I absolutely love the swamp and marsh fills. You can see the water! Most of the overland swamp and marsh fills don't include that, though you can draw your own rivers lines on top.
I'm really looking forward to this one. I have a specific area in one of my kingdoms--a deep, narrow valley between northern and southern mountain ranges--that's proving hard to map from a non-bird's eye perspective. Mountains are always in the way!
I think they are fantastic. Just enough of the light and darks to really tie them together. Same with the other accent colours. Put them away, they are done.
Yes, you should make an ice flow fill. I also noticed that the ice/snow is pretty blue. I know you use blue to make it look white, but at least on my monitor, it looks much more blue and not very white.
Ah, that was an attempt to make the chameleon hills (the ones that take the colour of whatever they sit on) work properly on them, but since it was a failure I can do that. I'll just have to make some ice hills instead of using any of the other 3 hill methods.
This is going to be my preferred style for nearly all my overland maps - I so much prefer birdseye, and there really is only the 13th age and 2 others, which are far less detailed. This is just what I have wanted. And coupled with the next iteration for smaller overland maps, i can see this being THE style for me.
Thank you SO much for this, Sue. And I love the red deserts.
I hope with the style for smaller maps, we will also get mangroves and different types of rainforests, as well as semi-arid. But that can wait till you begin on the smaller scale style.
I am SO excited by all this - i am just bubbling over.
Structure markers - yes, some probably are too large. You might need to replace the hollow centre to the Town and City ones with a contrasting colour circle/diamond instead of being hollow, if reducing the sizes (looking at the way the smaller markers are on the map now).
The craters look nice, although the pale outer rim is a little too sharp and dominant at present. Crater rims tend to end up as a relatively gentle hummock-line very quickly, through a mix of natural slumping during to soon after formation, and weathering processes. Currently, the rims look a bit too wall-like.
Oops. I actually increased the contrast on that rim because the map file wasn't giving me an edge on the lip being hit by the light on the inside, but I can put that right without too much work.
Structures - I think I might get rid of the largest ones and just do Cities and Towns. Villages aren't really a thing at this scale.
I think Wyvern was on about the prominence of the lip, but you've just opened a new door.
Yes, I can do one that goes on the same sheet as the hills that will behave like the hills. This one is for rocky/arid places mainly, or as a relatively recent crater in an otherwise lush environment.
Sue, I think you are right about sticking to cities and towns only, but I don't like the symbols - both because of the hollow interior, and the actual colour. I hope you will make them varicolour at least.
I will leave them till last and do them as vector symbols instead of bitmap ones. It will be easier for people to make their own personalised ones that way as well.
I spent the day being distracted by structure symbols. I went through all kinds of overcomplicated bitmap variations, but eventually came back to simple varicolour vector ones. How do these look?
I might put a black line around them, but I think this is probably a case of more is less. Simple and clear looks a lot better than complicated.
Thank you, Remy, for the clear and concise instructions in the Tome. I had long forgotten how to make shaded varicolour vector symbols.
For those who are interested in learning how to create these but learn better by watching, Ralf has a good tutorial about creating varicolor symbols, starting with the vector ones.
Yes, that's a good one. I was just a bit too tired to go looking for it after a day of gradually coming to the conclusion that bitmap symbols weren't going to make the grade.
Yes, the craters look much better now, Sue. The more discontinuous rim is perhaps the better, although both forms look good.
Not sure the darker outer ring on the location symbols is the best fit; it doesn't seem to add much on the map, just making the symbols seem smaller. There might be an argument here for simply going with the standard set of geometric shapes in varicolor (the Geometry.fsc catalogue, for example) for whatever folks may wish to add as locations markers. That would also increase the range of possible options for such places too, although a set with perhaps a somewhat thicker black border line would be useful.
Anyone can make their own or modify the existing. These are really easy to do. If you want the outer ring to be lighter rather than darker you just add a new layer called VARICOLOR+3, and edit the symbols to place the larger circle/square/triangle on the new layer, then save.
Currently, the darker outer ring is on VARICOLOR-3, with the centre on VARICOLOR0 (that's actually a zero, but the forum font makes it look like a lower case 'o').
It means the centre is the colour you picked in the palette, while the outer ring is 3 shades darker.
I didn't bother to do stars, since they were more spike than colour at the given size and didn't show up well, but there's nothing stopping anyone from creating a simple one-colour star shape and putting it on VARICOLORo.
To make them work as varicolour symbols, all the newly created vector symbols must then have the Varicolor symbol option checked in the General options box.
The bevel hills that work so well on the medium tone textures, like grassland and tundra, don't work well on the snowfield and ice fills because the background is that much lighter.
To make bevel hills that work on the snow and ice you need the bevel to be set up quite differently. These (below) are on a different sheet.
What do you think of having multiple sheets for different kinds of hills?
SYMBOLS HILLS and SYMBOLS MOUNTAINS can probably be merged into one SYMBOLS RELIEF sheet, since neither has any sheet effects, but that's still 5 sheets.
Comments
You are not useless, Cal!
And thank you :)
I absolutely love the swamp and marsh fills. You can see the water! Most of the overland swamp and marsh fills don't include that, though you can draw your own rivers lines on top.
I'm really looking forward to this one. I have a specific area in one of my kingdoms--a deep, narrow valley between northern and southern mountain ranges--that's proving hard to map from a non-bird's eye perspective. Mountains are always in the way!
Thanks :)
I've adjusted the badland fills. The backgrounds now all match, but I'm a little unsure of the patch colours.
I think they are fantastic. Just enough of the light and darks to really tie them together. Same with the other accent colours. Put them away, they are done.
