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

Here are the Dwarven symbols:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kzs6mq6qscgb2wj/GH%20Dwarven%20Symbols.zip?dl=0

They are in SVG and PNG format.

Took a day off today to work on Greyhawk again, and on today's agenda: Water from the oceans to marshlands. More natural colors, better shore detail and clean up a lot of artifacts. 

Here is a screenshot with the water layers enabled. It is only partly done, but one of the goals is to make Muddich really muddy!

There are still several days of work to do on this map update but things are starting to fall in place, with a lot of of the ground (or in this case bottom) work done.  In order to make the oceans look less crazy blue and more like realistic water I created a simplified muddy bottom.  With some blending and masking it will be a huge improvement.

Overall colors and saturation will be adjusted as well, and various areas will get individual treatment to make them more natural. Here is an example with a bit of the Tilvanot Peninsula and the northern tip of Hepmonaland.  

So far its been mostly large area work, the fine details will come in the next step. When this is done later this summer I think it will be a decent face lift for a map that starting to look like something from old times.

I've also just got my new microphone so new videos will come soon.

Thank you all for supporting me in doing this all 94 of you!! 🙂

To have the symbols on my Flanaess as separate files so they can be easily used in various forms of software have been on my to-do list for a long time.  

Here is a zip with volume 1 of the symbols on my Flanaess map:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ceb4frnocrk1b5p/GREYHAWK%20Symbols%20vol1.zip?dl=0

Volume 1 contains all the base  symbols. What is missing are the variants for Dwarven, Elven etc. They will be part of the next volume. Vol1 contains 119 different symbols in PNG (with transparent background) format, and SVG vector format.

SVG is vector so it is scale independent and usable in any size. Several symbols had issues that couldn't bee seen unless you scaled them up. I have tried to fix all the issues I saw, but if you see any I missed please tell me so I can fix them before putting them on my website.

Just back home from PaizoCon 2018, and after a great weekend it is time to get back to work again!

First out is a revised list of the fonts I use on my Flanaess map. These fonts should still be available on font sites like http://www.fontpalace.com

Very useful to have if you want to make changes and want them to look the same as the labels already on the map.

Working on exporting all the symbols as PNG and SVG images.

I'm packing my suitcase for PaizoCon 2018, flying from San Diego tomorrow morning.

I will help out in the booth of Lonewolf Development during the convention, and try to socialize as much as possible with friends and colleagues, so if you're at the convention don't hesitate to try and find me!

I will have my laptop and try and do some mapping as well between shifts.