Sorry, I somehow skipped thanking you for the link. If it makes you feel any better, your site was already on my D&D favourites folder! Those maps are well done, although I can't see the last two listed (as well as the legend).


I had this one saved on my computer as well, but as you say, I thought it would be nice to see with Thorf's hexes! There are a lot of good maps out there by the fans for use, but these ones are made to look as if they were taken right out of a new boxed set of Mystara!

(Good to here from you again DM! Hope you're feeling 100% soon.)

As featured on the Poor Wizard's Almanac II 72 mile per hex map, right? 72 mile per hex maps are currently at the bottom of my list, I'm afraid, but I will get to it before too long. A smaller scale map will take a bit longer, because I'm covering all the official maps before I move on to conversions and that sort of thing.


Aren't billabongs just stagnant pools or ponds? In which case they would have water, presumably...? I must confess, I don't know much about these either, other than a vague general impression.

Err... that's because though I have placeholders for them, I've never actually uploaded either.

Don't quite have them to the point where I feel they're finalized- particularly since they were to accompany the next couple of "episodes" in my story- which is only partway done. I really, really, really have to get back to that. Soon.



I totally agree- I didn't realize you had seen the other maps, so I thought I'd point them out. Can't wait for Thorf's rendition, though.

Might we not change the colour to one somewhat more brown? I nearly thought the dry rivers were pale borders when I first saw them. If we could somehow choose a less confusing colour for them, I think it would help slow people like myself

:-) Jesper

I worked with Thib a fair bit when he was developing his maps for Norwold. IIRC, we both concluded that the original maps were essentially inconsistent due to scaling problems, and some liberties would probably have to be taken. The maps I was using when I created the original Heldann map featured a bay between Heldann proper and Landfall, which I retained as the Kamminer Bay, which I didn't think would be unreasonable. As far as solutions go, I think it works well enough. If only TSR had gone ahead with the Norwold Gaz idea that Bruce had toyed with in Dragon...

BTW Thorf, I love the more recent maps of X4/X5 and Sind! Keep it up. A couple of comments:

- I think the proper spelling of the Great Waste lake is "Lake Hali" (one "l")
- "Lagora" should be spelled "Zagora"

If you do get to producing a Heldann map, let me know, because some of the geographical feature labels didn't come out clearly enough in the original (I blame that on the programme I was using)

Geoff

You really do have me intrigued about this Norwold issue. I'm going to have some fun when I get to it.


Thanks, and thanks for the corrections. I'm very happy that you are looking closely enough to find mistakes! "Lagora" I have corrected in my files.

As for Lake Halli, all my evidence is pointing to a double "l" - that's the caption on both X4 and Champions of Mystara. I just went and checked now to make doubly sure, especially since I remember stumbling over reading that one in my scan. (That's how most of these place name mistake creep in... Although we are finding rather a lot of "official" mistakes these days too.)



Thanks - I'm definitely interested. For the trail map I am already working on the southern border of Heldann, but it'll be a wee while yet before I get to working on the rest.

Now to the subject of today's map. Phew! Today was a bit busy. I had hoped to get the Wrath of the Immortals 24 mile per hex map done, but it proved totally impossible.

However, I have now been posting a map every day for more than three weeks, and I like having the "deadline" to keep me working. So... I chose a nice "easy" map and did it instead. Owing to the fact that it's now 3:30 am, I guess it took a while anyway.



Once again, this is a simple replica job. Unfortunately Baldur, the cloned version of Feinen that I use for these maps, doesn't have accent support. So the accents used here and on the Savage Coast will not be appearing in my maps - unless I decide to change over to the other official map font, Korinna (as used in Champions of Mystara and Dragon 177 onwards). But I'd rather stick with Baldur.

If only I had 200 pounds to throw away, I'd just buy the proper font. But it's just too much money.

Edit: One other thing to note about this map: it uses my new adapted palette. See if you can spot what has changed!

Here's the Champions of Mystara map with the new palette implemented.

I'll never get the next update of the Vaults up at this rate.

lol

__________________
shawn

Vaults of Pandius
http://pandius.com

Another busy day today, and my friend arrives at midnight tonight, so updates over the next two weeks might be tricky. So, I have decided to continue with the "quick and easy" Princess Ark maps for now. I should easily be able to get back on track after that because most of my work stops for a month very soon.

