Gulltown Redo Discussion Megathread

[CashBanks]

Nago Torbole at Lake Garda in Italy, not so much the house style but damn, those mountains

 

[AerioOndos]

Heeelll yeah

 

[Renly_Baratheon_]

Hey everybody, I grew up in Lucerne so it's quite exciting seeing that it might be an inspiration for you. If it is of any use, i'd be happy to provide information, as far as I know it at least lol.

 

[Renly_Baratheon_]

Just wanted to post this other map of Lucerne, in case you are interested. It's from the 1790s. However, most structures are medieval. If you want to look at a higher resolution of this map and also the previous map that was posted on this thread, the city archive of Lucerne lists some old maps on their website. You can see them here: https://staatsarchiv.lu.ch/schaufenster/karten_stadtansichten/stadtansicht_schumacher (Sorry, it is not available in English)
As you can see, the Hofbrücke, which is the one in the top right side of the map, is very close to the shore. This is to admit easy access for the people to the church on the other side but also because the bridge itself, together with the Kapellbrücke (the one with the tower) and the Spreuerbrücke (the one on the left) are part of the fortifications of the city. They block ships from getting to the shorelines and allow guards to patrol and potentially shoot at ships from the bridges like ramparts on a castle or a wall. While the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden bridge with a roof in Europe it was built later than the tower in the middle, which was used, among other things as a treasury, archive, prison and torture chamber.
The city walls are on top of a hill, which is on the city side quite steep in some parts.
Concerning the connections to Gulltown: As far as I'm aware there is no river in Gulltown or there is certainly none in the current version. Therefore, lots of bridges may not make a lot of sense. If there is a natural harbour that could create a shape where some parts of the town would need to be connected with others via bridge, this would defeat the benefits of having a natural harbour as a bridge like the ones in Lucerne would block any ship big enough to transport goods. So if you intend to use them as inspiration, I think the bridge as a rampart concept might be quite fun. Since Gulltown seems to be well-protected on its rear due to the mountains, they could instead focus their efforts to fortifying their city toward the sea. Not sure how this works best with having a big harbour as well but I guess that's for you to figure out.
Also, random aside, one of the towers of the walls (the fifth one, called Zytturm, built in 1440) has a big clock on it. Not sure what the stance on clocks is on the server because I haven't seen any yet, I think, but maybe having a tower with a clock could be a defining feature.

PS: Sorry to barge in on the server with these long posts lol.

 

[AerioOndos]

Nothing to apologise for, i love it when the larger community comes in with great ideas and resources! This is really cool stuff and I think will help develop some peoples ideas who are working on gulltown.

 

[Renly_Baratheon_]

It is with great embarassment that I can announce that I spent half of today creating a potential layout of Gulltown on Photoshop (insert graphic desing is my burden meme). Obviously I don't expect any of it to be used but I was bored and felt inspired to create map instead of working on my thesis. Nevertheless, I hope you will like it or that it can inspire whoever will end up creating the proper submission.



I have placed the Gulltower in the city because GRR Martin apparently said in an interview that it's in the city. I've also added the quarantine island that was suggested by otty, Margaery_Tyrell and Ricardus.
While Dutchguard suggested that the mountains are not necessarily cannon and that they should or could be flattened to make the area more farmable, I think the mountainous terrain is one of the primary aspects that would make Gulltown very distinct from White Harbour. Additionally, I don't think having mountains means that there cannot be farmland. I've placed these sort of high valleys that are due to the mountains surrounding the city, within the city walls, which would be a rather unique feature and also would suggest a sort of breadbasket status. They're also quite common in Switzerland.
Concerning the class distinctions: tbh I just placed them wherever, since I didn't plan to do it initially. It's probably all wrong.
So umm yeah. I hope I can stop being overly obsessed with Gulltown now lol.

 

[cstew3]

There should definitely be some Swiss/German design inspirations

 

[Nuggets - Shygirlstan]

Ingolstadt has some elements that would look great in Gulltown.

 

[AerioOndos]

I'm all for mountains but they don't have to be right next to the city. they might be foothills of larger ones a little bit further off.
You raise a good point about making Gulltown distinct from WhiteHarbour.

This is pretty easy to do with mostly terrain and style choice.

Whiteharbour is mostly flat. Gulltown will be on some kind of slope no matter what. Its a Vale project, an area that is most identified with tall mountains nearby.
However, Gulltown/Runestone on a spit leading off the end of the Vale of Arryn, the main valley of the region which is said to be fertile and houses most of the population of the Vale. In fact, most castles of the region are in the VoA.
It would make sense that there is some kind of mountain range that would protect the region from southern storms blowing up from across the Bay of Crabs.

Gulltown is on the southern face of this, facing away from the VoA. So it would likely be on the more wind and water eroded side. What I'd be interested in is a tiered city. One that moves up layers of eroded terrain away from the harbour and higher into valleys and meadows around. That would also create a likely interesting profession/class segregation.
Crabbers (it is the sea of crabs outside the Gulltown's bay), fishermen and traders fit around the harbour. Their houses range from the lower class rowman's hovels to the manse of the Arryn's of Gulltown and the other well appointed traders of the city.
On higher tiers are tradespeople and artisans who supply the traders and the port, eventually ranging out into the farms and shepherds on the high plains.

