CA175 and 180 would probably be best for any land structures Jim; CA138 is both the wrong scale (Cities not Dungeons) and probably not realistic enough to match satisfactorily with the Marine Dungeons style.
Note I'm not exporting as 3000, just using Irfanview to expand the jpg.
Uhmm..... why? Enlarging the image after exporting it won't add any additional details. That's just extra work from you for no benefit, and extra storage/bandwidth used by everyone. Normally people do it the other way around, exporting it larger than they need then reducing it, because this can help produce a better quality image than exporting directly to the resolution.
Thinking about The Hidden dungeon maps for level 2... I don't know if I should continue to use smaller maps for the entire level. Or make it one large map.
Or make the small maps, then make a larger map showing the context of the smaller maps.
Like my Dtillan Orsti map city map, but for this dungeon level.
Personally, I don't find dividing up the maps into smaller maps particularly useful. It is much easier to handle as a DM or other user of the map if the entire city/dungeon level is a single map. There are exceptions of course, a very large city may be better off divided into a few district maps, and sometimes you need a more detailed view of a particular dungeon room, but in general, I am in favor of not splitting maps up into pieces.
I think if you're wanting to make a series of smaller, maybe more detailed, maps, it would be useful to have a single map showing the overall layout for the whole level as well. Much as Monsen said, you might want to do detail maps for particular areas in a city, say, or a room in a dungeon, but as GM, it's essential to know too how those parts relate to one another overall.
You could though make a feature of this for the Atlas, by using different styles for the overall map and the detail ones, perhaps.
What I should have done, was start a Marine 2 dungeon map, then added DD3 Color dungeon items.
I did the opposite. Whew. Big mistake.
Live & learn, Jim...
So, should I start a Marine 2 dungeon, and insert the below fcw into it ?
You might find it useful to see this PF blog posting from a few years ago. Although it's dealing with creating battlemaps from a larger dungeon map, it does have relevance for what you've been trying to do here, I think. Only chanced-upon it yesterday myself, because one of the author's random-design products was the "Deal of the Day" on DriveThru RPG, and I was hunting around for more information, because he's made very extensive use of CC3+ in mapping for his products!
Last night I was thinking of making a large map. And then making smaller pieces, not necessarily battlemaps.
Mostly I'm still visualizing what I'm going to do next with this level. I find it goes better if I do that first.
The vtt i have uses a fog of war method to hide map areas and reveal the next room as the characters enter the room. So the next room isn't seen by the players until it is revealed. I use epic table.
A slight change in direction. The right will still be a beach and some polluted water with marine life, rocks, seaweed, etc.
The three sides around it will be cliffs and a dungeon. large room at bottom left is the connection to first level. So far, a few large and a few small rooms. There will be two, maybe more, connections to the lower water area.
I did the cliffs in pieces, so I'll have to go in and rotate, drag, etc. and move the color 151 sea around with the node edit tools so the edges match.
3000 pixel jpg in my gallery. Almost forgot: this map is 1000' x 800'.
Not sure the current walls work for a cavern though - they're too regular. Might be better using Sue's cliffs for those too, though that might mean masking the top of the cliff symbols to make them look more like walls and less like cliffs.
Possibly a fractal polygon running out to the map's edges would be better to show it's a huge cave instead of using the cliff symbols though. If so, that would probably be better created using the Color Key Effect, drawing a suitable fractal poly for the cavern's interior, then covering the entire map with a "rock" bitmap fill texture rectangle on the same Sheet, and turning the interior fractal poly to a solid fill, colour 6 pink to create the cave. Oh, and moving the "cutout" fractal poly above the solid rectangle on that Sheet, of course! (Voice of experience...)
Does this mean the "dungeon" rooms and passages are then walls on the huge cave's floor, roofed over so from inside you can't tell you're in a gigantic cavern?
Rocks look good Jim. Maybe round-off the cave corners more, and make the straights a bit less regular to give it more of a cavern feel. Might be worth filling-in right up to the map edges with boulders too, to show where it's solid outside the cavern.
So far, its just a replacement to see what it looks like.
I agree the rocks need to go out to the map border except for the two possible passageways. Still deciding what to do off to the right side. Probably a small set of rooms, with stairs down.
Okay, a bit tired, but I did get this update done. Not just rocks out to the walls, and make the corners less obvious, I made rock walled rooms.
