This is partly true, Dalton. Though a lot of what a symbol looks like is controlled by what the artist does inside the artwork. On the left is the current boa symbol, while on the left is the one I'm working on in light of the flatness issue.

The rattlesnakes will be a slightly bigger problem, since they are really quite rough-skinned, so they don't have a glow down the back like a boa does.

Incidentally, if anyone is wondering how these things are made with a view to making their own snake symbols, check out the brushes top right in this shot. Affinity allows me to draw a perfectly straight snake (which looks really odd considering they never lie in a dead straight line), and then convert that image into a brush. So once the initial drawing is done I can draw the shape and apply the image to that shape.

These are the original dead straight boas used to create the snake brushes.

It works a bit like a cross between symbols along and a connecting symbol, with the central section of the snake repeated as many times as necessary to generate the length.

I think the second option is a bit too plastic looking, so I'll probably use the third version below.

Will rats do?

Snakes, fungi, mould and guano...

It is probably easier to edit them externally, since symbols don't respond to sheet effects that attempt to change their appearance. Only glows and shadows work on them.

You can use any image editor to alter them. Plenty are free. If all you want to do is change the colour intensity or make them darker, GIMP is as good as any.

Are you using the 4 resolutions - importing everything through the Symbol Manager and creating resolutions? If so, you will need to edit the VH image and reimport the symbol, recreating the other 3 resolutions. It's a lot faster than editing all 4 of each image.

Hi Doose :)

It's best to add hyperlinks to the world map that lead to continent maps, and for there to be links in the continent maps leading to regional maps... and so on down the chain.

The best current example of this technique is the Community Atlas.

I don't recommend trying the 'all in one map' method. There is a level of detail problem where a house described as a dungeon map will just be a messy splodge if you zoom out to view the city, and the city drawn with individual houses will be a similar mess if you zoom out to view the region. Your world map would be a mass of noise with all that detail included in it.