Colours auto-changing

Hey there,

I just bought CC3 and have had a few hours of tinkering around with it and have come across a problem.

I would like to create a map with no bitmap backgrounds for the land and the sea to start with. I'm trying to do this by: at the start, when defining your template, selecting "Solid" as a fill style for the sea and defining a colour. The trouble is, when using a defined colour it always seems to default to some vibrant light blue colour. If I choose a colour from the gird that isn't user-defined then it seems to work ok.
For the land mass I've created my own land drawing tool and gone into the Advanced options and again, selected Solid as the bitmap of choice and given it a user defined colour. This seems to work but it doesn't save that colour, instead reverting to a vibrant snot-green whenever a new map is started or loaded.

Am I doing something wrong? Can anyone help me with this please?

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited March 2009
    The first issue is due to the fact that CC3 reads the palette again when the new map you made with the wizard is loaded. This loads the default palette, which does not contain your modified colour. The workaround here is to just chooce any color during the wizard (remember which), then entering the colour dialog afterwards and redefine the color you choose to the desired one. This will change the colour used in the map. I guess this might be called a bug, since it would be logical to assume that if you modified the palette during the new map wizard, that palette should be used with the map. I don't think anyone has reported this before though (At least not in public)

    The issue with the draw tool is exactly the same. CC3 uses a color palette with indexed colors. This means that it is the index value that is assigned to the tool and not the actual RGB value of the colour. So if you change color 55 in a map, then create a draw tool using this color, then in the next map you make, it will use the default palette, and thus color 55 from the default palette.

    What you should do if you have a couple of colours you wish to define permanently, is to make a custom palette. Just go to the colour dialog, then define the colours you need, and hit the "Save custom PAL" button. Restart CC3. From now on, CC3 will use your new palette as the default palette, and you should avoid both the problems above (as long as you select a colour from your new custom palette, and not define yet another one without saving the palette)
  • Monsen, aren't palettes now saved with maps? There should be a way that Ramah can save that custom palette with the map and have it reload every time...unless I just dreamed that this enhancement was made.

    Steve
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Yes, you can save the palette with the map. From what I read from his description, he needs the modified palette available for new maps as well as when loading existing maps, therefore a custom palette is probably his best option.

    You can attach the current palette to the current map by going to File -> Drawing Properties -> Attach to Drawing
  • edited March 2009
    Thanks for the reply Monsen, it worked for me. I'd been adding the defined colour into the palette boxes but hadn't been hitting Save Pal after. Still, does seem a little bit like a workaround.
    I'm not sure if I've also stumbled across another linked problem (well, I see it as a problem but again, there is probably a way to get round it that I don't know of yet) in that, by the time I'd followed your advice I'd already created an effects sheet for things like Glow on the edge of land etc. Well if I add these effects to my land that is created with the defined colour it reverts back to the original colour of the palette - I guess the effects sheet holds a copy of the current palette at the time of saving.

    So I guess my question is: is there any way to change the palette attached to an effects sheet before it is loaded up? Or am I best to just bite the bullet and redo my effects sheet once all my new colours are in?

    Thanks a lot.
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    Seems like the color specified for an effect saves the actual color selected, and not the index value. therefore, it still uses the old value even after editing the palette.

    So, yes, you'll have to edit your effects after a palette change to tell them to use the new colour.
Sign In or Register to comment.