ProFantasy Software (CC2 worldbuilder etc)

[taishon]

I just purchased a bunch of SW from profantasy and wanted to start a discussion topic or group related to the use of this and other software aids in supporting a traveller game.
If you are not familiar with profantasy, they have some awesome SW for adding to a Traveller game. I bought a package which includes Fractal Terrains, CC2, and the add-ons Dioramas, Character Artist, City Builder, and Dungeos Designer 2. Although a lot of the SW is geared towards fantasy settings, they can easily be adopted for Sci Fi settings with a little effort. For example, the Dungeon Designer can be used to make scale ship plans for using traveller minuatures etc.

So my survey question ...
Are there people who would like to start a discussion group to share ideas (and even files and links) on how to use this software ? If so, where should it go ?

To seed the discussion, I am currently learning the fractal terrain software. I am learning to build different map projectiosn of planets (including the isohedral traveller standard). I have exported the spin view and hten used MGI photosuite to produce a rotating planet view depicting what it would be like for a crew to approach a planet. I plan on linking to CC2 and even letting the players use a linked monitor to my laptop to simulate a computer terminal or viewport on a ship.

Tai

 

[JeffSandmeier]

I use the CC2 suite quite often, and I think it is pretty darn good. The interface can sometimes be a pain, but the results are well worth it. I have just recently started a T20 campaign, and have used CC2 to create a blank sector and subsector map, as well as the map of the subsector the players are going to be running around in (for a while, anyway). What I like about using CC@ for the dsubsector map is the layer control, so you can give the players a subsector map, and still have some hidden areas for them to stumble across. If anyone is interested, I can (in a later message) attach either the subsector or sector maps.

 

[mad13142000]

I use Galactic for all my mapping needs...
But I have seen some AWESOME sector maps generated with CC, and I think there is a converter program to copy over Galactic data for use in CC.
just a thought
-MADDog

 

[sandman]

Already been using Fractal Terrain to generate maps for my players in my games...

Fiddling around with some of Flaming Pears plugins to generate planets & starfields for "Space Shots" of the planet they're visiting...

As for CC2, I just don't find it intuitive enough, plus there's a nifty bug that makes it a pain to use on my home computer... (did sent them an e-mail but all I got was "check your mouse drivers")

 

[taishon]

Already been using Fractal Terrain to generate maps for my players in my games...

Fiddling around with some of Flaming Pears plugins to generate planets & starfields for "Space Shots" of the planet they're visiting...

Can you expound upon this ? Haven't heard about the FP plugins..I actually have a fairly fast laptop and desktop so I can regenerate reasonable fast. What I am hoping to do is to allow my players to use the computer as if it were the starship computer- they can access the climate data etc and form a PPP etc. Then when they are landing in on it I can use the player layers in CC2 to let them 'discover' and ancient ruins site etc. I can give them hints and direction based on their character skills etc. I would NOT recommend putting this much effort into a complete caimpaign unless you happen to have Terabytes of storage and some heavy booster spice for you and your players. Adding some cool realism and visual details to a scenario is definitely doable.
I am used to Cad programs so it works ok for me.

Tai

 

[sandman]

http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

GREAT planet generator.


http://www.flamingpear.com/glitterato.html

Generates nice starfields.


They're both "Photoshop" plugins, but I've sucessfully used them in both "PainShop Pro" ( http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/ ) and "The Gimp" ( http://www.gimp.org/ ).

Generate the starfield, select Lunarcell and generate the planet with alpha blending, Voila, you've got that planet on the starfield without having to fiddle too much.

Quite fast too. I use it to generate 320x320 pix for my Palm, so I can show players what it looks like.

Maybe I'll try to use it on a laptop, not sure yet...

As for Fractal Terrain, I generate the actual "maps" of the planets. it can generate Elevation maps, Climate maps, Temperature maps and Precipitation maps. a wide (10+) choice of projection is also available. It can export in BMP, JPEG, CC2 and some others I don't remember.

You can also edit the maps with tools (higher temp, lower temp, edit climate, etc..)

