Storm, hit the Hourglass button on the left - within that box in the upper right you'll see where to clear the cache. This is also where you can adjust the fixed bitmap quality
Well, Remy's suggestion seemed to do the trick, so I'm back on track. I finally finished my graveyard, and I started on some of the other little details, before I start on the next section of my city. So here is what I have now:
The construction of VoudCaliff continues. As far as space is concerned, I suppose I got quite a bit done, at this point. But truth to tell, I still have a long way to go. Once I get all of the buildings and structures in place, there is still a lot of detail work to finish. I've got a decent start, but once I finish the city itself, I will be going section by section to add those details.
I also have a question. Can anyone refresh my memory as to how you change the alignment of a bitmap fill? I want to change my furrows from vertical to horizontal, but I can't remember how to do it, or where I would find that I the tome. Anyway, progress update:
Oh, and I should have mentioned this. I know someone will probably remind me that farms are usually outside of the city proper. I do know this, and there are some farms outside the city walls. But remember, this is a prison island. Anyone living outside this free city is a convict/slave. They are considered rebellious, hostile, and unreliable. So the city had to have reliable sources of food for its inhabitants. Which is where there are also farms inside the city. These farms basically supplement what the city does get from the island farms.
that great big port is primarily for importing and exporting prisoners, new wardens, etc. They export goods out, they don't import goods in, or very rarely.
I imagined that since the city had the monopoly over the port they could basically blackmail the rest of the island into behaving itself - or they just wouldn't get fed.
The best way to explain it is this: If you are living inside the walled in area, it's basically survive however you can. Some of the 'inmates' have banded together for mutual protection, and have created small communities, or larger strongholds. Others are literally bands of cut throats that rape, pillage, whatever. Some basically live a solitary existence, and trade with the smaller communities.
Then there are those that decide to work their way off the island (adventurers).
Now the Wardens, 'keep the peace' by keeping the inmates from doing much more than eking out a meager life. They don't really police or protect those inside the walls. They do come around and collect 'taxes'... 3/4 of whatever food, and goods these prisoners make, mine, grow, whatever.
There are few laws the prisoners must not break. No harm comes to VoudCaliff, or it's citizens. No harm comes to the Wardens that come through. Do not attempt to climb the Walls. It's basic anarchy inside the wall. It's an extremely harsh island.
I thought that since the city was protected with a mountainous wall, and had the port under its control, it was where the relatively 'nice' people lived, and that they were the wardens and their families, while the rest of the island was the prison. Control is easy if you control the only port on an island.
Well, as the free citizens of VoudCaliff see it, they ARE the 'nice' people. They've never broken the laws of the land, kingdom, or empire they've lived in. It's all a matter of perspective. The people that live inside the walls ARE criminals and their families, so to speak.
Now granted, some of the crimes these prisoners committed, were as innocuous as, stealing something to eat at a bizarre, because they were starving, and had no way to buy food, or practicing magic in a region where that wasn't allowed (except for specific exceptions), speaking out against a tyrannical government. But there are some ruthless prisoners here, too. Bandits, thieves, killers. Some are the descendents of fallen rulers that were banished here. And some were falsely accused of crimes.
The wardens know that on a prison island there really isn't any way to control the masses, so they don't even try. Their main purpose here, is to make sure that no one leaves the island, secondary to that is to register and monitor those that do want to work their way to freedom.
Sounds about like a normal population to me - if you think about all the crimes that go unsolved and people that are falsely accused in the real world.
I'm actually getting close to the end of all the buildings, and can start in on the vegetation in earnest. Then I'll rebuild my wall, and make it sturdier.
The work on VoudCaliff continues... I'm that much closer to being finished. I still need to finish the vegetation in this map, remake the wall, add the little details like ships, and the like, redo my border, and add the map key and title. Which means I have about another week's worth of work to do.
You think it's good enough for the Community Atlas? You realize that this is the first city I've ever completed. I'm not that experienced when it comes to cities.
But if the general consensus is for me to include it, then I will. I will have to find a suitable place for it...
So how about it, everyone? Should VoudCaliff be included in the Community Atlas?
Of course it should! Firstly, there is no level of experience required for the Atlas....there are maps of all kinds there, by cartographers of varying skills. All are welcome. It would be pretty boring if it was just filled with maps by a choice few.
It is very welcome in the atlas, if you want to contribute it. The atlas isn't a place for just the elite, everyone who can make a CC3+ map is welcome. And you do make very good maps, so you really shouldn't even worry about that.
The main requirements for the atlas maps are simply: - Able to produce a basic CC3+ map - Only use symbols/fills from official CC3+ add-ons and the four community packs (bogie, csuac, dundjinni archives, vintyri) - Only use CC3+, no external post-processing - Being able to make a map that geographically fits the area it depicts.
The last one is always the most difficult one when you bring in a map that wasn't designed for the atlas from the beginning, but the atlas is a huge place, and finding a place for a city isn't usually that difficult, there are hundreds of city spots already on the map. Another good way to fit in a city is to find an area that needs a regional map, and there are still lots of those in the atlas. On a new regional map, one is free to sculpt the coastline more to fit with the existing city map (because a regional map will obviously have coastline details too small to properly show up on the parent level map), and to add a city location there (just as with the coastline details, a continent will have more cities than show up on a continent scale map).
I placed a city/town in Galahais in Doriant - with plenty of unnamed cities and towns. Could be a good place for your city. BTW, this is a very good map, not a beginners one, but top notch.
Wow! Okay, I stand corrected! lol I will find a spot and add it, once I'm done. I actually did find a spot on Malajuri where the coastline is perfect, and there's a river basin about the same length away as on my Pilnderstraad map... but it has a rather large palm tree in the way. I will look again once I'm done.
