Ok, so there's already been a bit of work for this part of Forest Trail, but it was tacked onto the end of the part 1 thread. I've had serious PC problems which are mostly resolved now, but work has been a bit slow.

Still working on the waterfalls, but while everything was in upheaval I decided to add a couple more compasses to the style. I couldn't decide on the design so you've ended up with interchangeable parts.

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.

There is a live stream here if you want to see more of it than in an image.

Here are also a couple of extracts from the extra example maps I made.

You will find other examples of the style already present on the forum, and if you have your newsletter option ticked on your account page you should by now have received your early uptake offer voucher. If this didn't happen for you please contact Tech Support.

It's already booked for March 2023, Jeff ;)

Ok, this is a benchmark image just to show I'm still working on part 2. My computer is giving me the blue screen of death on a regular basis and I will be reseating the RAM to try and cure it this evening. If I fail and it all goes wrong it will have to go for professional repair. And if that happens no work will be done for maybe a fortnight. I will also not be around on the forum in that same time.

This is the ongoing work on the waterfalls - very obviously not yet finished. The first image shows them without a shadow on the face of the cliff, and the second one with.