Yes, you should make an ice flow fill. I also noticed that the ice/snow is pretty blue. I know you use blue to make it look white, but at least on my monitor, it looks much more blue and not very white.
Ah, that was an attempt to make the chameleon hills (the ones that take the colour of whatever they sit on) work properly on them, but since it was a failure I can do that. I'll just have to make some ice hills instead of using any of the other 3 hill methods.
Is this better?
When the ocean was dark the ice looked white, even though it was blue.
Looks good to me, Sue.
Much better
And now we have an Pack Ice fill, as well as a drawing tool for individual floes.
This is all looking really great Sue! Sorry, no time for more - I'm having Internet problems tonight for some reason.
Oh dear! Thanks Wyvern.
I hope things improve...
This is going to be my preferred style for nearly all my overland maps - I so much prefer birdseye, and there really is only the 13th age and 2 others, which are far less detailed. This is just what I have wanted. And coupled with the next iteration for smaller overland maps, i can see this being THE style for me.
Thank you SO much for this, Sue. And I love the red deserts.
I hope with the style for smaller maps, we will also get mangroves and different types of rainforests, as well as semi-arid. But that can wait till you begin on the smaller scale style.
I am SO excited by all this - i am just bubbling over.
Thanks Quenten :)
A crater sample.
The water in this style is drawn over the top of everything else, like in city styles, so it's easy to add a lake.
I am thinking that the structure markers might be a little too large at this continental scale. What do you think?
For reference, the larger crater is 90 miles (144 km) across.
Structure markers - yes, some probably are too large. You might need to replace the hollow centre to the Town and City ones with a contrasting colour circle/diamond instead of being hollow, if reducing the sizes (looking at the way the smaller markers are on the map now).
The craters look nice, although the pale outer rim is a little too sharp and dominant at present. Crater rims tend to end up as a relatively gentle hummock-line very quickly, through a mix of natural slumping during to soon after formation, and weathering processes. Currently, the rims look a bit too wall-like.
Oops. I actually increased the contrast on that rim because the map file wasn't giving me an edge on the lip being hit by the light on the inside, but I can put that right without too much work.
Structures - I think I might get rid of the largest ones and just do Cities and Towns. Villages aren't really a thing at this scale.
Maybe this is slightly better?
Or even more discontinuous?
I think the only way to win on this one is have three selections. A light, dark and medium. So it can try tone match the terrain.
Unless you can build it with transparency????
I think Wyvern was on about the prominence of the lip, but you've just opened a new door.
Yes, I can do one that goes on the same sheet as the hills that will behave like the hills. This one is for rocky/arid places mainly, or as a relatively recent crater in an otherwise lush environment.
Sue, I think you are right about sticking to cities and towns only, but I don't like the symbols - both because of the hollow interior, and the actual colour. I hope you will make them varicolour at least.
I will leave them till last and do them as vector symbols instead of bitmap ones. It will be easier for people to make their own personalised ones that way as well.
I spent the day being distracted by structure symbols. I went through all kinds of overcomplicated bitmap variations, but eventually came back to simple varicolour vector ones. How do these look?
I might put a black line around them, but I think this is probably a case of more is less. Simple and clear looks a lot better than complicated.
Thank you, Remy, for the clear and concise instructions in the Tome. I had long forgotten how to make shaded varicolour vector symbols.
I like them!
For those who are interested in learning how to create these but learn better by watching, Ralf has a good tutorial about creating varicolor symbols, starting with the vector ones.
Thanks :)
Yes, that's a good one. I was just a bit too tired to go looking for it after a day of gradually coming to the conclusion that bitmap symbols weren't going to make the grade.
Yes, the craters look much better now, Sue. The more discontinuous rim is perhaps the better, although both forms look good.
Not sure the darker outer ring on the location symbols is the best fit; it doesn't seem to add much on the map, just making the symbols seem smaller. There might be an argument here for simply going with the standard set of geometric shapes in varicolor (the Geometry.fsc catalogue, for example) for whatever folks may wish to add as locations markers. That would also increase the range of possible options for such places too, although a set with perhaps a somewhat thicker black border line would be useful.
Thanks :)
I made a small set of different shapes. Being vector symbols it should be easy enough for people to edit them or make their own versions.
Unlike the previous comment, i really like the darker outline. These are really good now, IMO, Sue.
Well, different tastes... :)
Anyone can make their own or modify the existing. These are really easy to do. If you want the outer ring to be lighter rather than darker you just add a new layer called VARICOLOR+3, and edit the symbols to place the larger circle/square/triangle on the new layer, then save.
Currently, the darker outer ring is on VARICOLOR-3, with the centre on VARICOLOR0 (that's actually a zero, but the forum font makes it look like a lower case 'o').
It means the centre is the colour you picked in the palette, while the outer ring is 3 shades darker.
I didn't bother to do stars, since they were more spike than colour at the given size and didn't show up well, but there's nothing stopping anyone from creating a simple one-colour star shape and putting it on VARICOLORo.
To make them work as varicolour symbols, all the newly created vector symbols must then have the Varicolor symbol option checked in the General options box.
The bevel hills that work so well on the medium tone textures, like grassland and tundra, don't work well on the snowfield and ice fills because the background is that much lighter.
To make bevel hills that work on the snow and ice you need the bevel to be set up quite differently. These (below) are on a different sheet.
What do you think of having multiple sheets for different kinds of hills?
SYMBOLS HILLS and SYMBOLS MOUNTAINS can probably be merged into one SYMBOLS RELIEF sheet, since neither has any sheet effects, but that's still 5 sheets.