Thinking Big about Guild maps

[industrygothica]

I understand where the question came from, but I don't really think we need to stat it out at all. It could just be a fantasy world vice a fantasy rpg world.

I'm with you on this, at least for the foreseeable future. I'm not convinced it won't come up again at some point, but the longer we can keep this thing in a neutral court the better off we all are, I think.

[Midgardsormr]

Need to? Certainly not, but I also don't think we should stand in the way of anyone who wants to. I'd like to see things stay open for people to express whatever creative impulses they might have.

[cmkinsac]

as I said in the other thread, I would be extremely interested in making this the world for my game, as it seems well thought out, and obviously made with expertise in Fractal Terrains. Part of making this the world for my game would be to understand the history of the world, which I will do in part by reading the rest of these threads, but also, perhaps, with some other help? Please consider it, as it would be a great opportunity for both parties.

[Redrobes]

The CWBP world map is a community effort so your welcome to add to it. The world of art is licensed with a 'creative commons' type - see http://creativecommons.org/about. This means that you may use whatever you like from it and would not need to ask permission but there are a few conditions. The CC license is of type NC-BY-SA so that means Non Commercial - i.e. you cant sell it. BY is attribution so you should say where you got the map or who made it. And the SA means Share Alike so that if you use the map, modify and then present a new map based on these then the new map must also be CC licensed with the same NC-BY-SA where you should quote the original author and you add yourself to the list of contributors.

So if you want to make a mod for Oblivion and the terms of using the Oblivion editor don't compete with these restrictions and you don't mind making it and sharing it in this way you can do so and you don't have to get permission for any of the people that made the originals.

It would be nice to just be able to say here's a map, do what you want to it but public domain stuff has a tendency to become accosted by companies with enough money to keep lawyers and the works gets absorbed into their portfolio. When you have a CC licensed paper trail of the work then its much harder to do that and there are entities like the free software foundation and EFF which will fight for the works to stay free.

So CC licensing is a way to state that this work is free and its going to stay free. Its a kind of guarantee that you have the permission to use it and share it safely.

So really its down to the Oblivion editor licensing terms as to whether you can make a map that's free. If you can do what you want with any map you make with it then you can, if they restrict what you can do with a map made with it then you cant. If by copying a CC licensed map into Oblivion then Oblivion have rights to it then that's against the terms of the CC license.

[cmkinsac]

No worries about the editor program itself, as there is no conditions to it about what I create in the program, and what I am making will be completely free, by Oblivion's agreement. (all modifications are non-commercial) Thanks for explaining the agreement, I just didnt want something to be taken without the community well aware of it.

[Torq]

Thanks for checking cmkinsac. Also, nice explanation Red. As I said in another thread the idea of the CWBP and Oblivion finding common ground has me salivating.

Torq

[cmkinsac]

I have been doing area maps, city maps, even structural plans, but I cant get the damned RAW file into Oblivion. I have everything design, modeling, and texturing figured out, but I cant get the map into the game. Any help here? Maybe someone that can transport it into Oblivion and send me the file?

[MadCartographer]

A project like that was started along time ago by ProFantasy. They mapped most of Faerun. aka The Forgotten Realms. If you look on EBay, you can still find a used CD of it. It's called: The Interactive Forgotten Realms Atlas. I actually own one of the CD's and it has 400+ maps on it, all LINKED (drawn in CC2). Extreamly detailed work.

Here is the link: (project is closed)
http://www.profantasy.com/fratlas/FRAtlashome.htm

Here is a pic of Water Deep. This map has about 50 links to it.
Enjoy.

[Redrobes]

I have a lot of maps from Faerun and it was these maps that drove me to start to make a mapping app.

The problem with them is that they are done for and licensed by wizards so that you cant add your own stuff to the maps or modify them and redistribute them. As such it is a natural consequence that eventually the project would stagnate because you have to rights to continue to improve it. After a short while and after I had mapped a few of the really small towns and found that later these towns had official maps made for them that I closed off doing any more mapping for Faerun. As an RPG game your supposed to fill in a lot of the detail and then you find that it becomes obsolete when the licensor modifies it.

It was a good product for its time - especially when everyone didn't have any (or a fast enough) internet connection.

Heres an old map I did of the sort I made before they changed them:

[Jaxilon]

I would love to run around in the CWBP if it ever gets made into an Oblivion map.