Dyson's Dwarven Mines - WIP first draft

Lorelei

So my friend Dyson pens some of the best old school maps. He even took a map of my own and created it in his style on his blog this past November. Anyway, I wanted a small abandoned dwarven mine and found one on his blog to recreate on two 24x36 posters for a quest my PCs should eventually pick up on. I cut and past my two maps side by side to compare it to Dyson's. I have modified some of the rooms and caverns, but for the most part, its all his imagination. I'll keep updating as i work on this

CharlesWayneRobinson

Great start!

Unless you are trying to show secret passageways, you may want to lose some of the shadows that are not in rooms and passageways and fill it in. It gets confusing trying to figure out what is what.

Tonnichiwa

Wow, very nice dungeons!

Lorelei

Thank you, tonnichiwa!

Posted By: CharlesWayneRobinsonGreat start!

Unless you are trying to show secret passageways, you may want to lose some of the shadows that are not in rooms and passageways and fill it in. It gets confusing trying to figure out what is what.

The wall shadow is certainly too dark. I have to lighten that up, along with the entire map when i print it out, so the smaller tunnels wont look so dark in poster form. Thanks for the tip!

Lorelei

Yeah and don't mind the grid. When i print them out i set the grid on the floors only Thank the Goddess for the Tome on that one!

OldGuy

beautiful!

Lorelei

Okay, so i HATE the cave walls...i've never actually added "walls" to a cave, but i wanted to try the wall shadow and turns out i do not like it So i have removed the cave walls and have been playing around with the Bevel and Glow.

LadieStorm

it's an intriguing effect! I wish you could use what ever bitmapfill that is for your walls! I bet that would make them really pop!

Lorelei

I was just thinking the same thing as i was playing around. I've never really used the bevel before. This is a more transparent Bevel.....any better?

CharlesWayneRobinson

Better :-)

LadieStorm

much better! Transparent bevel...hmmmm I'm going to have to look into that myself!

LadieStorm

ooh, I was going to ask you... where did you get those bitmap fills?!?

Lorelei

Yes, much better. okay, NOW i've got something to work with The bitmap fill for the mine are the Cliffs from the SS2. The mine floor I found online, where i couldn't say...i do online searches constantly for free images and fill styles and copy to a designated folder i will use to download pngs and bitmaps into my maps. If i were to venture a guess it would be either Dundjinni or Deviant Art, that's where i find A LOT of my free stuff

LadieStorm

okay, that's it... I'm headed to Dundjinni... I want to see what they have

Dogtag

Posted By: LadieStormI wish you could use what ever bitmapfill that is for your walls! I bet that would make them really pop!

You should be able to.

lorelei, if you put that poly (or those polies) on the walls sheet, they should bevel like the walls and cast wall shadows. Of course, you can modify any of the Wall sheet effects, or create a new sheet and put whatever effects you want on it, including a wall shadow.

For example, the map below uses that technique to create the walls of the mine.^*
Click the image below to view it full-size, if desired.


The map actually uses dynamic lighting, but I turned it off for this image to show that the wall shadows work for the cavern/mine "walls". They also work on the support columns, incidentally, though they are on their own "Columns" sheet, with a wall shadow effect.

Cheers,
~Dogtag

^* Human, not dwarven, but it was built with dwarven help. And some dwarves worked there. Okay, po-TAY-toe, po-TAH-toe...

Lorelei

Wow, Dogtag your map is awesome. And i have no idea how to do the above. Explain, if you have a moment how you did the above effect? Because i think i tried and it did not look anything like yours

Dogtag

Thank you. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. That's especially bad, since I'm an instructional designer and technical writer by trade. Please don't tell anyone.

In a nutshell, put your cave walls on the WALLS sheet. Or, if you want different settings for your natural cavern walls and your constructed walls, then make a CAVE WALLS sheet and then duplicate and edit the effects that are on the WALLS sheet.

For further clarity, I've attached a very simple example FCW and a screen shot, below.

When I drew the cave, it automatically drew itself on the FLOORS sheet. I then moved it to the WALLS sheet. The important thing to remember is that I drew the walls not the floor (drawing the floor is the default way to draw caves). So I had to consciously remember that I was making the outline of the cave, which meant drawing around the edge of the map border to close the shape. To make the shadows really pop in this example, I modified the Wall Shadow, Directional effect to have 60% opacity.

Click the image below to view it full-size, if desired.


I hope that helps,
~Dogtag

Lorelei

ok i got it! So i have actually sat down and tried to sort out that whole process a few weeks ago. I found it painstakingly hard to create a cave this way as i was able to envision the cave as i was making it (if that makes sense - im having a hard time articulating). That is until recently when i discovered i could create a map, then insert it and trace it onto another...(slaps forehead). I wish i would have made this map THAT way, however, i created the network of rooms first, then the cavern, then the mines, so i wanted to keep it uniform so they, unfortunately all ended up on the FLOOR page

HOWEVER, with your suggestions and your .fcw i think when i make my next dungeon i will use this style....i think its the BEVEL ive been missing all my life Many thanks for your help and instruction!!