<![CDATA[Cartographers' Guild - Sci-fi/Modern Mapping]]>

<![CDATA[Cartographers' Guild - Sci-fi/Modern Mapping]]> http://www.cartographersguild.com/ Science Fiction, Modern and futuristic mapping discussion. en Sun, 19 May 2013 17:32:20 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cartographersguild.com/images/cartographer/misc/rss.png <![CDATA[Cartographers' Guild - Sci-fi/Modern Mapping]]> http://www.cartographersguild.com/ WIP/Advice needed: Marsward Ho! http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23385&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 23:49:06 GMT Ok, so I'm working on an idea I had for a cool steampunk mars map for a forum strategy game. Trouble is, I'm not sure how to proceed with making the map.

My source is this elevation map of Mars (warning, big image)

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__...-elevation.jpg

I'm a bit puzzled as how to proceed. My experience is with ArcGIS. With that, I would import the image as a raster, then select all values under a certain height to make ocean polygons, along with the appropriate altitudes and elevations to turn into icecaps. I'd then use line tools to draw in the desired canals, points for the cities, and change the color of the land to be more lifelike.

ArcGIS doesn't work for any planet other than Earth AFAIK. I'm not sure how to go about that process with GIMP, if it's even possible.

What I'd like to do is have everything lower than the very lightest green be ocean, with ice caps on the poles and on the high volcanoes. These can then feed into canals, ringing the highlands to catch seasonal melt and direct water to what would be the mother of all rain shadows. ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Deaghaidh http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23385 Resource material for Sci-Fi RPG campaign? http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23134&goto=newpost Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:26:53 GMT Hello, i am working on a sci fi roleplaying campaign and need some resources for battleground tiles. But, as far as i dug through the internet... Hello,

i am working on a sci fi roleplaying campaign and need some resources for battleground tiles.

But, as far as i dug through the internet I haven't found anything reliable.
There is the Cosmographer 3 from ProFantasy, but it has everything for galaxies and planets, but not convincing battleground tiles.
I have found many many pictures of planetes, stars, supernovae, galaxies and so on, and yes of course cool pictures of futuristic 3-dimensional CGI art of whatsoever.

So, what i am really looking for are 2d tiles for my campaign.

Sure, I can extract some textures from Sci Fi Games, but then I have only some plain texture tiling.
And I really love the idea of having details as shrapnel, dead soldiers or futuristic weapons lying around, valves on the wall, with holes where steam or fire leaks out, or laser burns on the walls or on the floor, exploded doors or slam shut valve-doors, ammunition or parts of machinery lying on the floor, futuristic generators, red imbued rooms for alarms, vacuum suit chambers, futuristic locker rooms, broken visual futuristic TVs or intercoms, and so whatever!

I think I wouldn't be the only one dreaming about such a tileset!
Does anybody know something similar out in the vast nearly infinite Internet?
Anybody would have already done something like that?!

It doesn't matter if it's free or to buy! Just tell me, if you know something, i dont :)

Many Thanks!

Regards
Soulprayer ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Soulprayer http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23134 Where To Start? http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23120&goto=newpost Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:13:48 GMT Hey, I want to learn and enhance my skills are sci-fi mapping. But I don't know where to start. I've had a quick look at some of the tutourials in the tutourial section but I haven't really found anything of use. I'd like to make things like this:
Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work) ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping epicguy25 http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=23120 ISO sci-fi map objects http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22990&goto=newpost Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:36:38 GMT I'm putting together a simple deck plan in GIMP for a space station RPG adventure, and was looking for some decent (300dpi+) map symbols for simple things like a computer console, bed, cargo, etc. It's a grayscale map in an old-school "TSR" kind of format, so things like Dunjinni, etc. are a bit much. Any ideas where to look? ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping bighara http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22990 The Whirlpool Galaxy http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22827&goto=newpost Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:15:30 GMT A totally different sort of style test. Feedback appreciated, as always... Attachment 53229... A totally different sort of style test. Feedback appreciated, as always...

The Whirlpool Galaxy-galaxy-dragonfly04.jpg

Paper texture by Playingwithbrushes used under cc-by.

