Help save my map!

[NeonKnight]

Looking Good! Like some people say, the learning curve may be steep, but I think if you follow the Tuts, and just play around a bit the skills come to real quick.

Airith:

The area beneath the Spider Haunt woods appears to be swamp (from the symbols I know).

As to the program, it is Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer:

www.profantasy.com

[ravells]

eleran, for me the repeating fill in the land texture is a real problem - you can see the underlying pattern (you have used a subtle noise texture for the sea which is much better). With the forest, rather than using the square tree clump symbol, mix it up a bit more, put in some little clearings and vary the density a bit - makes it look more hand drawn. Again you can see the repeating tile. If you want to make maps look hand drawn, repeating tiles are one of your worst enemies. Get rid of those and your map will look a million times better.

The font you're using looks like some sort of variant of comic sans, which I would avoid in labeling a fantasy map.

Good luck and keep posting your results, it would be interesting to see how the map comes together!

[eleran]

Thanks folks.

Ravells, I agree completely about the forest fill. I am going to be changing that up soon.

As for the fonts, anyone like to suggest some? I made a new map and and filled it with each of the fonts side by side and I gotta say I am not real thrilled about any of them so far.

The area below the Spiderhaunt woods is indeed swamp tiles mixed with scrub tiles.

Speaking of the Spiderhaunt. This forest is so-called because it has literally been taken over by giant spiders, in fact in the background for the campaign it is mentioned that when one sees the forest it is hard to tell it was ever green because of all the webbing in the trees. Any suggestions how to indicate this on the map? Maybe a color change to the tree symbols?

[NeonKnight]

In the default symbols there is also the Veri-Color symbols. Choosing that will allow you to change the color of your symbols to your selected color. In this case, choosing a black, or dark grey will give you a nice grey Forest symbol which would give you a good 'fake-up' of Web Filled trees.

As to fonts, Any good font website has hundreds of fonts. Also check out this part of the the forum:

http://www.cartographersguild.com//showthread.php?t=743

[Redrobes]

...I agree completely about the forest fill. I am going to be changing that up soon.

Check over this thread too for a fix on that. At the bottom is a downloadable script. With the script is three flattening settings, set it to a lot of flattening to get rid of this effect.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1373

[jaerdaph]

I would suggest trying something different for the rivers so they are outlined in black like the coastline and the lake. Rather than use the default river drawing tool, perhaps try drawing the coastline with indents for the rivers and lake. See the (very) simple mockup below for an example of what I'm talking about.

[eleran]

I had thought of that but was worried about making it look like a good river. Great idea though. I am going to tinker with it to get my technique down since I dont have a drawing tablet for my PC yet. Once I feel I can do it with some success I will likely start over. Thanx again for the helpful suggestions everyone.

[eleran]

I would suggest trying something different for the rivers so they are outlined in black like the coastline and the lake. Rather than use the default river drawing tool, perhaps try drawing the coastline with indents for the rivers and lake. See the (very) simple mockup below for an example of what I'm talking about.

For my map, I had envisioned as I depicted in the original only showing the eastern end of the lake. Mostly for the reason that it allows me to set the total size of the lake later as I make more decisions about the rest of the campaign world. I am designing this campaign world from the inside out. Starting at the town level and working out. What I originally depicted is the starting area that will be known to the characters when we start.

If I "split" the lake using the technique you suggest, is that going to cause any problems later on when I try to add features, like islands or deep water effects, etc.?

I made 2 attempts at other techniques. One using the method you suggested and one using the default tools provided by CC3. I am not entirely happy with the results of any of them.

[jaerdaph]

If I "split" the lake using the technique you suggest, is that going to cause any problems later on when I try to add features, like islands or deep water effects, etc.?

If you add islands to the lake, use the same landmass drawing tool you used to make the continent. They will sit on top of the lake because the LAND sheet sits on top of the SEA sheet.

You shouldn't run into problems with deep water effects if you draw the sea areas first, then the lake and river areas. Use the Sea, Light drawing tool to create a shallow area around the continent coast first. Then draw a Sea, Default area in the lake (and down the river) to match the sea, and then a Sea, Dark area in the lake. See the attached image to see what I mean.