Wanting to create a large world - best way?

Crymson

G'day,

I want to create a 10,000 mile by 8,000 mile map with lots of detail, so that it can be zoomed in on, but am struggling to get it right. So I have a few questions:

1) Is there a specific style that suits this the best?

2) I'd like to use the Jon Roberts Style, or the Herwin Wilink style (but am open to suggestions), but I cannot seem to get the scaling of terrain fills right. For instance, if I use desert filled terrain it comes out just looking wrong when zoomed in on.

3) Sheet effects: how is it best to adjust these to fit with the expanded area?

4) Is there a better way to do this? Instead of zooming in, should I create a large scale map, then recreate it in more detail? If so, how is this done easily?

Cheers in advance.

Monsen

Go for option 4. If you put too much detail on a large scale map, it will not look good when zoomed out. And as you have already discovered, terrain scaling is difficult to handle if you try to zoom too much in, same goes for sheet effects.
IMHO, the best way is to create a reasonably detailed overview map, then create more detailed zoomed in maps of the interesting areas on that map, which contains additional details.

For the procedure of making detailed maps, check out the "Editing with Drawing Tools" section of the Editing chapter in the user manual. This section details briefly how to use drawing tools to edit shapes, tracing, and trimming to accomplish what you need. The Tome and the annual contain more detailed in-depth tutorials for doing this.

Dogtag

Henrei61 is currently doing something just like this with his Zibor map, and he has been documenting it here in the forum.

Another thing to keep in mind when creating a large world map and then smaller, regional maps, is the process of copying parts of the large map that you want to detail into the smaller maps. This process has been discussed a lot in the forums so hopefully a search will provide you with topics to read over about it. Also, if you subscribe to the Annual, which I highly recommend, the August 2012 issue focused on this subject. Also, I believe issue 17, of the 2008 Annual, discussed making an interactive atlas.

~Dogtag

FarsightX3

I believe you'd like to make a larger canvas size for your map right? Well if so, this is how you go about doing it. Monsen wrote this step by step instruction for me when I had this issue. I hope it helps...

1. Make sure you have a map open (like a new blank map from a template)

2. Open up the Layers dialog, hit "show all" and "thaw all". Close the dialog

3. Open up the sheets dialog. Hit "Show All". Close the dialog

4. Make sure no dialog boxes are open on the screen.

5. Type in SCALEXY. The command should appear in the command line at the bottom. Hit enter.

6. A prompt now appear, asking to select entities. Hit the a key to select all, the number of selected entries should now show 10 or more entries, depending on the template. Then hit the d
key for done.

7. It should now ask for the X Scale. Assuming you started with a 1000x800 map, enter 15 here to get your desired size, then hit enter

8. This time, the Y scale. Again, to get the correct scale you are asking for, enter 18.75 here, then hit enter (18.75*800 = 15000)

9. Now it asks for scale center. The default is good, so just hit enter.

10. It should now be resized, but you need to redraw to see it properly. Hit the redraw button and you should notice the map is now significantly larger. Hit zoom extents to see the entire map.

Henrie61

When I started my maps of the continent of Zibor I had the same idea as you.
Make a really large map with lots and lots of detail.

I ran into a few problems
1. Way too many objects. No idea how many CC3 can handle but you would need a beats of a computer as soon as you hit redraw.
2. Way too much work. A map the size you want would be larger then Europe. Don't think one lifetime would be enough to map that in detail.

So I choose to make one map of the continent.
Dont worry too much about deatail on that level, just do the general layout of the biggest features like mountains, the main rivers, lakes ect...
For example look at google maps and zoom out till you can see the whole of europe one 1 screen. Its suprising how little detail is visible at that moment.

Mark the (for you) most important areas of the big map and make detail maps of thoose.
The way I do it now
1. Decide how large the detail map is going to be (say a 1000 x 1000 miles)
2. Save the area I want to map to a rectangular BMP or JPEG file (1000 by 1000).
3. Start the new map in the desired style measuring 1000x1000.
4. Add a new sheet (I usually call it MAP).
5. Insert the saved file onto the MAP sheet.

You now have a rough guide to draw the detailed map.

JimP

I find that making a hemisphere of ocean and continents and then making detailed maps of area, nations, etc. is best. I had originally starterd with lots of small maps.

At hemisphere level, no symbols other than a few seaport and ships. Mountains and forests designated by colors.

Continents, a small bit of symbols. Large cities, a brown area and a few mountains, a green area and a few trees.

Nations, more detail, a jump, but not too big, in symbols.

Cities, much detail. Areas around duingeons, much detail. etc.

SkidAce

I do exactly what Henrie61 does.

Tracing that bmp or jpeg solves sooooo many problems.

By drawing fresh everything is scaled and the right size, effects work properly, there aren't any extra layers or sheets with hidden items on them.

It just feels cleaner and works better for me.