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Campaign Cartographer Q&A

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Campaign Cartographer is a full-featured fantasy CAD app and it makes beautiful maps.

Steep learning curve if you are new to this type of map-making approach, but there are guides and a strong community for support.

@JochenL uses it for his campaigns.

And we are lucky to have Platinum Wizard of Adventure @Monsen here, who is a Campaign Cartographer freelancer and community supporter. He wrote much of their documentation.

Ask your ProFantasy or CC3 questions below and Remy has kindly volunteered to help answer!
 
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JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Here's a note I received from Remy:

Mastering it takes time, but getting started don't require that much effort.

There is a CC3 essentials guide available from the help menu, or, you can just jump to the manual (also available from the help menu) which is bigger, but a bit more updated on the latest features.

The first few chapters takes you through the important things and get you started on your first map. Shouldn't take you that much time going through those parts.

Video tutorials/channels are linked from here: https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/10519/video-tutorials/p1
 

Monsen

Member
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Happy to be of assistance Johnn.

I'll be happy to answer any questions I am able to. I am very well aware that getting started with CC3+ isn't quite as intuitive as some of the more recent mapping software out there, but once you get into it, there is just so much more you can do with it.
As Johnn states, it is a CAD-based program, so it is a bit more technical. This fits me perfectly, as I am about as far from an artist as you can get, and I couldn't make a map in Photoshop if my life depended on it, but I know many artists who loves it too.

I remember back in the last millennium, when I first picked up CC2, I quickly put it back down in favor of a simpler tile-based mapper. It wasn't until I took the time to read the manuals that I fully grasped the program and understood just how much better than that tile-based editor it really was. Fortunately, CC3+ today is much easier to get into than CC2 back then, and it is more powerful than ever. Not to mention all the available artwork in a myriad of different styles, a blessing for a non-artist like me.
 

Cortello

New member
Hey Monsen, I recently started making a city map with the add on, I also got a bunch of City token packs. I have noticed that when I select a particular pack, like the cities of Schley or the Jon Roberts pack, that sometimes it lets me access the tokens from other packs, but sometimes not. And it seems like certain textures, like grasses, water, cliffs and such don't always translate over from packs outside of the one I picked. Is that just a limitation of the software, or is there a way to gain access to all the packs I have available?
Overall, I'm really happy with the software, and like the detail it offers. Still getting used to some controls and UI stuff, but that will probably come in time.
 
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Stephan Hornick

Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
I'm one of those people who usually goes for the photoshop solution.
See here one of my maps: Borderland (hero version)
Not because it is easier for me that way, but because I never found a program that is suitable to me: easy to use, broad variety of artwork possible, not just tiles, but a modular type of map making.
I'm looking forward to see some examples of the maps you produce with the above Campaign Cartographer, if you might.
 

Monsen

Member
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Hi @Cortello,

CC3+ is based upon the notation of styles. To avoid people having to search through tons of unrelated artwork that might not even fit the current drawing due to being very different in artistic style, only the artwork belonging to the current style is accessible by default.

However, all resources can be used in any map, CC3+ doesn't mind you doing so.

Let me start by symbols. To access symbols from another style, you can just open any symbol catalog manually by clicking the Open Symbol Catalog
ICON_CATALOG.png
button and manually browse for the catalog. Or, you can play with the filters. If you click the Symbol Catalog Settings
CC2SYMICOND
button, followed by Advanced, you'll see that you have a catalog settings filter, and a master filter. The master filter is basically the style, while the catalog settings filter is type of catalog, for example "furniture" or "vegetation" or "structures". Try for example to enter an asterisk (*) in both boxes and hit find now, and CC3+ will list every symbol catalog you have (This can take some time to load if you have lots of products). These filters match against the catalog names, so you can look at catalog names to figure out what you need.
The master filter is loaded with the map, while the catalog settings filter is used when clicking on the various symbol catalog buttons in the top toolbar. So if you change the master filter, you'll see that the top toolbar buttons load different styles. You can also load the predefined master filters CC3+ itself uses by right clicking Symbol Style Toggle
CC2SYMPATH
button and picking Master Filters, and from that dialog hit Load to see the different sets of master filters you have available (depends on installed products)

