Worldographer Instruction Manual

Draft v.3

Table of ContentsInstallationGetting Started Making a World/Kingdom/Large Area MapNew World/Kingdom/Large Area Map Setup ScreenMain Map Editing WindowTitle/Menu BarMap Overview AreaView Options DrawerTerrain DrawerFeatures DrawerShapes DrawerText Labels DrawerTrace Underlay DrawerCreating 1st Edition/World Style MapsSetting Up & Editing World DataMaking a Settlement (City/Town/Village Map)New City/Town/Village Map Setup ScreenMenu Bar Changes for a Settlement MapConfigure Settlement Data DialogFAQ

AboutWorldographer is an ambitious re-design of Inkwell Ideas’ highly praised Hexographer. Worldographer is designed to not just make world maps—it makes worlds! In Worldographer, you don’t just create a map of the world: it will also create cultures, religions, nations, place nations on the map, create points of interest with details, rivers, coastlines and more. All of that can be created directly by you, or Worldographer can create it for you in just a few minutes. Most likely you’ll want to do some of it yourself, let Worldographer do some, and edit it and add to it along the way. But you may do it all yourself or you can see what Worldographer generates with little direction from you.

InstallationThere are 3 ways to install Worldographer on your computer. Each is downloaded from the http://worldographer.com/download page.

Windows

If you are using Windows 7+ and the CPU is 64 bit (most are these days), you should use the Windows version. We’ve compiled the Java version into a Windows-specific version. This may make it a little faster, but more importantly Worldographer’s Windows build allows for dynamic memory allocation. As your map grows, it can use more memory up to the limits of the computer. The Windows version is a .exe installer, so simply double-click it and follow the prompts to install.

Mac OSX

We’ve built three versions of Worldographer for Mac OSX. Each one bundles a mini-Java Virtual Machine, so you don’t need to install or configure that separately. The three versions only differ by how much memory they set aside for Worldographer to use. You should pick the one that is up to half of the memory of your Mac. For example, if your Mac has 4GB of memory, pick the 2GB version to download and install it as you would other OSX applications.

Note: You may have to allow unsigned applications to install on your computer in order for Worldographer to install. Please remember to reset this setting once Worldographer is installed.

Linux/Other

For most other modern computers, download the Java version. This will also require you to download and install Java, if you don’t have it already. Then you execute it from the command line, making sure to give it appropriate memory. For example, if your computer has 8GB of memory, you likely can give Worldographer 4GB comfortably. So launch it with the following command line:

java -Xmx4G -jar worldographer.jar

Change the 4 to any other number for a different amount of memory.

Note: Chromebooks do not run Java, so Worldographer can not run on them. (Android, Iphones, etc., also.)

64-Bit Required

Worldographer requires a 64-bit computer. If you’re using an older computer, use Worldographer’s predecessor Hexographer instead.

Updating

Occasionally, Worldographer will have new features added and bugs fixed. You’ll see an “Update Available” menu in the menu bar when a new update is available. Click that menu and then its menu item to see what has changed since you last updated. To update got to http://worldographer.com/download and re-download the software and reinstall. You do not need to uninstall the prior version.

Getting Started Making a World/Kingdom/Large Area MapOnce installed, click Worldographer’s icon in your list of applications (or run from the command line) to launch it. The first time you start it, you’ll need to read and accept the license agreement. Once done, you’ll see a pop-up asking for a license key. If you don’t see the license key pop-up when you restart Worldographer, it has already found a valid key on your computer and you are using the pro version. (You can also confirm that you’re using the Pro version by trying one of the Pro features such as Generate Rivers on the Generate menu when you have a map open. If you aren’t using the pro version, it will not create rivers and will tell you that you don’t have a Pro license.)

After the license agreement and license code/key prompts are complete, Worldographer will have a blank screen like this:

On the “File” menu, you may create a new map, load a map, import a Hexographer 1 map, and perform other File operations. To start a new map, go to “File” and select “New”. Doing so opens a window similar to this one:

New World/Kingdom/Large Area Map Setup Screen

The following notes explains each option:

• Hex Orientation: Do you want the hexes on your map oriented so they line up into columns or rows?

• Map Projection: Worldographer supports a Flat map projection and an Icosahedral projection which was made popular in the Traveller game system. Imagine a d20 unrolled and flattened into 20 triangular sections.

• Hexes Wide & High: The number of hexes in each column and row of your map respectively. Note that Worldographer does not enforce any particular scale. A hex can represent any number of miles you prefer. But we do have an article on setting up an earth-sized world at the following link: http://worldographer.com/instructions/starting-a-world-map/

• Triangle Size (not pictured above): If you switch the map projection to “Icosahedral” this setting replaces “Hexes Wide & High”. This number is how many hexes each triangle edge will have. If you’re unsure, create a map with the default value to give it a try. Then create another

with a different setting. As the window suggests toward the bottom of the screenshot, icosahedral maps work best with even numbered triangle sizes, and icosahedral maps with column hex orientations work best with triangle sizes that are multiples of 4.

• Hex Width & Height (pixels): These can be any values you want. They simply tell the program how large each hex should be. The suggestions at the bottom of the screen give some guidance on sizing proper hexagons, but if using isometric icons you’ll probably want to not use proper polygons to force a perspective. You can always change these values by using controls on the right side of an open map.

