A collection of desert city maps

[NathanC]

One of the reasons I started learning how to make battle maps was because of a campaign I was running taking place in a Middle Eastern/Arabic area. At the time there weren't (and really to my knowledge still aren't) that many maps for areas like that. Even if you dig through official maps from Paizo for Legacy of Fire you come up with barely enough battle maps to add real flavor to an adventure.

So, I've slowly been building out some maps.

I'll be posting them here as I go, people to look at and make suggestions. I'm planning on doing around 12 total.

The first one I needed to knock out quickly today at lunch since I needed a random encounter map for tonight's game. The shadows need to be reworked but over all the map should be playable.

[NathanC]

Finally got around to map two.

I got side tracked converting/interpreting some old WFRP maps for a live game I ran in the beginning of the month so much of my time was taken up with that (Its the complete set of maps from the fist book of the Doom Stones Fire in the Mountains

In the meanwhile, an tavern in a desert town, not particularly middle eastern, but could work.



Edited with your suggestiong jfrazierjr

[NathanC]

Here's a Tea Room I did for this group of Maps as well

[NathanC]

Here's a burned down building in a desert city



Map edits (lighter grid)

[Bogie]

Nice map, but the grid overpowers it.

[jfrazierjr]

I agree with Bogie on the grids, way to overpowering at the scale the maps are in.


for example, your second map uses bevel, I would suggest ditchin that in favor of a small "shadow"(ie, a dark glow). I would help it tie in better with your stage elevation shadows also. On that note, the stage shadow clips, so you likely want to take a fuzzy brush and lightly hit that clipping area with a bit of blur.

It's especially odd in your third map to have both glow shadow and bevel on the main building. i would also suggest on that third building decreasing the size of the black stroke on that building.

what software are you using? If you are using GIMP or PS, I could give you some pointers on various elements(though I work in GIMP, so some of the commands in PS would of course be slightly different to get to) if you'd like.

[NathanC]

Thanks guys

I actually keep forgetting to lower the opacity of the grid before I pull them out of PS (that should answer your question jfrazierjr but it's PS3 ). I use to not use a grid layer at all, hell the only reason there on there in the first place is so I can match up my walls with the FOW correctly when I import the maps into D20pro.

I'll take a crack at those suggestions jfrazierjr, I've never really hit a solid stride as far as getting my height and shadowing correct.

In the third map, I used a technique that I had success with while making a cave, it really gave ,what I felt to be, good indication of height, see below. So I was hoping to accomplish the same thing again.



The stroke could stand to be reduced a bit on three and I didn't even notice the clipping to be honest.

jfrazierjr pointers and critiques are always welcome trying to get better at this to start producing my own stuff.

[jfrazierjr]

Thanks guys

I actually keep forgetting to lower the opacity of the grid before I pull them out of PS (that should answer your question jfrazierjr but it's PS3 ). I use to not use a grid layer at all, hell the only reason there on there in the first place is so I can match up my walls with the FOW correctly when I import the maps into D20pro.

I'll take a crack at those suggestions jfrazierjr, I've never really hit a solid stride as far as getting my height and shadowing correct.

In the third map, I used a technique that I had success with while making a cave, it really gave ,what I felt to be, good indication of height, see below. So I was hoping to accomplish the same thing again.



The stroke could stand to be reduced a bit on three and I didn't even notice the clipping to be honest.

jfrazierjr pointers and critiques are always welcome trying to get better at this to start producing my own stuff.

That last one looks pretty darn good TBH. you might want to do a bit of blurring where it contacts the ground OR skrink it so that it aligns with the texture edge. Also, you could consider adding a very small outer glow around the trees to make them stand out a bit.

Do you utilize layer masks? If not, I would highly suggest you do as it makes things much easier once you learn the tricks. For example, that last map if you were to put a grid onto it for example, I put the grid on the entire layer and then mask the walls so that it only showed up on "ground" level. It could also be utilized to limit the size of the dark outline around the cage walls, among plenty of other things.

Let me know if you need pointers on anything(keeping in mind that GIMP does not have all the features of PS, so somethings will be easier in PS than in GIMP)

[NathanC]

That last one looks pretty darn good TBH. you might want to do a bit of blurring where it contacts the ground OR skrink it so that it aligns with the texture edge. Also, you could consider adding a very small outer glow around the trees to make them stand out a bit.

Do you utilize layer masks? If not, I would highly suggest you do as it makes things much easier once you learn the tricks. For example, that last map if you were to put a grid onto it for example, I put the grid on the entire layer and then mask the walls so that it only showed up on "ground" level. It could also be utilized to limit the size of the dark outline around the cage walls, among plenty of other things.

Let me know if you need pointers on anything(keeping in mind that GIMP does not have all the features of PS, so somethings will be easier in PS than in GIMP)

Thanks, some times I luck out when I try something And I use layer masks constantly, but probably not to the effectiveness I could. I actually just figured out how to really use an adjustment layer a few months ago which was mind blowing.

Took a look at the settings on the building I actually did my self in the burned down map. Looks like there is no stroke at all and the only effect I used through Photoshop as bevel/emboss

Kinda cool I managed to simulate those other effects on my own.

[jfrazierjr]

Thanks, some times I luck out when I try something And I use layer masks constantly, but probably not to the effectiveness I could. I actually just figured out how to really use an adjustment layer a few months ago which was mind blowing.

Took a look at the settings on the building I actually did my self in the burned down map. Looks like there is no stroke at all and the only effect I used through Photoshop as bevel/emboss

Kinda cool I managed to simulate those other effects on my own.

I don't know PS, but from what I have seen if you want to try, remove the bevel from the buildings and add a outer glow to it(see below). I can't give more details than that though. Of course, in GIMP, I would:

make a selection so that the draw-able area of the selection was OUTSIDE the walls of the building.
Add a new layer
add layer mask to the layer
stroke the selection(size depends upon the map size, but based upon your original map size, probably 25-100 px
undo selection
Gaussian blur about 30% more than the stroke size

Honestly, I always have to play around with it until I get the right feel. From what i remember, the PS Outer Glow is the easy way to do what I had to do several steps to achieve. It looks like you already have an outer glow on the building anyway, so i would simply stroke the building just tiny bit(like a pixel or two) to indicate that's where the wall and top meet, just so you have an actual "edge".

And make sure you are consistent. If you prefer bevel/emboss, that's fine, but I would then ditch the outer glow and make sure all of the objects have the same effect. You have one full building and 2.5 other buildings in this scene, but only the central one has the Bevel/Emboss.

Quick question, for that last image with the cave, did you use a stroke to get the depth effect? Or was it one or more layer effect? As I said, other than right where it meets the ground, it does a really good job of conveying depth to me.