The purpose of this (mini)guide is to explain the basics of what I do when making a map from a GoogleEarth image. These maps provide more detail of geography than the DEMIS maps would, which is very nice if you want to have a map to accompany a battle, where geographic features may be more important, but such maps are generally poor to use for large areas or to show whole empires, as they will be much more "busy" with all the coloring of mountains, forests, cities, etc. As a rule of thumb, I only use GoogleEarth when mapping a battle or something that takes place within one day's march, but not for anything larger. Another useful thing to bear in mind when using GoogleEarth is that it may be helpful to set yourself a standard altitude for your maps, to make sure they are all at the same scale (for my own maps like this I make sure the "eye-level" of my image is 30 miles, as that gives a nice swath of area but is still close enough for showing much of the detail of the land). Alright, now to the mini-guide.
And there you have it. Now you can make sweet maps to detail your battles, and swap around elements at ease in case you have multiple battles in the same location, or would like to have a pre- and mid-battle map to use. If you have any questions about this guide, or any suggestions for how to make maps more easily or more artfully, just say so in the comments below. I'm sure I don't have the best methods in use here, and I'd love to hear any suggestions or critiques in order to improve my own work and this guide.
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For this guide I am simply going to go step by step through my process when making a standard map like this or this. I will explain each part of the process as simply and fully as I can, to facilitate others in understanding and being able to replicate the procedure, but my way is certainly not the only way (and probably not even the best way). Importantly, this method is also one for making maps in GIMP, and so if you have no intention of using that, or if you would prefer some other program, this will probably not be helpful for you.
Before beginning, a final thing worth mentioning is that there already exists a guide similar to this from Gigantus. Gig's guide is a bit older, and some elements of it are now outdated, but he provides pictures as well, which may be of use to some, so feel free to check that out as well. Now, let's begin.
That covers a single panel small map, but maybe you want a bigger map, or one that is more detailed for the same region, requiring you to zoom in on a smaller region and then put it together with another panel. Well, here's how to do that:
Most of the details required in making a large map from multiple panels is the same as that for making a single-panel layered map, so I'll just highlight the elements that are different.
Decide how far in you want your map to be zoomed* and check roughly how many panels you'll need (e.g. 2 wide, 3 tall)
I generally try to just use clicks to zoom in (don't use a box around an area) and I use a standard zoom for different purposes. In most cases, 5 clicks works well for me.
When you've determined how many panels you'll need and in what orientation, start saving the layers following the instructions from above, being sure to get every layer for a panel before you move on.
With all layers for one panel saved, move onto the next one by clicking (and holding) one corner of your map and dragging it across the screen (either horizontally or vertically). When doing this try to drag in a straight line, to make your finished map have a smoother border, and also be sure to leave a small overlap area between panels, as this will be important in later steps.
Repeat this for every panel you need, moving in an orderly fashion so you don't forget any panels or have weird gaps/overlaps that will make later steps difficult.
Once you've saved all of your base images for all panels you are ready to open GIMP. Follow the first steps as before (create a new file of the right size, keeping in mind how big it will need to be for your final product with all of the panels stitched together)
You now need to create each layer yourself, by stitching together all of the panels that are for the same layer
Create a new layer with the name of what your layer is supposed to be including (i.e. "coastlines", or "hillshading", or whatever)
Open all images that are for the layer you want to make (for example, open every map panel you saved that is for "hillshading").
Add alpha channels to all of these layers and then erase some feature (water if it's a land-oriented layer you're making, land if it's the "bathymetry" layer). Having some areas that you can "look through" is important for the next step.
Now that you can see through a part of the images, line up the panels with one another, using some natural feature that can easily be followed (coastlines usually do well, but if you're lining up two panels without any coast, you'll need to find something else to do the trick)
Now, make sure all of your panels are lined up with each other exactly right, and that they are listed in the layers toolbar above the first blank layer you created for this step.
If that's the case, then right click each of these layers in that toolbar and click "Merge Down". This will lock them together into one layer, with the right name.
Follow these same steps with each other main layer you want (e.g. "coastlines", "bathymetry", "topography", etc.)
Then follow the above steps for erasing any other colors that need to be erased in each layer.
When all of this is done, you should have a map like the one you made with only a single tile, but this time made from multiple panels stitched together manually.
And that's all there is to it. Using this technique you can make very large and detailed maps for yourself, and include or exclude the elements as you need them. I hope they prove useful, and that the base files I start providing below also can come in handy for some of you at some point.
Author's Note
Some people might be interested in having/making maps which are scalable, meaning that they can be shrunk or grown without change in quality of the lines and details. I totally understand the value and interest in such maps, but unfortunately I don't have the skills or know-how to make, much less provide a guide to making such things. For those interested though, I am sure you can find guides online, which will point you toward good programs and explain how to use them. What you will be looking for is things to do with .svg files, or "scalable vector graphic" files.
Last edited by Kilo11; November 22, 2018 at 08:08 AM.