• Initial View Level: One major feature in Worldographer Pro is to have multiple map view levels in one map file. This allows you to a World map view with only major features, then a Continent level map (it has the entire world map, not just a continent, but on a smaller scale per hex and more features), and a Kingdom level map which can have every village and point of interest.

• All One Terrain vs. Generate Terrain: You can create a map of all one terrain type (you can pick blank terrain to fill it all in or you can pick the most common terrain type for your map) or have Worldographer generate a map for you. If Worldographer is generating a map, it uses the following settings:

◦ Region vs. Full World: Currently it only creates Full World maps.

◦ Land Frequency: The percentage of hexes which will have land.

◦ Mountain Frequency: The percentage of land which will have mountains.

◦ Vegetation Frequency: The percentage of land which will have forests.

◦ Temperature: Determines how wide (latitude-wise) the tropical and arctic zones are.

• #Nations: While the focus of Worldographer is creating maps, it also creates a number of cultures, nations, and religions for your world. The result can be customized by you, completely rewritten, or ignored. The number of nations you select determines how many Worldographer will create.

• Terrain Icons: Worldographer makes it easy to make maps in three styles: Classic (flat icon graphics like those in many 1980s RPG products), Isometric (more detailed graphics like those in strategy computer games), and 1st Edition/World graphics. Select Classic to use the 1st Edition/World graphics and read the Creating 1st Edition/World Style Maps section of these instructions.

Main Map Editing WindowOnce you’ve made your selections to create a new map and clicked “Generate Map”, or loaded or imported a map, you’ll get something like the following:

To generate this map, we only changed the “All one terrain” radio button to “Generate terrain”.

The window above has four main sections: Title/menu bar, main map area, mini-map & controls, and the drawers for buttons and controls.

Title/Menu BarThe title bar has a Worldographer icon plus the text “Worldographer / Hexographer 2” followed by the version number. It is very important to include the version number in any bug reports. The menu bar has the following headings & items:

File

• New: Create a new map (see “Getting Started” for detailed instructions).

• Open: Open a previously saved Worldographer file.

• Save: If a map is currently open, save it. If it was already saved, uses the same file name.

• Save As: If a map is currently open, prompt the user for a file name and save the map.

• Import Hexographer Map: Open a Hexographer (.hxm) file to view/edit in Worldographer.

• Import Hexographer Map Into Current Map: If a map is already open, this option first prompt the user for the hex row and column where the upper left corner of the new map should be placed. Then the user selects the file to import to that location.

• Export Image: Save the map as a PNG image file. This uses the current map view level and sizes.

• Export Selected Area as Image: Creates a PNG image file of the selected map area. You must select a map area first by going to the Edit→Select menu item then clicking a point on the map and drag to the opposite corner to create a rectangular selection area.

• Export to PDF: Save the maps as a PDF file. This uses the current map view level, but lets you specify the number of hexes per inch and page margins.

• Export Selected Area as PDF:

• Export Notes/Information to HTML

• Exit

Edit

• Select: Choose this menu item, then click a point on the map and drag to the opposite corner to create a rectangular selection area.

• Cut: Cuts the selected area.

• Copy: Copies the selected area.

• Paste: Pastes the selected area such that the copied or cut area is positioned that its upper left corner is in the upper left corner of the new selection area.

• Undo: Undo the last change to the map/world’s data model.

• Redo: Redo the last undo of the map/world’s data model.

• Delete: Delete the selected area or object.

Options

• Auto-update Other Map Levels: If checked, changes to this map level automatically change other map levels, if they have been created.

• Scroll Wheel Zooms In/Out: If checked, the scroll wheel will zoom in/out when the mouse is over the map.

• Add Randomness to Terrain Fills/Children: If checked, when doing paint bucket fills, creating child maps, and running the terrain wizard, Worldographer will attempt to add some randomness to the new terrain. (If the original terrain is light forest, there may be a few heavy forest terrain or forested hills terrain added.

• Autosave: If checked, Worldographer will autosave the file every 5 minutes to a filename with “autosave” added.

• Wide Terrain Placement (3 hexes across): If checked, when adding terrain to the map instead of changing one hex, a hex and all adjacent hexes will be changed.

Tools

• Expand/Shrink Columns/Rows: Opens a dialog which lets you pick a number of hexes to add or remove from each side of the map.

• Terrain Wizard: Does a nearest neighbor fill of any blank terrain on the map.

• Switch Terrain to Isometric Style: Attempts to switch all classic terrain on the map to isometric terrain.

• Switch Terrain to Classic Style: Attempts to switch all isometric terrain on the map to classic terrain.

• Convert Underlay: Opens a dialog to pick a number of terrain types. You need to have an underlay image set up (see the Trace Underlay drawer). Then Worldographer looks at the colors beneath each hex and picks the terrain for that hex that most closely matches the color.

• Configure Map Key: Opens a dialog that allows you to set up a map key.

Configure

• Save Configuration: Saves the terrain settings, feature settings, textures, label settings, etc., so a new map with the same settings can be easily created.

• Load Configuration: Loads a configuration file (terrain settings, feature settings, textures, label settings, etc.)

• Show Configuration Folder: Worldographer looks for a folder which can contain terrain, features, and textures. These can be set up to be automatically available in a Worldographer map if you place them in this folder and name them correctly. This menu item shows the path to this folder. More details are available here: http://worldographer.com/instructions/how-to-easily-add-custom-icons/

• Change Configuration Folder: If you want Worldographer to look for a different configuration folder, this menu item allows you to change it.

