Now the 12 mile hexed version is available as well as the normal version on EasyZoom.

The Hexed version can be found here:

https://easyzoom.com/image/122425

In order to accommodate both versions using a free account I had to re upload the previous map again so it has a new URL:

https://easyzoom.com/image/122424

I've updated the link in the old post as well, but if you have it bookmarked you need to update the link. 

Its time for a short recap and update. Its been a month since the refocus of my Patreon, and thanks you your support there are now more of you supporting me and I receive more comments and emails that before, way more. Thank you all for your continued support, and to all of you new patrons welcome aboard this journey in mapping a fantasy world!

The past months have been mostly about getting my Greyhawk mapping project up to speed again. Its been in a semi dormant state while I worked almost exclusively on other things  for the past couple of years, with plenty of things left hanging. A 2017 Edition of my Flanaess map has been made into, PDF, JPG and Online format. The goal with the 2017 Edition was to publish a number of small corrections that I've done the past two years. The 2018 Edition is way more ambitious laying the ground work for future updates. 

June was mostly devoted to housekeeping, getting old stuff done, this month will be mostly about ground work for the future. 

I will mainly work on two different things. Wrapping up my World Machine series of videos with new videos that are in the making. The video's will be available for Cartography Patrons during the course of the month. 

We need a style template for the 2018 Edition, some of the existing text and symbols doesn't look that great to be honest. With the updated terrain adjustments will be needed, but have to be made with an eye on what is practical. This is work that has to live for only a few years, gradually being replaced with a new content during the next five or so years. Just like with the terrain update one of the main goals is to make it a bit more compatible with future content. So expect me to post ideas here for you guys to comment on, I need your critical eyes to improve things!

There are some more heraldry and other tidbits to do as well, keeping me busy until I go to Gen Con by the end of this month. Those of you who attend Gen con, I would love to meet up and say thank you for helping me do this. Most of my time at the con I will spent at the Lone Wolf Development booth 343 in the Exhibit Hall. 

August will be shifting perspectives going super large with a first session of Oerth Mapping and getting a first area ready for the 2018 Edition roll out. I have some extra secret projects that I will tell you about when I know enough to get them under way. Thank you again for supporting me!  

Here is my full Campaign map for download in JPG and PDF format. It is the same map as the "official" but with lots of additional settlements and other features including heraldry.

I will present some of the locations and backstories with notes and here later, in the man time you can get the maps here:

PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i1mpvwwl5it93tv/Flanaess%20Campaign%20map180329.pdf?dl=0

JPG:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebi2jj05k5v9wmh/Flanaess%20Campaign%20Map180329.jpg?dl=0

Here are the next bunch of heraldry updates. I'm doing them in Alphabetical order so they are from all over, including a couple of MeyerHawk shields from my own campaign. 

Wow we just passed 100 patrons, thank you everyone who have choose to support me in doing this, you just made me one happy mapper!!

This means that from now on what used to be my hobby, to map the world of Greyhawk is now something I can devote time to on a regular basis, at least a day a week and often more, and my work days tend to be 10 or even 12 hour especially when I'm working on things I'm passionate about 🙂

Currently I'm working on the re-editing of the Flanaess terrain, which is about a third done. Color and brightness adjustment are done on a global and regional level, things like the overly blue oceans, the over the top greenery of most things green. So now the lands have a much more natural general look.

Next step will be to work on the wet parts of the map, starting with the ocean (and big lake) depths to try and convey depth information in a way that is subtle, realistic but still informative. The its time to work on the shallow waters, things like coral reefs, beaches, coastal marshlands etc, both salty and fresh.  The final wet parts to to go over are the rivers and inland wetlands.

The final bit is to adjust details here and there. Try and fix some of the"ugly bits" that have been irritating me for a long time. Things like artifacts from the stitching together of the tiny bits of terrain that came out of Bryce, and valleys that should have a bit more erosion.

Heraldry is another part of fantasy mapping I love to do, and there are a few shields that needs a work over, and I have some new ones in the making as well. The new ones are from Dungeon and Dragon magazine and are from the World of Greyhawk so they deserve to be part of the effort.

I also need to do more videos! My series of the basics of World Machine have one left, how to export stuff. Then there are some advanced WM stuff to cover and a whole new series on terrain editing in Photoshop.

There are a lot of software development in the area of terrain generation and cartography, both in general and directly related to fantasy and role playing. This is something I'm very interested in and I intend to write about and review what I see as interesting.

I wrote a couple of blog posts about this a few years ago, time to pick up that thread and look back and see how wrong I was and continue the series with additional writing.

