During some discussions on another Forum in the last couple of days regarding options for computerised mapping, the subject of Joe Sweeney's excellent videos for CC3 came up, and I made the point about them being for CC3, not CC3+, which has come up here repeatedly, even relatively recently.

Then another commentator said there was actually a whole series for CC3+, posted about three years ago. And when I checked, lo and behold, yes there IS indeed an entire set for CC3+, overland mapping, and another set for city mapping with CD3 added a year ago.

They're all on this YouTube page, with the first overland video here.

However, the ProFantasy tutorials page still links just to the older CC3 videos. I don't think there are any newer dungeon/battlemap video tutorials, certainly, but the links maybe need updating now for the CC3+ tutorials (and perhaps also the zipped download set needs changing?).

I think the newer videos have come up on the Forum before, because I'm sure I watched the overland series for CC3+, but I tend to use the PF tutorials page when I'm quickly trying to find links to pass to someone else, and I know the last time I checked the link for Joe Sweeney's videos I had saved separately, the CC3+ videos DIDN'T appear on whatever that link went to.

@Medio: I think you should probably post whatever you're comfortable in showing. I don't really do WIP threads myself, as I tend to chop and change things while I'm mapping, and that's all done offline, but it is interesting to follow others' process in this regard.

The size of the trees you select should ultimately come down to whether they make the map easier to read quickly, or not. Personally, I like the mix of sizes, and the background colouring for the forests, in your second Sep 20 map posting above.

To my eye, the forests in your Sep 21 map no longer look as clear. However, you need to go with what works best for you ?

Unfortunately, the fills aren't included with this Annual as far as I can tell. From the Mapping Guide with this issue:

"If you do not own Dungeon Designer 3, you can still use the png and pdf versions of the maps, as well as the adventure description of the ship. To create your own ships you will need a copy of DD3 though."

The missing fill is definitely a DD3 one, Water Blue 5 Bitmap (or if not that exactly, it's one from the same Bitmap group).

DD3 is indeed a separate ProFantasy product.

Thanks Remy. That's a bit disappointing, but trade-offs like this have to happen, I suppose. I'm still just using the Rich editor (that was the default originally, as far as I recall). Don't have a lot of spare time/energy for further experimentation currently...

@WeathermanSweden: I think Quenten's provided you with more real-world ideas than you can likely use right now for ocean current names, though of course the names have changed over time in places, and a lot have regional (local language) variants too. The latter might be interesting to explore for Nibirum, perhaps.

I picked "Drift" names for the two main currents I showed, partly because the North Atlantic Drift, the northern part of the Gulf Stream, is relatively familiar from my own time studying geography from/in the UK, and partly because I was dealing with relatively near-coastal areas, where less-active oceanic water streams seemed appropriate. I have much interest in mapping the ocean floors in fantasy terms, and the civilisations based there, so adding some current activity was largely automatic.

With aspects like the altitude colour-key, I tend to add them on a map only where they won't be hiding anything that should be better shown. [It irritates me when published real-world maps aren't given the same consideration!] Otherwise, I simply set them in a separate side-bar of their own alongside (or below) the map. That has the further advantage they can be expanded to be easier to read, and other features, such as a scale, or notes on the map, can be added there as well. So here, you might add a key for the current arrow colours (and possibly the prevailing wind arrows, if these will be added to the same map), for instance, and maybe quantify what the different line thicknesses refer to, if relevant.

As Nibirum has more-or-less Earth-like seasons, is it worth considering a pair of maps for the alternate half-yearly views of the currents and weather systems? There are differences on Earth like this, though it does mean a lot more thinking-through of ideas than maybe is warranted for a fantasy world.