• Add Custom Terrain: Opens a file chooser which you can use to add new terrain.

• Add Custom Feature: Opens a file chooser which you can use to add new feature(s).

• Add Custom Texture: Opens a file chooser which you can use to add new texture(s).

• Configure Terrain: Prompts you to select a terrain type, then opens a dialog allowing you to edit all terrain of that type. (Change background color, icon, icons size, default elevation, or remove that terrain type.)

• Configure Features: Opens a dialog allowing you to add/remove features, change icons and change the default size of each feature.

• Configure Textures: Opens a dialog where you can add, remove, and change textures.

• Configure Settlement Data: Opens the Configure Settlement Data dialog. This is a complex dialog. See the Configure Settlement Data Dialog section.

Generate

Note the Generate menu changes for Settlement and Battlemat maps. See those sections for details.

• (Re)Generate Map Level: Creates or re-creates a map level. Lets you pick the map level to base the new level on and which level is the new level and the ratio of hexes between the parent and child map. Note: you must create the Continent level map before going from World to Kingdom or vice versa.

• Generate Coasts: Selecting this causes each water hex that is adjacent to at least one land hex partially fill in with land on any side it is adjacent to land.

• Generate Rivers: Prompts you for the number of rivers to add to the map and attempts to add them in a logical manner. (Generally flowing downhill.)

• Generate Nations/Empires

Data

• Update World/Name Data File: Worldographer has a built-in data file used to create names and details about the world. You can get a copy from the Worldographer website. Then customize or rewrite that file. Use this menu item to replace the built-in file with your version.

• World Info: Opens a dialog with a tree view on the left side listing the cultures, nations, and religions of the world. The right side is a text editing window displaying information about the selected culture, nation, religion, etc. Worldographer initially generates these cultures, religions, and nations along with a few bullet points for each.

• Terrain Stats: Opens a dialog displaying what percentage of the map is each terrain type.

Help

• License: Shows the end user license agreement.

Map Overview Area

The miniature map area shows a very small version of the overall map and several related controls.

• Miniature Map: A small version of the current map. In order to draw quickly, it only draws the terrain background color. A green semi-transparent box shows the map area currently shown in the main map area. Drag it to move the area shown in the main map area.

• Pan button: Selecting this allows you to move the main map’s current view area by dragging the mouse within the main map area.

• Refresh button: Redraws the miniature map.

• Level drop-down selector: Allows you to switch between map view levels (World, Continent, and Kingdom). If the map hasn’t already generated the new map level, it will prompt you to select the ratio of hexes in the new map compared to the parent map. Note: you must create the Continent level map before going from World to Kingdom or vice versa.

• Hex Width & Height boxes: Number of pixels each hex is wide and high.

• “+” & “-” buttons: Zoom in or out by increasing the current hex width & height by 50% or decreasing by 25%.

• Preserve Aspect Ratio checkbox: If checked, manual changes to Hex Width or Height will automatically change the other value proportionally.

View Options Drawer

The view options drawer has a number of settings related to what is viewable on the map.

• Add/Edit/View Note button: Shows all notes on the map with a colored box. Clicking on one will open it for editing. Click on the map where there is no note will add a new note at that location. Editing or adding a note opens a dialog where you can enter a title, give the note on the map a color (yellow is the default) and enter details/description.

• Show Notes checkbox: This must be checked to see the small colored squares which indicate notes on the map.

• Show GM Only Items checkbox: Terrain, features, shapes, and text labels can all be set to GM Only. Toggling this checkbox on will show them on the map. If unchecked, they will not draw.

• Add Red Glow to GM Only Items checkbox: Adds a red glow around terrain, features, shapes, and text labels that are GM Only, but only if the Show GM Only Items is also selected.

• Hide Objs w/Tags textbox: Features, shapes, and text labels my have tags (see the respective drawers). Any item with a tag that contains the text entered in this textbox will not be displayed. Items without tags will be displayed in either case.

• Show Objs w/Tags textbox: Features, shapes, and text labels my have tags (see the respective drawers). Any item with a tag that contains the text entered in this textbox will be displayed, but items with other tags will not be shown. Items without tags will be displayed in either case.

• Show Grid checkbox: If selected, borders around each hex will be displayed.

• Show Grid configure button: Opens a dialog allowing you to set the width and color of the grid. The dialog lets you change the color/width of the current map level’s grid and the world level grid (if viewing the continent level) and the world and continent level grid if you are currently viewing the kingdom level. You may also show a square grid. This grid may be set up to match the hex grid as closely as possible, or to use its own width, height, and offsets.

• Show Numbering checkbox: Will display a row and column number for each hex, based on the configuration. (See next point.)

• Show Numbering configure button: Opens a dialog where you can set the numbering’s font, color, style, size, placement in the hex, whether the numbers are column then row or vice versa, if the numbering is above everything or just above the terrain, the first number for the column and row, a separator, and how much to pre-pad each number (007 vs. 07 vs. 7 for example).

Terrain Drawer

The terrain drawer is primarily used to let you select a terrain type and click a hex on the map to change that hex to the new terrain type. In includes a number of other terrain related controls.

• Filter textbox: Text in this box is used to filter the terrain buttons. For example, type “forest” (and press enter) and only terrain buttons with terrain names that include “forest” will be displayed.

