Pete Fenlon Style Problem

Shessar · December 2009

I'm starting a new campaign and have decided to use the Pete Fenlon style for my regional maps, but have run into an annoying problem. When I create a new map, choosing to enter the dimensions myself, I enter 500W x 400H but end up with a map that is 460W x 360H. The map border is the correct size, but the background fill is too small.

Any idea of what I'm doing wrong? I'm so used to starting from a blank template and doing my own thing that I'm not sure if I'm using the wizard correctly.

jaerdaph · December 2009

I just tried the wizard and made a standard 1000x800 map. The Peter Fenlon template has a border on the Screen sheet made from the same bitmap fill as the background and I think that is readjusting the size of your map. You can see it if you hide the Background sheet - it looks like (and probably serves a similar purpose to) those "white" screen borders that are on some maps to hide symbols and sheet effects that overlap the map border. I drew a box starting at the 0,0 origin and ending at 1000,800. The origin is within the lower left corner of that screen and the 1000,800 point is in the upper right corner outside the screen. I'm going to assume the generation of this screen border is what is making the map alter it's dimensions from the size you entered because I've run into similar issues with templates that create a fancy map border, but those were usually symbol based borders.

So yeah, weird.

Edit: For some reason I can't get attachments to show up today...
Edit 2: Never mind - it was my fault because the image dimensions were too wide.

Shessar · December 2009

Thanks for the input jaerdaph. Whenever I use any of CC3's tools, I'm never sure if it's my installation that's acting up, if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's just typical behavior.

Ralf · December 2009

The Pete Fenlon style is etup a bit unfortunate in that way. The actual drawing area will smaller by 8' per 100' horizontal size than the value you set in the drawing wizard. You can adjust the size you set upwards to account for this.

I've attached a version of the template, that will give you 1000x800 miles in the visible area by default. Hope that helps.

jaerdaph · December 2009

Thanks again, Ralf!

The Fenlon style looks best at smaller size local areas (using one of the two sheet effect settings - Fenlon Style or Fenlon Style Small), but that's a good template to dissect (Info -> List is the CC3 user's best friend) to make "custom" sizes.

Speaking of Fenlon Style and Fenlon Style Small settings, could you recommend "cut off" dimensions of when you should choose one style over the other?

Ralf · December 2009

Speaking of Fenlon Style and Fenlon Style Small settings, could you recommend "cut off" dimensions of when you should choose one style over the other?

The "small" version is setup for maps half the size of the standard ones (i.e. 500x400) miles. So if you take the midpoint between them (750x600), I'd recommend switching.

What I'd actually do though is go through the effects and adjust them to my map. It's fairly simple, just multiply any size-related effect values (that's mostly blurs, glows, edge fades and shadows) by a factor that equals your maps relation to the standard template (e.g. if your maps is 200 miles wide, that's a factor of 0.2).

jaerdaph · December 2009

Thanks again, Ralf. Every map definitely needs a little tweaking and fine-tuning when it comes to sheet effects. There's also a "qualitative" artistic element to the sheet effects as well to get it to look and feel just right, which is the complete opposite of the "quantitative", scientific precision associated with CAD software. And that's what makes CC3 such a leap forward over previous versions of the software.

ProFantasy Community Forum

Pete Fenlon Style Problem

Comments