The City of Bridgeport

[baalak]

After reading through what the wiki has to say about the setting of The Dark Mod I was rather intrigued. In particular I was drawn to The Flood Ward and the Plague Ward, their descriptions giving me many ideas. Unfortunately, most of the ideas I had were story-related, and have little to do with architecture, the part of the process I find myself staring at presently. Perhaps the community could come together and share some ideas about these locations, to give mappers a better idea of what they have to work with.

 

The Flood Ward has been abandoned by all but criminals and outcasts for forty years. Permanently flooded, the district is most easily navigated by rowboat. Twice a day the tide comes in, bringing waves and salt erosion to the inundated buildings, forty years of which has likely left the area dilapidated, constantly in danger of collapse. Most wooden structures would probably be rotting away, with only the most robust still standing. Brick and stone buildings would fare better, but their mortar would be crumbling and many would have partially or entirely crashed into the sea.

 

With seawater filling in every nook and cranny, and with sea level being such a variable, bringing along a number of breath potions seems well advised. Shelter would be in the form of high ground, either hills or taller buildings which have withstood the elements. Traveling across the rooftops would be possible, but would require a sure foot and a light step else the structure you're atop might collapse.

 

What I would like to know, though, is what was the district used for before it flooded? If it's so close to the water I could see a lot of warehouses marking the prior coastline, but further inland I'm not sure what sorts of buildings would dominate. Residential? Commercial? Industrial? Governmental? Since no new building have been built in nearly half a century it would be full of buildings representing older architectural styles. I could also believe that good portions of the district have been gutted by fire.

 

What do you folks think about the Flood Ward?

 

The Plague Ward sent my mind racing when I read about it. Even with the undead remaining a future promise, there is a lot which would be done with this district. If we can't go fighting zombies and revenants yet, perhaps exploring the blocks surrounding the walls of the Plague Ward could provide rich opportunity to slake our thirsts for stealth horror. There are necromancers living around the district, and the area is nearly abandoned. That sounds like the perfect location to interrupt some dark rituals.

 

The Plague Ward was walled up twenty years or so ago. The gates were barred and nobody well off enough to evacuate the surrounds remains behind. Thus there aren't likely to be many new buildings in the area, and it's probably seen better days. The area is always in the shadow of the great walls, and crime is likely rampant given the reluctance with which the city watch travels the area. However, I could see the Builders having the resolve to patrol the area once in a while, especially if they have a chapel or church near the gates.

 

The problems faced with the Plague Ward are similar to the Flood Ward's, namely figuring out what sort of place it was before it went to hell. While I don't think we could really do the interior of the Plague Ward justice without the undead (at least to leave around as ragdolls), the surrounds have awesome potential that I'd like to capitolize upon. What were they building twenty years ago? What would the results of the subsequent abandonment have been? What're those filthy necromancers up to?

 

I hope we can flesh some of these ideas out as a community. It would be very helpful to me to share ideas and build up a firmer mental image of Bridgeport and its most interesting districts. Plus, we can likely put our best ideas on the wiki, for everyone to see.

 

- Baalak called Define-itive.

[SiyahParsomen]

don't angry with me but I don't read posts that are longer than 10 lines Shortly, I can say that it's up to you. They may don't want to affect your creativity because sometimes limitations may be boring. For my city map project, I have several ideas such as a water-mill near the river, and places where people work on those ages that are not exist today to make it more realistic.

[Springheel]

I hope we can flesh some of these ideas out as a community.

 

You've done a good job of expanding on the ideas already. Certainly interesting to brainstorm in advance.

[demagogue]

I think it's one of the privileges of early builders to try to fill in the fiction a bit. I took the liberty of giving Bridgeport a Highlands Ward in my FM (which was suggested in the wiki but not actually named). I'd think you should just try to be consistent and in good faith.

[AlarusLOL]

The Plague Ward gets my imagination going as well. One thing that helped me get some ideas about what it may be like was to read up on Thief, particularly the "Sealed Section". You might take a look at this link: http://thief.wikia.c.../Sealed_Section

 

Of course, The City isn't the same as Bridgeport (and it's not supposed to be), but perhaps that will help you get some ideas. It wouldn't hurt to look around the rest of the wiki, either.

 

For architectural ideas, I found myself plodding through The Bonehoard mission in Thief and taking screen shots. Unfortunately, getting Thief to run on a PC these days can be a chore.

 

Hope this helps.

 

edit: you may also try browsing Google for Victorian and medieval architecture, and Tudor architecture

 

double edit: oops, I meant "The Haunted Cathedral" level in Thief. It takes place in the Sealed Section.

Edited November 29, 2009 by AlarusLOL