• Terrain types drop-down: You can also filter the terrain buttons by terrain type: Favorites (see “Terrain buttons” below for more about favorites), Classic, Isometric Columns, Isometric Rows, Cosmic, and the default which is All Terrain.

• Paint Bucket checkbox: Checking this box will cause clicking on the map when a terrain button is selected to act like a paint bucket. In other words instead of changing the terrain of one hex, the click hex is changed and any adjacent terrain with the same original type is changed to the

new type and all adjacent matching terrain of the same original type to those will be changed and so on.

• Terrain buttons: Select a terrain by clicking a terrain button. Then click on the map and that hex will change to the terrain you selected. Right click a terrain button and a pop-up menu allows you to add it to the list of “Favorites.” If it is already a favorite, the pop-up menu lets you remove it. See Terrain types drop-down above for more.

• Select button: Select this button, then click a hex on the map. That hex becomes selected and the Icy and GM Only checkboxes as well as the values in the elevation, animals, brick, crops, gems, lumber, metals, and rock text boxes all reflect the values of that hex’s terrain. Changing these checkboxes and text boxes will change the selected terrain’s values.

• Make Coastline button: Select this button, then click any water hex that is adjacent to at least one land hex. The water hex will partially fill in with land on any side it is adjacent to land.

• Configure button (Gear icon): Prompts you to select a terrain type, then opens a dialog allowing you to edit all terrain of that type. (Change background color, icon, icons size, default elevation, or remove that terrain type.)

• Override BG Checkbox and color selector: If some terrain on the map needs a different background color than the rest of the terrain on the map, select this checkbox and use the color selector to pick the background color.

• Icy checkbox: Selecting this makes the terrain’s background color white.

• GM Only checkbox: Selecting this makes the terrain “GM Only”. It will not appear if “Show GM Only Items” is not selected in the “View Options” drawer.

• Elevation number box: The average elevation of this hex.

• Animals, Brick, Crops, Gems, Lumber, Metals, and Rock number boxes: The prevalence of each of these resources in the selected hex, on a scale of 0 to 100.

• Use these values for new terrain checkbox: If selected, the current elevation and resource values will be used for any new terrain placed/changed instead of the default values. (The defaults have some randomness built-in. For example a light forest hex doesn’t always have a wood value of 40, it is a value between 30 and 50.)

Features Drawer

The Features Drawer is similar to the Terrain Drawer but it contains all the icons that are points of interest (castles, cities, ruins, etc.) as well as Terrain that isn’t hex-based.

• Filter textbox: Text in this box is used to filter the feature buttons. For example, type “city” (and press enter) and only features buttons with feature names that include “city” will be displayed.

• Feature types drop-down: You can also filter the feature buttons by feature type: Favorites (see “Terrain buttons” below for more about favorites), Classic, Cosmic, Creature, Isometric, Lineart, Perspective, Resource, and the default which is All Features.

• Feature buttons: Select a feature by clicking a feature button. Then click on the map and the feature you selected will be added to the map. Right click a feature button and a pop-up menu allows you to add it to the list of “Favorites.” If it is already a favorite, the pop-up menu lets you remove it. See Feature types drop-down above for more.

• Configure button (Gear icon): Opens a dialog allowing you to add/remove features, change icons and change the default size of each feature.

• Select button: Select this button, then click a feature on the map and that feature becomes selected. On the map, it is surrounded by a rectangle and the corners can be dragged to resize the icon. Another dot appears at the 3:00 position if the feature’s rotation is set to 0 which can be dragged to rotate the icon. In addition, the rest of the controls in the drawer will change the selected feature.

• Notes of Selected button: Opens a dialog with a title and text description. In some cases, such as for cities, castles, and ruins, a default description is generated if one doesn’t yet exist.

• Delete button: Deletes the currently selected feature.

• Change Z-Axis buttons: Allows you to move the currently selected feature to the top of all features, above one other partly overlapping feature, below one other partly overlapping feature, or below all features respectively.

• Hide Terrain Icon checkbox: If selected, the terrain under this feature will not show its icon.

• Place Freely checkbox: If selected, do not place this feature in the center of a hex.

• Override color checkbox and color selector: If selected, recolor the feature with the selected color.

• Fill Hex Bottom checkbox: If selected, the terrain under this feature will have its bottom 1/3 filled with black.

• Add Ring checkbox and color selector: If selected, the feature will be surrounded with a ring of the selected color.

• Override Default Scale checkbox & number box: If selected, the feature’s default size will be ignored and the value (as a percentage of the hex’s width) in the number box will be used.

• Scale Height Independent checkbox and number box: If selected and Override Default Scale is also selected, then the number box’s value will be used for height while the number box above is used for the with of the feature.

• Rotate number box: Number of degrees to rotate the feature.

• GM Only checkbox: Selecting this makes the feature “GM Only”. It will not appear if “Show GM Only Items” is not selected in the “View Options” drawer.

• Tags textbox: Short description words about the feature. They can be used to show or hide features. See the “Hide Objs w/Tags” and “Show Objs w/Tags” checkboxes in the “View Options” drawer.

• World, Continent, and Kingdom checkboxes: Check or un-check these depending on if you want the feature to display on that view level map. You can not un-check a feature on the map level you are currently viewing.

• Label textbox: Text to display as a label. It appears on the map just under the feature it is associated with.

