User:Carcin
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| Revision as of 17:37, 29 November 2009 (edit) Carcin (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision (21:10, 26 January 2010) (edit) Carcin (Talk | contribs) |
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| Maps in development | Maps in development | ||
| *Quetlatl, 20% | *Quetlatl, 20% | ||
| - | *Castigon, 20% | + | *Castigon, 36% |
| Maps Completed | Maps Completed | ||
Current revision
Carcin is a young university student turning into a surveyor from Adelaide, Australia. He qualifies as a neophyte, having started in September 2009, and currently controls 4 Incarnoi:
- Ballelul, A Sleestak Adventurer born in LostHaven. Currently being used to walk all over the world.
- Cruxmit, A Skaven Adventurer
- Voggonan, An Orc Adventurer. Played as an Australian Aborigine in King Arthur's Court.
- Hunsis, Another Sleestak Adventurer. Starting to try out the associations. Currently an explorer
Currently his projects within the MUD and Wiki are rebuilding the neophyte advice section, and making high quality maps of as much of the world as he can reach. These maps are slowly being converted into better descriptions of towns and locations. When he works out the best way of making computer maps from his notes, they will also be added.
Currently open pages
Pages in development
Maps in development
- Quetlatl, 20%
- Castigon, 36%
Maps Completed
- Aegeas, 99% exploration
Mapping techniques, or how I waste my time
I collect data for the maps using coloured felt-tip pens and grid paper. I started by using grids that I drew myself on A4 paper, but got sick of that and bought myself an A3 grid paper book. Generally as much as possible is fitted onto a single piece of paper. A whole region can be mapped on 2 A3 sheets. I mark every 10th row and column to make finding places easier.
Then I find a town that already has a position known, and start there by walking an ever increasing spiral, filling in as I go. The main landscape type is filled in with a dot in the centre of the square, and the other features such as roads are marked as coloured dots in the corners of the square. This goes on until I am bored, at which point I go and do something else in the MUD. When I come back I try to find a different site to start from. Starting from a different site reduces the possible errors.
Once I have every square marked, I open up GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and start an 83x83 image. This gives the 81x81 pixels for the region/country and a 1 pixel wide border. I make the border bright pink so it is not mistaken for anything else, and then start filling in the pixels of the map. Conversion between LostSouls co-ords and GIMP co-ords is a pain, and I avoid it as much as possible, instead counting pixels. Most of the work here is done by the fill tool.
With the small image complete and checked against my data, I scale it up by 12 times. This turns each square into 12x12 pixels, and gives enough room to draw in additional features. To distinguish square boundaries, I use the system that Muhtwo started in his Cimbra map. I start a new layer, and draw on it a grid of white and black lines, with white lines above and left of the square boundaries, and black lines below and right. This whole layer is then set to around 20% alpha value, making it almost entirely transparent. This leaves 10x10 pixels inside each square to work with.
I start 1 last layer, and on it draw all the additional features such as roads and cities, using the grid as a guide. Then to this layer I add the co-ordinate numbers around the grid. I put these numbers on starting from both ends and meeting at 0 in the middle, again using that as a check. The layers are rearranged to put the grid on top, the features in the middle and the terrain layer on the bottom. When I am happy with that, I export the image as a .png, and upload it to the website.
