Very nice website

[Talon44]

I'm part of a team making a mod/extended campaign for a computer game, and would like to have a nice rendered overland map to go along with the story. I did a quick one up in Inkscape, a program I'm fairly proficient at, and could probably make it much nicer if I spent a lot of time at it, but I got to thinking that there have got to be some programs available dedicated specifically to fantasy mapmaking, if only to provide pre-made symbols and structures (mountains, forests, castles, blah blah). Google search found Campaign Cartographer, and while the images there looked quite stunning, the price tag was pretty steep for a program that would be used for only a fairly small portion of my project, which has a budget of about, oh, zero dollars. So I went to Amazon to read some reviews of the program and they were frankly pretty poor, criticizing especially the awful user interface. Inkscape took me long enough to master; God knows I don't need to spend another hundred weeks learning a whole new program. But one of the user reviews there mentioned this place as a nice site to learn more about some of the available map making options, and so here I am.

I guess what I'm looking for ideally is a place where I can download some premade vector art (again: mountains, forests, castles, etc.) to save me the trouble of having to make them myself. (Not only a matter of time - my oldish computer starts to moan when I have too many objects in a single Inkscape project, specially when there are lots of shadings and such).

Just out of curiosity, do people here go for commissions? And by commissions, I am referring to the unpaid, "for the fun of it" variety.

Well anyway, nice to meet you all and it's a great site. Love looking at all the cool maps, if nothing else.

[Talon44]

*BUMP*

What, no replies??
Ok, I don't take it personally. But I do have a question. I wanted to post a work in progress to the appropriate forum for critique, but it says I don't have permission to post new threads or replies. How does one obtain such permission? I looked at the FAQ and either I'm completely blind or it doesn't address this question. Do I need a certain minimum number of posts or something?

Thanks for your kind help.

[Slylok]

i think you need five posts before you can do certain things. Though, i seem to remember posting a WIP before that. I could be wrong too, but I know you have to have at least 5 to send messages. so you got 3 to go. And welcome to the guild

[Talon44]

Alright, I'll just post a few more times and see if that changes my permissions. Thanks!

[Talon44]

Also, if I may ask a stupid question, and in the process bring myself up to 5 posts, do you all worry about posting your work (finished or in progress) on the web? Not that I necessarily have made anything worth stealing yet, but I notice nobody here puts watermarks or anything on their map images. You all just have faith in the honor system?

[Korash]

Also, if I may ask a stupid question, and in the process bring myself up to 5 posts, do you all worry about posting your work (finished or in progress) on the web? Not that I necessarily have made anything worth stealing yet, but I notice nobody here puts watermarks or anything on their map images. You all just have faith in the honor system?

This subject has come up before and you should be able to do a site search on "copyright" or simular words, and you will find quite a bit of useful info and input from some of our pros. Torstan and Gameprinter (as far as I know are our more prolific pro members) in particular have put their take on it.

[lothel]

You can definitely post a WIP on your first post, mine certainly was!

I never thought about people stealing since I haven't made anything worth stealing yet either. However, I would love if people used my maps one day for their own campaign. I think it just means I did something right
Then again, I don't intend on making any profit off my maps. As for the professional artists on the forum, my best guess is that there is some sort of honor system in place. However, theres probably also an advantage in letting people see some of the artwork to encourage them to buy the rest.

[Talon44]

Well it works now, because I just posted my WIP, so maybe 5 was the ticket.

I'm not sure under what circumstances a highly specialized map would be worth stealing.. I was just wondering. Probably I'm just overly paranoid.

[Slylok]

as long as you can prove that you created the work then you own the intellectual property rights to it. If you find someone using it in a way that you didnt intend then you can take legal action.