 

[taishon]

One thing thats really cool is the ability to save in multiple files with html links..you can do this to CC2 as well as plain HTML. Once you save it in Multifile mode it loads very fast when trying to show the players. Disadvantage is that there is no zoom capability. But you can show it easily on your webpage

 

[PVernon]

I use CC2 for all of my deckplans. That said a list for the artistic side of CC2 would be a good idea. The tech side of CC2 well served by the CC2 yahoo group, see ProFantacy's web site for the actual address. (I can't remember it at the moment.) The cc2 yahoo list is montored by the designers and programers so if you need help with just about anything you get realy good service from them. Also they anounce new products their first.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I have seen some superb maps done in CC, but I can't afford it so I use Fractile Mapper. CC plans look prettier, but that may be 'cause I am a gearhead, not a designer. FM does superb terrain.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Originally posted by Sandman:
http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

Wow, thanks for the link. I just downloaded these (trial versions) and played around for a while - VERY COOL. I created a planet with LunarCell, output a rectangular map and used that as input to their Flexify plugin, which turned it into an icosahedron map. A little twiddling in Photoshop, and then I imported it into Illustrator and scaled it to fit my CT world map (cf this page, scroll down a bit) and now I've got a very cool map!

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by FlightCommanderSolitude:
Wow, thanks for the link. I just downloaded these (trial versions) and played around for a while - VERY COOL. I created a planet with LunarCell, output a rectangular map and used that as input to their Flexify plugin, which turned it into an icosahedron map. A little twiddling in Photoshop, and then I imported it into Illustrator and scaled it to fit my CT world map (cf this page, scroll down a bit) and now I've got a very cool map!

Glad to be of help... and I'll check up on their Flexify plugin... what you did seems to save some time for me

 

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Sandman:
http://www.flamingpear.com/lunarcell.html

GREAT planet generator.


http://www.flamingpear.com/glitterato.html

Generates nice starfields.


They're both "Photoshop" plugins, but I've sucessfully used them in both "PainShop Pro" ( http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/ ) and "The Gimp" ( http://www.gimp.org/ ).

How exactly do you install plug-ins for the GIMP? I've just started fiddling with it, and haven't figured that out yet.

 

[sandman]

Originally posted by Borodin:
How exactly do you install plug-ins for the GIMP? I've just started fiddling with it, and haven't figured that out yet.

Startup Gimp.

Go to the "Xtns" menu (just right of "file"

Select "Photoshop Plugin Settings"

Specify Directories (you have to enter each subfolders, Gimp doesn't do a recursive search in the base directory)

## EDIT: Verified GIMP capability to recurse dirs.

 

[themartian67]

Since you guys have played around with these programs maybe one of you can answer some questions.
Do any of these programs have a "hex grid" layout for designing deckplans and building plans?
I prefer hex over square(D20 standard). I have been looking for a program that would help me in this area.
Any suggestions?

themartian1988@yahoo.com

 

[sandman]

Can`t say about CC2 but I know that Auto-Realm does it...

 

[Tanuki]

Originally posted by wendell:
Since you guys have played around with these programs maybe one of you can answer some questions.
Do any of these programs have a "hex grid" layout for designing deckplans and building plans?
I prefer hex over square(D20 standard). I have been looking for a program that would help me in this area.
Any suggestions?

themartian1988@yahoo.com

CC2 will do that -- any size you like.

 

[themartian67]

Thanks Tanuki!
I will look closer at the info on CC2.

 

[PVernon]

CC2 has hex grids and square grids of any size, and hexes can be numbered or not as the user sees fit.

 

[kaladorn]

Hiya!

This is a great idea for a forum. I've got CC2 and CD and some other addons. I got it to do my fantasy world (and admit to having vast problems with the darn hex grids, despite being a former AutoCAD user). I use Quick Link Interactives GRIP to run an on-line traveller campaign (merged with my face-to-face game).

CC2 seemed like a great tool for ship floorplans, but someone badly needs to do some templates and some sci-fi shapes for them.

I'm in awe of some of the neat photo and map hacks you guys have done to get maps into isocahedral format and to have space images. Very cool. I'll have to look into some of these ideas.

Here's another way to do ship deckplans: I used GRIP Map to build a deckplan for use in the game (GRIP has its own format) and using GTS-0006 Deckplans tileset. I then used cut N paste to grab chunks of this image into Paint Shop Pro and paste them into one overlarge plan. Other than the legend, which I want to re-do, I'm pretty happy with it. Here it is (150Kb or so, GIF).

300 Ton Type MF Fast Trader
Deckplans

The nice thing is since I took it from the GRIPMap, I have it already in-game for GRIP.

Now, if someone can help me sort out the darn hex overlay for CC2, I'm in business there too....

Tomb Raider

 

[PVernon]

Are you using CC2Pro or CC2 v6?