thanks everyone. I have missed everyone here. I'm so sorry for such a depressive post, I didn't realize how bad it was until I reread it. I didn't mean to be. I was just trying to explain why I haven't been here.

The absolute truth is that I've been existing numb for over half the year. It's a defense mechanism I developed during my childhood... where I shut down emotions and feelings so that I don't appear to be doing too bad. I didn't even realize I had done it, until recently.

Unfortunately for me... I need my emotions and feelings to be creative. Which is why I haven't been for a while. But, like I said, I'm trying to restart myself, and this goes along way toward doing that. Reconnecting with people, and letting their energy kind of rekindle mine. :)

I will admit, it's good to be back.

wow, if this is your first map, I can't wait to see what you do once you actually learn the program! This map is phenomenal!! I especially love your coast line, which is NOT easy to do in the Schley style. I know... I've tried.

I personally don't think it looks all that busy... but if you want to tone things down a bit, I do have a couple ideas of how you could do that. It may take a little more time, but I think it would get the point across.

I'm thinking that you believe that your forests are what is making this map look so busy. A way that you can make it look less so, but still show how massive the forests are, is in the use of different symbols, with a 'color wash' underneath them. I made a small little map to show you what I mean. It also shows you what effects can do for your maps, as I have some glows, transparencies, and edge fade inners, on various parts of this map.

I whole heartedly agree. The ability to make a good map, without having the drawing skills is why I bought cc3+ in the first place!

Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, nor am I an engineer, so a lot of what is being said here, is going way over my head. It's getting too technical for me to comprehend. It also sounds like some of what others want, may make this program too technical for most people to use. So with that in mind, I do have a couple of 'wants' 'suggestions' what ever you want to call them.

1. Perhaps a 'scroll over' feature could be implemented? What I mean is: Take the effects, for example. I only use about half of them - the inner/outer edge fades, the glows, the bevels, transparency, blur effects. I understand what they do. But what does texture overblend do? RBG matrix - what's that? Blend vs Alpha blend? I don't use these effects, because I don't understand what they do, and more importantly, how they work. Now Remy has done an excellent job helping users that aren't as savvy as computer programmers to understand how to utilize each of the different programs through the Tome, but obviously he wasn't able to explain everything. I would love to be able to put my cursor over an effect in the list, and have a little window (attached to the cursor) open up to give a brief explanation of what the the effect does and how it works : ' Blend Alpha produces [thus] effect, it can be used to do [thus and such]'.
2. This is for a specific function of the program, the fractal line drawing tool for land masses. I don't know if there is a way to implement this, but I think it could do with a bit of fine tuning (or perhaps I need to be shown how to do the fine tuning). I've noticed that when you are drawing a large land mass, the drawing tool does give a decent fractalized coastline. But if I have to zoom in and draw smaller islands, the drawing tool can't give as many node points to make the coastline look natural. You end up with 'boxy' looking tiny islands. I would love to get the same fractalization when zooming in, as we do normally.
3. Border designing options: Sometimes, when I finish a map, I want to 'frame' it/ create a nice border for it... something to make the map really stand out. Now most people will go to a secondary program, like GIMP, or photoshop, or something like that, to create intricate, beautiful borders and frames. Well after 4 or 5 years, I'm STILL learning the intricacies of cc3+. I don't want to have to learn a whole other program, just to give my maps those finishing touches. I would love to have it all come together in one program.

Okay, sorry for the long drawn out explanations, I do tend to be wordy. But hopefully you can figure out what I'm asking for.

For those of you who have joined these forums in the past year or so, I'd like to say hello. I'm LadieStorm, and I've been a CC3+ mapper for...wow, it's been 4 or 5 years now, I guess. I'm not actually a stranger, although no one has seen me for a while, now.

For those of you who know me, please let me say, hello again. I'm so sorry for my extremely long absence, but I'm hoping to be able to get back into the swing of things fairly soon.

2020 was a probably a nightmare for all of us. I've lost a lot of friends and family over this past year, ending in the death of my dad at the end of last year, and the death of my mom just 6 weeks ago. It has really been a year full of nightmares, for me, at least.

But I'm hoping that 2021 is going to be better. I'm hoping that I will be able to get back into some of my hobbies (mapping most especially). 2020 sapped the creativity out of me, but I'm actively working to rebuild that. My first step, is renewing my places in the creative communities I call home, such as these forums.

I apologize if I don't seem to be my old, exuberant self, but I sort of lost her somewhere during last year. I'm hoping to find that part of me again, and connecting with all of my old friends here is my way to start. I'm also hoping to make new friends here, too.

Oh! I almost forgot, there is one other thing I would LOVE to see... a 'point to point' fractalization option. We've all created regional maps where we are mapping a smaller portion of a greater land mass, so some of the land mass is past the border of the map. You create the land mass, pushing some of it right up against the map border. You then hit the fractalize button, click on the land mass... and it fractalizes not only the edge of the land mass that's easily visible, but also the landmass that isn't, ie. that portion that is up against the map border. You then have to hide the border and map screen, then go in and move each node, until you get it back to what it was before the fractalization.

It would be nice to be able to do, maybe a right click on the fractalize button, and do a point to point fractalize, where I can click on specific points of my landmass that I want fractalized, and it only works between those points, leaving the rest of my land mass alone.

Anyway, it's just a thought.

Sue, that is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Especially if we can color some of them to what we want... but yes... that is fantastic!

Mind if I ask a question or two? You don't have to answer these... they are just to give you something to think about while working on this map.

You said this was for a publication.. Gaming Module? Article? Book perhaps? Depending on what it's for... there maybe details that should be included to bring people in.. for example: if it's for a gaming module that module would have random encounters, but there would also be a goal/quest/mission that the module is built around. Is there any hint of that in your map? If it's for a book, the book has a plot, and landmarks of areas that help the plot along. I'm seeing a region... but what is it about that region makes it special? Is there a demon worshipping cult somewhere in the mountains? A sleeping God/Goddess that needs to be awakened? An evil king that needs to be overthrown? A map for a publication should enhance the publication. How does this map enhance your publication?

Well, since a lot of us now play 5th Edition D&D, how about some Tiefling stuff? For Character Artist, but also overland symbols and Isometric stuff for those of us that like making Isometric city scapes.

I'm still looking for Isometric MODERN symbols for overland maps (including ruins),

Expand modern dungeon map symbols too! Would be great for mapping games like Mechwarrior, Cyberpunk and the like.

Modern symbols in general would be fantastic! Also modern textures, for those of us that game in the modern/futuristic age :)

Part of the problem, Nevermet, is that without the FCW, no one can really tell what's going on with your program. I've had similar problems where I can't get effects to work, or I put something on the map and it disappears, all kinds of things. And a lot of times it's something that's easy to fix, and an easy explanation, once someone that has more experience with the program takes a look at it.

If you can post your FCW, we can take a look at it in our program, and determine whether there is some kind of bug, or it's just a matter of something being in the wrong place for an effect to work.

Oh, and here's a thought, I had a similar problem, once. I was trying to do an inner edge fade to some land contours I had set down. But I was overlapping the contours, and they were all on the same sheet. I learned that the effects clash with each other in that circumstance, because the program is getting interfering commands, or something like that... Remy could explain it better than I can. But the way to fix it, is to put all of the land contours on their own sheets.

hey Jim! Long time no see, I know... lol