Guild City - District 15
Loopysue
ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
Having finished Atlas Ward (District 03 of the city), I have taken on the task of mapping a much larger part of the city. (There's a lot of it, and I was first to finish my bit)
To be able to upload the District at sensible resolutions at the Guild I have had to cut the District in half , though both halves are rendered from the one large CC3 file, where District 15 is in one whole piece.
This is the base plan set up ready for work in the CC3 file. Here I have imported the base map (a bitmap I downloaded from the Guild) into a new CC3 map file, and adjusted its size until the 5 foot grid printed on the bitmap lined up perfectly all across the map with the 5 foot CC3 grid, so that I know whatever symbols I paste in will be properly to scale. I have also marked the smaller rectangles that I will render from the map separately to be able to upload the map at a reasonably high resolution to the Guild, comparable with Atlas Ward (the westernmost tip of which adjoins District 15 and is shown at the easternmost part of the base map. Its not part of the CC3 map, but an image merged into the basemap bitmap, so that I know what I'm matching up with)
Although the area to the north is Thomrey's he hasn't yet started drawing his area, and since none of the other areas around 15 are taken just yet, the only previously mapped part of the city that I have to worry about is my own bit - Atlas Ward
To be able to upload the District at sensible resolutions at the Guild I have had to cut the District in half , though both halves are rendered from the one large CC3 file, where District 15 is in one whole piece.
This is the base plan set up ready for work in the CC3 file. Here I have imported the base map (a bitmap I downloaded from the Guild) into a new CC3 map file, and adjusted its size until the 5 foot grid printed on the bitmap lined up perfectly all across the map with the 5 foot CC3 grid, so that I know whatever symbols I paste in will be properly to scale. I have also marked the smaller rectangles that I will render from the map separately to be able to upload the map at a reasonably high resolution to the Guild, comparable with Atlas Ward (the westernmost tip of which adjoins District 15 and is shown at the easternmost part of the base map. Its not part of the CC3 map, but an image merged into the basemap bitmap, so that I know what I'm matching up with)
Although the area to the north is Thomrey's he hasn't yet started drawing his area, and since none of the other areas around 15 are taken just yet, the only previously mapped part of the city that I have to worry about is my own bit - Atlas Ward
Comments
I guess they worked out for themselves that I've got a taste for city mapping
That relief shading is on the PS based master plan that John Edward (one of the Community Leaders over at the Guild) drew for the project. He's the real mastermind who made all this happen
We're making a huge zoomy map of the whole thing right here if you're curious to know how far we've got with this (please remember its only updated every few days)
Maybe I need to redo the hyperlink.
Give me about 10 minutes to log out and get it again for you
EDIT: Well blow me! Your right. You can't see the zoomy map unless you are logged in as a member!
I had no idea they were being so cautious with our maps!
I'll go and see if I can find a link to the static map of the city. You can't zoom in as far, but its good enough to show you what's already been done.
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=36616&p=326078&viewfull=1
Please can you tell me if that works for you Dogtag?
Thanks
https://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=102
And here is the FAQ thread:
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=36552&p=324885#post324885
And Here is the Index thread:
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=36514&p=324412#post324412
The index thread in particular shows a list of all the participants and links directly to all the WIP threads.
Looks very interesting. Nice patchwork map you folks have going on there.
Its a pity your login isn't working, or you could perhaps have a go at showing them what PF software can really do, with all your expert knowledge :P
There's also an enormous load of project management going on behind the scenes and currently being carried out by J.Edward. He drew the whole base map based on what we said we wanted, and parcelled it all up for us into mappable sections. He's just incredible. I don't know how the man works so darn fast while producing things of such extraordinary beauty.
I think if we tried to emulate what happened over there we might run into a few difficulties rather quickly - server space/software considerations, and whether there's a J.Edward willing to do all the powerhouse stuff to set it all up for us, and a Redrobes to stick the main maps together and continually update them... etc. We also have a final map resolution issue, in that no one image here is supposed to be wider than 1024 pi.
You would have to ask Ralph when he gets back if anything like that would be remotely possible.
In the meantime this is the as yet incomplete Guildworld zoomable map (sorry Dogtag), which is practically the same idea as you just suggested. if you zoom around down to the east you will find the Kingdom of the Cartographer, and within it the spot that marks Guild City
However, a community project doesn't mean having to copy exactly what the guild does either, while there is a certain overlap in our communities, there is also a certain difference.
What about making something that is more useful to quite a lot of the community here, an Interactive Atlas, like the FR Atlas of old, but with a world of our own making. Instead of mapping exact pieces to fit together a map, we leverage the abilities of CC3(+) to create a fully hyperlinked multi-level map, from the world map down to floorplan level. For example, someone makes a great country map, someone else picks an interesting region from that and makes a local map, and so on. Basically, people picking an interesting detail on one of the maps already in the collection, and makes the next level. All styles allowed. This will be a never-ending project of course, but it will be fully usable once we get a couple of dozen maps, maybe less.
Obviously, such a project does mean that people will have to submit their .fcw's. I know some people have reservations about that, but consider that for a gamemaster, the difference between having a simple flat image, and a CC3(+) file he can edit himself to fit into his world, the difference is huge. The former is generally a throwaway item for a single use, while the latter can be incorporated into the campaign and become a permanent part of it. And without the fcw, the user also looses out on all the grate features CC3+ has for viewing/navigating maps (including the actual interactive atlas format)
We would need to limit ourselves to symbols and fills available to everyone who wants it of course, like the official ProFantasy stuff, the Vintyri/CSUAC/Dundjinni stuff. If you wished to use custom-made symbols, they would have to be distributed with the map, which is fine, as long as the creator is happy with it.
Thoughts? I think this could be quite nice. And it would be a map package usable by a lot of people.
Two things - which world map do we use, and who draws it.
An interactive atlas using just CC3(+) is wonderful. Count me in.
Keep going - see if we can make anything of it