Ethran: Merelan City

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  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited August 2016
    If you want to see an example of one use for the Circular Array command, take a look at my aborted pagoda WIP post, for one way to use it. I've also used it to create henges and, in one battle map (yes, it was snowy), I used it twice, once to add "pilasters" around a large, columnar platform and again to add runes (Text entities) around it.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks for those examples Dogtag.

    I've just redrawn the temple using the circular array like Gathar showed us. Much better this time (no mis-match gaps between the segments)

    You could also use it to draw customised ripple effects on a water surface, or earth ripples around an impact or explosion site... or form the cross section of a tornado. I bet you could even use it to create a spiral staircase, if you drew just the one step... or even a set of three or four together.

    There are lots of uses, and I expect the square array is just as useful for things like columns in Roman temples and so on :D
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited August 2016
    Sure. Check out the help topic for some good information.

    For ripple effects, you might want to also check out the OFFSET command.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Version 35

    Trying out different roof textures for the temple. I redrew it earlier, so there aren't any nasty gaps in the angles now. I used the circular array tool to do it this time, instead of manually copying and pasting the first segment by eye.

    Also used the square array tool to set up the barracks in a typically military grid pattern (observed from a local army bridging camp).

    The file crashed earlier as a result of a stupid mistake on my part. I think I may have corrupted this version - there appear to be strange white lines around some of the buildings I've placed since the crash (you can't see them at this resolution, but you can if I blow it up even just slightly larger). I may go back a step to the previous version and work with that one instead if the buildings paste all right on that one.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Version 36

    Got rid of the dark lines around the buildings and the funny colours.

    Also toned down the seaweed. It was causing an adverse reaction over at the guild. Can't think why, really. Weed is red brown, and that's the colour it is. I think some people over there have never even seen the sea, never mind walked along a rocky shore strewn with kelp ;)

    I'd like to know if you think the lines should go back in around the buildings.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Version 37

    New developments south of the Temple of Rusaar.

    Somnee was done and finished in half an hour flat this morning. This small peninsular of the main island has been inhabited by the Merles for well over a thousand years. At some point in that history, and before the Sayers were around to protect everyone from the screamers (the pterodactylian predators I keep mentioning), the villagers decided to build their houses in an oval around a play area, where their younger children could play in relative safety - only ever a few seconds quick dash away from the safety of the hearth. This area also became their market place, and is sometimes used for the drying of seaweed and fish at times of the year when these activities are most often carried out.

    Screamer attacks have become a thing of the past, since the drought set in and their numbers declined, so the traditional races around Somnee market place which were designed to encourage speed and agility in the young, that they might stand a better chance if they were ever caught in the open by the screamers, have become more of a festivity than a serious exercise. Nowadays there are also races run around the island starting and finishing in Somnee Market place, which anyone can join - young and old alike ;)

    Elsewhere on the map I have added as many houses to the bottom tier of the island as I think are possible, and started on the second tier up. I have also sketched in a few lines to remind myself not to put houses in the flash flood channels (black), in the vineyards (white), and to mark the boundary of the social divide between the upper town (Blucran), and the under town (Merle and half-blood), which is orange. These lines will disappear as I work to add those areas.
  • MedioMedio Surveyor
    May i give you a suggestion? in the entrance to the peninsula, you´re recreating a tunnel (guess so). Maybe in the tunnel entrance i´d put some kind of shadow to show that there is a "hole" there. In the northern part the hill shadow itself make it works, but on the southern one it lacks some kind of signal that here is a tunnel there.
  • MedioMedio Surveyor
    One more thing... mind if i use this map for my next RPG campaign? It´s being simply brilliant. Don´t worry, i´ll tell my players it´s not mine ;).
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Posted By: MedioMay i give you a suggestion? in the entrance to the peninsula, you´re recreating a tunnel (guess so). Maybe in the tunnel entrance i´d put some kind of shadow to show that there is a "hole" there. In the northern part the hill shadow itself make it works, but on the southern one it lacks some kind of signal that here is a tunnel there.
    This is one of the list of about 50 jobs I already have of little things to sort out before I call it finished, but we're a ways from that just yet by at least another week - especially since I've just entered the most recent Guild Lite Challenge ;)
    Posted By: MedioOne more thing... mind if i use this map for my next RPG campaign? It´s being simply brilliant. Don´t worry, i´ll tell my players it´s not mine ;).
    Since you asked so nicely I give permission for this one use only, and on the understanding that the map is not redistributed beyond that game, or used as any form of an advertisement without my permission. I can send you a higher resolution image of the current map (without the sketch lines) as a pdf if you would prefer, since the images in this thread are only 1/4 resolution, but you will have to whisper me your email address.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited August 2016
    Version 38
    The vineyards on the southern coast are done. I have also repaired the red seaweed to the colour I prefer, although it is not as overpowering as before because I have added an edge fade that reduces the thickness of the individual threads (its a transparent fill bitmap).

    Sorry - really tired, and all out of words for today
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Version 39

    Windmills!

    I'm afraid I spent the couple of hours I had to myself today making windmills in CC3+ - a personal triumph applying my recent learning about shaded polygons, aligned fills and circular arrays. Pity they have to be so tiny, really. Never mind. They're done, and ready to pump the water and sewage around the city in some very big pipes through all those rather convenient cave systems. No ugly pipes or aqueducts on the surface then.

