Looking for symbols showing overhead views of objects
mike robel
🖼️ 15 images Surveyor
Hello all. I am looking for a symbol set that shows overhead view of forest and vegetation and other objects from an overhead view, as found at the link?
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/549281/assault-tactical-combat-europe-1985
(For some reason, I can't seem to attach .png or .bmp files.)
Nothing in the annuals seems to fit my needs, but the CSUAC collection might. Can anyone tell me if it does or if there is another resource that would fill the bill?
Thanks
Mike
https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/549281/assault-tactical-combat-europe-1985
(For some reason, I can't seem to attach .png or .bmp files.)
Nothing in the annuals seems to fit my needs, but the CSUAC collection might. Can anyone tell me if it does or if there is another resource that would fill the bill?
Thanks
Mike
Comments
If you're aiming to recreate that 1970s-1980s style of board wargame hex-map shown in your link, most of the features are simply coloured polygons that you can use CC3+ to easily create without them being symbols. The main problems will be those terrain fills like forest and swamp/marsh which originally used the various types of rub-down dry-transfer patterning sheets (map creation by hand back then!). However, if you dig around online, you should be able to find scanned versions of these fill styles in a format you can either use with CC3+, or which you may need to convert to something CC3+ will be happy with. For example, there's a set of SPI-style .tif fills for woods, light woods, mountains, rough and swamp available still on the Gaming Stuff page of John Cooper's Web Site, in three resolutions each, which download as zipped file sets. Naturally, you'll need to tweak these for use with CC3+, especially if you need them in a different colour to black, but that should give you something to work with.
However, if you're wanting more realistic top-down views of specific things, try the symbols in Dungeon Designer (DD3) and Symbol Set 2 (SS2) add-ons for CC3+, as they have plenty of options for individual trees, bushes, etc.
Incidentally, this is an image of part of a top-down map I created very early on in my Campaign Cartographer mapping career. It was taken from a real-world map, but I recreated it using elements from CC3 and DD3 (yes, no "+"; it was THAT long ago!):
[Image_11401]
I used it as a background image for some scale aircraft drawings I'd done earlier in a separate graphics program, so they could be "flying" above "real" terrain. I'd hope I'd do a better job of constructing such a map image now, but it shows the power of CC3 that even a novice could produce something like this, I think.
Thanks! I finally pulled the trigger on DD3 and SS2. While there is a lot in them I won't be using, it was a great suggestion. Appreciate the tip.
I saved a series of JPG files from the full map, but not a complete copy of the whole (remembering I wanted it as a background for just those aircraft drawings, so I only needed a small piece for each aircraft I was using). Unfortunately, those JPGs don't comprise a full set to recreate the whole map image either, as I was selecting pieces that made for interesting small-area views only.
The shot I extracted from one of the JPGs above was deliberately chosen as showing a sample of everything I'd used in the full map though (except the cows!) - so field textures, hedgerows, roads, tracks, a stream (the linear feature running through the scattered tree cover by the lower left corner), gates and trees. And sheep!
I know the vegetation symbols came from DD3 and (mostly) SS2 symbols, each placed individually (which doesn't take as long as you might think), along predetermined field, road/track and stream lines drawn from the original real-world map, and wherever the map showed other trees to be - such as along the stream, and in a small woodland area not in my extract above. I wanted the whole to look fairly "real", but as seen from an altitude of a few hundred metres. And as it was meant to be 1920s-1930s summer in England, there are of course no strong shadows because it's a typical overcast summer's day...
You can often get a better hint as to where things came from by checking the file paths of the missing fills in the fills dialog. it may also be a case of absolute paths like JimP mentions, so you need to fix the paths for things to work properly.
When I checked the file following Jim's ffix suggestion, the missing fills seem to have been stored in the Bitmaps/Tiles/Digital/Overland folder, of which the "Digital" part isn't present in the Profantasy folders. That does make me wonder now if I had indeed located them from elsewhere, though if so, it would almost certainly have been following a lead, or indeed a web-address, provided in some of the accompanying ProFantasy literature.
Thanks for trying Jensen! I have all the Annuals installed though, so if the fills had come from them, all should have been fine, especially as I had just Annual 1 installed on the old computer.
[Image_11725]
Oh, and the filename? Well, nothing very original, just a slight play on words, as the drawing was intended to be used for a tabletop wargame system based around the works of H P Lovecraft, but set in 1920s-1930s Britain. And Games Workshop in collaboration with Chaosium had already reused the phrase "England's Green and Pleasant Land" for their 1920s-1930s British Isles sourcebook back in 1987.
Wyvern - its doesn't look so basic to me. It can sometimes be the most difficult thing on Earth to get something that isn't an aerial photograph to look so very much like one.
I like it very much, never seen such kind of map done with CC. good job!
Team effort took a map back to live from maps-Valhalla :-)
And I learned that there is a thing called ffix. If I ever have the same problem like you I will remember this thread!
It is basic though, in the sense it's really just texture blocks with some mild effects in-play. It's the nature of the texture fills that help as much as anything, and the symbols to better hide the joins.
It did come out much as I'd hoped when I first drew it though, and worked well as the background to my aircraft sketches, which is what I wanted it to do. And historically for me, it's important because it was the first time I realised just how powerful CC was, when I found I could zoom in to one sheep, and have it fill the same space as the entire map currently occupies on-screen with no loss of image detail.
Also below are the original map and an updated version for "Mind the Gap" (Gap pertains to the Fulda Gap) where the reinforced B Troop would fight elements of the 8th Guards Army in a covering force battle. You can see I have profited by the advice offered by you guys, except for finding those damn symbols.
I am slowly getting closer to being able to match the style of a military topographic map. It's a long row to hoe.