• Label Style drop-down: Choose the label style associated with this label. Or select “No Preset Style” to use the controls below this drop-down.

• Label Font drop-down: Use this drop-down to select the label’s font if the above Label Style drop down is set to “No Preset Style”.

• Label Color color selector: Use this to select the label text color if the above Label Style drop down is set to “No Preset Style”.

• Outline Color checkbox and color selector: Use the checkbox to turn on/off a text outline and use the color selector to choose the outline color if the above Label Style drop down is set to “No Preset Style”.

• Size number box: If the above Label Style drop down is set to “No Preset Style”, sets the height of the text as a percentage of the hex’s height.

• Bold & Italic checkboxes: Make the label’s text bold or italic if the above Label Style drop down is set to “No Preset Style”.

• Feature Decoration Copy/paste Symbols: Feature decorations are symbols or letters which will appear around the feature at a specified clock position. They were originally used to denote if a star system has a military base, space station, etc. on star/sector maps. They can also be used to denote the strength of a castle, number of troops in a location, etc. This textbox includes many symbols commonly used, but difficult to type. Simply copy one you need, and paste it in the textbox below.

• Feature Decoration checkbox: Turns on/off this row’s feature decoration.

• Feature Decoration textbox: Enter text to display as the feature decoration in the textbox. One character is best.

• Feature Decoration position drop-down: Select a clock position for the decoration’s location.

• Feature Decoration color selector: Select the color for the feature decoration.

Shapes Drawer

The shapes drawer allows you to create or edit ovals, polygons, lines, etc. These are typically used for roads, rivers, coastlines, country borders, etc.

• New Arc/Oval: Select this if you wish to start to draw a new arc or oval. Then click on the map and drag to another part of the map. The point where you click and the point where you release will serve as the “bounding box” of the arc/oval. (Bounding box: imagine a rectangle that can just barely fit the arc or oval.)

• New Polygon: Select this if you wish to start to draw a new polygon. Click points on the map (or drag) and a polygon will be formed with the points you place.

• New Line: Select this if you wish to start to draw a new line. Click points on the map (or drag) and a line will be formed with the point you place.

• New Curve: Select this if you wish to start to draw a new curve. This creates a bezier curve once you place 4 points and every three points thereafter. The first point is the initial point, the next two points are control points and the fourth point is the next point of the line. This is followed by two more control points then another point of the line and so on.

• Select: Select this button and then click a shape on the map to select it.

• De-select/Start New: De-selects the currently selected shape, allowing you to create or select another shape.

• Delete: Deletes the currently selected shape.

• Preset drop-down: Allows you to choose between a number of presets (road, river, etc.) of various line ypes, colors, textures, border widths, etc.

• Add/Replace Preset button: Will replace the values of a selected preset. To add a new preset, set the Preset drop-down to blank. It will then prompt you for a name for the new preset.

• Delete Preset: Delete the preset selected in the Preset drop-down.

• Type drop-down: Select the type of line stroke: Simple, dashed, dotted, elevation, elevation inverted, and railroad.

• Fractal checkbox: If selected, makes a line or polygon you are drawing into a fractal. (Adds several points between every two points you add.)

• Width number box: Sets the thickness of the line/border as a percentage of a hex’s width. Set this to 0 for no border.

• Color radio button and color selector in the Stroke (Border) section: Select this radio button if you want a simple color stroke/border and use the color selector to pick the color.

• Texture radio button, configure button, and drop-down in the Stroke (Border) section: Select this radio button if you want a textured stroke/border and use the drop-downr to pick the texture. The configure button (gear icon) opens a dialog where you can add, remove, and change textures.

• Color radio button and color selector in the Fill section: Select this radio button if you want a simple color fill and use the color selector to pick the color.

• Texture radio button, configure button, and drop-down in the Fill section: Select this radio button if you want a textured stroke/border and use the drop-down to pick the texture. The configure button (gear icon) opens a dialog where you can add, remove, and change textures.

• Opacity number box: Make the shape semi-transparent by changing this to a value less than 100%.

• Tags textbox: Short description words about the shape. They can be used to show or hide shapes. See the “Hide Objs w/Tags” and “Show Objs w/Tags” checkboxes in the “View Options” drawer.

• World, Continent, and Kingdom checkboxes: Check or un-check these depending on if you want the shape to display on that view level map. You can not un-check a shape’s map level you are currently viewing.

• Layer Placement drop-down: sometimes you may want a shape to be placed above all terrain, above just the water or below everything. Use this drop-down to select the layer placment.

• GM Only checkbox: Selecting this makes the feature “GM Only”. It will not appear if “Show GM Only Items” is not selected in the “View Options” drawer.

• Snap Points checkbox: selecting this checkbox will make each point of the shape you place snap to the nearest hex vertex. It also may snap to the nearest spot ¼, ½, or ¾ of the way across (horizontally or vertically) the hex.

• Line Cap drop-down: Should the lines be squared off, butted, or rounded. Use this selector to choose.

• Line Join drop-down: Use this drop down to determine if line joint should be rounded, mitered, or beveled.

• Arc Options Start Angle and Extent Angle number boxes: Change these values to something besides 0 and 360 respectively to not have a fully filled in oval. Note: 0 degrees is the 3:00 position and it continues counter-clockwise. The Start Angle represents where the fill will start, and the extent is how many degrees around the circle will be filled. Example: A start angle of 90 and an extent angle of 270 will result in a circle where the upper right quadrant is empty.

