Hello all

[eleran]

I am brand new to CC3 and mapping in general. I would like to learn to use CC3 to make maps and other things for my RPGs. I just bought the program yesterday, so I am VERY new. All advice is appreciated. Hopefully, one day I can get to the point where I can be giving advice to newcomers as well.

[ravells]

Hi eleran, and welcome to the Guild!

I don't use CC3 myself, but all the users of it give the same advice: Follow the tutorials before you do anything else!

Feel free to post up the results here!

ravs

[pyrandon]

Welcome, eleran! We have some amazing CC users here, so be sure to post those questions and attempts--you're sure to get great advice!

Once again, welcome!

[NeonKnight]

Welcome.

I am a seasoned pro (in my mind at least ), at the whole CC3 thing.

If you bought the software, and I am assuming you got it via download, you will find in the:

profantasy>CC3>documentation folder a PDF called CC3 essentials. This is a 40 page PDF that will step you through the process of making both a simple overland map, and a simpe dungeon map.

If you have any questions, please post here.

[eleran]

Thanx for the friendly greetings. I started the tutorial in the essentials pdf last night, but got so frustrated switching back and forth I decided to wait til tonight after I printed it out here at work.

[eleran]

I do have a couple of questions to start.

I have a hand drawn map I want to digitize using CC3. Can I scan it in and use it for tracing purposes, or I do I just need to recreate it as faithfully as possible freehand?

After I got frustrated with the tutorial, I decided to play around on my own a little just to put what I had seen so far into practice. I made a landmass bordering a sea area. I tried to run a river from inland down to the coast and link it to the coast, but when I would get to the sea area, my river would jump itself up to the top map edge every single time. What am I missing? When I did this using the tutorial maps it worked just fine, but my own map it didnt work well at all.

I dont like the width of the default river. Can I change the width it is drawn at?

Thats it for now. Thanx in advance for any assistance.

[Gamerprinter]

You can scan your hand-drawn map, import to CC3 as a PNG file in order to trace it. Somebody else ought to give you the steps, but I believe a tutorial may exist here that describes that...

Plus as a workaround, I create my larger rivers at the same time as I create a Coastline, so the river in a sense becomes part of the coastline, in that I'm drawing the river using the coastline tool. Of course you have to be careful not to cross the bank, when drawing the other side of the river. For larger rivers this technique works well enough.

I believe the line width for the river tool is set to a standard - don't know if you can change the line width...

[NeonKnight]

Here is what I do.

First, if you have a pre drawn map, you should know what the dimensions of your map is (The whole paper, ocean everything). Once you know that, start a new map using the NEW MAP wizard. Select a size as close to yours (or even a little bigger or smaller if you have a lot of ocean around the map).

Once you have the map made, create a SHEET and a LAYER for your map image. I call mine BMP as I usually insert BMP images. It doesn't matter what you call them, as long as you know what they are. Make sure the SHEET you select is as close to the top of the Sheet List as possible (This puts it on the bottom).

Ensure you have both the Layer and SHeet selected, and the select the following:

DRAW > INSERT FILE

You will get a choice to select an insertable type file into your drawing. Navigate to your image (BMP or PNG), select Open, and you will get a copy of you image to place on your map.

You will likely see a command box coming up saying the image is too larger to place in the or something to that effect, and you can select to eitherstore the image's path relative to the drawing, or USe the absolute path. This means, when you open the CC3 file, the program just needs to know where to look for the file.

Select one, and click OK

It will now ask for the 1st corner. For now, ALWAYS select 0,0 (this is 0 miles East/West and 0 miles North/South), press enter. You will now see your file there and as you move the mouse around it grows and shrinks and everything else based on the mouse's movement which will represent the second corner. Because you know the dimension of you map (remember I asked you to do that above), you can type that absolute information into the command bar (width x height).

BINGO

You have now imbedded your 'paper version likely' in to the map. You can select things coast, rivers, vegetation etc, and place them all on the CC3 file where your old map says to place them.


AND TONIGHT, I will wright this up as a nice tutorial and put it in the tutorial forum with images.

[eleran]

Let me be the latest to say (because I doubt I am the first) U DA MAN!!!

Thanx very much for your help.

[eleran]

I started the tutorial again from scratch and have already run into a problem. I am in the section where I am adding mountain symbols. I selected the 1st mountain in the catalog as they told me, I right clicked and changed the scale to 0.01 which they said would make the mountains the appropriate scale for the for the selected map template. However, after doing that, the mountain is a REALLY tiny dot almost imperceptibly small. Did I do something wrong, or is the tutorial not quite right, or is it supposed to be this small?

2nd question; How do I know the proper size? Is that something you just eyeball? I am using the 100x80 size map the tutorial suggests.

Nevermind #2, I just noticed the sidebar about scaling symbols. It says most symbols should be roughly the width divided by 1000. Which leads me to believe the original scale the tutorial suggests is incorrect. The map is 80x100 so the scale should be 0.1 instead of 0.01.