The Barony of Mendovia (Overland Satellite Map Style from Feb 2012 Annual)

jaerdaph

I made this map today of the Barony of Mendovia using the Overland Satellite Map Style from the February 2012 Cartographer's Annual. Mendovia is the home of one of the super villains from my Grimm City ICONS supers campaign - The Black Baron. The map is approximately 100 miles x 100 miles, so I had to adjust the fill style sizes and the sheet effect settings to reflect the smaller area. I also added one of the urban area fill styles from the Cosmographer overland
satellite style to make the three cities. I still need to add some finishing touches, and I'll probably change at least the title font to something more "Gothic".

Ralf

Very good! I'd probably add a small, bright inner glow to the lakes at this scale (not as strong as the one for the sea). You might have to move them unto their own sheet, if they are currently on the RIVER sheet.

Mateus090985

I liked your map! . I would made the coast more fractal and probably add some islands (I love islands!). I am aalso very curious about this "uraban area fill" that you talked abut. Keeping posting your progress!

jaerdaph

Thanks, Ralf! I'm going to fine tune it with those suggestions. The lakes definitely do need something to look less "flat".
Mateus090985 - thank you! You are correct - some tiny islands are a must. For the urban areas, all I did was create a new bitmap fill style using the Urban_Light_VH.PNG from Cosmographer (#Bitmaps\Tiles\Cosmographer\Satellite Terrrain\Urban Light_VH.PNG), tiled to fill and scaled with a width and height of 10. Since this map is 100 x 100, I had to rescale everything from the standard 1000 x 800 map the Overland Satellite style is set at, so if you use this urban area in a map at that scale, you'll probably want to adjust the scaled height and width accordingly.

jaerdaph

Here's an updated draft. I added an inner glow to the lakes, added a couple of small islands, created a new fill style from Cosmographer for a dense urban area to use for the main city of Edrearia similar to the one above, plus a few minor tweaks here and there.

jaerdaph

One more draft - I fractalized the main coasts more, changed the title font, and did some minor clean up. All that's left is some last minute tweaks and possibly some more labeling. Once I get this done, I'll eventually be sharing it on my ICONS blog, Just Add Heroes along with a write up on The Black Baron.

Mateus090985

Now looks a lot better . Are you planning in add more features or it is done?

jaerdaph

Thank you for the input, Mateus - it really helped me get to this point!

Clercon

This one is lookin better and better. How do you fractalize the coast like that in CC3? I'd like to try that on my Dunver map (the coastline is a bit too straight in that map)

Mateus090985

I use the fractalize tool in the left corner but it does not function in some landmasses (and I really dont know why).

jaerdaph

There's a little button called "Fractalise" that looks like this:
If you click on that (I find the default settings in the dialog box that pops up are just fine and rarely change them) and then select your landmass (or whatever entity you want to fractalize) two or three times, you get more nodes added for a more natural look. Be aware that this effects the entire landmass, so parts that are supposed to be flat or straight will get fractalized a bit too, which can lead to "gaps" along the map border where the background (usually the sea fill) will show through. I usually cover these up with a non-fractalized, non-coastal area landmass "patch" I draw over them.

Clercon

Thanks, I'll try that on my map

jaerdaph

FYI: Last night I put up a final version of the map on my blog with a link to a larger image than what I can attach here: http://justaddheroes.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-map-barony-of-mendovia.html Thanks again for all the input!

[Deleted User]

Great use of this annual. I will definitely try it soon.

Medio

Never tried this style (and i possess the 2012 Annual so no excuses! ), i think that it may lead to excellent maps indeed.