Merelan Observatory - Using the CC3+ Dungeon template

LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
Merelan Observatory is situated on the top of Merelan Island, between the cliffs that drop a thousand feet to the sea, and the wall around the grounds of the Temple of Rusaar, which takes up most of the top of the island. The observatory is Eonat’s home – the place where he was born and grew up as the son of the famous Blucran inventor, Meloa, and the grandson of the Court Astronomer, Domar. The observatory is understandably crammed with stuff from both their professions (which will become evident when I have finished the other three floors).

This is the ground floor.

As you can see I have made use of a great many techniques and styles shown and explained by other users here on this forum – the most obvious of these being my Shessar-style cliffs at the bottom of the map. You can find out how to make some of your own by searching the forum for “Cliff”, and find and read Shessar’s excellent tutorial on the subject.

I have made generous use of CSUAC fills and symbols, but also of a great many Bogie fills and symbols. The symbol sets (both CSUAC and Bogie) are vast and some of them are just jawdroppingly out-of-this-world beautiful. I spent a good two hours just staring at the catalogues when I first downloaded them. All the plants in this image are part of the CSUAC collection, and have all been created by users of this and similar software over the years. The resolution on the CSUAC symbols is just incredible. My vastly reduced images below do not do them any justice.

I’m having a couple of rendering problems just now (nothing to do with the software) but I will also post the other three unfinished floors once I get them rendered, so you can see just how much more work there is to be done on the Observatory project!
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Comments

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    This is an enlargement of the Observatory itself.
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    It's about time that you post this stuff! Great work. Astounding that it was done without DD3!
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    Posted By: LoopysueAs you can see I have made use of a great many techniques and styles shown and explained by other users here on this forum – the most obvious of these being my Shessar-style cliffs at the bottom of the map. You can find out how to make some of your own by searching the forum for “Cliff”, and find and read Shessar’s excellent tutorial on the subject.
    Go here:

    http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=5869&page=1#Item_1
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited July 2016
    Thanks - you've made my day, Vintyri :-) None of this would have been possible without your magic toolbars!

    The walls, in case anyone was wondering, aren't really walls at all. You can't do that in CC3+. What you can do is draw them as filled polygons. Putting the windows and doors in is just a tiny bit tricky - but as you can see - it IS possible...

    I have another three very incomplete floors here for everyone (now that I've managed to squish all the pictures small enough). There are some obvious mistakes (like the missing bow windows of the second level not being remembered in the third level, and the very obviously missing roof, which simply isn't there... LOL, but here they are...

    The main point of interest with these three is the blur effect. Does it make the ground seem like its getting further and further away?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks for adding the link to Shessar's work, Vintyri. I couldn't have done any of this without the many hours of help and assistance you have given me in this project.

    Just in case anyone missed that Shessar link about six miles of images ago, here it is again:
    Posted By: VintyriGo here:

    http://forum.profantasy.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=5869&page=1#Item_1
    Now if you will excuse me, I have to go and sort out a chimney for the stove in the kitchen, or the inhabitants will quickly suffocate in the smoke!
  • This is beautiful work! I'm glad that my tutorials are being put to such wonderful use.

    The following comments are not meant to be criticisms. This map is too fantastic to criticize. These are just suggestions/personal preferences. Take them or ignore them as you wish...

    Windows look better with a window sill under them. The wall is done on two sheets. Sills on bottom sheet. Walls above them. Here is an example of what I mean.

    I also do not care for the blur on the background to indicate height. It detracts from the beauty and messes with my vision. The world does not get blurry until you go up quite a few stories. Might I suggest using the 10% or 20% transparencies as a mask instead.

    Again, these are just suggestions. Tanks for sharing such a beautiful map!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Aw Shessar. Thanks :)

    That's just about the nicest way I've ever been criticised... and I do agree. Even though I am severely myopic (chronically short-sighted) the ground never looks as blurry as this before I manage to find my glasses in the morning. I think it may need toning down a little bit.

    Thanks for the windowsill tip. I seem to have left the ones I put on the ground floor windows... back on the ground floor! If you look carefully at the third floor image you might be able to spot a couple of them - looking rather blurred... LOL
  • Holy cow....now THIS is REALLY nice!!! The landscaping is gorgeous....and exactly what i need for Drakarrin! Ohhh, thank you Sue for inspiration!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Careful now - I have to get out of this room eventually. You are in serious danger of swelling my head way too big! LOL!

    Thanks Lorelei.

    My landscape was looking a bit bland without the vines and the footpaths. The vines are in the CSUAC vegetation collection - right at the bottom of the list. They come in all different colours shapes and sizes, but they sure cover the ground in an interesting way. It might make that red forest you were on about a bit easier.
  • Sue, this is absolutely gorgeous! The bay windows with the flooring...how did you accomplish this? Ive been trying to figure it out for my Black Rose Inn. I've had a hard time figuring out how to line up the floor underneath so that it looks seamless, but I haven't figured it out yet. I k is you did yours in cc3+, it if you could tell me how, I should be able to adapt it to dd3.

    Your landscaping is just phenomenal! I can't wait to see it all to finished!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited July 2016
    Ummm.

    This is a bit difficult to explain, since I've just crashed CC3+ three times in a row trying to get a mid-process screen shot of moving a node, but here goes...

    This is a close up of the window of the dinning hall. Please note that the window is really quite thick, so its not actually all that important where you put the edge of the floor, just as long as its somewhere in the middle of that thick wedge of window. The second image shows the edge of the floor to show you just how incredibly rough the drawing of the floor really is at this point in the drawing.

    I didn't have any drawing tools to use, but that might have given me an unexpected advantage, since I had no choice but to draw the entire structure point by point with the polygon tool, which gives you an appreciation of the way things work at the node level. Any nodes that were out of place, eg, those which failed to fall within the boundary of the window object, I moved to a more suitable position - one node at a time.