• Arc Options Closure Type drop-down: This selector determines how tthe empty area in the circle (if any) will be closed off. “Round” will cut the entire section out, all the way to the center. “Chord” will simply connect the start and extent points and fill inside. “Open” works like “Chord” but the stroke/border of the circle will not be drawn in the cut section.

• Drop Shadow checkbox: If selected, adds a drop shadow according to the options selected below.

◦ Spread: The denseness of the shadow.

◦ Radius: The thickness of the shadow, as a percentage of a hex.

◦ Offset X: Percentage of a hex to shift the shadow horizontally.

◦ Offset Y: Percentage of a hex to shift the shadow vertically.

◦ Color: The drop shadow’s color.

• Inner Shadow checkbox: If selected, adds a shadow effect to the inside of the shape according to the options selected below.

◦ Choke: The denseness of the shadow.

◦ Radius: The thickness of the shadow, as a percentage of a hex.

◦ Offset X: Percentage of a hex to shift the shadow horizontally.

◦ Offset Y: Percentage of a hex to shift the shadow vertically.

• Box Blur checkbox: If selected, blurs the entire shape according to the options selected below.

◦ Width: Width of blur effect.

◦ Height: Height of blur effect.

◦ Iterations: How may times to apply the blur effect.

• Gradient Edge checkbox: Currently unused.

Finally, note that the points of a selected shape can be:

• Moved by holding down the control key and dragging the point.

• Deleted by holding down the shift key and dragging the point.

• Add a point in the middle of the shape by holding down the alt key and clicking. This adds a point between the nearest two other points. It can then be moved as needed. (See above.)

Text Labels Drawer

Adding and editing labels is done using the Text labels drawer.

• New Text Label button: Places a label on the map with the text and settings specified in the controls below.

• Select button: Click this button and then click a label on the map to select it.

• De-select/Start New: De-selects the currently selected shape, allowing you to create or select another shape.

• Delete: Deletes the currently selected shape.

• Text text box: Enter the text of the label here.

• Label Style drop-down: Select the label’s style using this drop-down. A style has a font, color, outline color, size, and if it is bold and/or italic.

• Label Style configure button (gear icon): This button opens a dialog which lists the label styles and each style’s font, color, outline color, size, and if it is bold and/or italic. These can be edited, removed, or new styles added (using the “Add Row” button at the bottom).

• Rotate number box: Number of degrees to rotate the label.

• GM Only checkbox: Selecting this makes the label “GM Only”. It will not appear if “Show GM Only Items” is not selected in the “View Options” drawer.

• Tags textbox: Short description words about the label. They can be used to show or hide labels. See the “Hide Objs w/Tags” and “Show Objs w/Tags” checkboxes in the “View Options” drawer.

• World, Continent, and Kingdom checkboxes: Check or un-check these depending on if you want the feature to display on that view level map. You can not un-check a label on the map level you are currently viewing.

• Custom Style Options: If you do not select a label style, the following values are used for the label:

◦ Label Font drop-down: Use this drop-down to select the label’s font.

◦ Label Color color selector: Use this to select the label text color.

◦ Outline Color checkbox and color selector: Use the checkbox to turn on/off a text outline and use the color selector to choose the outline color.

◦ Size number box: Sets the height of the text as a percentage of the hex’s height.

◦ Bold & Italic checkboxes: Make the label’s text bold or italic.

Trace Underlay Drawer

Trace Underlay allows you to place a picture (usually another map) under the map you’re creating in Worldographer in order to place terrain & features. There is also a Covert Underlay feature that will attempt to do much of this for you by matching up colors on the Tools menu.

• Select File button: Opens a file chooser to allow you to pick th file to trace.

• Remove button: If you no longer wish to trace the underlay image, click this to remove it.

• Opacity % number box: Controls how transparent to make the map you are creating, so you can see the image you’re tracing better or worse. The higher the number, the more difficult it is to see the image underneath.

• Top Left X (px) number box: How far across (in pixels) to shift the image.

• Top Left Y (px) number box: How far vertically (in pixels) to shift the image.

• Image Width (%) number box: Resize the width of the image under the map with this setting.

• Image Height (%) number box: Resize the width of the image under the map with this setting.

Creating 1st Edition/World Style Maps

To create maps in a 1st edition style, you’ll want to do something different than just going to the Worldographer World/Kingdom Map Setup Screen and clicking generate map.

You will first want to change a few things on the Configure Terrain screen. Go to the Configure Menu and select “Configure Terrain” then select “Classic” terrain to edit. The 1st edition style maps use a few different symbols for hills and mountains and place them differently. On that screen, scroll down to the Hills row and click remove image. Do the same for Mountains. Then click “Apply” and “Close.”

Then go to the New World/Kingdom Map on the File menu and select “All One Terrain” and choose the “Water Ocean” terrain type. Set up the map to the size you’d like. Then click “Generate Map”.

Place terrain as you’d like. Rough out the land with Farmland Terrain. Add Hills, Mountains, Forests, Swamps and Deserts as you’d like. These terrain types had background colors that matched the hex borders and in the case of Deserts, the icons used were similar to the classic terrain built into Worldographer.

