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 Post subject: Any map makers out there?
PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 9:48 am 

Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2016 3:31 pm
Posts: 69
Location: U.S.A. Ohio
So i'm trying to get into these map making programs.

Right now I'm using Hexographer pro. I'd like to eventually move onto Campaign Cartographer3 or 3+. Right now money is a bit tight, so dropping 100- 200 bucks on CC3 is not a option. Maybe in the next pay check or two.

Anyway, I've been experimenting with it for some time and I am really, really hating the lag the program has. It uses java primarily and only allows for 1 gig of memory to be used at a time. the program will tell you why it does this, though I still don't understand why I cant use more, and there for not have to worry about lag issues.

I've been trying to create a kingdom scale map.

Issues thus far-

1. Choosing the correct size of the hexes, and pixels per hex.

I really don't know exactly what the appropriate scale is meant to be, or is commonly thought of as being. My map right now is 80 by 60 hexes. Each hex is roughly 8 miles of travel. Hex width 48 by 42, this is also the Pixel Width.

2. How big to make the major city.

A medieval or fantasy city, with a population of somewhere around 39 to 42 thousand people is big, but how many hexes should it cover? right now the major city of this area covers roughly 10 or so hexes. Is this too many or too few?

3. When creating a child map ( that is to say, selecting a area of a kingdom scale map, and creating a smaller map from the selected area ) what is the appropriate hex per hex scale?

I have played with this a bit, and using 5 or less seems better. I took the area just south of my city, some farm lands and made a child map from it. It spread out all the terrain features and didn't copy the existing ones. so suddenly a area dedicated to farming seemed bare, with spot of farmland in a rather unfinished looking area, where roads go to the towns, but everything just seems to stretched out.

What do y'all think is the better hex per hex of a child map with this program? 2 seems to not be so bad, but somehow when scaling down from kingdom scale, I cant really justify the size difference.

4. Is there a map making class I could take somewhere? I really would love to be able to sit down and actually talk with someone about this hexogrpaher program. Laggy as it is, its what I have to use.

5. Generalize terrain features commonplace in real life.

So I know water runs downhill, usually towards a larger body of water. So right now i've got some rivers that start in mountain ranges or high altitude lakes, they then run downhill untill they either intersect with a larger river or simply run off into the oceans / coastline.

I'm trying to create an area layout, with the city and its surrounding lands. So how far from the city should farm lands be? I imagine the city doesn't want farmers growing wheat right under their walls, but they also don't want it to be so far away that it takes to long for the crops to be brought in to market or storage.

At this time the farmlands are roughly 1 to 2 days travel time away from the city via road / trail travel. There are plenty more that are MUCH farther away but i figure this is normal as farmlands tend to just sorta surround any kind of community center or castle or the like. Anywhere that has decent fertile soil, as long as it is relatively safe, people will make a plot on that land and attempt to grow something.

How grouped are types of crops? Right now I've got farming area's dedicated to singular or dual types of produce. Wheat farming, and sheep. Pigs and bricks. Glass on the coast near kelp forests. Fruits and cows / labor animals.

Any suggestions and ideas?

Also if you want the free version of hexographer go here.. http://www.hexographer.com/free-version/

If you would like to view my map, as it currently stands. Which is obviously incomplete and needs work, you can do so here... https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Plq ... HQ5UEwxdkE


One of the things i was debating on also was weather or not to simply use one icon for housing within the city. At the moment I use 40% scaled down, freeform placed village icons to represent housing within the city walls / limits. These same icons located in the wilderness and farming areas are just small houses, and communities with some roads, but mostly trails between them. I probably need to scale the city down by one or two layers of hexes over all to make it more appropriate, however I feel as if It would be to clustered if i do so.

If I use freeform icons, I can create the semblance of a thriving city state, however if you only use the normal sized, snap to center icons each one of those tiles for the city would just be a single icon, which represents to main feature of that hex in the city. Cities though have forts and towers and check points and dungeons and districts. So its a bit much to try and grasp all on my own.

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 Post subject: Re: Any map makers out there?
PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:42 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:06 am
Posts: 991
2. Do some research on cities of the period you're setting. Population density has a lot of varaibles, from terrain to the local taxation system.

5. Basic terrain mapping is best done on a large sheet of paper with a pencil. Start with long lines of mountain crest folds and ocean valley low folds. Sketch in height lines at around 100-500m height scales (depending on the scale of the map.) Every "kink" in the height lines is likely to have a river. If not, there will be a reason for lack of water flow. This process may also generate a few large lakes where multiple crest fold start interacting.


I've only got CC1, which doesn't run very well under DOSbox (and has a non GUI interface).

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 Post subject: Re: Any map makers out there?
PostPosted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 11:58 am 

Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2016 3:31 pm
Posts: 69
Location: U.S.A. Ohio
Southernskies wrote:
2. Do some research on cities of the period you're setting. Population density has a lot of varaibles, from terrain to the local taxation system.

5. Basic terrain mapping is best done on a large sheet of paper with a pencil. Start with long lines of mountain crest folds and ocean valley low folds. Sketch in height lines at around 100-500m height scales (depending on the scale of the map.) Every "kink" in the height lines is likely to have a river. If not, there will be a reason for lack of water flow. This process may also generate a few large lakes where multiple crest fold start interacting.


I've only got CC1, which doesn't run very well under DOSbox (and has a non GUI interface).


I have done some maps with pen and paper, but it mostly comes out looking like a childs drawing. :(

The map i generated with hexographer comes with terrain features that "fit" together. Mountain ranges for water to trickle down from and valleys, farmland, other types of terrain. When adding in rivers and lakes I turn on the elevation feature which shows me the lines I could use to place them. So, when doing this on paper, i just sorta randomly place the rivers and lakes, then later think about elevation. I'll try today with the steps you posted and see what I get though.

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Ryan Ramsey
Lo Gorie- Dark-Kin Barbarian 1 & Fighter 3. FL: Legio Anguis Reptatus.
Savic No Taste- Ghost Scale 1.4 Expert, Exile, Assassin Initiate, Weirdo.


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