Here is the follow-up to our poll asking which additional Traveller starship deckplans we should do. I was a bit surprised that warships seemed to be the top choices (except for the far trader). I’d have thought that civilian ships would be more important to most Traveller players.
Nevertheless we created deckplans for the three most popular designs:
The January issue: A new drawing style
If you are already a ProFantasy Software customer, you now having something to put on your wish list – a ProFantasy Gift Voucher. You don’t need to be told what you can get – you already know!
This post is for people with roleplayers or map-makers in their lives other than themselves, so you’ve got an idea what your recipient can get with their gift voucher. And your recipient can combine vouchers, so that a game group can all chip in.
Because we like to be classy, our vouchers do not expire, unlike certain others. After all, we still offer downloads for ten-year-old orders.
As Simon mentioned in a previous post here, I am working on an application, which I am developing under the code name “Map Invoker”. It will generate random towns, from small little hamlets to large walled cities. I’ve been concentrating on the algorithm side and am truely quite a ways towards a “feature complete” logic set.
So Simon was correct in stating that “He’s gone beyond proof of concept”. Soon I will be turning from generation to the interface so that all the parameters that I’ve included in the algorithms are exposed to the user so that the user can create an incredable range of different towns.
Once the parameter inputs are down and tested, then we will be looking into adding all the “garnish” that makes programs like this come alive.
So if you have any ideas, practical or “pie in the sky”, I’d love to here them. Either post your idea or email me at: SAUNDERL (at) HOTMAIL (dot) COM.
L Lee Saunders is working on a random city generator for CC3. Lee has worked with ProFantasy for many years, producing features such as the fractal path and text around a curve. He has an excellent development blog for people who want to create CC3 add-ons, which he will mirror here.
The Random City Generator will be included in a future version of Campaign Cartographer or City Designer, or be available as a separate product. He’s gone beyond proof of concept – here is a screen shot. It already does basic CC3 import using the House command, and we’ll be reporting on its progress regularly.
Each year in October a medium-sized city in Germany’s Ruhr area becomes the mecca of boardgamers around the world: The “Internationale Spieltage SPIEL 2010” or “Spiel” for short open its doors.
Bill Roach, creator of the Terraformer add-on for Fractal Terrains, puts forward the rather contentious theory that there are only four types of planets in SF. These images, created using Fractal Terrains and Terraformer form the sturdiest pillar of his argument:
Terraformer is available from the Profantasy registration page, or here.
The October issue of the Annual 2010 was released on Friday, and we are very happy to publish the awesome new commands created by community member Joachim de Ravenbel for CC3. They make it extremely quick and easy to draw complex wall layouts, as you would see in an actual medieval castle, including doorways, alcoves, windows and arrow slits.
It is also a great example what users can contribute directly to CC3. If you are interested in programming your own commands for CC3, check out Lee Saunders’ CC3 development blog and the CC developers’ mailing list.
We are looking to add some more Traveller Deckplans to the Cosmographer 3 Release and couldn’t decide which ones to do. Can you help us? Which would you like us to do?
The poll is closed. Click “View” to see the results. The three most popular deckplans are now available here.
We’ve just released the September issue of the Annual 2010. While also including a complete new style based on the work of fantasy cartographer Robert Altbauer, the accompanying tutorial focuses on how to convert Photoshop brushes into CC3 symbols catalogs. The quick and easy process opens up a whole lot of material to use in CC3, as there are many free-to-use brushes available on the web.
The included style uses a serial of brushes for mountains and hills, made available on the Cartographers’ Guild forum. Here is the example map created with the new style:
And here's a sample of the Mountain symbol catalog created from a Photoshop Brush:
