Loopysue
Loopysue
About
- Username
- Loopysue
- Joined
- Visits
- 10,243
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, ProFantasy
- Points
- 10,040
- Birthday
- June 29, 1966
- Location
- Dorset, England, UK
- Real Name
- Sue Daniel (aka 'Mouse')
- Rank
- Cartographer
- Badges
- 27
-
Exploring the Annuals
If you click Add-ons in the Tools menu it will show you a list of all the add-ons and annuals you have installed. If you pick one of the annuals from the list you will be taken to the relevant webpage with a short description and links to the all the issues Mapping Guides. That will probably be more efficient way of finding things than having to search a huge volume of them all stuck together.
If you just want to look at a page of thumbnails to remind yourself of what's in each one, there's a slightly out of date one here:
-
(WIP) Bindak's Retreat - An Asian Pirate Hideout
-
Lost symbols in catalog?
It might be that you started a map using the CC3 dungeon template instead of the DD3 dungeon template. The CC3 one doesn't have as many symbols in it. But don't worry you can open the symbol catalogues from DD3 by clicking on the little folder button at the top of the symbols pane and navigating to them here: C:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3Plus\Symbols\Dungeons\DD3\DD3 Color
Easy mistake - I did it myself a couple of times.
I think it is unlikely that you need to reinstall anything.
-
hexagon distance, map in post
Does this page help, Jim?
-
Critique
While Julian and Monsen are both right, and you are discussing function and scale, there is also an artistic aspect of getting the right Level of Detail (LOD) in a map.
Even in this day of technology some things are still better if they are judged by eye. Create your map to the correct CC3 scale for the area you are mapping (map units are miles or kilometers in an overland map, and feet or metres in city and dungeon maps), and paste a handful of the symbols you intend to use in that space at the default scale set by CC3 at the creation of the map (not too many - don't go overboard and start the map just yet), then render the mostly empty test map to the final size and examine it at 100% zoom, or print it the size it will be published at if you can at home - no need to get professional prints just yet.
Judge how much larger or smaller you want everything to be so that you have enough room to show the information you want in the map, and to be able to enjoy the symbols themselves - even though each mountain or tree may end up representing several mountains or trees due to their size relative to the scale of the map.
I don't recommend using different scales for different types of symbols in the same style unless, as Monsen points out, the settlements are a bit on the small side and not easy to identify. Pick a scale for the whole set and stick to it unless you have a rare exception (such as a world tree). Once you know what the symbol scale should be, set the default symbol scale in the Drawing Presets dialog |CC2PRESETS| and save the map.
Do two more tests like this to see:
- How thick your lines for coast and river should be, and how much detail you really need to draw in those two things. You would be surprised how messy a really accurate coastline with tens of thousands of nodes can look when printed on a piece of A4. Most maps have grossly simplified coastlines to avoid that mess and look so much better for it.
- Set the right font and size for your labels. Labels don't need to be huge (unless you are naming a continent, in which case they would probably be quite transparent as well to allow more regular town names to show through those enormous continent labels). But they must be readable without squinting.
It's worth the time and trouble to run a few quick tests first than to spend hours, days or possibly weeks making a fantastically beautiful map only to realise that it is a meaningless unreadable jumble when rendered to production size.


