Help save my map!

[eleran]

OK, I started the map of the campaign area for my upcoming 4e campaign. And I have already fouled it up beyond belief. It isn't very far along and I hate it.

I will post it in pdf format as I cant get the png version to upload to the forum for some reason.

The things I don't like;

1 The river looks horrible. (It looks to me that the places where I clicked as I was drawing the river don't show up, although they are there when you zoom in)

2. The test has turned blue (I think is a glow problem, but I have glowed turned off for the text sheet.

3. I put a text name in the forest but it doesn't show up at all.

4. The lake off to the left doesn't look very good at all.

There is a lot more to be added to the map, but I got to this point and was so disappointed I thought I would break down and ask for help.

[NeonKnight]

I'll see what I can do. If you don't mind, email me your map, as I think for some things I can quickly fix their issue.

[eleran]

Attached is what it looks like after Neonknight brushed up what I had done and gave me a couple of pointers. So, now I am going to do the next step which is to add more terrain features and play around with fonts til I find some I like, because I definitely dislike the ones I have on there now.

[eleran]

Had a lot of energy after my poker game tonight so I did some work. I definitely feel like I am gaining some skill, now I need to work more on my artistic eye. The map looks rather amateurish, but hey, its my first.

[Airith]

what did u make it with? Seems to be quite a good first try, although i hope you find a good font soon

Also, the changes in color for the coastal lake on the left side don't really match the islands/coast. Maybe make it all the lighter one? One last thing, below the spider----? forest is that a mini forest? Can't tell with my monitor xD

[NeonKnight]

Looking Good! Like some people say, the learning curve may be steep, but I think if you follow the Tuts, and just play around a bit the skills come to real quick.

Airith:

The area beneath the Spider Haunt woods appears to be swamp (from the symbols I know).

As to the program, it is Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer:

www.profantasy.com

[ravells]

eleran, for me the repeating fill in the land texture is a real problem - you can see the underlying pattern (you have used a subtle noise texture for the sea which is much better). With the forest, rather than using the square tree clump symbol, mix it up a bit more, put in some little clearings and vary the density a bit - makes it look more hand drawn. Again you can see the repeating tile. If you want to make maps look hand drawn, repeating tiles are one of your worst enemies. Get rid of those and your map will look a million times better.

The font you're using looks like some sort of variant of comic sans, which I would avoid in labeling a fantasy map.

Good luck and keep posting your results, it would be interesting to see how the map comes together!

[eleran]

Thanks folks.

Ravells, I agree completely about the forest fill. I am going to be changing that up soon.

As for the fonts, anyone like to suggest some? I made a new map and and filled it with each of the fonts side by side and I gotta say I am not real thrilled about any of them so far.

The area below the Spiderhaunt woods is indeed swamp tiles mixed with scrub tiles.

Speaking of the Spiderhaunt. This forest is so-called because it has literally been taken over by giant spiders, in fact in the background for the campaign it is mentioned that when one sees the forest it is hard to tell it was ever green because of all the webbing in the trees. Any suggestions how to indicate this on the map? Maybe a color change to the tree symbols?

[NeonKnight]

In the default symbols there is also the Veri-Color symbols. Choosing that will allow you to change the color of your symbols to your selected color. In this case, choosing a black, or dark grey will give you a nice grey Forest symbol which would give you a good 'fake-up' of Web Filled trees.

As to fonts, Any good font website has hundreds of fonts. Also check out this part of the the forum:

http://www.cartographersguild.com//showthread.php?t=743

[Redrobes]

...I agree completely about the forest fill. I am going to be changing that up soon.

Check over this thread too for a fix on that. At the bottom is a downloadable script. With the script is three flattening settings, set it to a lot of flattening to get rid of this effect.

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=1373