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping bartmoss http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22827 Needed - Modern tiles and floor plans for Mutants and Masterminds. http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22785&goto=newpost Sun, 31 Mar 2013 08:41:00 GMT So, my roleplaying group is about to delve into the world of Mutants and Masterminds. We are playing a group of super villains and our new GM has... So, my roleplaying group is about to delve into the world of Mutants and Masterminds. We are playing a group of super villains and our new GM has asked me if I could direct him to where he could find material for battle maps. The last couple of years we've been playing D&D and have gotten used to neat battle maps to play on and he would like to continue that trend even though he is not able to make them himself.

Do anybody have some good links to modern tiles or maps - both buildings and outside - that he can use to make battle maps from? I can teach him to throw a grid on, so no problems on that account :) ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping tilt http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22785 SW: DoD Maps http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22681&goto=newpost Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:47:45 GMT Here are some maps I made for the SW: DoD adventure I'm running. Without access to Photoshop I'm stuck with using GIMP, Inkscape and Paint . I make due with what I've got. I think it turned out fairly well. Both Armoredgear7 and Jedicartographer are my insperation for my work. A few elements belong to them, so I give them equal credit for my work.

Imperial Prison and Command Center

SW: DoD Maps-imperial_prison_facility.png

Swamp

This one uses Mushroom elements by Neyjour. Neyjour on deviantART

SW: DoD Maps-felucia_swamp_a_preview.png

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Eskandare http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22681 <![CDATA[Modern & Near-Future Street Tiles]]> http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22529&goto=newpost Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:35:31 GMT Hello,

I created a set of near-future and modern city street tiles, nothing fancy but since there ain't too many of those around I thought I'd make them available to the public.

These were originally designed for a Cyberpunk 2020 framework for Maptools.

All tiles are available plain for modern use and with blue lights lining the streets for a cyberpunkish look.

Also included is the PSD file which I used to create all the tiles, so in that file is everything you need to create your own tiles, even some instructions are included in the "data" layergroup.

In any case, if you have any ideas for stuff that is missing, please tell me and I will try to incorporate it into the next version. I will even do custom work if you need one specific tile for your campaign, maybe with a certain marking or something.

Here's how to use the tiles:

After extracting, there is the main folder with all tiles plus the PSD file and a folder "Lights" which has copies of all tiles, only with curb lights.

All tiles follow a simple naming scheme to quickly find what you're looking for:

First digit:
I = Straight Road
L = L-shaped Turn
T = T-crossing
X = X-crossing

Second digit:
N = Narrow street, for suburbs and side streets, alleys etc.
W = Wide street, for main roads and highways

Other keywords:

Asphalt (plain road without sidewalk)
VTOL (VTOL landing spot)
Plaza (plain sidewalk without and road or curb, as well as some decorative asphalt spots in the middle... For putting a potted plant or something in it.

I recommend first doing a basic street layout, then placing special street tiles for pedestrian crossing etc, and then adding a 3 square wide sidewalk along all roads.

Even better would be to create your city grid in your favourite graphics editing program, this way you can easily add grunge and trash etc. without having to worry about tiling issues.

Comments welcome! (Via PM or eMail: "chernoskill (at) gmx (dot) net".

Have fun building your city ;)

Cherno

Streets_ChernoV1

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[/spoiler] ]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Cherno http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22529 My Star Wars deck plan. http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22486&goto=newpost Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:26:04 GMT I dug it out of the darkest depths of my hard drive and finished it. It is the CEC YT-600. Attachment 52560... I dug it out of the darkest depths of my hard drive and finished it. It is the CEC YT-600.

My Star Wars deck plan.-yt-600-final.png

Edit: I just realized I made a spelling error on the title above the ship. Fixed error, re-uploaded, and then changed the post icon.

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Eskandare http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22486 <![CDATA[Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work)]]> http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22335&goto=newpost Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:25:05 GMT Five months ago I started thinking about creating a map for a scifi setting (for a novel) a friend has been working on for quite some time. The story... Five months ago I started thinking about creating a map for a scifi setting (for a novel) a friend has been working on for quite some time. The story is set in a rather close area of space, all things considered, especially compared against other popular scifi like Mass Effect, Star Wars or even Star Trek. So, the local Orion Arm of the Milky Way it would be. And I started looking for templates. I searched and searched, and time and again I came across bartmoss' awesome work he has chronicled here.