Sometimes I turned off the random transformations as I wanted certain rocks to be used and not others, most of the time that wasn't disabled.
Some parts of the walls in the water, are above the water, most are not.
I'm not particularly satisfied with the three brown areas on the right side. They are slightly fractalized. I used Dirt, Brown 2 bitmap. But I do want something over there to break up the beach edge.
Comments
CA175 and 180 would probably be best for any land structures Jim; CA138 is both the wrong scale (Cities not Dungeons) and probably not realistic enough to match satisfactorily with the Marine Dungeons style.
Okay. I can see it would be better to use 175/180.
Update. Added Priestess' Home, Sacred Grove. The trees are CSUAC. And a sea anemone forming a right triangle... I wonder why that is there ? :-)
3000 pixel in my gallery. Note I'm not exporting as 3000, just using Irfanview to expand the jpg.
Note I'm not exporting as 3000, just using Irfanview to expand the jpg.
Uhmm..... why? Enlarging the image after exporting it won't add any additional details. That's just extra work from you for no benefit, and extra storage/bandwidth used by everyone. Normally people do it the other way around, exporting it larger than they need then reducing it, because this can help produce a better quality image than exporting directly to the resolution.
I didn't know that. Sorry.
Update. I don't think I can do much else with this map. Saved as 3000, reduced to 1000.
3000 pixel jpg in my gallery.
I'll be somewhat busy this weekend, and I may not be able to work on maps.
The above map is part B of level 02. I'll think on Part A and C. I think I'll make Part B the lower part of Second level. But that is changeable.
I don't think this is even in Alpha stage, but here it is. The Hidden Part A.
A number of adjustments to make. The bit at the bottom center is an entrance from the first level.
Too preliminary for the 3000 pixel version.
Thinking about The Hidden dungeon maps for level 2... I don't know if I should continue to use smaller maps for the entire level. Or make it one large map.
Or make the small maps, then make a larger map showing the context of the smaller maps.
Like my Dtillan Orsti map city map, but for this dungeon level.
https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/comment/49906/#Comment_49906
Personally, I don't find dividing up the maps into smaller maps particularly useful. It is much easier to handle as a DM or other user of the map if the entire city/dungeon level is a single map. There are exceptions of course, a very large city may be better off divided into a few district maps, and sometimes you need a more detailed view of a particular dungeon room, but in general, I am in favor of not splitting maps up into pieces.
I'll look at adding them all together when I get the level done.
I think if you're wanting to make a series of smaller, maybe more detailed, maps, it would be useful to have a single map showing the overall layout for the whole level as well. Much as Monsen said, you might want to do detail maps for particular areas in a city, say, or a room in a dungeon, but as GM, it's essential to know too how those parts relate to one another overall.
You could though make a feature of this for the Atlas, by using different styles for the overall map and the detail ones, perhaps.
The two current maps are different styles.
I have been thinking about this. The two current maps match side by side.
The next two would go along the top and bottom of the two above. Showing the level entrance and down to maybe a third level.
So, level 2 would be 4 maps. The two already posted and two rectangular maps.
I'll have to work on how I see this level before I map the other two.
What I should have done, was start a Marine 2 dungeon map, then added DD3 Color dungeon items.
I did the opposite. Whew. Big mistake.
So, should I start a Marine 2 dungeon, and insert the below fcw into it ?
Just posting the combo map jpg... 3000 pixel jpg in my gallery.
As you may notice, the sheets don't have all the effects added in, just the sheet names.
What I should have done, was start a Marine 2 dungeon map, then added DD3 Color dungeon items.
I did the opposite. Whew. Big mistake.
Live & learn, Jim...
So, should I start a Marine 2 dungeon, and insert the below fcw into it ?
You might find it useful to see this PF blog posting from a few years ago. Although it's dealing with creating battlemaps from a larger dungeon map, it does have relevance for what you've been trying to do here, I think. Only chanced-upon it yesterday myself, because one of the author's random-design products was the "Deal of the Day" on DriveThru RPG, and I was hunting around for more information, because he's made very extensive use of CC3+ in mapping for his products!
Last night I was thinking of making a large map. And then making smaller pieces, not necessarily battlemaps.
Mostly I'm still visualizing what I'm going to do next with this level. I find it goes better if I do that first.
