Sea serpent/sea dragon would perhaps make most sense. And "sea dragon" is a real creature incidentally, if you fancied something unusual. They're a type of sea-horse. Wikipedia links: Common Sea Dragon -- Leafy Sea Dragon.
Whenever I see seashore maps with some parts under shallow water I wonder how they would look under different tidal conditions. At low tide more of the elements might be completely exposed while at high tide they might be completely immersed. This might be important in a game because it could control what adventurers would see above water at any given time of day. Thus multiple maps of the same area might be required for different tidal and lighting conditions.
Dalton - I think the tide is currently out, because the strand line is a bit up the beach. You could duplicate the Ocean sheet and make a toggle switch to show one and hide the other for alternative versions...
And tides are not all the same either, so you tend to have a "highest recent" tide line of dead/stranded weed, shells, etc., which is often dry and/or rotting, and then the "latest" high tide line nearer the sea than that "highest" line. All that though assumes an Earth-like setting, which doesn't necessarily apply to all fantasy worlds.
Looking forward to using it to layout access to an island through tidal flats. Battlemap would have to show at least three conditions - high tide, low tide, and ah-oh tides coming in fast!
I'm using "Marine Dungeons" to create a modernistic undersea base. I haven't added any details yet, just the base buildings and a couple of cliffs to put around them. Here is the rough draft. Just a couple of questions since I'm new at this.
What sheet should I put the structures on? The domes are actually heavily armored pressure spheres with the large one resting on the ground and the smaller ones on 10' legs so the passages connect to the middle decks on all spheres.
Where in the sheet stack should I put the SYMBOLS CLIFFS sheet?
Any other suggestions on developing this map would be greatly appreciated.
I had designed MD as a dungeon scale style, so it has a DD3-style setup where the sheets are concerned. I think that you should be fairly safe thinking of it this way - that the sheets should be roughly in the same order as they would be in a land map, only the ocean sheets (the ones prefixed by three dashes) should be below them in the list of sheets, to be over everything in the map.
If the base is on a plateau partway down the cliffs (which the drawing so far suggests), you might need another set of CLIFFS sheets to avoid getting shadows from the base in the wrong places, if the lower cliffline ends up too close to any of the base's outlying structures, say.
The central dome should probably be on a lower sheet than the outlying domes and their connecting passages so the higher, outlying, features can cast shadows onto the lower, larger dome. A dark glow effect around the central dome might help settle it "onto" the surface more, though that would need experimenting to make sure it actually works (doesn't always...).
Comments
That does sound like an interesting idea.
So, are we talking Chinese style dragons, or western style dragons?
It looks great!
What about sea serpents? Or always-lovely octopus? Or shells (e.g. nautilus, conus or others)?
Just thinking. Everything is already fabulous!
Sea serpent/sea dragon would perhaps make most sense. And "sea dragon" is a real creature incidentally, if you fancied something unusual. They're a type of sea-horse. Wikipedia links: Common Sea Dragon -- Leafy Sea Dragon.
Thank you both for your ideas :)
I have to start Darklands City soon, but I think I might have to find a few more hours to do some more on this.
Here is a finished example map for part 2, showing some of the new symbols and fills.
There's more. I just didn't want to overcrowd the map with stuff.
Great stuff, looking forward to it!!!!!!
Thank you, Glitch :)
Dalton - I think the tide is currently out, because the strand line is a bit up the beach. You could duplicate the Ocean sheet and make a toggle switch to show one and hide the other for alternative versions...
Thank you, Raiko :)
And tides are not all the same either, so you tend to have a "highest recent" tide line of dead/stranded weed, shells, etc., which is often dry and/or rotting, and then the "latest" high tide line nearer the sea than that "highest" line. All that though assumes an Earth-like setting, which doesn't necessarily apply to all fantasy worlds.
Meanwhile, Atlantis, here we come!
Looking forward to using it to layout access to an island through tidal flats. Battlemap would have to show at least three conditions - high tide, low tide, and ah-oh tides coming in fast!
Well, I haven't done any tide zone stuff in particular, but maybe some clever work with the strandline might do it :)
Just a couple of questions since I'm new at this.
- What sheet should I put the structures on? The domes are actually heavily armored pressure spheres with the large one resting on the ground and the smaller ones on 10' legs so the passages connect to the middle decks on all spheres.
- Where in the sheet stack should I put the SYMBOLS CLIFFS sheet?
Any other suggestions on developing this map would be greatly appreciated.That's a great concept :)
I had designed MD as a dungeon scale style, so it has a DD3-style setup where the sheets are concerned. I think that you should be fairly safe thinking of it this way - that the sheets should be roughly in the same order as they would be in a land map, only the ocean sheets (the ones prefixed by three dashes) should be below them in the list of sheets, to be over everything in the map.
If the base is on a plateau partway down the cliffs (which the drawing so far suggests), you might need another set of CLIFFS sheets to avoid getting shadows from the base in the wrong places, if the lower cliffline ends up too close to any of the base's outlying structures, say.
The central dome should probably be on a lower sheet than the outlying domes and their connecting passages so the higher, outlying, features can cast shadows onto the lower, larger dome. A dark glow effect around the central dome might help settle it "onto" the surface more, though that would need experimenting to make sure it actually works (doesn't always...).
Whichever sheet looks good.