Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

Hmm...what I'm looking at, then, for the type of setting I want is 8 sq.miles, 2,070 hectares and about 100,000 people.

Which isn't a dark age city. What kind of city might it corrospond to? Just in case my mental image is way off.

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

well then your looking at a city that was located in middle east.... Current country is turkey... Or pick some of the big cities from China or India. They would at the 100 k during the dark ages...

Istanbal was 100k back then...

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

So, what level of organization would be nessasary for a 100k city?

I'm thinking, a duke just for the city, a council of lower nobles, a merchants/guild council of some sort, the obligatory wizard's guild, since this is a fantasy world, a guard organized around the city's sections, the nobles and rich merchants would no doubt hire additional guards for their section. And the duke would have his own guard, commanded, no doubt, by a minor noble. And, since this is the capital, the king would have his guard and the army.

I'm using European terms because I'm familiar with them, but if this city is more believable as a middle-easternish city, if someone would provide titles and a breakdown...

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

100k is a lot. If you want a believable city of that size, first of all make sure they can get food and fresh water in sufficient quantities from somewhere http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . Farming was not very effective these days, and many of the bigger roman cities had to use aquaducts to carry water to the cities over long distances.
Supply was one of the biggest problems in these times, apart from the danger of diseases due to non-existing sewer systems - despite the romans having it, the knowledge had been lost in these times. But in a fantasy world you don't have an oppressive knowlegde-killing christian church, so this does not have to be an issue http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

Command structures, guilds, orders of chivalry and nobility are pretty much arbitrary - wheater a general commands 50 people or 50k depends on the size of the army he is serving in, not his rank. I suggest using any good roleplaying sourcebook detailling a city structure, saves a lot of work. And embarrassment when someone finds out that 96% of the cities' population are nobles or soldiers and no one is doing the actual work there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ May 19, 2004, 02:31: Message edited by: Roanon ]

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

Answer in ()
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Would the D&D Dungeon masters guide be good enough, or if not, can you point me to a good one?

[ May 19, 2004, 02:42: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

ok, I've made a map of the city. Not an amazing map, but for anyone who wants to take a look at what I'm talking about...How do you put an image on a webpage?

And now, Smallville!

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, that would have been good to know about before I went and made
this.

Mind you, given that Primavera is over 100kn wide, a building-by-building map as shown in those screenshots might have been a bit ambitious...

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

delete function still missing in this forum....

[ May 19, 2004, 14:45: Message edited by: Roanon ]

Re: OT - Size of medieval capitals
 

[quote]Originally posted by Roanon:

Quote:

Originally posted by dogscoff: [qb]Hmm, that would have been good to know about before I went and made this.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You should have asked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You'd be surprised. City Designer has excellent macroing and random placement features, plus it is very easy to place buildings auto-aligning near streets, copy whole blocks changing just a few features, and much more. Good output with little input. I would guess, for example, about 1-2 hours of work for a map like yours, everything (distance scaling, names, etc.) included. Add a few hours per quarter, and you have a detailled map with buildings...