Today we continue to retrace the steps of the Voyages of the Princess Ark, this time with Southern Hule from Dragon 172. This issue didn't get distributed properly in the north of Scotland when it originally went on sale, so I got to read the episode for the first time a few years later in Champions of Mystara, and it was many years after that that I finally got hold of a copy and was able to see the map and the extra details.

So you might say this map is kinda special to me.

It's a real pity your font type doesn't have accents, Thorf. Azurun without the umlaut on the last "u" is just not the same city

Oh and btw, to my memory Laki Halli has always been written with 2 "L"s

Thorf,

If you've got the inclination (and the time ) you could always create your own Feinen / Baldur font with accents. I would suggest Font Creator 5 form High-Logic. I've used a previous version in the past to design a font of military unit symbols and it was easy to use.

More information here:
http://www.high-logic.com/fcp.html

Gary

I have the inclination, but not the time. Of course, if anyone else has the time, I and I'm sure everyone else would be eternally grateful.

It is a shame about the lack of accents, though. I've just sent an e-mail off to Datascan to look into how much buying Feinen would actually cost, but I don't have much hope. Anyway I'll let you all know what their reply is...

The reply I got from Datascan went as follows:


So as I thought, it is prohibitively expensive.

However, I also noticed on their site that there seems to be a sort of deal for buying multiple licenses. Specifically, 5 licenses cost double that, 15 licenses cost triple. I have e-mailed them again to ask about this deal.

What this would mean would be that if we, the Mystara community, were to get together and buy the font, it could end up costing each of us a reasonable price. Just one person costs 189 pounds, but 5 people would each pay 75.60. That's still pretty steep. If we could find 15 people who were interested, it goes down to 37.80 each.

Personally, I would be quite willing to pay 37.80. If four others were willing, I would probably chip in 75.60, though it seems a bit high. But 189 is just too much.

Anyone interested?

The one your'e using is good except without accents, right? How hard is it to add accents to? Seems to me it'd be a lot easier than making a whole new font from scratch. Does the license it's under allow that?

Great, isn't it!

Early today, in case I don't get another chance to post it later.



By the way, the names in these regions are not in a language I am familiar with (or understand at all!), so the chance for error is a little higher than usual. Especially since the labels include full phrases, with function words as well as the actual names. As always, please tell me if you notice a mistake.

I have just uploaded updated versions of some maps. Here are the details:

• Aengmor - fixed labelling errors (I'm amazed no one noticed! ) and changed palette to be a little darker
• Atruaghin - changed palette of hills and grasslands
• Broken Lands - changed palette of hills, grasslands and badlands
• Darokin - changed palette of hills
• Ethengar - changed palette of hills and grasslands, changed forested hills on Rockhome border to evergreen
• Five Shires - changed palette of hills
• Glantri - changed palette of hills and grasslands
• Southern Hule - fixed overlap problem with rivers and towns

More to come. I'm going to update all the maps to the new palette as soon as I can.

Thorf, couldn't you use illustrator to fake an accented character, or just an accent above a character?

If not, assuming that the change to a new font would not be trivial, perhaps your talents could best be put towards areas of Mystara without special character needs while the font issue is being resolved.

Of course, if the change to a new font would not be trivial, I'll just shut my gob and let you continue.

__________________
Mystara in 3D VRML <-- Updated with screenshots. Thanks Shawn!

Yes, this is entirely possible. But the effort involved to make it look good would end up being about the same as just editing the font in a font editor, I think. In other words, the problem is time.



Changing to a new font, such as Korinna, would not be that much of a problem. But I'd really rather keep on using Baldur, because it's the most common font used in Mystaran maps, and I think most people consider it to look "right".

In the meantime, though, there isn't really a problem with using Baldur until I can get hold of Feinen. (Which is unfortunately by no means certain at this point. ) If and when I do get Feinen, I can go back and add in all the missing accents without too much trouble.

In the end, I personally don't think it's a big enough issue to prevent me from working on those maps that have accents in their labels. Yes, they will be imperfect for the time being, but the missing accents are only a small part of the overall map.

