Day 200 of 2023 seemed an apt moment for a fresh update on this project, so here we are, whole map first:

Further tweaking of labels and minor map features has proceeded apace since my late June update, and the type-up of my notes is in the early part of the University, area 259, currently, while the hand-scrawled preparatory notes are nearing the end of the Manufacturing District, area 293. Still a way from the area 360 end, but well up on the area 200 the day per area idea might have indicated otherwise 😁. (And yes, I STILL haven't got round to adding a symbol key or map title...)

For today's closer look, following last month's minor temptational mention, we have the extracted PDF notes for the less-well-off living areas of the Hall in The Dell, areas 191-224:

All being well, still more to follow!

Meanwhile elsewhere, most folks I'm aware of who were trying the D23 project seem to have been struggling to continue it of late. Some recent discussions on one of my more active Discords, where D23 was A Thing earlier, have indicated no one there's still persisting unfortunately, although a couple of folks on a separate Discord server were still posting occasional updates into early July at least. Certainly, having the base map and ideas for every area randomly generated in advance, as I did, seems to have helped keep my attention focused at least, so that might be a way to go for anyone contemplating something similar later this year or next, or on a smaller scale, for instance.

Thanks Ralf. Just done a fresh download and install over the earlier Monkey Puzzle Frog Annual, and a quick test check of a couple of drawing tools and symbol groups suggests all is well. While I found no issues with the drawing tools or symbols after my previous installation, as noted before, accessing the PDF now does work fine.

Hadn't realised there were problems with this till now, so have just deleted the problem files and reinstalled the issue.

Incidentally, but as frequently in the past, I find the "Open PDF Mapping Guide now" command at the end of installation doesn't work, and moreover means I can't use Adobe Reader for ANY PDF files subsequently, until I've restarted the computer. It would be a lot better in my view to have the end command be to run the sample map file for the new Annual, from where there could be a link to the PDF instead (as that seemed to have avoided the crash-the-Reader problem previously). This is running everything on a PC using Win 10, and usually otherwise without problems in opening PDFs.

Must admit, I was getting slight déjà vu feelings watching Ralf's livestream yesterday, as parts of it reminded me of my Wyvern Citadel maps for the Community Atlas. Very different scale of course, but there are inevitable similarities for drawing anything set on a craggy hilltop in this kind of more realistic style.

I made much more use of symbols however, rather than drawn polygons, for the cliffsides, though I did experiment that way originally (see this post in my Forum notes on the Citadel map, while still in progress). Just couldn't get the bevelled polygons to look right though, so switched to a technique developed for battlemat cliffs by another of our resident mapping experts, Shessar, as described via the Forum post here. As ever with CC3 mapping, there are always different methods to try!

Looking forward to Part 2 of this video, to see how it all develops. Anyone would think Ralf was running a game set in Middle Earth...😉

Well, this comes after a rather longer gap than I'd expected! However, progress has been continuing with this map throughout, if at a slower and much more intermittent pace than previously. Unsurprisingly, six months after the start, quite a number of folks who embarked on the D23 concept in January are either also finding problems and delays, or have abandoned the project entirely, so some ongoing progress is a positive note at least.

My scrawled notes have now got up to area 271, although getting them typed-up has slipped back further, as I'm currently only up to starting area 211 with those. It is, of course, always much easier to add a few jottings to a piece of paper in a few spare minutes than to have to set up the wpc on the computer, type, check and correct stuff that can be deciphered from said handwritten notes, often written many weeks earlier!

The map continues to receive small changes, and at some point I really must remember to add a key and a title to it... However, in honour of this Solstice update, let's start with an overview of the current state of the entire map:

From which it's clear that tweaking of label placement continues, along with amendments to the appearance of the map, albeit for the labelling, only in areas for which the type-up has been completed still. The enlarged numerals, while now easier to read overall (at a higher-res than is suitable for the Forum, at least), have needed moving off their rooms entirely at times for clarity of map details. Area 210 has even had to have an indicator line added, so things still look OK on that bit of the map. That's the hidden entrance room to the old Thieves' Guild, also known as Toad Hall, incidentally. You'll have to wait to find out why though, as for today's closer examination, I thought we'd head into the more upmarket part of the Hall (or what was, when it was still occupied, at least), Khy Row (167-190):

Why Khy Row? Well... When I was looking over the randomly-appointed features for the various rooms here, I thought one should be a bazaar. So it became the Old Bazaar (170); and for those who may not know, or recall, there was an old British Music Hall style song, "In the Old Bazaar in Cairo" 😁.

For those undeterred by such awfulness, 😉, these are the PDF notes extracted from the full document just for this part of the Hall:

Hopefully not quite so long a delay for the next update, though after what's happened lately, I make no promises!