Historical maps and ressources

[MightyPotato]

Does anyone know any website or websites containing Maps and Information on Medieval cultures, settlements and their evolution? I currently am trying to assemble a document for school and I need quite a few maps of main European settlements of the time that have undergone later change and whose main mediaeval features are no longer distinctly distinguishable. As of now I have only been able to gather information on cities from my country and can't seem to find archives from anywhere else...

Any help or maybe any useful resource thread would be much appreciated !

[MightyPotato]

Jk I'm actually considering giving custom settlements a shot, just to learn the ropes :3 (I'm not good at this )

[Grabbin_Megroin]

My best guess is Google unfortunately

[MightyPotato]

Hehe yah :3 , it's unfortunate though that I can only get interesting info from where I'm from. I'm considering trying google maps maybe... Thanks for replying !

[Lord Caim]

use wikipedia, but dont use the wiki, use the links it gives as reference. Im willing to bet with enough searching around like that youll find what youre looking for.

[MightyPotato]

I haven't tried that yet. Good idea !

[+Marius+]

Jk I'm actually considering giving custom settlements a shot, just to learn the ropes :3 (I'm not good at this )

I am very glad to hear anyone even considering doing custom settlements.

But what you asked is too broad, you need to be at least somewhat more specific.

[MightyPotato]

Well I'm in high school and preparing for exams, so progress will be slow (I have most of all to learn how it all works ), but as of now I am considering working on every factions' capital's main unique buildings and recreating the settlement layout, later filling it in with default mediaeval 2 buildings for the houses. To try and achieve this I would need reconstitutions and possible plans of those main buildings so I can try to re-create them with as much ease and accuracy as possible (maybe using GMax), but getting those resources has been rough, especially for the more intricate and less well-known buildings.

Please don't consider this as an official project though, I'm just a noob playing around , but if you have any tips and advice that you might want to share from your great experience, you are of course more than welcome .

[MightyPotato]

Thx to all for your support btw !

[+Marius+]

So the information you want is how the settlements historically looked like?
So you can, hopefully, make them so ingame?


Well, since you opened up the thread, why don't we start with Paris;

This little .pdf file I found reconstructs the medieval plan of the city(thought from a bit after this mods startdate, ignore the outer wall and moat);

http://paris-atlas-historique.fr/resources/$C3$A9volution+1300_1450.pdf

-still is useful for the overall layout

Though, the model for the mod should be a reconstruction of Paris before the erection of the Wall of Charles V and focus on the walls of Philip II Augustus instead(those walls being largely a 12th century thing).

Here is a 3d representation of such a 12th/13th century Paris;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Another one with greater detail(from above);

http://i.imgur.com/MlkxZg8.jpg (large image)




Inner island walls and bridges;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Reconstruction of what one of the many outer gates looked like;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Louvre Fortress/citadel;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That is just some data leftover from one of my own "things" I did some time ago.

Hope it helps or at least gives a little push

[MightyPotato]

Wow, thank you ! Those are great models! Is this the reconstitution by Dassault Systèmes? Anyways, thanks a lot, that definitively will help , Paris it is then! I'll get started this week-end (if I finish my work in time .

[+Marius+]

Is this the reconstitution by Dassault Systèmes?

No idea, I found that stuff long ago.

I'll get started this week-end (if I finish my work in time .

Godspeed.

[MightyPotato]

Thx. Currently working on drawing plans and struggling to find a way to re-create Notre-Dame cathedral XD. Boy I ain't about to be done, sur! But it's progress to say the least !
I think it'll get slower when I actually get to the modeling.

[+Marius+]

Well, apart from the fact that it was not built until 1345, I would suggest to you not to stall yourself with specific buildings and other complex new building modelling stuff.

It would be best that, for starters, you use already available stuff and merely change the overall layout of settlements.

The river running through Paris and the shape of the city itself is far more important than individual landmarks within the city.

That is at least my opinion and advice.

[MightyPotato]

U are absolutely right, and thats what I intend to do, but I will still try to implement at least the royal palace, notre dame, the louvre and vary the towers. I maybe will also make the big and little chatelêts that guarded the bridges. Apart from that I'll just be re-using models from medieval 2

[MightyPotato]

Progress at last ! A fiew of my classes have skipped, and I've had a bit of time off to rework an old google SketchUp model into this. I don't know what level of detail is required for Medieval 2 buildings, so I don't know if I should do more. What do you guys think?

Btw, Milkshape 3D is having a hard time opening converted world files (I did use IWTE) for me, so if anyone possibly has already converted and functionnal .ms3d files of the Northern European settlements (preferably citadel or huge city), I would be forever in your debt .


[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

sry 4 double post and badly uploading the images xD

[paleologos]

Don't worry, will fix them once you get past 25 posts.
By the way, well done for the building model, I am expecting that you will find a way to import it in-game.

[MightyPotato]

Thanks a lot ! It's really rough to make a model on par with your units . Of course this is a very crude structure compared to the actual build, but considering you will only clearly see the front, I guess it's ok. It's not done yet though (texturing mostly ), and I'll need to get those .ms3d files of a settlement for scaling and continuing the buildings (especially the walls, as their heights and configuration are hardcoded). 3 points to rep man ヽ(⌐■□■)ﾉ xD

[paleologos]

It's really rough to make a model on par with your units .

You cannot make this comparison, for two reasons.
First I have not modelled buildings, so far.
Second, I give it a lot of time to make something that looks like what you've seen, if you give yours more than a year of work it will look "on par".
You can tell that someone who is "good" at something, not if they can produce the "best" outcome, but if they can produce acceptable outcome in reasonable time.

...3 points to rep man...

When you give rep, give it to someone's contribution, not the individual.
There is a reason why we are allowed to give rep points to posts and never more than one to the same post.
If rep points were intended to be "personal" we would attach them to posters' names and not their posts.

[MightyPotato]

Oh, and btw, does Medieval 2 allow see through textures? I placed those weird card things so that I didn't have to remake the statues and thin railings, instead leaving an transparent see through zone in the textures to simulate detail... Would it work?