The new generation of Greyhawk (or Oerth even) Cartography is not forgotten, it is in the concept phase and will be presented in various posts this year.

I'm a little hesitant to actually start mapping until I have had a chance to test out the new tool Gaea in its release form, coming this summer. I've been tinkering with the beta for some time, but it is still missing, some for me, key features. Once these features are at least in beta its time to start the actual mapping. 

This means a bit more time on projections and determining where on Oerth Flanaess is and a bit more about its surroundings. If there are more time over there are things like historic maps, trade, economy and other things we can give some love to as well.

The money from my Patreon will in the next few months go to my GIS fund, to give me the resources to get a set of professional GIS tools. With them and some time to learn how to use them will evolve my cartography to a whole new level, especially the presentation and usability of my the material I'm producing. Over time it will also speed up things.

There are two areas I want to improve over the next few years, presentation and small scale mapping. On the presentation side of things I want to improve my web based maps and the use of game engines. With Small Scale Mapping I mean things like city mapping, encounter maps and dungeon maps.    

Some of my dream projects that are on my list to map before I die are, the City of Greyhawk, the Underdark and iconic places of the Planes. Each of them are an enormous challenge to do right and make them both useful in your gaming and show them off in a way that show their true character.

This is what I strive for and thanks to you guys I'm in a position to do this, thank all so much!!!

I'm roughly half way done with the terrain part of the 2018 update so I decided it is time to create a few of sneak peaks that I will use as promo teasers for my Patreon.
 

My goal with the terrain update is to adjust the garish old colors from back in the 90's when I only had a low resolution VGA monitor with no calibration, and my lack of experience didn't help either!

Hopefully a couple of decades of technical progress and me learning a things or two will make a difference, and I'm really pleased with the new look. 

I will use these to spread the word while I'm working on the rest. Waters from oceans, coast lines and beaches to rivers and marshlands are my focus for the next round. I hope to have the terrain part done in September and then move on to update text and symbols after that.

I will need your help in deciding some new graphic styles for some the text and symbols. They will be presented as polls during the summer.

Thank you again for your support! 🙂

Here is the link: https://easyzoom.com/image/122424

If you want the JPG version you can download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gu40t5uzy1ij6wb/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%202017%20Edition.jpg?dl=0

There are also a download button on the Easyzoom page as well, but in case you need it you can grab it from my Dropbox.

I've also disabled public comments. Not sure if that allow you to create private pins and annotations, but there is a workaround in case it doesn't work. Create a free account on Easyzoom and upload your own copy and set it to private and you have your own version to place pins on!

Hopefully this will work well for a while.

The original Greyhawk map had 30 mile hexes and my Flanaess map comes with an optional 12 mile hex grid. I went with 12 mile hexes for two reasons, the first one is selfish I¨'m using Pathfinder rules for my own campaign and PFRPG use 12-mile hexes as standard for overland travel.

The other reason is that my Bryce terrain doesn't match Darlene's well enough to use the same grid as on the original map, so I was lazy and didn't add a 30 mile hex grid.

But thanks to Michael Heckman's question about 30 mile hexes I though the time was right to test it out. So here is a map of Sunndi and its surroundings with a 30 mile hex grid.

To keep in mind: These Hexes have been calculated using the 12 mile hexes I added for my campaign map, so they don't match the ones on the original map either in placement, and might also be different in size. I'm adding this paragraph to tell you that I'm aware of the fact that I'm aware of this 🙂

Custom Maps for Patrons

I've offered the service of making adjustments or various forms of custom versions of my Flanaess Map as a commission for those who have asked me. The cost for this is a rate of $10/hour of work involved, estimated before.

As a special service to Patrons I will do certain projects like this for free, when I have time over and the project fits in between other things I'm working on.

I will prioritize what and when to take on a Custom Map request based on the following criteria:

- Research done and noted

- Broad interest to Greyhawk fans

- Technically or stylistically interesting

- Patreon contributions

- Manageable Size

For example, this could mean that project to try and create spread map showing dragon territories mentioned in canon sources, by one of you guys, would be given top priority if you had done the research and had a sketch to give me.

Research is the main problem in most projects, of all types. This is very understandable, it takes time lots of time, and most of us wish we had more of it 🙂

If you have an idea for a project, you can post it on the community page of this Patreon or send me a Patreon message or email me at anna@ghmaps.net.

I'll look into it and it might be a perfect thing to dig into when I'm rendering or need something else for a bit.

I can't guarantee that I can make it happen, but so far I've been able to do several patron requests.    

Next installment of symbols:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vrvebuzhgtwrjn/GH%20Elven%20Symbols.zip?dl=0