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  1. #1

    Question New Map of Cerelia

    Hey all. I'm considering commissioning Anna B Meyer for one of her awesome topographical maps of the Birthright setting. Do to the complexity and detail of the project, she's only willing to work on purely topographical map with city dots. None of the house/kingdom banners, flags, and all the other stuff that she's so good at, just the terrain and city dots.
    Thing is, it's a major expense, and I was wondering if there would be enough support to maybe try an Indiegogo program, or a paypal donation? I just can't afford $1,500 all on my own for a shiny map with no symbols or markings aside from city placement.

  2. #2
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    Any serious map would need to be usable as a living campaign document.

    That means it needs to be editable so that DM's can add islands, change terrain, move province borders, change population/mebhaighl levels, etc, Bjorn's Ruin's of Empire added Mt Deismaar and the Western Isles (amongst others) for example.

    The map therefore needs to be layered. The base layer is simple geography + basic symbols for cities, forts, etc.

    The second layer maps the province borders.

    The third layer traces province borders to add realm borders.

    The fourth layer traces province borders to add nation borders.

    The fifth layer adds the province name, city names, populatios level, mebhiahl level, etc. and should be relatively easy to edit. We can add all the text ourselves without much difficulty - it's just time consuming - as long as the file format is accessible.

    The sixth layer adds hypertext links to the fifth layer allowing the map to link to other databases, in particular areas of a website, to permit the map to go on the front page of a PBeM with players using the map to navigate, and then burrowing down via the link to see the underlying data, descriptions of the realms, etc.

    If the map file was layered and the map on its own, with no ability to edit is ultimately only a pretty picture for the wall and not worth significant expense.

    I'm happy to chip in a fair proportion of the requested amount for a usable map, but wouldn't want to contribute as heavily to one that was just pretty.

    If a pretty one is the only one she can do, does anyone know if the other layers could be added later?

    I note that we have various maps floating around, so if it's going to get serious we should do a trawl first.

    One thing to confirm with her would be the other continents - the main maps show fragments which would be good to include, but we also have an Aduria map (by Raesene Andu I think) which would be nice to do if it wouldn't cost much more.

  3. #3

    Maps are cool

    I would definitely be up for contributing, because I love pretty maps, but AndrewTall makes some good points, a map that is campaign useable would be a lot better, and given the amount of money being talked about I would like to see that functionality added. Even if it that's not available I would still contribute though.

    Edit: Wow, hadn't realized I have never actually posted here, that's a little embarassing, I should really stop leeching from the community sorry guys. I've been using your Haner Sidhe stuff for ages.

  4. #4
    Ehrshegh of Spelling Thelandrin's Avatar
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    Welcome ,Alkaru!

    I concur - any serious map needs to be provided with the source files and the ability to edit it. Over £1000! for just a pretty image is certainly not worth it at all.

    Ius Hibernicum, in nomine juris. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    So what functionality do people want?

    Just thought, ideally we'd be able to modify the 1st layer if we wanted to to add a city / ruins symbol, etc - those are simple symbols so maybe all such symbols should go in a layer with the geography layer precisely that - no sign of human habitation (sidhe heaven).

    Probably a layer for roads and sea-lanes? At the moment only the Rjurik, Brecht and Khinasi appear to have roads - the Anuireans certainly should have some even though the mighty Maesil must be the key trade route internally.

    Also, does it need to be printer friendly - personally I'd love to have a pretty map of A2 prints for my wall (and spares just in case) and if it's good enough quality then yeah, I'd spend £50+ just for that, I admit to being tragic.

  6. #6
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    I would be happy to chip for this also if we got an usable layered map. A pretty map is nice but what PbeM or normal games need is a layered map to use as a base.

    I'll try to think later about features for the map, this sounds like a great project.

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    Site Moderator Magian's Avatar
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    Ley lines.

    Fortifications, castles, walled cities.

    Trade routes?

    Building types: Ruins, palace, and the various other types of buildings a person may want to place on a map. Mines, academies, necropolis, etc.

    Resources for trade or building types.

    Terrain. Change in forests or destruction or cursed spots. Newly grown nature magical or natural.

    Events like recent battles or famous battle sites. (edit: Realm spells, weather patterns, climate changes snow/ice cover, flooding)
    Last edited by Magian; 04-24-2013 at 12:21 AM.
    One law, One court, One allied people, One coin, and one tax, is what I shall bring to Cerilia.

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    Member TheChamberlain's Avatar
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    I'll be honest here, the quality of her work is poor.....to me its merely a texture map with a photoshop text layer crudely thrown on top. Its most definitely NOT worth a $1000.
    The Anuirean Empire will rise again........

  9. #9
    Alright, so if I'm understanding this right, you're willing to help chip in for the map, but you want the map image to have layers to it. The question then becomes, are you saying that you'll only pay for the layered image _with_ all the additional information, such as lay lines, castles, fortifications, province borders and all that, or just blank layers that will allow you to fill in that information?

    Getting the map and then allowing it to be printed out in normal formatting, or getting the terrain map image with blank layers should be no problem at all.

  10. #10
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    If we can add the information then that's fine, heck I can pay a student to tap province names in if I'm feeling lazy, but in practice adding province headline details, etc is just a few weekends job as long as the interface is credible.

    Point is, we need to have a good base map, then editable layers so that it becomes not just art, but a living document that can be used effectively in play - I'd love for it to be a "standard" front page for PBeM's with the ability to link through to domains, etc or whatever else the GM wanted.

    I have no taste myself, the link on your post to a page of her Greyhawk stuff seemed nice but not "wow", so I'll follow the crowd on whether they agree that she's the ideal artist, I'm not sure who else would be in the frame though! Did you shop around to see what sort of amounts were other artists demanding?
    Last edited by AndrewTall; 05-13-2013 at 09:14 PM.

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