 

[ContraBlonde]

I'm all for mountains but they don't have to be right next to the city. they might be foothills of larger ones a little bit further off.
You raise a good point about making Gulltown distinct from WhiteHarbour.

This is pretty easy to do with mostly terrain and style choice.

Whiteharbour is mostly flat. Gulltown will be on some kind of slope no matter what. Its a Vale project, an area that is most identified with tall mountains nearby.
However, Gulltown/Runestone on a spit leading off the end of the Vale of Arryn, the main valley of the region which is said to be fertile and houses most of the population of the Vale. In fact, most castles of the region are in the VoA.
It would make sense that there is some kind of mountain range that would protect the region from southern storms blowing up from across the Bay of Crabs.

Gulltown is on the southern face of this, facing away from the VoA. So it would likely be on the more wind and water eroded side. What I'd be interested in is a tiered city. One that moves up layers of eroded terrain away from the harbour and higher into valleys and meadows around. That would also create a likely interesting profession/class segregation.
Crabbers (it is the sea of crabs outside the Gulltown's bay), fishermen and traders fit around the harbour. Their houses range from the lower class rowman's hovels to the manse of the Arryn's of Gulltown and the other well appointed traders of the city.
On higher tiers are tradespeople and artisans who supply the traders and the port, eventually ranging out into the farms and shepherds on the high plains.

Gulltown could be more distinct from WH if it had its own unique block like Lannisport, KL, HG, Oldtown, etc. Maybe a gray-white version or arbor brick. Just an idea tho

 

[AerioOndos]

While having regional blocks makes some sense, I'm not too sure about it even though there is a trend of cities getting their 'own' blocks e.g. LP plaster, WH cobble, KL Dun etc. However, it could be mixed in with the daub and wattle framing. Maybe if theres a limewashed variant of the framed stone/brick that would work very well without necessitating a new stone type.
We already have Faint light grey stone which works for a bright small stone block.

however, I was thinking maybe if we did have a new block for gulltown, it could be a grey shingle/slate block. Not black but something that could blend with shingle>EIterrain>MoMterrain.
There aren't many slate quarries on the server, so it would be a good opportunity to introduce some quarrying for that purpose.

Spoiler: Slate Quarry in Wales, Penrhyn

Spoiler: Another woodblock carving of the same quarry

I was thinking that we don't have enough slate quarries. Maybe there could be one in the surrounding area that produces a grey-black slate shingle?

 

[ContraBlonde]

While having regional blocks makes some sense, I'm not too sure about it even though there is a trend of cities getting their 'own' blocks e.g. LP plaster, WH cobble, KL Dun etc. However, it could be mixed in with the daub and wattle framing. Maybe if theres a limewashed variant of the framed stone/brick that would work very well without necessitating a new stone type.
We already have Faint light grey stone which works for a bright small stone block.

however, I was thinking maybe if we did have a new block for gulltown, it could be a grey shingle/slate block. Not black but something that could blend with shingle>EIterrain>MoMterrain.
There aren't many slate quarries on the server, so it would be a good opportunity to introduce some quarrying for that purpose.

Spoiler: Slate Quarry in Wales, Penrhyn

View attachment 3597

Spoiler: Another woodblock carving of the same quarry

View attachment 3598

I was thinking that we don't have enough slate quarries. Maybe there could be one in the surrounding area that produces a grey-black slate shingle?

I like the idea of gray slate since we wouldn’t have to use blue slate(yuk!).

 

[Alec_Sander]

Not sure if its been mentioned but maybe a notable small tower like or large manor house with light defenses could be added (maybe like a grand-view type building) as a place for the Arryns of Gulltown, as well as some businesses being owned by them throughout the city as they're meant to be richer than the actual Arryns of the vale?

 

[Margaery_Tyrell]

I think grey slate would be a good addition, if only for the Vale

 

[Emoticone11]

Could probably just recolor blue slate to be more grayish blue rather than bright cartoony blue, since it's mostly only used in the Vale anyways.

 

[Nuggets - Shygirlstan]

Could probably just recolor blue slate to be more grayish blue rather than bright cartoony blue, since it's mostly only used in the Vale anyways.

Or make the current black the blue and the black blacker like the nether brick

 

[Alec_Sander]

Grey slate might not not be the best looking as it might blend in too much with the stone textures of the server but you'd have to implement it to see that comparison anyway

 

[Thamus_Knoward]

Hey Nuggets,

do you know what this was supposed to be? I've seen similar structures around Copenhagen and I'm thinking it had to have something to do with industrial ovens/ smelting or similar i.e. the tall structures used to be chimneys and they've now just been filled in. But I can't be sure. Do you have more info?

 

[DutchGuard]

Oooh I think I can answer this. Those are part of the outer wall defenses of Ingolstadt. I think they might be a later nod to the historical appearance of the walls, but they are not chimneys.

here’s a better angle:

 

[CashBanks]

Grindalwald Valley in Switzerland