This is me

I'm username Lillhans, and I am nobody in particular.

I was recently tagged in a thread as someone who "clearly know" my stuff when it comes to mapping with CC3 as well as other platforms - choosing it over said other platforms even. The other person who was similarly tagged as such in that particular thread is a long-term content creator and trained artist (who could tell you all sorts of crazy things about hachures, and other amazing trained-artist-and-map-illustrator-things).

This is funny because when it comes to other platforms, pen and paper included, I cannot be bothered to try and get any good at it. I am not a trained illustrator in any capacity and the reason I am enjoying CC is because I don't have to be: I have figured that it allows me to fake it until such time as I make it or that I at least am being happy with the results.

It's also funny because...

This is what I know about mapping in CC

Sheets is where you put stuff and manipulate its visual quality using sheet effects. Sheet effects are the crafting minigame of CC (in my opinion, they are the main story). Don't want different stuff behaving the same, visually? Put them on different sheets. The sheet stacking order/order of appearance is top to bottom = back to front of view.

Layers is where you group your stuff and collectively make it visible and/or lock it from further editing - regardless of what sheet you put the stuff in. Layers are sorted alphabetically becuase - YOU GUESSED IT (already a pro!) - order of apperance is settled in the sheet stack.

Stuff is polygons or lines & friends, which you draw using tools. It can also be symbols (prefab stuff). The stuff you draw yourself can be edited in many ways. Symbols typically can be scaled and rotated and such. Stuff appear in the order it's put in the map, first to last = back to front of view.

(drawing) Tools are either prefab or you customize.

Go!

Yeah, obviously, there is more to it but the rest is just the equivalent of learning in which of your buddy's kitchen cabinets they keep the coffee cups.

Anyway, here are two bonus tips for minimizing frustration as a new user.

Tip 1: Accept and embrace that maybe, just maybe, you are a bit sh** at using the software at the present time

Which means, of course, that you can decide whether you want to spend your time being frustrated or getting better at it. There is also the third option, for extra credits: being frustrated that you have to learn things. I would suggest that one of these options is going to see you making quicker progress finding your way around the coffee utensils than the other two.

Tip 2: Absolutely check out Joe Sweeney's introduction, and watch it a couple of times, but also...

...you should have a try at some fancy-ass pop art, using these tools to create stuff in sheets and fool around with layers and whatnot.

Doing simple shapes and manipulating them is a sliced-bread-goodness way of getting familiar with the tools at your disposal without the added dimension of creating a map that looks like It Came From Mario Paint. The latter, in my own experience, can be a bit of a bummer for one's morale - because we came here to look like top-shelf mapmakers after all (secretly, I think it's great that we can "fail" with CC but that's for another topic).

Also, since the "landmass tool" is just a polygon with a fancy fill which was set to populate a predetermined sheet and layer you're not really missing out on anything - on the contrary.

Also, pop art!

I think everything one will ever need to know about The Learning Curve narrative can be summarized by that one time an individual "blessed with the ability" to draw (in their own words) - as opposed to having developed their skill over time for the cost of effort, one can only assume - worked their necromancy, bringing to life a 5 months old inquiry as to the perceived benefits of the platform in order to bemoan said learning curve. Creating an account just for the occasion.

Unironically, I respect this level of dedication to an idea.

Imagine, if you will, going to a drawers' community asking the drawers why you should persue the format. Out of nowhere, an individual blessed with the ability to take pictures with a camera materializes, offering that the learning curve of drawing just isn't worth the trouble. And they should know, because they are quite skilled at learning new things that follow patterns they are accustomed to - of which drawing isn't one.

In other words - if I can't be bothered to get into the woods proper, this fact will invariably affect the quality of my mushroom pies and - as a further consequence - the position from which I make assessments of such pies. If this comes off as a tad bit salty - well your body needs salt and sometimes it is also an essential reading companion.

Let's take a brief moment to reflect on the apparent shift of meaning of the word "intuitive":

I get that one person's idea of a "steep learning curve" is going to be radically different from another's. To suggest otherwise would be as out of touch as saying - with a straight face - that a platform which generates tutorials is intuitive. The latter will never not be hilarious to me; how you opt to review the above collage of quotes is entirely up to your own sense of humour.

Coincidentally, the bang you will get out of Campaign Cartographer is also entirely depending on your own preconceptions. You get to decide for yourself, to a surprisingly high degree, how difficult things are going to be with the platform. Espeically if you consider yourself to be above tutorials. Again: if your amibition for your use of spreadsheets is to make squares for calendars that you print, don't expect that Excel will sort out quantifying your mushroom pie-cooking progress over time *for you* any given day now.

