The One Day Worldbuilder (CA155 - 2019 Cartographers Annual)

Loopysue

For all those of you wishing to build your own fantasy world in a day, The One Day Worldbuilder has just been published by Profantasy as the November issue of the 2019 Cartographer's Annual.

http://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/cartographers-annual-november-2019/

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[Deleted User]

I can't wait to try it. I might use it on the map i entered for the competition to decide on what world to use for the Atlas. I did say I would come back to it.

Loopysue

Well that would certainly be interesting to see.

Let me know if there are any problems? I created 5 new worlds in a row just to test everything to make absolutely sure it all worked according to the instructions, but that doesn't necessarily mean its a perfect method, and definitely not the only one.

[Deleted User]

I am actually redoing my Myirandios world using my method; so it will be great to use your method on another of my worlds. I will have to do more on Dun Fingolfin first.

JimP

I could use this for my Tunnels and Trolls game world. It currently only has bits and pieces of a world map.

rnadams2

This is likely the installment that will get me to subscribe. Can't wait to get into it!

Loopysue

Hope you all enjoy making your new worlds

Maidhc O Casain

Thanks for this, Loopysue! I'm having fun with it. Here's a link to my first "One Day World!"

Full disclosure, it took me longer than a day just because I had to play with it and learn the ins and outs. I've got a good enough handle on it now that I think further efforts will take a lot less time.

Edit: Well, the link didn't work as planned - I meant to share an *.fcw file from my OneDrive. I'll figure out how to do it correctly and then post the link...

JimP

You can post up to a 1,000 pixel wide png or bmp. I don't remember what the megabyte limit is though.

Loopysue

You're welcome, Maidhe

Glad you enjoyed it

Maidhc O Casain

Altitude Map

Climate Map

Temperature Map

Rainfall Map

[Deleted User]

Love it, Maidhe

Loopysue

Wow! No wonder it took you longer than a day. I didn't cover any of the climate options at all.

That's a great map!

Maidhc O Casain

Thank you, Quenten, Loopysue!

Fractal Terrains and CC3+ did all the heavy lifting for the climate, temp and rainfall, though . I set up a custom export a few years ago for a game where I wanted lots of fairly realistic detail for the world, and used that one instead of the contours from the annual.

These tools, combined with the step-by-step from this annual, are really awesome!

LichHouse

I'm new to the forums, working my way through the CA155 mapping guide, and I've gotten stuck on page 21 - after importing your map from FT3 to CC3, there's a step to change properties and convert all the contours to "hollow black polygons". I'm fairly inexperienced with CC3 and not sure I'm doing it right - is it literally selecting each contour individually changing properties, and picking a "hollow" fill style? Is there a trick or short cut to select all the contours and change them to "hollow" in one swoop?

So far it's been a fun but challenging journey following along between FT3, Wilbur, and CC3. Looking forward to getting good at the techniques and building a world.

Loopysue

Hello Lich

Yes, there is a quick way. First, hide all the sheets but the CONTOURS (LAND) and/or COUNTOURS SEA sheets and then using the Change Properties tool select everything at the same time. There are two change properties tool buttons. Make sure you are using the Change Properties tool and not the Edit Properties tool. Both have paint bucket icons, but the topmost one on that toolbar is the one you want.

LichHouse

That worked like a charm - thanks for the quick response! Well on the way to coloring my tutorial contours.

Loopysue

You're welcome, Lich

LichHouse

I was able to finish the CA155 tutorial and embarked on a new FT3 world. However, when I make an .MDR and open the world in Wilbur, none of the elevation seems to be coming over. I'm thinking there's a simple setting I'm missing (either on export or import). Has anyone seen this? (This is the Wilbur screen shot).

Loopysue

That is usually a symptom of the existence of NANs (not a number) and/or "outliers" (wildly extreme points by a factor of several hundreds) that may result from editing and re-editing the same place, or using the normal brushes rather than the offset ones.

Before you export from FT3 run Actions -> Normalize Data from the Tools menu.

When you get it to Wilbur run Height Clip… from the Filter menu, and set the min and max values to -9144 and 9144 respectively.

There are more detailed instructions and explanations of this on pages 10 and 11 of the Supplemental Notes if you are interested.