Next add the icons for the mountains, hills, and forest terrain. These will be done using features. On the Features drawer, select “Lineart” in the drop-down list near the top so just those show. Then make sure “Place Freely” on the right side is checked so your icons won’t snap to the center of hexes. It is best to work from the back/top of the map forward so icons near the front/bottom aren’t covered by those above/higher. If you do get out of order, select an icon (click the “Select Feature” button then select the feature on the map by clicking roughly in the middle of it) and use the “Change Z-Axis” buttons on the right side of the Features drawer to adjust it. As you place the icons, you may want to adjust the width and heights using the “Override Default Scale” and “Scale Height Independent” checkboxes and number spinners. However, the images are sized so this isn’t necessary.

Making a Settlement (City/Town/Village Map)The user interface and controls for making a settlement are designed to be similar to a world or kingdom map’s controls. Of course, there are differences because of the scales and approaches.

New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen

The left side of the image above is virtually identical to the left side of the New World/Kingdom/Large Area Map Setup Screen. See that section for detailed descriptions of each item.

The right side allows you to control how the settlement is generated. How many people are in it? Does it have a wall? What is the street layout like? And so on. The following notes explain each line:

• Blank Map: If this checkbox is selected, the system will not generate any roads, coasts, rivers, etc. It will only create a settlement map with a background texture. You may then hand place all the roads, buildings, etc., or have the system generate them one at a time using the Generate menu. This allows you to make changes to the prior step before you choose the next step.

• Background Texture/Color: Select the radio button for whether you want the map background to be a texture or color, then use the texture drop down or color chooser to pick the specific color or texture.

• Population: The selected number of people is used as the basis for the number of buildings automatically placed on the map. Once it places special buildings (inns, temples, blacksmiths, etc.) it divides the population number by 4 and attempts to place that number of additional

remaining buildings. (See the Configure Settlement Dialog for details on special buildings and remaining buildings.) The Dense Buildings checkbox will attempt to place many of the buildings adjacent and close together on the streets nearest the city center, if checked.

• Coast: If the has coast checkbox is selected, the generator attempts to add a coast beginning at the clock position chosen in the first drop-down and ending at the clock position of the second. So a coast beginning at 9:00 and ending at 4:00 would start at the middle left of the map and extend clockwise across the top of the map and end over half way down the right side.

• River: As coast, but the river begins at one clock position and crosses the map to end at the other clock position.

• Main Road 1: Settlements are centered where two road meet. The first road will start at the first clock position and cross the map to end at the other clock position. The windy-ness number spinner lets you specify if the main roads should be straight (value 0), have some occasional bends (something like 1), or meander a lot (a value like 5). The windy-ness can be a decimal and go higher, but higher numbers don’t have much additional effect.

• Main Road 2: As Main Road 1, but there is a checkbox to make the second road perpendicular to the first. If checked, the Main Road 2 clock positions are ignored.

• Road Texture/Color: Select the radio button for whether you want the roads to be a texture or color, then use the texture drop down or color chooser to pick the specific color or texture.

• Has Wall: Check this box if you’d like a wall around a portion of the city. Main roads can go through walls (at a gatehouse) but regular streets do not. The #Towers selector lets you specify the number of tower on the wall, evenly spaced. The Radius spinner is the number of hexes for the radius of the wall from the city center.

• Street Layout: The system has several algorithms to generate the streets of the settlement. “Branching” and “Haphazard” give organic, disorganized, but plausible results. “Ordered” makes streets that are parallel to one of the main roads, and another set of roads perpendicular to those. Very ordered makes two sets of roads: one parallel to one main road, the other set parallel to the other. “Random” randomly chooses between the other 4 options.

◦ #Streets: The total number of streets the system attempts to add to the map.

◦ Skip Chance %: For “Ordered” and “Very Ordered” street layouts, essentially a grid is created. This percentage is the chance that the street layout will be missing any given street. (Which will result in a double-sized block.) This value is ignored for the other street layouts.

• Vegetation: The percentage (roughly) of the map to cover with each of the three types of vegetation. Note: if the map is small and/or has many roads & buildings, it will be hard for the system to find spots for all the vegetation and it may not place as much.

Menu Bar Changes for a Settlement MapWhen creating a Settlement Map, the Generate Menu removes any world/kingdom mapping options and adds a number of options used to generate aspects of a city, town, or village. Usually, you’ll want to do these in the order in the list because you’ll want to add a coast (if you want one) before you place roads so the roads aren’t in the ocean; you’ll want to add the streets before placing buildings so the buildings have spots to be placed; and so on.

Generate

• Generate Coasts: Choosing this opens a dialog with options for the coastline. As in the New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen, this dialog prompts you for clock positions to start and end the coastline on your map, going clockwise. So a coast beginning at 9:00 and ending at 4:00 would start at the middle left of the map and extend clockwise across the top of the map and end over half way down the right side.

• Generate River: As Generate Coasts, but the river begins at one clock position and crosses the map to end at the other clock position.

• Generate Main Roads: Opening this dialog allows you to specify how two main roads are generated and will then place them. It also duplicates a few options on the New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen

◦ Main Road 1: Settlements are centered where two road meet. The first road will start at the first clock position and cross the map to end at the other clock position. The windy-ness number spinner lets you specify if the main roads should be straight (value 0), have some occasional bends (something like 1), or meander a lot (a value like 5). The windy-ness can be a decimal and go higher, but higher numbers don’t have much additional effect.

◦ Main Road 2: As Main Road 1, but there is a checkbox to make the second road perpendicular to the first. If checked, the Main Road 2 clock positions are ignored.