    I also watched all of Joesweeny88's videos for DD3 before I even started the Observatory, and I picked up a whole lot of ideas from that - adapting them for CC3+ as necessary. It may just be that if you watch them you won't need to attempt a re-translation of the "Sue CC3+" method back to DD3?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Does that help?

    Please tell me if I have the wrong end of the stick :)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited July 2016
    Posted By: LoopysueThe walls, in case anyone was wondering, aren't really walls at all. You can't do that in CC3+.
    Sure you can! Walls are just lines with a width and a fill. Coupled with sheet effects, you can get walls that look exactly like DD3 walls. The easiest way to do this is to create a custom drawing tool. When you create a drawing tool, you can even tell it to place the wall on a WALLS sheet so you automatically get whatever effects you put on the sheet. The tricky part is really scale, but you seem to have that ironed out.

    Attached is a very simple sample FCW with a custom wall drawing tool. It's an overland CC3+ map 100 mi x 80 mi, where I treated each mile like a foot, instead (the walls are 1 "mile" thick). You can see the results here (I didn't post the actual picture because I don't want to blemish your post with my plain example). The FCW contains two custom tools, Walls, CC3 Only and Floors, CC3 Only and the appropriate sheets with some basic effects. For added help in drawing the walls and floors, I added a custom grid setting of 5 mi, 2 snap, again treating miles as feet.

    For anyone reading this who might be unfamiliar or intimidated by the idea of making custom drawing tools, it's really quite easy. Check out p.88 of the CC3+ User Manual (p.70 of the CC3 User Manual) or p.118 of the Tome of Ultimate Mapping for instructions on how to edit or create drawing tools.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited July 2016
    You mean.... I drew all those walls... I drew them all by hand, and I didn't have to!

    (Loopy faints...)

    Thanks Dogtag. I will have a look at it when I recover from the shock. LOL

    By the way - if there's anyone else out there who fancies having a go at this with CC3/+ and you don't have DD3, the template to start with is "CC3 Dungeon". There are no native drawing tools in this template, so you will have to follow Dogtag's advice above *)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Posted By: LoopysueBy the way - if there's anyone else out there who fancies having a go at this with CC3/+ and you don't have DD3, the template to start with is "CC3 Dungeon".
    RIGHT! D'OH!  image  I totally forgot about that.  image
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Well, maybe, but it doesn't have any drawing tools!
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    Posted By: LoopysueWell, maybe, but it doesn't have any drawing tools!
    Actually, it's suppose to have drawing tools, but ProFantasy apparently forgot to put in the macros. Here's the fixed version. Copy it into:

    (DataFolders)\ProFantasy\CC3Plus\Templates\Dungeons\Wizard
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Also, if you create a new map using the template and then make your own drawing tools you can save it as a custom template.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited July 2016
    Thank you, Vintyri - and thanks for giving me the shove to put the Observatory up for view!

    I realise now that you sent me that template, but for some reason (I think I was tired), I didn't do anything with it and promptly forgot to remember that I had it there!
  • Actually Sue, that's exactly what I was looking for. ;). Oh, and don't worry about making all those walls when you didn't 'have' to. I've done something similar for one of my previous maps. I think we all have at one point.

    Fact is, I LIKE the way you made your walls! I may adopt it for my inn! Hi R adapt it, as I to do! Lol
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I still feel rather stupid! LOL Never mind, at least a fair portion of newer newbies might read this post and avoid the same mistake for themselves over the next couple of weeks, and now that Vintyri has fixed it these things should be a thing of the past.

    Maybe I should ask Ralph, Simon or Monsen if they would think about adding it to the list for the next CC3+ update.
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    Posted By: LoopysueMaybe I should ask Ralph, Simon or Monsen if they would think about adding it to the list for the next CC3+ update.
    Awww ... if you're going to say Ralf and Simon, be nice to Remy Monsen too and all him Remy.

    Nix für Ungut!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited July 2016
    OOPS!!!

    I'm so sorry Remy! I'm so used to seeing you here on the forum as "Monsen".
  • Don't feel stupid, Sue! The walls you created look fantastic! I can't tell you how many times I've DELIBERATELY ignored a drawing tool to add something of my own. The great thing about this program is that there is NO right or wrong way to do something. Only ways that may or may not work for what you want to do. So you put a lot of time into creating your own walls....the time and effort you put in SHOWS. Your attention to those little details is what makes this an absolutely fabulous map!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Hey - I AM stupid. Stupid is my middle name, Storm. AND - I'm making a fashion of it as of today ;-)

    The really bad thing is that when I do start with DD3, I'm going to have to unlearn all those really slow CC3+ workarounds I taught myself!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I also have the advantage of a fully formed story to work from - a plot. I know the three people who live there, what they are like, and just who it is that would leave a book so carelessly flopped open on a chair he has dragged through from the library to sit in the sunshine in the dinning hall window.
  • Hey, it's the same for me in making these maps....have a campaign plot line I'm working off of. It helps me focus my attention, and then these maps, in turn, focus my direction for the game. :-D
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    All you have to do is imagine your characters in the scene you are drawing, as you draw it - wandering around about their business without any idea you are there watching them cluttering the place up and making it look all untidy... The details become second nature then. I guess it would work just as well with a battle set - only you would be drawing all the discarded broken swords, spears and shields instead of the book in the chair, or the knitting basket on the floor in the kitchen beside Meloa's chair.
  • Posted By: Loopysue
    That's just about the nicest way I've ever been criticised...
    Honestly, I meant NO criticism at all! Your maps are truly beautiful. I was merely butting in with my opinion. ;D
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