SS1A Fantasy style

pdj

This is an attempt at making a Fantasy style map "out of the box", using only the drawtools, bitmaps etc
provided. The unlabelled items in the landscape are there as possible hooks for a childrens's story, adventure
game or whatever. What do you think?

Mateus090985

You made an excelent job. My only tip for improve would be to put some contous on the ocean. I also do not like the font that you chosed but the colours and effects on them are very appropriate.

Congratulations.

Henrie61

Good map. Where is the Goblin Crag though :-)

HadrianVI

Nice map!
Though I would put a little less glow on the fonts.

Cheers.

Terraformer_Author

This particular style looks as if it would go quite well with the symbol sets that I am working on for the community.

Medio

The SS1a is a bit ... meh compared with other Annuals but this map really shines and has a very smart use of the symbols and scales. Great work!

pdj

Many thanks to all for the kind words.

I take the point about the glow, HadranVI, and have toned it down bit

HadrianVI

Hi,

I think it looks much better than before.
I just saw two more things I would change. The waste or scrub beneath the sailing ship would look smoother with a slight edge fade, inner effect on it. If the effect doesn't work because the terrain is on the same sheet as the terrain around it, put it on a different sheet by using the "change properties" tool.
It would also be nice if there was a river at the end of the left fjord (the one on the right side of Brightsea). The river is not necessary because a fjord doesn't have to be like a valley which was created by a river, but I still think it would look nice.

Dogtag

Nice map! I'm lovin' the name, Spooky Wooton. .

~Dogtag

Shessar

I've played around with this style some, but could never get it to look right.

I agree with HadrianVI. An edge fade on the scrub to the south of the ship would look better. This is just a small quibble though. This is a beautiful map!

pdj

The "scrub" is meant to be mud-flats according to the symbol name :-/

As symbols seem to be immune to edge fade, I tried mashing them up a bit with transparency and a muddy
glow. Whatever else this did, it at least made them look muddier

Mateus090985

I use Transparency a lot on my maps. The result on yours was great. As I already said, in my opinion, some work on the sea is the only thing needed to the map be perfect.

JimP

Yeah, a few darker areas in the sea to show depth. slightly darker would work.

pdj

Thanks for the input Mateus & JimP

With regard to the blank blue ocean, that seems to part of the SS1A style. You may have noticed at the top of the thread that I was trying to create the map using the just the resources given - well,the SS1A style gives
you exactly 2 land contours and 0 sea contours to play with. There is a water bitmap fill (water with clouds
reflected in it) but it' looks really wierd by the ocean-full. So monochrome blue is what you get.

I know it seems perverse to take this approach, but it's been a sort of exercise in self-discipline to do it
this way. I had found myself constantly working around mapping difficulties by importing stuff, rather
than actually learning techniques to address them. Now I'm trying a similar project in the CD3B style....

Thanks again for taking the time to comment,

Peter

HadrianVI

hi pdj,

if your CC is immune to edge fade, you should try to de- and reinstall it. I had the same problem in the beginning. Then I reinstalled the program and the edge fade effect started to work