I was just about to say the same!

Color key is such a powerful tool! And I don't think it's lazy at all ^^

Same with me. My main uses for CC3+ are: (Battle)maps for my RPG group and Boardgame prototypes

The later one usually does not have a deadline, while the RPG maps have to be done for the upcoming session. So my boardgame projects are prone to be forgotten for weeks/months when the upcoming RPG session calls for a new battle map...

I totally understand that problem. From the GM point of view I don't really get random dungeons. I always want to know the reason WHY such a thing was built, why it's still there, why the traps should still work...

I somehow always feel like dungeons are made by this guy(s) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwu1rCjb1Fk

So I incorporate them seldom and only when there is plausible reason for why they are here with the very rare exception of some random happenstance every few years.

Interestingly, as a player I don't care about those things at all, I just want to battle some undead or other random monsters :D

But to your map: I don't think that's cheating at all. If there is no special reason why this dungeon should look a certain way, then random generators are a totally reasonable starting point and if they don't generate something really strange, you don't have to change the layout at all!

Update on the Dune Map:

The bad news is: I hadn't had the time to extract all of the tiles myself :/

the very good news is: the stranger who made the dune 2000 board contacted me and asked if I'm still interested in the map.

I said yes and he said: that's great, because I'm not interested in this project anymore. Take it!

And he sent me ALL OF HIS ORIGINAL FILES!

I was totally blown away!

Now the extraction of the tiles is still annoying but I only have to do it for additional assets (buildings and units or minor corrections of the original map)

Here's what I got so far:

Details:

I think the text has too much outline and I'm not sure if the borders are too much/too little or just right (that will be determined by a testprint)

I used the spice silos as "settlement" buildings, but I think they don't quite fit- Mostly because of the bright ring on the base, which is in the original image. I either edit this or remove them completely. haven't decided yet.

As stated above: the bulk of the work was done by the kind stranger. I added the borders, the buildings, the text and the spice fields. The original spice fields where not vivid enough, so I added an orange smooth poly with a strong edge fade effect, setting the other border to just 1% in the inner opacity to 25%. That gave the orange spice fields just enough orange glow to make them pop more, without giving away the effect like the borders do.

In the full picture you see the background rotated slightly. Everything outside of the black Ring is not part of the planet anymore and I'd like to add some Space background. There will be fields for gamephases, Round counter, Bank and the tlailaxu tanks, so it's not that important what I use exactly, but it should look nice anyways.

Any suggestions? I do have the cosmographer addon, but I've never installed it so far as I've never needed a space map before...

So, I think I finally have got where I want to be! After a long battle against the Acne (TM), I tried different background fills and different order of the sheets until I got everything just right:

Of course, the version without the fade to white looks nicer, so I'll keep a version without the fade as well:

Thanks again everybody for your patience and help!