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Here is the first map for the thread, a detailed geographical map of the Italian Peninsula and it's immediate vicinity. I plan on also creating an "artsy" version of the mountains, but this is not yet done. Rest assured though, as soon as that's finished I'll upload it to my GoogleDrive and leave a notice here.
Magna Italica Map
Dimensions of Full Map: 2756x1625 pixels
For the full size map, as well as other versions and, most importantly, the master GIMP file I used to make them all, please see this link to my GoogleDrive folder.
Last edited by Kilo11; November 20, 2018 at 02:02 AM.
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I don't see why not. I mean, it has a lot of detail, and shows clearly where things like mountain passes are. The one thing that one has to be careful about though is waterways and coasts, as those might have changed in between the timeframe of the TW game and the present, and these maps use present geography. As examples, any map like the one above will include Lake Nasser in Egypt (which is very new) or the big bay in The Netherlands (which is also incorrect for the classical period games, as that used to be a lake).
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What I was asking is if you made it game-ready from the start.
I'm not sure I know what you mean by that. Maybe it is, but that was not my plan. My intent was just to create high-quality geographical maps that can be used for all timeframes (barring those pesky waterways that insist on changing over the centuries). That's also why I've included no settlements or anything like that, as that would make the map time (and language) specific, something I don't intend to put in. That leaves it open for others to flesh out the map as need be for their own purposes.
Does that answer your question? (I feel like it almost certainly doesn't, but one can hope )
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I think that Pal was asking if you were making maps directly useable in M2TW game
I guess I don't understand this either though. What do you mean by "making maps directly usable in M2TW game"? I mean, the maps won't be used in the game at all, unless someone making a mod chooses to use the map to model their own strat map off of. I am sure I am being obtuse about this, but could you tease out the question a bit more?
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If I wanted to make a mod centered on Italy and I needed a map, what's the difference between using the map you made, or downloading, say this one, and use it to model my own strat map off of?
Why is your map suitable for modders of any of the TW games to a degree greater than any other map one can find in the WWW?
Ah, I see what you mean now Pal. Thanks for clarifying. As Lifth said, I didn't mean this for modders per se, though they could use these. My main idea was to have maps for AAR writers, and what I wanted to mainly provide were the layered GIMP files, as AAR writers might have good use of a map where you can turn certain features on or off easily. I also found it difficult to find maps without current borders, cities, roads, etc. on them, and thought it might be useful to provide properly blank maps as well. So that's the main idea.
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I hope you understand there was no intention to put down the work you contribute, just to make sure about the potential uses for which it might be more advantageous than other maps.
@Kilo: I'd like to give you some reps but I need to spread out more as always. The single tile part of your tutorial reminds me of what I told you in a different thread
For scalabilty without quality loss you need to make .svg maps, and the most suited freely available program for that known to me is Inkscape.
Also worthy of note is Krita, another freely available program, similar in some ways to gimp, but specialised on drawing.
@Pal: Gigantus has a guide on how to make maps for M2TW with Demis mapper. I took some interest in that a long time ago and when I moved to cartography I started using that.
I'm not sure anymore if I was the one to recommend Demis worldmapper to Kilo or if he already knew it, but the bottom line remains the same: Yeah, you can use this to make your own game map. And given that most of the time you don't get highly detailed maps of that specific place at that specific time, it's often best to start right away to make a map from DEMIS yourself.
The end result tends to be better. But as Lifth stated correctly, that's not the point of this thread or subforum. Best place to check for that would be Gigantus world building tutorials.
Originally Posted by Cookiegod
From Socrates over Jesus to me it has always been the lot of any true visionary to be rejected by the reactionary bourgeoisie
@Pal: No worries. Criticism or clarification like that is always welcome. And I think the only really strong advantage of it is the ability to toggle certain features on or off easily, and have that ready made for people who are less familiar with map-making. But it's nothing novel or out-of-this-world.
@Cookiegod: I definitely learned a massive amount from you and our discussions together, and I meant to throw some credit your way in the OP, but forgot that. That's my bad, and will be remedied post-haste! And I think in general .svg maps/images are often going to be better, but I don't know how to make them, so I can't go into that. But you also mentioned a mapping guide from Gigantus... would you mind posting a link to it here? I said at the outset this thread is more to be used as a resource for AAR writers, and I assume Gig's stuff is more for modding (he calls the series "worldbuilding", so...), but I'd still be interested in seeing what he says, and maybe throwing a pointer to that in the OP.
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I wanted to make some more progress here, so here's a detailed geographical map of the core areas that fell under Greek control in Antiquity. And as with before, I hope to also create an "artsy" version of the mountains, but this is not yet done. Once that's finished I'll upload it to my GoogleDrive and leave a notice here.
Terrae Graeciae Map
Dimensions of full map: 4200x2025 pixels
For the full size map, as well as other versions and, most importantly, the master GIMP file I used to make them all, see this link to my GoogleDrive folder.
Last edited by Kilo11; November 22, 2018 at 07:48 AM.
Reason: New Maps; new links
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