His input and remarks were really helpful in getting this piece underway, and after a week or so fidgeting around with this map I can understand the monumental task it must have been to get his own map done.

Still, I do have the advantage of being able to look at his map, so I used his star and nebula placement to align my own. I admit that initially all I wanted was a simple copy of his superb work, but even if that had been possible I soon came to the conclusion that I'd prefer even an inferior original with its own touch to that, so here we are. This is the process I've gone through so far.

Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work)-orion_arm_map_wip_by_stratomunchkin-d5tr2or.png

As far as the actual interstellar cartography goes this represents about the "50% done" mark.

I used a dark blue background layer, several plasma renders of varying intensity and different glow and shadow filters.

After playing around with fog renders I decided to go over the nebula layers manually which achieved a better and more natural looking result. The map as shown in the above presented piece contains ~60 custom made stars and two dark nebulas (Coalsack and IC4604), created through plasma renders, glow effects and/or color gradients. The rest of the stars were done with GIMP's sparkle brush.

Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work)-orion_map_wip2_by_stratomunchkin-d5tuua2.png

The enlarged section represents the actual level of detail of the piece at that point in the process.

It shows the (real, existing) Antares supergiant star and the dark nebula (real, existing) close to it as well as the farthest away colony of any of the major human powers - Van Halen's Star (commonly called Orion Colony) -, a North American Union settlement. Star sizes are not to scale since they vary too much even for a map that's in the 6000px range (the real Antares has almost 900 times the radius of our sun).

After scaling up the map to 9000px it looks like this (the sample is smaller):

Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work)-bf34cd646ba0bc4322835da95f6db01b-d5uds3h.png

You can't probably see it there but despite still being somewhere in the 130dpi range it started to get a bit too blurry at full resolution, though it would have been sufficient for a 1.8 METER print-out. I added about 30 more custom stars, a few smaller dark nebulas, smoothed and extended the existing dark nebulas and added several bright nebulas/star clusters. The location names are in the same font and unrefined. Basically, they are just there to nail down what region is supposed to be where.

Ironically, creating the map itself has surprisingly been a rather, well... I won't say easy, but I'd call it uncomplicated affair so far. At this point it's back down to 8000px and a 160dpi quality. But as you can see even at that resolution a representation to scale is nigh impossible:

Orion Arm Map (inspired by Bartmoss' work)-impossibility_by_stratomunchkin-d5v94q9.png

I suppose this is one of the problems you'll run in to if you try to make a somewhat representative starmap: if you want to maintain the resolution and don't want to blow your file size to kingdom come there are limits to how accurate you can portray the scale of things.

The segment shown above represents 1/100th (!) of the complete piece and I *still* can't get it to scale correctly. In reality the named star systems are all less than twenty LYs away from Earth, most of them even barely ten LYs. If I made the piece to scale SOL would be represented by the tiny red dot and most of the stars would be located within the tiny red circle or at best within the radius of the star itself!

At that scale it's also nigh impossible to represent political allegiances graphically other than with abbreviations behind the star system names (I intended to use icon, but they'd be too small to be identified).

Fonts used so far:

Sector names: Capture It2, white with black outline
Important stars: Capture It1, white with red outline
Star systems: Arial Bold, white with black outline

Pfew, I suppose that is a suitably long enough post to return to these forums. :D

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Wired http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22335 Vya System Map http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22119&goto=newpost Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:58:07 GMT This the map map of the Vya System, and is home to and part of the Vyan Empire. Badly drawn by hand, and hard to see, I know :( . I'll be updating it as soon as I have the cash to buy a graphics tablet and Photoshop.

18 Planets altogether, I have each mapped out and have its' function within the Empire planned out. Still need to work out exact sizes of the planets and distances from the sun, might take some time.
Any questions about system or planets are welcomed, hopefully I have the answer already figured out.

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping Loddy http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=22119 Spaceport http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=21959&goto=newpost Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:59:36 GMT This is a spaceport map that could reasonably exist either in orbit or on a planet. It is only the first level, but I think it turned out fairly... This is a spaceport map that could reasonably exist either in orbit or on a planet. It is only the first level, but I think it turned out fairly well. I never created any other levels, but there is a lift that suggests they exisit. Feedback is welcome. The map objects were either created by me or came from rpgmapshare.com .

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]]> Sci-fi/Modern Mapping meek75 http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=21959