    I found a way to make tree symbols with poor transparency qualities work a whole lot better when they are being used as such tiny entities. You put a very slight amount of black inner glow on the tree sheet, and all those annoying white ghosts just vanish. It also works wonders at the Merelan City scale to give them more of a leafy texture
  • MedioMedio Surveyor
    Those windmills are great!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Medio :)

    You can't really see them all that well, but I couldn't really draw them larger than scale ;)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    The windmills look wonderful. They're a marvelous addition to your work.

    I'm confused by the pinkish things on the Pentagon, though. Are they giant pennants?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Dogtag. Its largely down to you that I was able to draw them directly in CC3 :) They aren't fantastic graphics close up, but at the scale I'm working with they'll do.

    Pinkish things!

    I'll have you know those are bone fide Dundjinni pennants.... perhaps a bit large... and I don't like the shadows... or the overly white highlights... but they serve as markers to remind me to do something about it, since the Blucrans believe that red objects frighten the screamers away. They're wrong, of course - its actually the rippling movement that does the trick, since screamers can't swim, are colour blind, and have evolved an instinctive fear of anything that might be water. They also avoid obstacles that might foul their wings... unless they are on the brink of starvation and ultimately desperate to feed.

    I intend to model the pennants in Blender and render out a more convincing top view, complete with the Blucran insignia - a 'pace flower', which is kind of rose shaped, but more simple - like a six-petalled poppy.
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    edited August 2016
    The windmills look fantastic.

    The pennants, however, look [to me] like giant squid or anemones (maybe coral polyps) attacking the Pentagon. It took me a while to see they might be pennants. Wacky (IMO) symbols aside, I'm curious about the placement. They seem oddly located/distributed to me.

    And I personally believe that nonsense about it being the waving/rippling of the fabric, and not the color red, is bull.  image image

    Seriously awesome work with the windmills. Did you use the Perspectives 3 isometric projection command to create the skew for the sails, or did you use Corel? Or did you do something else?

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Oh Dogtag. Hang on a minute. I'm still chuckling away at this end... I'm nearly crying! LOL!

    Well, lets tackle the oddly placed giant crimson squids first...

    There were/are going to be five banners flying over the dome to protect the more fragile glass by warding the screamers off. That's why they are placed inside the courtyard in close proximity to the dome. The reason I only put two of them in is because there's only one symbol, and after mirroring it once I couldn't think of another way of making it look different for the other three corners.

    Don't worry. They won't be there long ;)

    Windmills...

    Hmmn... I'm having second thoughts about them now, but just to answer the technical question:

    I don't have Perspectives. What I did was made a circular array of a single line and a triangle, repeating the objects 8 times for an octagonal arrangement - 8 sails. I then grouped them all together and scaled them, pressing CTRL to scale x and y separately, squashing them down more than anything. Its not true ISO, its just a very simple picture that's been majorly compressed in one direction only.

    I've found a ready made windmill symbol. It looks much better than the one I've drawn. I may end up replacing them, though I might keep the sails. I'm not sure yet.

    Thanks for the giggle :)
  • DogtagDogtag Moderator, Betatester Traveler
    Ah, cool. Heavy x-scaling works nicely, too.

    As far as the pennants, I think what's throwing me about their placement is that one appears to be in the courtyard but the other appears to be over a segment of the roof. Also their size, I'd say, but it's a fantasy world so my brain can push that aside.

    The jib sails on the windmills give them a Mediterranean flavor. Not sure if that's what you're going for, but it looks very nice.

    Cheers,
    ~Dogtag
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Like all drawing - its an illusion ;)

    Not every civilisation will recreate the gridded arms that are so familiar to us all from picture books. This world runs on the most basic technology. Windmills are relatively new, and I doubt that anyone living on Ethran at this point in their history has even dreamed of powered flight.

    Will you please stop worrying about the pennants? LOL! They won't be there in the next version. Its a one time only appearance of the Fantastic Flying Squid Squad! Besides my sides are hurting from all the laughter!
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    I am ever so sorry, but life has dealt me a blow, and I will not be continuing this thread.

    I wish you all the best.

    Thank you for your interest.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited August 2016
    Version 40

    This version reflects a setback I experienced over the last 24 hours, in which 2/3 of my symbol set are no longer available to me. I have decided to draw and create my own, where before I was using CSUAC and Dundjinni symbols and fills. This I am aiming to do with the help of Blender (for the basic tree shapes), CorelDraw, where the leaves are going on, and NeotextureEdit, for the one missing texture in the map - the rubble that served as rocky shores.
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Version 41 Renovation phase 1

    Remove the dead trees...

    There were a depressing multitude of red crosses on the map, so I replaced the three missing fills (there were two in the frame as well as the one in the map) and deleted all the tree Xs. The island looks very bare now, but things will get better.

    I've left the building Xs in place because that's my next job - rebuild all the houses.

    The ivy main frame, by the way is just a stop gap fill - one of my own making. I will be doing a new wood texture before long
  • VintyriVintyri Newcomer
    Very good. Things are moving forward again. Encouraging!
  • I am soooo glad that you are back to working on this! :D
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    Thanks Shessar. It all looked pretty bad to me last night when I uninstalled CSUAC, but this morning... I think I got my second wind, picked myself up, dusted myself down, and decided to keep on running :)
  • Am I missing something?

    Why can't you just say, "Woops, my bad!", abide by the EULA and move on with the way it was? Have you never made a mistake before?
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer
    edited August 2016
    If I choose to cut myself loose of a trap, then I do it.

    EDIT: Are you one of the complaining Dundjinni artists? Just curious to know, because I can't imagine anyone else wishing to try and needle me like this.
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