No - Campaign Cartographer is not trippping over itself in its eagerness to get out the door and tell you how to do things. But nor is it quick to suppress your potential for creativity. It is telling you, in effect, that any creative limitations you might run into are of your own making. Including getting started.

The exectution of styles and use of the available tools is in your hands - entirely. If you think your maps are a bit shit straight out of the box and it's all very frustrating it is because you can improve - both in regards to the tools at your disposal, and your visual expression: chances are that if you can't fail with your maps, you are operating in a severely restricted environment - creatively.

This is somehow elitist and standing in the way of the platform being rebuilt into something else. Come one now, why aren't you happy with the alternatives? I mean, there must be a reason why people keep coming back to how "if only" with Campaign Cartographer. It's almost as if people want the results you can get out of it, but...

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I should probably point out that I have no opinion about Wonderdraft other than that the output on public display suggests that the options are a bit too limited for my taste. I am simply not seeing it for all the benfits of vectors and polygons, currently, and the avalanche of opportunity that comes with how the CAD environment allows me to achieve anything I could possibly hope for. So..for now: yeah, also, not too impressed with how WD requires a dedicated module for making combat maps. Yeah, there is Dungeon Designer for us with CC3+. But that's convenience, you see, in the same way we get various sourcebooks of practical implementations for HERO System or any other game really: such products are not rewriting the rules out of necessity - they are simply expansions within the premises of an established foundation. That we pay for. Because it's convenient. Mushroom pie time!

Anyway. To round things off and seeing as I've steered into the realm of flexibility; with a straight face, people will tell you how much of the flexibility of CC3+ really just is an expression of people's experiences - as opposed to the objective truth about its qualitites in this regard. Because it's got an outdated interface? What the florpunt does that even mean? Where does the illusion of the flexbility end, and reality begin? And more importantly: in which of the Nine Hells do I need to be in order for the Mark of Interface-Cain to be clearly visible on my finished products?

I'll tell you what it means; it means we're all a bit stupid in that we reject this other (actual) reality - where you just can't make maps with Campaign Cartographer - and persist in making the damned things anyway! Commercial-grade maps, even.

Ever the elitist fools, blind to the errors of our ways and flaws of the platform, we accepted and adapted to the premises of it. And what is worse - we seem to thrive.

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

Roll for initative!

I have decided that I hate trees without canopies... 😆

Three polygons in a 5 ft square environment. Arc tool was used for the arc, and then Line-to-Path:d so as to make it possible to Trace the polygon along it. And you can do that with just about any of the line/curve tools so you are 100% not limited to straight lines.

Granted, the longer the path, the more nodes you'll have to put down going back to the point of origin to keep width in check but, as @Quenten has already pointed out, fractal settings of the polygon tool come into play there also.

So if I were to "draw" a straight line I would start with nodes A and B, having dialled the fractal count down to 0.

Then, going back I bump up the fractal count and node my way back to A from B.

So the boundaries of the polygon are the 4 nodes A, B, half-way between A and B, and finally back at A. The Closed polygon then, not knowing any better (bless its heart), fills the shape as per your fill settings (Solid of whatever colour of your imaginary pen, ideally).

And the same would go for tracing along a previously established Arc or Circle or Fractal or Curved path.

The rest is just the cunning use of Blur, as pointed out by @Loopysue, and putting your actual drawing skill to use or - as is the case with myself - emulating the drawing skill of others or just tracing over pre-existing imagery.

Needs webbings and tools and markings all the other stuff you'd expect from their model kit counterparts. Also, destruction dressings. Also, commander hatch open as a separate symbol.

But other than that (and the fact that the no-paint pattern is perhaps a bit too dark) I am satisfied that I will actually enjoy this process 100%: it's both quicker and cheaper than minis, and the learning curve was hilariously flat. It's almost as if pouring over mini painting videos has paid off!

Doing away with pre-painted turret shades and relying entirely on CC3 sheet effects appears to have paid off too.

Rhudaur, probably.

Throwback to when you used to fill out faces in magazines and newspapers with a pen. Also, this is probably my most favorite polygon assembly to date, with the sheet effects turned off.

That face!

Kind of checks out with pre-existing styles/assets that everyone get out of the box.

It started out as sheer lack of patience, really, but I am rather happy with how the path on the gate-side is less defined; last homely house is a bit further west, after all.

Canopies needs figuring out for the next one, and perhaps some lines in the water would up things a bit. But it's a wrap.