by the Empyre of Texarado and the Kingdom of Hio as co-dominium. The water filled craters - remnants of orbital bombardments - are the ports (two civilian and one naval port), land craters (there will be two or three) are the inner cities  - like citadells - while the broader areas around the ports are inhabited and fortified, too. I will create relatively strong fortifications and walls: the outpost can only be reached either by sea or by air via one of the fragile airships. In the eastern wastelands still roam mutant beasts, steel golems (more or less self-repairing combat robots) and mutant warrior tribes. Only Hattn Island and the area around the naval port in the South are settled, the areas west and east of Hattn Island are covered with thick forest and some ruins.

The map shows Manhattan 1500 years after it's destruction, so there will be very few recognizable areas, if any at all.

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## Sapiento

Fortifications added

### Latest WIP ###

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## Sapiento

First buildings and streets added, some forest, too.

### Latest WIP ###

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## tilt

sure doesn't look like today NY, its much greener  :Wink:  ... good start, the coast seems to lack a little definition?  :Smile:

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## Marken4

If you turn the picture 180 degrees the water looks like a man peeing.. ^^ (Yeah.. Hilarious.. I know  :Very Happy: )

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## Sapiento

> sure doesn't look like today NY, its much greener  ... good start, the coast seems to lack a little definition?


Nature strikes back!  :Wink:  I'll have to work on the coast.




> If you turn the picture 180 degrees the water looks like a man peeing.. ^^ (Yeah.. Hilarious.. I know )


Very suspicious, your way of perception  :Wink:   Hm, a map with a reversed N-S direction. Maybe...

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## Sapiento

More details.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Thassalottafrigginhouses, yo. Looking good!
M

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## Marken4

You got too much sparetime. In a good way.

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## Juggernaut1981

Sapiento,
Why do you have to enter things? It means people who aren't as massively awesome as yourself have limited chance of winning... That urban sprawl is stunning dude.  I'm keen to see where this ends.

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## Jaxilon

Whoa, that is a lot. Did you use a brush to drop all those or do you have some even slicker trick you could share?

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## Sapiento

Thank you guys.  :Very Happy: 

It's actually 'quite' easy to do the houses. Draw the roads first, select them, expand the selection (for expample 6 px), choose a brush with this size or less  (6 px or less) and choose the settings (jitters), turn selection into a path, fill path contour with brush. Finished. Now you have just to clean up the city. You get a well organized set up of quarters. For more randomness you still have to add and delete houses manually.

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## Jaxilon

Thanks for the info on that..Now I think it may be time I figured out how to use whatever it is you are talking about  :Smile:   I get it until you say "Fill path contour with brush". Is that brush a house shape? If so then I get it, if not then I'm not with ya. I've never done it myself, but I've seen it when I'm pokin around.

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## tilt

you can just use a basic square brush  :Smile:

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## Sapiento

Square brush, yes.

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## Sapiento

Even more details.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Looking good! One thing I really like about this map is the imaginative shapes. It's recognizeable as Manhattan (probably once it's pointed out to you) but it looks like somewhere else altogether - which is as it should be with a P-A map, especially a far future one. You going to have any ruins? I guess that, after such a long time, the skyscrapers would have mostly converted into hilly terrain rather than anything recognizeable. Might make for some hills at the tip and up just south of where the park was located. I guess the part would be nice low-laying terrain, actually, since it's surrounded on all sides by some tallish buildings.
M

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## Steel General

Cool stuff so far... I would suggest 'toning down' the water texture just a bit.

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## Sapiento

> Looking good! One thing I really like about this map is the imaginative shapes. It's recognizeable as Manhattan (probably once it's pointed out to you) but it looks like somewhere else altogether - which is as it should be with a P-A map, especially a far future one. You going to have any ruins? I guess that, after such a long time, the skyscrapers would have mostly converted into hilly terrain rather than anything recognizeable. Might make for some hills at the tip and up just south of where the park was located. I guess the part would be nice low-laying terrain, actually, since it's surrounded on all sides by some tallish buildings.
> M


This was actually my idea for the south tip. I have in mind a terrain similar to those of vanished culture from the past. As you suggested, very slight hills for the skyscrapers and may a hint of different colour where streets have been.
I will also add more variation in the town itself, adding more distinct structures for churches and palaces and such stuff.





> Cool stuff so far... I would suggest 'toning down' the water texture just a bit.


Indeed, that's too much at the moment.

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## Sapiento

First idea for ruin hills.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Pretty cool. Looks a little too orderly, IMO. If people disappeared and they just rotted and collapsed I might expect something like that...but you've got ortillery going on there, so maybe a little more chaos? Also, and I have no idea what the volume of material in a real skyscraper is, but I'd want them to be bigger and more merged together. 

I do like the way you can still sort of see the roads, though. Reminds me of that "cool Google Earth images" thread, where you can see the old foundations in Cairo and Ankor Wat.

Here's a question to ask...why has no one built there? I think if you can answer that question and make the terrain reflect that answer then you'll sell the piece better. I don't have an answer...just posing the question.  :Smile: 
M

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## tilt

maybe some ruins still poking up here and there?

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## Sapiento

> Pretty cool. Looks a little too orderly, IMO. If people disappeared and they just rotted and collapsed I might expect something like that...but you've got ortillery going on there, so maybe a little more chaos? Also, and I have no idea what the volume of material in a real skyscraper is, but I'd want them to be bigger and more merged together. 
> 
> I do like the way you can still sort of see the roads, though. Reminds me of that "cool Google Earth images" thread, where you can see the old foundations in Cairo and Ankor Wat.
> 
> Here's a question to ask...why has no one built there? I think if you can answer that question and make the terrain reflect that answer then you'll sell the piece better. I don't have an answer...just posing the question. 
> M


I guess that after 1500 - 1700 years of decay most of the concrete and steel has 'rotted' away, crumbled etc and also washed away by rain and storms. So I don't think the ruins should be bigger; but more chaos is a good idea.

The east coast was - and is - still hostile to ordinary humans: roaming nomads and barbarian mutants, mutated beast, relict combat robots etc. So there aren't many settlements like this, and the existing ones are strong fortified. I guess this town isn't older than 200 years. It was built where it is mainly for defense and economic purpose - the land craters serve as strongholds and the 'water' craters as ports.
That the areas in the south and north are uninhabited and relatively clear of trees has also another reason - free field of fire (? correct name?) for artillery.




> maybe some ruins still poking up here and there?


See my explanation above

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## Sapiento

Further refinement.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Looking good. What's that thing with white fins in the upper "circle fort"? Some kind of windmill?
M

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## jtougas

Looks awesome..Is that a Zeppelin? floating over the river?...

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## Sapiento

> Looking good. What's that thing with white fins in the upper "circle fort"? Some kind of windmill?
> M





> Looks awesome..Is that a Zeppelin? floating over the river?...


Yep! Zeppelins. Floating over the river and anchoring at landing towers.

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## jtougas

> Yep! Zeppelins. Floating over the river and anchoring at landing towers.


That is just too cool  :Smile:

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## Sapiento

:Very Happy: 
I guess I won't do much more on the map itself, now labelling starts.

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## Sapiento

First labels added.

### Latest WIP ###

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## mearrin69

Looks great. The spelling makes me think the place has been taken over by Games Workshop orcs, though!  :Smile: 
M

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## jtougas

"haba" sounds just right to me..(paak the caa ...) looks awesome  :Smile:

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## Sapiento

I think this map is more or less finished. I may add some coat-of-arms or a flag.

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