A small project - Some new draft

TheElf · January 2009

As you perhaps heard that the Cartographer's Corner blog has a small running project about "world building for newbies", it starts with something realy small scale. Designing an inn and the surrounding lands with adventure sites (for fantasy games like D&D) is the first project, but due to small scale, I had some problems with overland maps (you can find the old thread for it), right now I made some new map for the area, using some of the suggestions, but I am unsure if it is ok, or not.

So I would like some feedback about the map you see here.

If you want to download the .fcw file, it is attached to the blog post.

If you have some spare time and would like to share your views to the readers of that post, or give some advice there, feel free to post there as well

Edit: had some problems with attaching the image...

gregwr · January 2009

I will say that from a strictly "can I tell what is represented?"This map certainly does the job. I would have no problem showing that map to my players as a handout of their surroundings. My advice to punch it up little is use more sheet effects. It seems a little sterile without the names of places as well.

TheElf · January 2009

gregwr: The names of places are missing for one reason: we will have the samemap with hungarian and english labels added

Have you checked the project for the map?
And can you suggest some sheet effects?

TheElf · January 2009

Another attempt at same kind of local area map

And still don't know which attemp would be the best option for this project.

Stormcaller3801 · January 2009

Nice. Let's see here. First, I'd suggest that you check out the Edge Fade, Glow, and Transparency sheet effects. It look slike you might have some transparency going with the contours, but it's still got a very harsh break from one to another. You may need to put each contour layer on its own, new sheet to get it to look right. Try to get a smooth transition- something where you can tell an area is at a different elevation, but it's difficult to delineate an edge.

I'd suggest a glow effect on the rivers and possibly the roads, set up to match their colors. Use Intensity 0 and try maybe 0.25 for distance. That should soften the edges of the rivers and roads enough so that they blend with the surrounding land bitmap a bit better.

Other than that, try to avoid straight lines when laying out organic features. This is to do particularly with the forests- there's a lot of smooth edges or curves to them that look too organized. Try to add some individual trees right up against the edges, try to get more variation there. Straight lines and smooth curves suggests something has been shaped by human hands. We plant things in neat rows, we lay out patterns of even numbers. Nature tends to be more jagged and scattered, and odd numbers. The small pine copse near the castle is a good example of this effect. I'd also suggest using the 'On' tool from the right side tool bars, particularly when laying down rivers. By setting them up to stop just as they hit the water, you should get a bit better effect. That one stretching far into the water above the scale bar is most notable for this. You can also fix it by hiding several sheets (I'd suggest everything except Rivers) and using the Break and Erase tools to get rid of the excess.

TheElf · January 2009

Updated the map, it can be found at http://forum.enerla.net/blogs/cartographer/92-yet-another-draft-final-post.html

TheElf · January 2009

http://forum.enerla.net/blogs/cartographer/95-how-design-inn-outside.html

As you can see the project reached some new stage, and some feedback would be requested

ProFantasy Community Forum

A small project - Some new draft

Comments