By the way, today I e-mailed the guy who made Baldur to ask him for permission to alter his font. We'll have to wait and see what he says - the worst case scenario is for him to say, "No." The answer I expect is for him to say, "Sure, as long as you don't break the license agreement." The best case scenario is for him to say, "No, but I'll add the accents in myself!"

I would be!

Geoff

Again, great maps, Thorf! What I would love to see, however, is a merger of some or all of the SC maps. I tried doing that on my own years ago (before I found scans of them online), by making colour photocopies of the Dragon maps for the eastern Gulf of Hule region, overlapping them, and then photocopying it again as one map. Didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped. :-(

Would you be willing to merge the maps of the Gulf of Hule region into one map as an option for people to download (in addition to your individual maps)? Personally, I think it would be nice to have all the Savage Baronies on one map, as well as the city-states on the other side.

Geoff

What, you mean like this?



I'm actually working on them with them semi-joined from the start. In other words, I paste them all together and overlap the guide images, then do them one at a time, adjusting where necessary and choosing the best elements of each map.

When I get done with the third Savage Baronies map, I'll post the image for it too.

Incidentally, I did exactly the same thing as you with the maps many years ago. I scanned them all in and printed them out, then cut them up and stuck them together in a long line which I then put up on the wall. In general they do actually fit together very well; I think the only real problem area is with Herath and the Orc's Head Peninsula, but I did find a solution for it, and I notice that other mappers (perhaps Thibault?) did the same.

Now, on to the topic of the moment. I just got an e-mail back from Mad Irishman Productions, who make the Feinen clone font, Baldur. He didn't promise anything, but he essentially answered with my best case scenario! WOOHOO!!!

He asked an important question, though, which is "What accents do you need at the moment?" I'm putting together a list right now, so if you can help out please do!

That's great news about the Baldur font.

I actually have the font, but it's different to yours.

Yours seems to be without serifs - I can't use a capital "K" for instance, because it looks ridiculous with all the curls.

I checked the font I have - no accents either, so perhaps it was produced in both a serif and sans serif format, and I have the wrong one.

Thinking hard about the £37.80 - put me down as a possible.

Yay Thorf!!!!!!

Awesome, thank you!

As far as accents go, we would need the following (upper and lower case):

c with a cedille (ç)

a, o, e, u with umlauts (double dots over them - ü)

o with that line through it (ø)

a, o, e with a circonflex (e.g., ê)

e, o, i with sharp accent (é)

a, e with grave accent (e.g., è)

n with tilde (ñ)

s, c with reverse circonflex (&#269

the Ess-tset if he can do it (ß)

That's all I can think of - any more....?

Geoff

Thanks for the list! I updated the other thread so we don't clog this one up with discussion of accents too much.

Also thanks for the interest in buying Feinen. Anyone else who might be interested, please contact me. It would be really cool if we could get together and buy it as a group, thus making it affordable instead of out the window insane.

I just finished another round of updates. I have a few of the 24 mile per hex maps left to do, then everything will be up to date.

• Ierendi - changed palette for hills.
• Karameikos - changed palette for hills.
• Minrothad - changed palette for hills.
• Northern Reaches - added cliffs back in, changed palette for hills.
• Rockhome - changed palette for hills and grasslands.
• Shadow Elves - changed palette for hills.
• Thyatis - changed palette for hills.
• Ylaruam - changed palette for hills and grasslands. Curved palettes almost done and coming soon!
• Northern Iciria - changed palette for hills, grasslands and badlands.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be posting the second Savage Baronies map. Sunday will be the third and also the next joined up map.

For now, it's late and I'm exhausted. I'm off to bed.

Thorf

I was pointed to this thread recently and I just wanted to thank you very much for the wonderful work you are doing with this.

It has been a very long time since I have been to Mystara, and this is bringing back some great gaming memories.

Thanks again

Shayne Power in .au

Busy day, so this is rather late, but thankfully I prepared it yesterday.



Also, I fixed a problem with the Dragon 175 map, where I had the cactus scrubs on grassland tiles. This was because of problems with the colour scheme of these three Savage Baronies maps, which make the terrain types a little confusing. It should all be fixed now, though.

Tomorrow I will post the joined up map of the Savage Baronies, and hopefully the whole Gulf of Hule too.

Looking forward to that!