Mapping software

[MNBlockHead]

I also just purchased Cityographer, a java program that will generate a villeage, town, or city in just one click. It does not have all the bells and whistles of Campaign Cartographer and its City Mapper add-on, but it is much simpler to use. Also, not only will it create a city, including rivers, coast, roads, vegetation, and buildings (the number of which it will auto create based on studies of how many of various merchants etc. different populations supported in the middle ages) but it will also populate the business, homes, and farmsteads with characters and provide the items available and their prices for shops.

If you want a beautiful city with a highly customized look, CC3 is still the way to go. But if you need a quick village or town generated, fully populated, Cityographer is a god send. I find it particularly useful for generating villages. My campaign world is too large to plot out all the villages and towns. I have the major cities, have the populations, and an idea of population densities of different areas and roughly how far apart one would expect villages.

What Cityographer allows me to do is have a table for randomly determining whether the party comes across a village or how far the nearest population center is (which I can then mark using a pin on the smart map. Then, if the party decides to tally and spend any time in the village; I can, on the spot, auto generate the town—all buildings, roads, population, etc.

My only complaint is that buildings tend to be spaced too far apart for a medieval town. So, while I readily use it for villages, I hesitate to use it for any sizable, walled town.

Also, the auto-generated populations are not ideal for my world, but you can create your own files with names, races, items, prices, etc.

[gloranphile]

I agree with MNBlockHead, Cityographer is a great program with few bells and whistles. If you spend the time, you can actually create your own source info with names, types of buildings, races, etc. that can make your newly-created city uniquely yours.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by MNBlockHead

I also just purchased Cityographer, a java program that will generate a villeage, town, or city in just one click. ..............Also, the auto-generated populations are not ideal for my world, but you can create your own files with names, races, items, prices, etc.

Originally Posted by gloranphile

I agree with MNBlockHead, Cityographer is a great program with few bells and whistles. If you spend the time, you can actually create your own source info with names, types of buildings, races, etc. that can make your newly-created city uniquely yours.

I also agree, Joe at inkwell Ideas has a good gap filler (as MHBlockhead suggests) for the random spot encounter. I often use it as a template for a more permanent version if I think its a place the PCs may venture back to.
The other products (dungeongrapher & heraldry creator) are also pretty good, and some utilize the random dice he offers as well, though I cannot comment on that since I don't use them.

As MHBlockhead suggests it is improved with modifications suited to your world.

for those following along not familiar with InkwellIdeas
see here>
http://inkwellideas.com/

[gloranphile]

Also, if you do go ahead with InkwellIdeas' Cityographer, be sure to check out the sub-reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/inkwellideas, as there's some good info in there.

[Dark Lord Galen]

Thanks Gloranphile good tip had not noticed that.... I see MNBlockhead already found it!

[eponette]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

...<snip>

DLG

My Drop Box Link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hzvxrqma1w...stall.exe?dl=0

Thanks DLG for the software.

Some questions :

I cannot save (but I can export) the map.
I cannot undo (or erase)
How to add tiles (the number of default tiles are limited)

Cheers

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by eponette

Thanks DLG for the software.

No problem, but thanks really goes to Colen and LWD for allowing the Post & Shardgames for inventing.... shame they seem to have fell off the planet. It would have been interesting to see where this program would be now more than ten years later.

Originally Posted by eponette

Some questions :

1>I cannot save (but I can export) the map.
2>I cannot undo (or erase)
3>How to add tiles (the number of default tiles are limited)

Cheers

In reverse order
3> under tools / Options/ this brings up a Dialog Box that shows the paths for each folder. I created additional "tile" by addingto these folders. I don't have the program in front of me at the moment but I believe it sees both PNG and Jpeg (PNG would be preferred) I found various textures for floors and wall simply by cutting and pasting photos I like parts of from the net and saved them at the scale I desired. IT requires a bit of tinkering but for a quick easy dungeon without a high learning curve such as CC its not so bad.

2> Right-clicking (with mouse) on the tile inserted will remove it.

1> yep that's the drawback.. remember when this was created VTT and digital were pretty much dreams of the future. so most media was hard copy.
To steer around this I use snipit to take a screen shot and then dump into another program to finalize it.. if you wish to simply save it, Cute PDF is another approach. IT mimics a printer and turns the Print Q into a PDF see here.
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Hope that helps
DLG

[Parody]

Originally Posted by eponette

I cannot save (but I can export) the map.

Wow...poking around on archive.org, they just never wrote saving/loading into the app. (Not having ever heard of this program before, I was wondering if it was a limitation of the free version, which is pretty common.)

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

remember when this was created VTT and digital were pretty much dreams of the future. so most media was hard copy.

Save/load has nothing to do with hard copy, VTTs, or era of a program and everything to do with being able to come back later and edit/update or reuse something you've already created in its original form. It also allows you to test with known sample files. It's a weird thing to skip. ::shrug::

[Dark Lord Galen]

Originally Posted by Parody

Wow...poking around on archive.org, they just never wrote saving/loading into the app. (Not having ever heard of this program before, I was wondering if it was a limitation of the free version, which is pretty common.)

While true it was (and is common) to not allow saving or printing for a beta or a free trial type, in this case I don't think there was ever a "pro or full version" as it was originally released as a community freeware.. and that is what I was referring to for the era. Meaning it predates most VTT / digital Map type softwares of today.

So respectfully disagree to this below. In the context that it was indeed intended for a print only application use without consideration for saving or VTT in the present form of tech available now... To further add to this, if it were only a test type as you suggest, it is unlikely they would allow for the import of additional files to add to the base program and as to being able to "come back to the original form created" (As you suggest), if you mean a blank then yes because it doesn't retain anything you create from "session to session". From a programmer perspective, who can say, they are not here to divulge what was in there mind at the time .... I just know its been round over fifteen years as versions 1 & 2 (and ten for this version under discussion). hope that clarifies.

Originally Posted by Parody

Save/load has nothing to do with hard copy, VTTs, or era of a program and everything to do with being able to come back later and edit/update or reuse something you've already created in its original form. It also allows you to test with known sample files. It's a weird thing to skip. ::shrug::

General Note the first two renditions were horribly archaic (think Atari type graphics), this was their attempt at taking advantage of the new hardware available in its day.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

While true it was (and is common) to not allow saving or printing for a beta or a free trial type, in this case I don't think there was ever a "pro or full version" as it was originally released as a community freeware.

Which I didn't know, so I went poking around to see what it was you were distributing.

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

In the context that it was indeed intended for a print only application use without consideration for saving ...

Which, to me, is an extremely poor design decision. Saving to protect yourself from being interrupted in your work, wanting to back up your work in an editable form, and such are primary concerns for creative applications.

It's unfortunate that they didn't put more emphasis on this feature, but it's too late now.

Originally Posted by Dark Lord Galen

... in the present form of tech available now.

Saving in a native file format (which is what I've been talking about) is not new tech. The version of the app you're redistributing was released in 2007. I have painting programs from the 80s (in my case, on the Commodore 64) that can save their graphics so you can load and edit them again later.


Hopefully this explains where I was coming from. Sorry I wandered so far off-topic.