Greetings from China

[DashBranaghan]

Hello all,

I've been a lurker around the boards for awhile now - off and on as I work on my world, then rework it, then re-re-work it again. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has ever posted or published the innumerable helpful tips and suggestions which those of us lurkers have relied on, but I'd like to extend my appreciation to two members specifically for their tutorials (either as PDFs or YouTube videos) - the first being Ascension, whose Atlas guideline has fueled many sleepless nights and a true appreciation for the work that goes into these maps, and the second being Kindari, whose video tutorial of his version of the Ascension Atlas style was incredibly well done, clear and has resulted in a phenomenal learning curve of Photoshop (as it pertains to mapping) and hot-keys. Thank you both for making it possible for a novice like me to actually produce something that has my gamer friends go "Wow!"

Of course, I'm not going to show them the maps you guys produce - that would just be embarrassing for me. :p

I'm not sure how much I'll be posting - not only am I a novice/n00b with Photoshop, I'm also starting a new semester (I teach English at a Uni here). I'm almost finished my home-brew map (just adding cities and titles), and depending on how much time I have, I may start mapping out cities as well, so I will continue to make ample use of the forums, probably to ask stupid questions (okay, okay, there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots, like me) when it comes to city design. I have wondrous images in my head which will probably fail to make it to the PS image, but I'm okay with that.

Anyway, once again, thank you everyone for your work here - I'll be upping rep where I can as I lurk through the pages.

Cheers
Rob (aka Dash)

[Korash]

To be honest, THE best way to improve your mapping, what ever your level, is to post up a WIP (and if you been lurking long you know where they are) and ask any questions or even problems you may have with your current map. One of the best things about this Guild is the vast body of knowledge and experience that is available our membership. And you should know by now that we are a friendly bunch who want to help you improve.

So having said that, all that is missing is a hearty Welcome to the Guild, The Mappiest Place on the Web.

[DashBranaghan]

Thanks Korash - lurking or not, WIP is a common enough acronym that I know what you mean, and yes, I will be putting it up soon - I'm just fiddling with fonts, debating about border shading, and figuring out the best way to get things up. I'll be looking forward to any and all advice and comments on it. It should be posted before the end of this week.

Btw, since you're in Montreal - if I post an impressive first time map, can you send me some poutine?

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild DashBranaghan! Well city maps are certainly one of the most difficult and time-consuming maps you could have chosen to begin with, so you have quite the challenge ahead of you. That said, this is a very friendly community and once you post that WIP I'm sure you'll get lots of helpful feedback. Looking forward to seeing you around.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[DashBranaghan]

Muchly appreciated Arsheesh - I actually started with an Atlas style map, and will work into the city maps afterwards (after I do some copious amounts of reading). I used to use Dundjinni, but I find that it is too resource intensive for me to work efficiently. I may reinstall CC3 for purposes of doing city maps (or may learn how to use Gimp).