How to make maps?
 

Hi, I'm currently trying to make a map, the .map file should be no problem, as there are lots of info about it, but just can't draw a near to "beautiful" map.
I have at this point only photoshop, I strongly suppose that most of the map avaible weren't made with it but with a rpg map maker. I'm currently running Mac OS X, and I have no clues what I could use, do you have any ideas? (at best freeware, but any suggestion would be really good)
thanks a lot!

Re: How to make maps?
 

There is DomMap which is a Dominions map generator with pages of options. Its not the prettiest maps but it can be used as a starting point. Check out these.
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html
They are re-generated fresh each day. Feel free to snag one and improve it with paste-on graphics

A guy named Targa did some nice maps and he used DomMap (which is free and downloadable by the way) to generate "blank" maps like these..
http://www.dom2minions.com/~targa/blanks

There are also "terrain generators". I think Photoshop might have addons for that. I know that GIMP does which is a free paint program of that level (though not so easy to learn how to use). Here are some examples of those...
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...ects/gimp1.jpg
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...ects/gimp2.jpg
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...ects/gimp3.jpg
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...ects/gimp4.jpg

Or you can find maps already done. Fantasy worlds, from books, etc. Some nice ones have been done from US Geological Survey arial photos. I keep looking because Im SURE that some of the older games had map generators which would work well for us but I havent found one I really like yet

Re: How to make maps?
 

Thanks a lot, maybe I should precise my problem.
In my actual state I have draw a white map with only the border on it, it is a precise map that I want, the problem is I haven't found a picture with a high enough resolution on the web, so I hoped I could simply "improve" one founded. But it seems to me that if I wanted it played (and I see no point in creating a map of which I know that even I wouldn't play on it) it has to be better than provinces with 1 color (green for forest, brown for mountains etc ). So my problem is that I have a "blank" map like the one you could make with DomMap, what I want are "pretty" forests and Mountains and so on...
Actually I tried to "steel" the trees of a Map made by Targa to paste them on my map with Photoshop, but it didn't function like I want it.

If GIMP is even harder to learn as Photoshop, then it is sadly definitively not the application for me.
Did Targa made his Map with GIMP? (if yes I bow before his skills and knowledge, his Map are definitively the best avaible for dominions actually )

I'm sure there should be some Mapmaking programms who could do exactly the types of Maps ones want for dominions with with tree's mountain's, swamp's and so on preimplemented, any clue were one could find them?

Re: How to make maps?
 

Targa used and reworked some of the pics from the mapstuff.xcf file available at http://www.illwinter.com/dom2/maps.html

Unfortunately these are gimp. I can probably export them to another format. What does Photoshop use? Psd or something?

Re: How to make maps?
 

It use psd.
I checked for a Mac Version of GIMP but it was not free! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif
Do you have any links to a freeware Mac Version of GIMP?

Re: How to make maps?
 

It's not The GIMP which is not free at http://www.macgimp.org/ , it's the packaging that costs you some bucks. And maybe some additional graphics sw / window manager (or somesuch, haven't checked thorougly).

Here you can get a free Version:
http://gimp-app.sourceforge.net/
But you'll need the X11 package too, have no clue what about that ...

Re: How to make maps?
 

Thanks a lot, I should have search further
X11 is a Xfree86 windowing system for OS X as far as I know.

Photoshoppers
 

For all of you Photoshoppers Ive found a decent way of creating a map.
Create a new file, make it 1000*1000 pixels or so.
Filter>Render>Clouds.
Now in the image settings make the picture file about 16X bigger (4000*4000).
Obviously, you can choose different sizes to your liking, but this specific setting comes out pretty nice.

Now, Filter>Sketch>Reticulation, and choose 0 for Density, 1 for Black and 1-15 for White, depending on how much water you want in the map.
Image>Adjust>Selective Color and make the blacks brown, the neutrals yellow and the whites blue (Or just use the Load option, load the attached file and choose Relative rather than Absolute).

If things don't look smooth enough, you can always Filter>Blur>Blur More.

EDIT: Since I can't attach the correct filetype, after downloading the file, rename it to Map1.asv rather than Map1.txt.