City of Hells Gate in a post apocalyptic sci-fi campaign (Adobe InDesign)

[oliverberger]

Greetings, fellow cartographers!

I have to admit that I lack the skills displayed by some of you here in these forums but I have just bought Campaign Cartographer 3+ and Cosmographer to pimp the maps for my science fiction pen & paper roleplaying campaign PANEC. Until now I am using Adobe Illustrator to create more or less simple maps without any ornaments or a specific style to speak of.

That's why I came here. To learn.

In case you wonder what PANEC stands for. It is Post Apocalyptic Near Earth Campaign. The whole storyline is set about 200 years in the future in a region not more than 50 lightyears from Earth. If you want to read more please head over to the PANEC website. It is all German because I do live in Germany and all my players are also German ...

But back to map-making. I'd like to get some constructive criticism on this one, it shows the city of Hells Gate on the planet of the same name in a region named extended Corporate Sector (you will also find a map of the known galaxy on the above mentioned website).

hellsgate.png

Do you think it is possible to re-create this map using CC3? If so how do I tackle this one?

Thanks for reading. I'll happily answer any questions you might have.

[oliverberger]

In case anyone is interested in the .AI file with all the buildings and stuff I used for this map please also leave a comment. I will then link it here for you to download.

[mearrin69]

Heya. Your map is very clean and representational. It's pretty.

Maybe too pretty for a gritty campaign setting?

If I wanted to improve it I'd start with messing it up a bit. Unless this is a very planned "shake-and-bake" colony I feel like the building placement is maybe a bit too regimented. Looks like you've created the buildings individually and then used them as stamps to place them so it might be hard to rotate them, but you could knock them out of alignment and switch up placement of building types a little bit...maybe let the various districts bleed into each other.

Also, you say "post-apocalyptic" but I don't know if that extends to this city. Is it supposed to be in ruins? Just reflecting that in the buildings a little by cutting some chunks out of a few might help a bit. A little color and texture could help get this across as well...even if it's just overlaying the whole thing with a "grunge" layer.

As to CC3, I can't be of much help. I have it but mostly work in Photoshop and AI. I'm positive there are some CC experts knocking around on the forums here somewhere though and hopefully one of them can offer some suggestions.
M

[oliverberger]

Hej Meariin69,

thank you so much for your valued feedback.

Heya. Your map is very clean and representational. It's pretty.

Maybe too pretty for a gritty campaign setting?

<SNIP>

I think I will have to translate at least some background info about PANEC to English as some questions and irritations might have not surfaced if I had ...

The campaign is post-apo in terms that Earth has gone. In a cataclysmic event 127 years ago. During this event most of Earth's population went extinct and the planet itself is now off-limits for all and everyone. Nonetheless people continue to survive (and evolve) on about 3 dozens other inhabited worlds up to 40 lightyears from SOL.

Hells Gate is a town on a planet with the same name. It is mostly made from prefabricated structures lowered to the swampy planet from orbit and thus arranged more or less in a grid like orderly fashion. Tech level is still space faring and the 5.000 or so citizens are mostly desperate individuals on the run from a corporation, their family, loansharks or one government or another ...

Adding to this the murky and gloomy lighting on Hells Gate (the planet) and you have a very harsh and dystopian setting. Again: this is just one out of many planets in the universe and it is not "grown naturally" but constructed in a very short period of time for a specific reason (to house a few thousand prospects and miners-to-be), not unlike the mega towns in modern China.

If I wanted to improve it I'd start with messing it up a bit. Unless this is a very planned "shake-and-bake" colony I feel like the building placement is maybe a bit too regimented. Looks like you've created the buildings individually and then used them as stamps to place them so it might be hard to rotate them, but you could knock them out of alignment and switch up placement of building types a little bit...maybe let the various districts bleed into each other.

Also, you say "post-apocalyptic" but I don't know if that extends to this city. Is it supposed to be in ruins? Just reflecting that in the buildings a little by cutting some chunks out of a few might help a bit. A little color and texture could help get this across as well...even if it's just overlaying the whole thing with a "grunge" layer.

see above but thanks for your input anyway. I will definitely put it to use in future iterations of this map!

As to CC3, I can't be of much help. I have it but mostly work in Photoshop and AI. I'm positive there are some CC experts knocking around on the forums here somewhere though and hopefully one of them can offer some suggestions.
M

Same here ... so far. Unfortunately. The learning curve is so steep in CC3+ that I didn't have the time yet to fully understand how it is working.