As for fills/textures , it is a bit different. All fills are defined in the map, and this definition points to external image files. You can manually add another fill to your map by clicking the fill style indicator in the status bar, go to the bitmap files tab, and hit new. However, if you want to import a set of fills from another style, the easiest is to abuse the insert file mechanic of CC3+, as this will copy fill style definitions over. Create a new blank map in the style that contains the fills you want, then in your real map, use Draw -> Insert file, and pick your blank file. and hit Ok. Now, with your empty map at the cursor ready to place, simply hit Esc, the fill styles are already copied over, and you don't need the actual entities from the blank map inserted.

As for both symbols and fills you can also import your own png files. Use Import png's from the Symbols menu to import symbols, and Import bitmap fill styles from the Tools menu to import a folder of fill files. Note that CC3+ references the images on disk, so make sure you have them where you intend them to be in the future.

Hope this helps, if not, don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions.
 

Monsen

Member
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Hi @Stephan Hornick,

If Photoshop works for you, that's great. For me, it is one of the biggest horrors out there :)
One advantage with CC3+ and its add-ons is that the artwork is in standard .png format, so you can actually use CC3+ assets with Photoshop if you want. Obviously, CC3+ isn't free, but the artwork is licensed for commercial use (as in use them in a map, not redistribution of the actual symbols/fills)

A great source to see what can be made with CC3+ is to take a look at the community atlas site. There are over 600 maps there now, all of them made in CC3+. These are made by users of various skill levels, so they range from pretty simple to quite stunning. Use the Search function to find maps of specific types (Search without any criteria to just list all maps with thumbnails), or just dive into the hyperlinked world and click around (Latter option gives you lots of overland maps, but it can be a bit more difficult to stumble across city, floorplan and dungeon maps that way)
I am not the best artist myself, being a bit more technical, but here are some of my personal maps found there:
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Corgin (This one uses free 3rd party symbols in addition to official CC3+ add-on artwork)
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Araneae Keep
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Araneae Keep Dungeon
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Port Digby
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Sunken Guardian Temple
https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 15 - The Divide

You can also visit the user galleries on the ProFantasy Community Forums, where you can find a great selection of maps from various users.

And if you like to see zoomable maps, go to https://atlas.monsen.cc/Maps/City Of Sanctuary and click the Zoomable Image button to se my 40 gigapixel export of one of the user submissions (Just to make sure expectations are reasonable, no, CC3+ cannot simply export an image this large out of the box, I used a script to export the map from CC3+ in 1600 tiles and then stiched them together).
 
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Cortello

New member
Hi @Cortello,

CC3+ is based upon the notation of styles. To avoid people having to search through tons of unrelated artwork that might not even fit the current drawing due to being very different in artistic style, only the artwork belonging to the current style is accessible by default.

However, all resources can be used in any map, CC3+ doesn't mind you doing so.

Let me start by symbols. To access symbols from another style, you can just open any symbol catalog manually by clicking the Open Symbol Catalog
ICON_CATALOG.png
button and manually browse for the catalog. Or, you can play with the filters. If you click the Symbol Catalog Settings
CC2SYMICOND
button, followed by Advanced, you'll see that you have a catalog settings filter, and a master filter. The master filter is basically the style, while the catalog settings filter is type of catalog, for example "furniture" or "vegetation" or "structures". Try for example to enter an asterisk (*) in both boxes and hit find now, and CC3+ will list every symbol catalog you have (This can take some time to load if you have lots of products). These filters match against the catalog names, so you can look at catalog names to figure out what you need.
The master filter is loaded with the map, while the catalog settings filter is used when clicking on the various symbol catalog buttons in the top toolbar. So if you change the master filter, you'll see that the top toolbar buttons load different styles. You can also load the predefined master filters CC3+ itself uses by right clicking Symbol Style Toggle
CC2SYMPATH
button and picking Master Filters, and from that dialog hit Load to see the different sets of master filters you have available (depends on installed products)

