Bard's Gate
AEIOU
Newcomer
I've been working on Bard's Gate to create a consistent style and method for future maps. Frog God Games published a black-and-white version that I've been using as a guide. This has helped me to focus on the mechanics without having to think about the creative elements which has been very helpful for learning.
Comments
It mostly works.... But if a 3-story casts its shadow on an attached 2-story, the 3-story shadow is too long. It's a trade-off I was willing to live with.
I'm only 1/4 done with the city but it goes faster and faster. The hard part has been tweaking the effects and deciding how I want elevations and waterways to render.
Roll20 has dynamic lighting built into their map editor and is very cool for dungeon delving encounters. So i typically use that when i need to add that little extra suspense.
Im sure this is common knowledge around here but how did you "trace or Copy" the original B&W image into CD3 with each building, terrain, road, as its own elements? Or did you from place each building manually?!?!?
Each building is placed manually. I can't use macros to automate placement unfortunately. You'd be surprised how fast it goes once you have a system in place. I place the 2-story buildings, then the 1-story and then the 3-story for a 2-3 block area. Zoom in to tweak. Check the layers. Move on.
Buildings I actually enjoy placing. They're sort of zen-like. It's the little lines for cliff elevations that I hate....
Did you use a specific style for your map ?
I like the grass :-)
@SlaveOne: A bit more detail.... I imported the original map into CC3 as a tracing layer. New TRACE sheet. Draw --> Insert, place file on TRACE sheet. Move it up the list so TRACE is above the base sheet. This is helping speed the process up considerably and I recommend if folks can scan a rough draft of their map and place it as a guide, it will help immensely.