If you have a heightfield after that but it still looks a bit subdued do a gaussian blur of 0.5 from the Filter menu in Wilbur, but only once. That will smooth out any remaining spikes. I wouldn't advise blurring it more than once though.

Let us know if you still have only a flat green land after you have done this.

bartleby

Thank you Loopysue! The above fixed my problem.

LichHouse

Yes, worked for me as well and I was able to continue applying the tutorial steps to my new world. Thanks!

Loopysue

You're both very welcome

LichHouse

After getting unblocked in the move from FT3 to CC3, Here's a work in progress on the current home map, shortly after importing it into CC3 from Fractal Terrains, copying the contours over, and colorizing them.

Here are some questions and next steps (I guess most of these are targeted at Sue since I was looking at Jerion):

Rivers: Rivers came over from FT3 to the first CC3 map, but the tutorial has you copying over only sea/land contours and grid to the new map. Should the rivers sheet be copied too, or did you draw them in again manually when finishing Jerion?

Contours: I saw on the finished Jerion CC3 the contours each have an outline in brown - is there an easy way to apply them?

Arrows for currents: I started searching the forums on how to do arrows, looks like there is a method from an early annual, and maybe a tool. How did you draw the specific arrows for Jerion? They didn't seem to be entities.

Frame: I haven't figured out how multipoly works yet, so it will be some time before I figure out how to cut out the middle of the rectangular frame. I probably need to play with it on a blank map and then return to the world map and frame problem.

It's been a very cool tutorial. I plan on experimenting with the different ways of finishing a world map in CC3 - either as a background or a vector map with contours. The tutorial motivated me to finally dig in and get comfortable with FT3 and start playing with Wilbur. It will enhance gaming and future campaigns for years.

Loopysue

That's a really great looking result

Ok, dealing with each thing in the order you wrote them.

Rivers on Jerion were hand drawn because at the time of writing the instructions I wasn't aware that rivers could even be exported. However, you can export them. The only thing I will say about doing it that way is that it is best to generate them at the highest possible resolution, or at least at the same resolution as your map. Otherwise you tend to get rather strange things happening. Many of the rivers exported this way don't seem to meet the coastline perfectly. That's a resolution issue, but you can only really do anything about it by moving the end nodes by hand to meet the coast in the CC3 map - which takes almost as long as drawing them yourself anyway.

If you open the Jerion map you will see that there are two sheets called CONTOURS (LAND) filled, and CONTOURS (LAND). change the name of the current sheet with your land contours on it to CONTOURS (LAND) filled, and make a second one called CONTOURS (LAND). Copy the sheet effects for that new sheet across from the Jerion map and then copy all your land contours from the original (now named CONTOURS (LAND) filled) to the new one. Hide all but the new sheet and change the properties en masse to hollow and the colour to black or darkest brown. That should give you the contour line effect you can see in that map.

The arrows are just smooth lines of different widths and colours with added hand drawn arrowheads. If you want to reuse them simply copy them to your map and paste copies, rotating and placing as necessary. Or you could draw your own lines and copy the arrowheads if I don't seem to have drawn the right shape for your map anywhere on mine. This is part of why we have example maps - so you can pinch stuff from them for your own map if someone like me forgets to make a handy set of vector symbols out of them. Sorry!

Multipoly works if you grab both the rectangles and click do it. Go on - give it a go. Alternatively you might decide you don't really need a frame. It was just one of those little extras I threw in because I felt like it at the time.

And thank you! I think that's one of the few times this particular Great Auntie Sue has ever had any of her stuff called 'cool'

Loopysue

Anyone who enjoyed this annual would probably also enjoy reading and making use of André Franke's tutorial blog here:

http://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/exporting-coloured-topographical-maps-from-ft3-to-cc3by-andre-franke

Kleber

Do I understand this correctly: They take money for explaining how their software works??

Loopysue

The user manual explains how it works

The ODW explains how to get a particular set of results, using the tools available, and assumes prior knowledge of the user manual.

Loopysue

As a further update to this thread, the ODW is now packaged with the latest version of FT3 (FT3+)

Maidhc O Casain

The ODW also comes with preset color palettes, saving those of us who are artistically challenged (or somewhat color blind) a ton of work and frustration.