Try copying the text onto a new Sheet with no Effects on it in exactly the same place as it is now (so the two texts overlie one another). It may work better with the new text Sheet below the original (but still above the floor) or above the original text Sheet.

Alternatively, you might try changing all the text's colour to something slightly different to what it is currently (because the "acne" effect seems to happen when there's something of an identical - or nearly identical - colouring on two overlying Sheets which have certain kinds of Effect in operation). In this case, it may be simply the text Sheet's Effect interfering with the specific colour and shape of the floor fill's patterning.

One thing regarding the Embra Village maps (only) that occurred to me, but time didn't allow discussion of when I posted about these earlier, is that it might be possible to add versions of them elsewhere in the Atlas too.

This is because I left the original "wooden" square frames on them all, but concealed in the current final Atlas versions using their "Embra"-style circular borders. This is the Embra Midnight map without all its Embra labels and trappings:

Obviously, it would need further work to fill-in the outer blank areas, as I didn't carry the surroundings much beyond the circular border, but that wouldn't be a huge amount of extra effort.

It seemed to me it might be fun to add them to places on continents other than Alarius (where such loosely European-style, temperate/cool temperate agricultural villages might be appropriate, of course), and perhaps suggest in their accompanying notes that there could be a secret way to pass directly to the "originating" village from the Embra set, if player-characters can but find it. Naturally, there couldn't be a direct link in the Atlas otherwise. Maybe one revised Embra Village per continent, say?

It would be preferable to not have to adjust the established parts of the map, although labels and smaller areas of terrain or vegetation could be changed or added readily enough. Thus the overall layout of each of the eight Villages as shown in the earlier parts of this topic would be retained more or less as-is.

Thoughts? Or ideas for where these might be set-up, if this seems interesting?

Less time than I'd hoped today for mapping, but a bit more progress, and things are starting to look a little more organised. Sort of!

Yes, I know the alignments aren't all quite the same between the different boxes. I ended up sorting things together for an image too rapidly and didn't have time for fine-tuning! However, the main part of the drawing's done now, and although the Dracula Dossier style doesn't usually use much, if anything, by way of effects, I felt the roofs looked too flat without some shadows, so much of today's effort went into getting those to look acceptable, subject to further tweaking, as ever (the roof towers stand out quite nicely now; perhaps a little too strongly though). The sixth, empty, box is there for a reason, mostly that it's currently anchoring the 0,0 point, so I don't forget where it is. The final layout's still not fixed in my mind, never mind in the drawing!

Away from the drawing, I've also been jotting down some notes for the Atlas PDF and textfile description, since that may have implications for features on the plans as well. One new item has already been added as a direct result of that. Not saying what, though it is fairly obvious in comparing yesterday's images to this one!

Also, and not sure if it may be something I've done or not, but the style doesn't seem to load the Dossier's symbols on opening the map. I noticed it yesterday too, and forgot to say then. I had a quick look at the On Open macro, and there may be an error in that, as it points at Symbols\Modern\Floorplans\Dracula_Symbols.FSC, whereas I think it should be pointing at Symbols\Modern\Floorplans\Dracula Dossier\Simple.FSC (according to the notes in the PDF mapping guide, at least; probably also should be "Dracula_Dossier"?). Haven't tried changing the On Open macro yet to check - time again! - and I'm no expert, but maybe someone else here could give it a try to see?

Sorry @Loopysue, didn't see your message earlier and haven't done that yet, though it looks as if there may be something else to sort for this style pack now anyway!

@Maidhc O Casain - I'm not sure I've ever mapped something that hasn't needed some kind of tweaking like this, either to change the look of a fill style, or tweak the effects, and that can sometimes be quite a battle. I think it's not really being sure what some of the parameters you can change mean in terms of whatever mapping scale you're using. The fact some of the effects work to completely different methods than what they seem to (the classic being the percentages for glow strengths and so forth, which actually go only in 12.5% steps) just complicates matters more!

Well, not sure this is my best idea of all-time, but if things allow, I'm going to have a try at this little property in the city's southeastern corner:

Weirdly, I noticed it's a tiny version of the same building that Sue's currently mapping, albeit quite by-chance! It will be for the Atlas eventually, regardless of whether I make the contest deadline or not. On the latter deadline point, we shall see!

I ran into a few issues with CA3 some time ago, where I found a few missing items, or varicolor features that weren't varicolor, or symbols that weren't correctly set to match the standard CA3 snap grid. I reported those to ProFantasy, and what I found were all fixed quite quickly.

It sounds as if you may have spotted at least one other symbol - the missing sleeves - where there could be an issue, and if so, I'd recommend reporting that to PF directly (indicating exactly which symbol is missing).

The problem with CA3 is there's a huge number of symbols many of which look very similar to one another if you're only checking the artwork, and not testing every one in a full CC3+ drawing, so these few have probably slipped through the cracks somewhere, I suspect.

We've been asking for more artwork options for CA3 for years. However, I don't think it's an especially popular add-on for the main program, and is somewhat removed from its core mapping facilities, so it seems unlikely anything much new is liable to appear any time soon for it. The hand-drawn look is more modern-looking than the original vector artwork (which is still available in CA3), although the vector artwork was much easier to draw your own additions in, if you needed them, than the newer raster versions.

You could try adding a new polygon of the surface fill texture above the hedges sheet, but below the cliff symbols sheet. You'd have to draw it either exactly along the outside of the hedge symbols to retain the impression and hide the hedge shadows, or draw it quite close to them, so only part of the shadow is still visible, however. The latter might look a bit oddly sharp-edged though.

So alternatively, you might try moving the problematic hedge symbols to a new sheet with a smaller shadow effect, suggesting they're closer to the rising lower hill surface behind the cliff-line.

You could also redraw the cliff line as shorter and lower, so the hedge shadows aren't so obviously problematic.

Simplest option would be to use the colour drawing tool, and then add an RGB Matrix Process Effect to the whole map, set to "Gray". This will make everything look B&W - so you could design the entire map using the colour set-up, and have it all appear as greyscale in the finished item.

In case you're unsure about adding the Effect, when you open up the Drawing Sheets and Effects dialogue box (click on the rectangle marked "S:" with the name of the current Sheet in at the top of your CC3+ drawing window), click on any Sheet, then click the "Whole Drawing" radio button above the Sheets list.

Then click "Add", select "RGB Matrix Process" from the list this will call-up, and then click to highlight the RGB Matrix Process Effect that's now been added to the Whole Drawing list.

Then click "Edit". Once you're in the RGB Matrix Process dialogue box, click "Predefined", then "Gray" from that list, and finally "OK", and then (assuming you have something already drawn on your map to check), click "Apply" to see what it does.

Good luck!

Yeah, I'm with Mike on the anti-snow front! It might look OK from indoors, but when you've had to slog through it, or have spent days clearing it at times, it VERY quickly loses any appeal.

And yes, Joe's right about the concrete look now. It's very tricky. I know even looking at specimens of the mineral galena can be difficult, as it can be both shiny silver-white and black at the same time...

+1 from me for the tanks/AFV annual!

If you're seriously thinking of a full range of vehicles, maybe choose a specific theatre and time to reduce the options somewhat. Colour schemes and camouflage will easily swap over, but the modifications to vehicles, and the different types involved, end up as the real problems (speaking as a long-time model-maker and WWII wargamer).

Aircraft to follow? 😉

That 22-foot Roman Empire map is the Peutinger Table, aka Tabula Peutingeriana, and the Wikipedia page includes a high-res complete image of the whole - may take a while to load, however, as the full-size JPG is about 15 MB. This is the direct link to that Wikimedia image.