This is my entry for the PTC 2017. It depicts a lively meso-american city hidden in the tropical forest. You will explore it with the eyes of Quaholom, a veteran warrior returning to his hometown after a long time.
Aesthetic: DelCrosB has come leaps and bounds since his last release, and presents us with a stunning depiction of a town nestled in a thick jungle. Buildings flow seamlessly into the surrounding landscape, and off-grid landscape is used to excellent effect. The atmosphere is accentuated by various happenings, comings, and goings throughout the town, and while not perfect, is a pleasure to view.
Creativity: The shining star of the scenario, the creativity blooms in the light of a proliferation of interesting off-grid placement tricks that contribute to an already beautiful map. It's an awesome effort, and well worth a top score in this category.
Layout: The author has created a rather well planned town with several distinct districts, each with their own characteristic elements and features. Despite their differences these nevertheless blend together seamlessly, and although the map is a bit cramped and sometimes difficult to navigate, it is nevertheless top-notch work.
Attention to detail: In most regards this entry demonstrates spectacular attention to detail, although there were a few mistakes that I noticed, "floating" objects due to building stacking and a lack of water terrain mixing among them. The greatest downside came in the form of a bug that I found where three allied ships caused a logjam on the westmost waterway, forcing me to exit my vessel and shoot them, which took quite a while given that I owned a bowman.
Additional Comments:
Incredibly innovative, and likely the author's best effort to date. The author is well on his way to being an elite designer.
[Edited on 08/29/17 @ 11:21 AM]
Possidon Official Reviewer
Posted on 01/14/22 @ 03:36 AM
Rating
4.5
Xochinayu was DelCrosB’s entry the 2017 Pretty Town Contest. Set within the maze-like jungles of South American Xochinayu is a town full of wonderful surprises and creative design tricks.
Rating: 4.5
Xochinayu is located deep with the Amazon jungle with rivers winding through the town and the dense jungle trees acting as a maze that is easy to get lost in. Starting in a boat you will follow the river and paths to guide you through this beautiful and unique town, seeing the artistry that compasses it.
The highlight of this scenario is definitely the authors effective and detailed use of the off-grid placement tool to create brand new and unique designs. This can be seen from start to finish and there are many creative and unique designs in here. A highlight for me was the original use of using to tops of different tree to create fields and paths and using other objects to hide the trunks, making the tops of the trees look like the ground and all of the unique colours it provides. Other areas of note is the bridge composes of the roofs of buildings and towers poking out from the tops of the mountains.
The jungle itself is nicely designed with some excellent use of terrain mixing and additional eye-candy, although some areas could have done with a little extra work, such as the military area. I also wasn’t really a fan of the mines which were very square and surrounded by lots of outposts next to each other. The map itself is alive with atmosphere, with units running around doing their daily activities.
Additional Comments:
Xochinayu is a highly creative and detailed town that is highly recommend viewing for anyone wishing to learn more about off-grid placement or looking for inspiring jungle design.