As for fills/textures , it is a bit different. All fills are defined in the map, and this definition points to external image files. You can manually add another fill to your map by clicking the fill style indicator in the status bar, go to the bitmap files tab, and hit new. However, if you want to import a set of fills from another style, the easiest is to abuse the insert file mechanic of CC3+, as this will copy fill style definitions over. Create a new blank map in the style that contains the fills you want, then in your real map, use Draw -> Insert file, and pick your blank file. and hit Ok. Now, with your empty map at the cursor ready to place, simply hit Esc, the fill styles are already copied over, and you don't need the actual entities from the blank map inserted.

As for both symbols and fills you can also import your own png files. Use Import png's from the Symbols menu to import symbols, and Import bitmap fill styles from the Tools menu to import a folder of fill files. Note that CC3+ references the images on disk, so make sure you have them where you intend them to be in the future.

Hope this helps, if not, don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions.
Ok, that is very helpful to know. Next chance I get I'll play around with the settings you mentioned and I will certainly let you know. Thanks for the advice!
 

Cortello

New member
I'm one of those people who usually goes for the photoshop solution.
See here one of my maps: Borderland (hero version)
Not because it is easier for me that way, but because I never found a program that is suitable to me: easy to use, broad variety of artwork possible, not just tiles, but a modular type of map making.
I'm looking forward to see some examples of the maps you produce with the above Campaign Cartographer, if you might.
Here is a map I've been working on for a while. Not finished yet, but hopefully the tips @Monsen gave me will let me finish the last few bits soon
 

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Monsen

Member
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Here is a map I've been working on for a while. Not finished yet, but hopefully the tips @Monsen gave me will let me finish the last few bits soon
The tiling for the water texture seems to be a bit small, it repeats itself a bit too often. Try changing the scaling size by clicking on the fill style indicator in the top left, go to the bitmap files tab, select the fill in the dropdown, and then change the values for "Scaled".
 

Cortello

New member
The tiling for the water texture seems to be a bit small, it repeats itself a bit too often. Try changing the scaling size by clicking on the fill style indicator in the top left, go to the bitmap files tab, select the fill in the dropdown, and then change the values for "Scaled".
Oh, ok. Took me a minute to find, but I got it. Yeah you're right it was tiling a bit too much. Thanks!
 

Cortello

New member
@Monsen Do you have any quick tips on adjusting the buildings settings for the random streets? I find it hard to make them match the style of the icon packs I'm using for the more unique buildings. I also find it hard to adjust their styles to be what I want in general, but it's possible (and likely) I'm just going about it the wrong way
 

Monsen

Member
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
@Monsen Do you have any quick tips on adjusting the buildings settings for the random streets? I find it hard to make them match the style of the icon packs I'm using for the more unique buildings. I also find it hard to adjust their styles to be what I want in general, but it's possible (and likely) I'm just going about it the wrong way
First of all, make sure you are using the right street setting. You have a Cities of Schely map there, so make sure you use one of the SS5C settings (the ones with an m next is for metric maps). These should be reasonably close, but there will always be some differences, since the symbols are all manually drawn by Mike Schley, will the houses drawn with the tool are randomly generated. In general, the random street houses are intended to be the "common buildings" in the city, while the symbols are for more important ones. The SS5C settings are designed to woork right out of the box, and shouldn't really need any adjustment to look close to the symbols, but if you want to adjust them, they at least give you the right baseline.
There's also a catalog with Roof Frills (the last button on the SS5 symbol catalog toolbar), these are intended to spruce up the randomly generated houses a bit, adding some extra variation and decoration.
 
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