Mapmaking / help wanted

[linlin]

by the way, i'm looking for some help for my next one..
this time i did a new map from scratch, but i'm really not sure on how to cut it into provinces, how many of them, places some ports, farms, etc..

maybe some of you, who have much more experience on dominions than i have, want to collaborate for this map with me?

i join you the jpeg of the raw map, and you can place some line on it for defining province borders, and other details and we can discuss of it.. (maybe i can create a new post for that..)

(the full resolution file is in the archive)

[Gandalf Parker]

Beautiful image. I look forward to the final map.

Generally most people (and map generators) like to draw borders around terrains to start with, and then chop those up if there is room.

The number of terrains can depend on how "large" a map you want this to be. Consider the number of nations in the eras, and in an average game how many provinces would each nation get before being forced into combat. The game considers small/medium/large maps to be 10/15/20 proves per player. If we look at early era its 24 nations. 21 land and 3 water. If they all played in a small game then the map would need to be about 240 provs, 210 land and 30 water. Here are some general numbers to consider...
http://www.dom3minions.com/RandomizedMaps.htm
All of that is very general of course. All maps of all sizes are welcome.

If you want the games map editor to guess neighbors then it "sees" red no-transparency borders easiest. I like to set the borders to red, get an initial map, then change the borders to something more comfortable to look at. The editor also seems to be abit smarter with fat borders (which I hate) so for big maps it might be worthwhile to make a second image and an "edge" tool to add red to both sides of the red borders before running it thru the map editor. It can save alot of tweaking the neighbors later.

By the way, an edging tool in a paint program can often be set for a range of color then told to edge the water, the mountains, the plains. It can give a start on provinces. And avoid working in jpeg. Thats only for displaying the final product.

[linlin]

thank you a lot for these details gandalf, very instructing!
i didnt't know at all that the map editor guess provinces with red borders.. it can save a lot of time to work this way..

i see that a lot of MP games are run into ~200-240 provinces map.. maybe i will try to begin with this base.. and cut the province numbers into aproximately 1/3 for the top continent + island, and 2/3 for the south continent.

But i'm afraid it will be hard to make an equilibrate map with the continents setup..

edit: maybe it can be more clear if a moderator/admin can move this part of the discussion in a new topic, called "mapmaking / help wanted" or a thing like that..

[Ballbarian]

edit: maybe it can be more clear if a moderator/admin can move this part of the discussion in a new topic, called "mapmaking / help wanted" or a thing like that..

done

[linlin]

i'm still working on my map, and really need some help with the borders drawing

here is the current state, with big red ugly borders..
i feel some of the borders / provinces connections are strange or need some workaround.. what are you guys thinking? any advices?

(higher definition file in the archive)

[Gandalf Parker]

It looks fine.
Other than, why does a province in the lower right seem to have 2 white pixels?

Im guessing that the borders will be made prettier in the final product?

[Daynarr]

Borders are a bit too aggressive. Try using lighter color for it, like white, but make sure that it's not 255,255,255 kind of white as the game will interpret each dot of them as separate territory. Some light shade of white, maybe even gray color could do. Also, try to make borders a bit thinner. It should still make them visible but it won't disrupt much of the map's beauty.
The borders are only there for player to make territories easier to see, game doesn't care for borders and only uses territory dot's. In a way, you could say, that game is 'blind to borders'.

[linlin]

i explained it bad, sorry..
this is a working version to define the border.. i used these big red ugly lines so i can clearly see what i'm doing..
in the final version i will make things more pretty

edit:
in fact, my question was more about the shape of the provinces borders, number of neighborhoods, things like that..

[Daynarr]

Well, that part looks fine to me.

[linlin]

here is a preview of what i will do for the final version..

i can't decide myself for the medieval cartographic style, or the more "google earth" style.. both took me aproximately the same amount of time to draw (a lot.. )

i will begin with the cartographic one and see if i have enough motivation to finish the other one as well.. (i placed the forest/mountains not in the same place, so it will change all the borders...)

to come back to the province border drawing, i think it needs to be a little thiner.. and i will put the provinces names by hand, so it can have a nice medieval font..

mmm still a lot of work to do..