But that also means I'm going to have to remember how to trim the edges around the map using cc3+. I've been editing my stuff in ms paint, just to trim the white edges around the map border. I will figure it out.
Now I am curious where you were thinking of. Lorelei didn't put in many city cites on Malajuri, leaving those details to mappers of regional maps.
As for exporting, just use the rectangular section png/bmp/jpg instead of the regular one, and you can export exactly what area you want to. Don't really matter for atlas maps though, I do the exporting for all of those anyway.
The updates this time are little more subtle. I set up a guard shack and a port office at the docks, as well as more warehouses for the warehouse district (every major city should have a warehouse district!) I also continued adding housing along the coast. Since these citizens can't build outside the wall, they are having to cram as much housing as they can inside the wall, and that means beach front property!
But the main change (not finished, by my laptop was starting to freeze up again) is the wells and fountains for this city. As you can see, there is no river running through this city. The river is about 5 to 10 miles to the west. This is by design. As stated before, this is the only free city on this island, everything else is inside the wall. But, with the exception of the two pond/lakes in this city, there is no fresh water... which means lots and lots of wells. I'm about half way done setting up all the wells, but I wanted to go ahead and post this.
So I've started adding all of those little details that hopefully make a map come alive... bushes, trees, animals, ships, that sort of thing. VoudCaliff may be a city Wardens, and Magistrates, but it's a beautiful city too!
I'm about a quarter of the way finished with beautifying the city. I think, maybe next time, I will add the vegetation and such as I go, especially on a project this size... I'm afraid I might miss an area, with the zooming in, and zooming out. We shall see.
Comments
I also have a question. Can anyone refresh my memory as to how you change the alignment of a bitmap fill? I want to change my furrows from vertical to horizontal, but I can't remember how to do it, or where I would find that I the tome. Anyway, progress update:
All that prime building space wasted!
I imagined that since the city had the monopoly over the port they could basically blackmail the rest of the island into behaving itself - or they just wouldn't get fed.
The best way to explain it is this: If you are living inside the walled in area, it's basically survive however you can. Some of the 'inmates' have banded together for mutual protection, and have created small communities, or larger strongholds. Others are literally bands of cut throats that rape, pillage, whatever. Some basically live a solitary existence, and trade with the smaller communities.
Then there are those that decide to work their way off the island (adventurers).
Now the Wardens, 'keep the peace' by keeping the inmates from doing much more than eking out a meager life. They don't really police or protect those inside the walls. They do come around and collect 'taxes'... 3/4 of whatever food, and goods these prisoners make, mine, grow, whatever.
There are few laws the prisoners must not break. No harm comes to VoudCaliff, or it's citizens. No harm comes to the Wardens that come through. Do not attempt to climb the Walls. It's basic anarchy inside the wall. It's an extremely harsh island.
I had it the wrong way around.
I thought that since the city was protected with a mountainous wall, and had the port under its control, it was where the relatively 'nice' people lived, and that they were the wardens and their families, while the rest of the island was the prison. Control is easy if you control the only port on an island.
Now granted, some of the crimes these prisoners committed, were as innocuous as, stealing something to eat at a bizarre, because they were starving, and had no way to buy food, or practicing magic in a region where that wasn't allowed (except for specific exceptions), speaking out against a tyrannical government. But there are some ruthless prisoners here, too. Bandits, thieves, killers. Some are the descendents of fallen rulers that were banished here. And some were falsely accused of crimes.
The wardens know that on a prison island there really isn't any way to control the masses, so they don't even try. Their main purpose here, is to make sure that no one leaves the island, secondary to that is to register and monitor those that do want to work their way to freedom.
Its coming on nicely
But here is a progress update.
But if the general consensus is for me to include it, then I will. I will have to find a suitable place for it...
So how about it, everyone? Should VoudCaliff be included in the Community Atlas?
The main requirements for the atlas maps are simply:
- Able to produce a basic CC3+ map
- Only use symbols/fills from official CC3+ add-ons and the four community packs (bogie, csuac, dundjinni archives, vintyri)
- Only use CC3+, no external post-processing
- Being able to make a map that geographically fits the area it depicts.
The last one is always the most difficult one when you bring in a map that wasn't designed for the atlas from the beginning, but the atlas is a huge place, and finding a place for a city isn't usually that difficult, there are hundreds of city spots already on the map. Another good way to fit in a city is to find an area that needs a regional map, and there are still lots of those in the atlas. On a new regional map, one is free to sculpt the coastline more to fit with the existing city map (because a regional map will obviously have coastline details too small to properly show up on the parent level map), and to add a city location there (just as with the coastline details, a continent will have more cities than show up on a continent scale map).
But that also means I'm going to have to remember how to trim the edges around the map using cc3+. I've been editing my stuff in ms paint, just to trim the white edges around the map border. I will figure it out.
As for exporting, just use the rectangular section png/bmp/jpg instead of the regular one, and you can export exactly what area you want to. Don't really matter for atlas maps though, I do the exporting for all of those anyway.
But the main change (not finished, by my laptop was starting to freeze up again) is the wells and fountains for this city. As you can see, there is no river running through this city. The river is about 5 to 10 miles to the west. This is by design. As stated before, this is the only free city on this island, everything else is inside the wall. But, with the exception of the two pond/lakes in this city, there is no fresh water... which means lots and lots of wells. I'm about half way done setting up all the wells, but I wanted to go ahead and post this.
I'm about a quarter of the way finished with beautifying the city. I think, maybe next time, I will add the vegetation and such as I go, especially on a project this size... I'm afraid I might miss an area, with the zooming in, and zooming out. We shall see.