The vtt i have uses a fog of war method to hide map areas and reveal the next room as the characters enter the room. So the next room isn't seen by the players until it is revealed. I use epic table.
A slight change in direction. The right will still be a beach and some polluted water with marine life, rocks, seaweed, etc.
The three sides around it will be cliffs and a dungeon. large room at bottom left is the connection to first level. So far, a few large and a few small rooms. There will be two, maybe more, connections to the lower water area.
I did the cliffs in pieces, so I'll have to go in and rotate, drag, etc. and move the color 151 sea around with the node edit tools so the edges match.
3000 pixel jpg in my gallery. Almost forgot: this map is 1000' x 800'.
Have to do some things around the house.
If I need to reduce the number of drawings in my gallery just let me know. I think I have too many.
No worries Jim. Still lots of space......
Good, I have lots more maps to make.
Update.
Well, those grey lines around the map ? Those are walls.
When the adventurers first get down to this level, they will see; large and medium sized rooms. Some long and short corridors.
But if they take the passageway out of room 3, they will see the cliffs and the polluted water below them.
This, is a giant cavern ! Not a regular adventure area at all.
5000 pixel jpg in my gallery.
Oh, two questions.
1) Do you like this idea ?
2) Should I make the walls thicker ?
Yes, there are gaps in the walls. Another adventure area ?
Yes, I'll make a way down into the water area from that passageway. Of course, they could just walk around.
Of course this entire level is Bad News for adventurers...
It's an interesting idea Jim.
Not sure the current walls work for a cavern though - they're too regular. Might be better using Sue's cliffs for those too, though that might mean masking the top of the cliff symbols to make them look more like walls and less like cliffs.
Possibly a fractal polygon running out to the map's edges would be better to show it's a huge cave instead of using the cliff symbols though. If so, that would probably be better created using the Color Key Effect, drawing a suitable fractal poly for the cavern's interior, then covering the entire map with a "rock" bitmap fill texture rectangle on the same Sheet, and turning the interior fractal poly to a solid fill, colour 6 pink to create the cave. Oh, and moving the "cutout" fractal poly above the solid rectangle on that Sheet, of course! (Voice of experience...)
Does this mean the "dungeon" rooms and passages are then walls on the huge cave's floor, roofed over so from inside you can't tell you're in a gigantic cavern?
I was thinking of changing those 5' wide walls to large stones.
Yes, the room walls are to block the view that the characters are in a large cavern
Update with rocks.
A is a grouping of lighter color rocks. This could be a way to get to another area, that leads down to level 3.
B is the same, just thinner rocks.
5000 pixel jpg in my gallery. Have to do some things around the house, I'll be back later.
Yes, I've updated to 3.98. Haven't noticed anything odd.
Rocks look good Jim. Maybe round-off the cave corners more, and make the straights a bit less regular to give it more of a cavern feel. Might be worth filling-in right up to the map edges with boulders too, to show where it's solid outside the cavern.
So far, its just a replacement to see what it looks like.
I agree the rocks need to go out to the map border except for the two possible passageways. Still deciding what to do off to the right side. Probably a small set of rooms, with stairs down.
Not sure how far down to put level 2.
Okay, a bit tired, but I did get this update done. Not just rocks out to the walls, and make the corners less obvious, I made rock walled rooms.
Sometimes I turned off the random transformations as I wanted certain rocks to be used and not others, most of the time that wasn't disabled.
Some parts of the walls in the water, are above the water, most are not.
I'm not particularly satisfied with the three brown areas on the right side. They are slightly fractalized. I used Dirt, Brown 2 bitmap. But I do want something over there to break up the beach edge.
7 passes in case you are wondering.
5000 pixel jpg in my gallery.
Update, nothing up my sleeve ! ( Bullwinkle reference there... )
Anyway, I used Blend Mode, multiply, 100% on the Symbols, cliff. I did look at other things under Blend Mode, this is what I'm happiest with.
room 6, now has creepy crypts items in it. 5000 pixel jpg in my gallery.
closeup of room 6.
Yes, the floating in air double green arrow is something of a misleading item for the characters to see.
The end rock in room 18 is under the cliff symbol, I'll fix that.
And the floors are pixelated... argh.
Change the fill style resolution settings. Try to divide the numbers by 4. That should fix the pixelation.
Okay. I'll try that tomorrow.
I would like some feedback on the questions I asked. Thsnks.