Ruining a perfectly good building!

Loopysue

I just have to share this one

Add a Colour Key effect to the SYMBOLS sheet you have your standard building symbols on, and draw your own holes in bright pink polygons (colour number 6). The Colour Key needs to be at the top of the list of effects on that sheet.

Then add a new sheet just underneath the SYMBOLS sheet, add a glow and a directional shadow, and draw some walls. I haven't bothered with this example, but it should be possible to draw rafters and things like that on another sheet under the SYMBOLS sheet with a drop shadow effect. There will be some shadow overlap, but shadows are always complicated in ruined buildings.

Loopysue

For anyone in any doubt, here is the Colour Key effect in place above the glow and directional shadow on that sheet.

Shessar

Are these actual symbols or are they buildings created with the house command? I cannot get this to work on the symbols I would like to use it on.

Loopysue

Those are Thatched houses from the Bitmap A set.

Show us a screen shot?

Loopysue

This is what it looks like with the Colour Key turned off.

The important thing is that It only works if the colour key is the very first effect in the list on the same sheet as the houses, and if you draw the polygons on the same sheet as the houses.

Shessar

I've used color key extensively and have never had it work on symbols before. Here's one example with it on and off. The keyed color goes transparent but has no effect on the symbol.

Loopysue

Now that IS peculiar!

Why should it work for me, but not for you?

I'll have a go with some other symbols...

Loopysue

Yes - I can cut anything.

Shessar

For me, it works on city house symbols but not dungeon or overland.

Shessar

This raises the question...what makes city symbols different?

Or...is some command not functioning across all add-ons?

Loopysue

You're absolutely right. It works on all the random things I pasted down from different city symbol sets, but I just tried it with a Schley mountain and it didn't work.

JimP

City symbols are on multiple layers... I think only one sheet.

Loopysue

Maybe one of the team can explain it, but that is quite a big difference, and it might be something to do with that, certainly.

Shessar

For reasons that I don't understand, the other symbols won't go behind a solid vector poly.

EDITED TO ADD: They won't go behind a bitmap poly either.

Loopysue

Even more mysterious!

How strange!

Maybe those symbols are set up so that they don't get lost behind such fills, and the fact that a city symbol exists on several layers means it simply can't be set up that way - except that I was masking cars and other city symbols that only exist on one layer (I think)

Loopysue

I just tried something else.

I made a symbol with a magenta blob in the middle of it. Although it stays on top of the mountain, it doesn't cut anything at all except itself.

I've snapped this shot before the redraw on the last pasting, so you can see the symbol I made has a pink blob in the middle, which disappears on redraw, but doesn't knock anything out - not even on the city symbols.

Loopysue

My mind is in quite a bit of turmoil at the moment.

Is this a flaw in the city symbols that will be mended now its been discovered, or is it something we can continue to use?

It makes a big difference to whether I draw an entire second set of ruined buildings or not.

Shessar

I hope they don't remove this from CD. I hope even harder that it gets added/fixed in DD and CC. This is one of the things that I have wanted ever since the color key effect was added. That's why I jumped in to question if you were using symbols. I wondered why it worked for you and not me. (Reason: I was trying to use the effect on DD and PER symbols.)

I will email Ralf to alert him to this thread. Maybe we can get an answer for you before you get too far along.

Loopysue

I really hope it doesn't get mended!

I would love to be able to create any kind of ruin I wanted on a city map.

Obviously its never going to replace the delightful purpose built ruins drawn by really gifted people like Par Lindstrom, but it does mean people won't be crying out for more ruins all the time.

It would be really useful in DD3 and PER3, but I'm having a sudden imagination deficit trying to think up any practical uses in overland maps.

Loopysue

Burned a hole in this one.

[Image_11131]

That's a new sheet on top of the SYMBOLS sheet I called BURNS. I drew a black poly on it covering the hole punched in the building by the Colour Key patch beneath it, then added an edge fade inner to the BURNS sheet, and copied the magenta polygon from the SYMBOLS sheet up onto the BURNS sheet and added the same Colour Key effect to that sheet to knock an identical hole in the burn.

LordEntrails

Well, in overland maps it can be used to make lakes right? So you don't have to make another water sheet and copy the effects. Would you ever want to delete part of a city or town symbol on an overland map? Maybe to make some type or ruin? Probably wouldn't look right though. Mountains, wagons, trees, etc, I don't think so.

But for cities and dungeons its really useful.

KenG

For an overland map it would be great on a treasure map or pirate map to put holes in the map and tear up the edges a bit.

KenG

Are the symbols it works on all varicolor symbols?

Loopysue

You can use it on the fills in an overland map. Just not the symbols.

None of the symbols I have tested it on are varicolour, and I don't think Shessar tried it on any, though I can't say for sure.

DoubleDouble

Did this stay functionality stay untouched?

I was trying to utilize it on symbols in Perspectives and I'm disappointed it won't quite work out how I imagined.

Is there a better way to "delete" the pinked out version of these ladders?

Loopysue

Unfortunately, I think it only works in City map templates.

Equally unfortunately, I don't really know enough about Perspectives to help you with this one, but maybe someone else can?

Loopysue

I think the only way to do it is move the ladder onto a new sheet called something like SYMBOLS LADDER, and move it in the sheet stack so that it is behind the top and the front to right wall, then use the same effect on that wall where you want the ladder to be visible. Color Key will work on the polygon that is the wall.

Then you might have to put some kind of a background WALLS sheet in there underneath the whole lot to add a back wall behind the bit you cut out.