PTC13 - Relsta is Basse's 5th place entry to the 2013 Pretty Town Contest. The aim of the contest was to design the prettiest town and give the player a unit to use to scout around the town and see the pretty map design.
Rating: 4
Relsta is a beautiful an active town located in the fictional country of Ribeland. It is a walled town the lies on the coast of a sea. It has a very European look and feeling towards it and it is surrounded by an appropriately fitting environment, mainly composed of a woodland.
The city is very busy on the inside and looks quite crowded in places, without realistic looking overlapped buildings built closely together, separated by well designed roads. The town has a mixture of Western European & Northern European Building Sets, from both Feudal and Castle Age, which both fit together really well. Outside the town there are small fenced farming areas as well as a mine and a lumber camp where villagers are all working hard to gather resources for the town. Features of the town include a military base, a wealthy district, a busy town square and a busy harbour.
There is a great atmosphere in the town. Guards and soldiers are patrolling around the town and outskirts in small groups and villagers are all hard at work. There are Trade Ships and Fishing Ships continuously coming in and out of the harbour creating a great atmosphere. Above all of this, there is interaction with the townsfolk. When you select a unit it will speak to you, adding more interaction and atmosphere into the map.
The design of the map is excellent. The terrain mixing is superb and the buildings are placed extremely well. The woodland outside is designed well, it's not to thick and yet not too thin either. There is great eye-candy and atmosphere in this map. I do think there a few bits that are a bit bland, mainly the roads in the town, lacking mixing in places, and few grassy bits on the outskirts. There is also a severe lack of elevation, I think more is needed as the map is very, very flat.
Additional Comments:
Overall this is an excellent piece of map design. It has a beautiful design and an excellent atmosphere. I would highly recommend downloading this.