◦ Road Texture/Color: Select the radio button for whether you want the roads to be a texture or color, then use the texture drop down or color chooser to pick the specific color or texture.

• Generate Wall: Usually, if you want the city to have a wall, you place it after the two main roads are placed but before smaller streets. The wall automatically places gate-houses where main roads cross the wall. The streets won’t cross a wall, but the wall must be placed first. The dialog has the following options: The #Towers selector lets you specify the number of tower on the wall, evenly spaced. The Radius spinner is the number of hexes for the radius of the wall from the city center.

• Generate Streets: This dialog also duplicates options on the New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen:

◦ Street Layout: The system has several algorithms to generate the streets of the settlement. “Branching” and “Haphazard” give organic, disorganized, but plausible results. “Ordered” makes streets that are parallel to one of the main roads, and another set of roads perpendicular to those. Very ordered makes two sets of roads: one parallel to one main road, the other set parallel to the other. “Random” randomly chooses between the other 4 options.

◦ #Streets: The total number of streets the system attempts to add to the map.

◦ Skip Chance %: For “Ordered” and “Very Ordered” street layouts, essentially a grid is created. This percentage is the chance that the street layout will be missing any given street. (Which will result in a double-sized block.) This value is ignored for the other street layouts.

◦ Road Texture/Color: Select the radio button for whether you want the roads to be a texture or color, then use the texture drop down or color chooser to pick the specific color or texture.

• Generate/Place Buildings: As on the New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen the selected number of people for Population is used as the basis for the number of buildings automatically placed on the map. Once it places special buildings (inns, temples, blacksmiths, etc.) it divides the population number by 4 and attempts to place that number of additional remaining buildings. (See the Configure Settlement Dialog for details on special buildings and remaining buildings.) The Dense Buildings checkbox will attempt to place many of the buildings adjacent and close together on the streets nearest the city center, if checked. Note: in the Free version, you may not place more than 5000 people at a time.

• Generate Vegetation: This dialog duplicates the vegetation options on the New City/Town/Village Map Setup Screen. Each number spinner is the percentage (roughly) of the map to cover with each of the three types of vegetation. Note: if the map is small and/or has many roads & buildings, it will be hard for the system to find spots for all the vegetation and it may not place as much.

Configure Settlement Data DialogThis dialog allows you to specify the frequency of different special building types, who works or lives in them and what they have for sale and their prices, as well as the names of stores, racial makeup of the settlement and more.

The dialog has four main tabs and a few buttons at the bottom. The buttons are:

• Load Configuration: Allows you to load an xml file with settlement configuration data.

• Save Configuration: Save the settlement configuration data as an xml file. This will apply any unsaved changes before it saves.

• Close: Close the dialog with no further changes.

• Apply: Saves any changes made to the data on all of the tabs.

Building Placement Tab

This tab controls which building types and how many are added to the map when you Generate/Place Buildings (on the Generate Menu or when creating a new map). Each row represents a different building type. It has the following columns:

• Key: The key is used to match up this row of values to features in the system. It will specifically only look for features that start with “structure” in the name. (So if using custom icons, you’ll want to place them in a “structure” subfolder of a “features” folder in your “worldographer” folder. (See Show Configuration Folder and Change Configuration Folder in the Configure Menu section earlier for more details.) It is important to know that this matching can apply to multiple feature types. For example, if the key is Medieval Inn, and there are features Medieval Inn A and Medieval Inn B, this row of data will apply to both. However, if you create a

Medieval Inn B row, only that row of data will apply for Medieval Inn B. The Medieval Inn row will be used for Medieval Inn A (and any others such as Medieval Inn C). This is useful because you can rename that row simply Inn and if you add a dwarven set of icons with a Dwarven Inn, then that Inn row will apply to your Medieval Inns and Dwarven Inn. However, if you want to keep the Dwarven Inn separate, give it its own row with Dwarven Inn as the key.

• #/Population: The number of people in settlement required in order to place one of these items. For example, if the population you add is 5000, and the #/Population is set to 5000, one of these buildings will be placed. If the settlement’s population is 4000, none will be placed; if it is 10000 two will be placed; at 12000 still just two would be placed.

• On Road?: If checked, this building type will only be placed adjacent to a road. If unchecked, it may be anywhere on the map.

• Is Farm?: Some city generation algorithms in the future may use this, but it is currently ignored.

• Placement: Should the building be placed near the center of the city, away from the city center, or anywhere?

• Distance: If placement is set to near or far, how many hexes away from the city center is the dividing point?

• Dense?: Currently not used. For dense building placement, there is a checkbox when you open a dialog to place buildings.

• Remove: Check this box to remove this row of data when you next click “Apply”.

• Add Row: Adds a new row to the bottom of the list. You may need to scroll down to it.

Building Details Tab

This tab allows you to specify the types of people in a building and the items it has. For example, an inn will have some wait staff, cooks, an owner/manager, a number of patrons, room prices, a drink menu, food menu, etc. The data used to randomly determine all of that can be entered using this screen.

FAQ

How many computers can I install Worldographer one with one license key?

Up to 3 at a time.

May I use maps created with Worldographer in products I wish to publish?

Yes! Read the full terms of our license (see the help menu in the program) but the main caveats are:

• Place a credit such as “Map made with Worldographer” adjacent to the map or in the corner.

• While we give you our permission, that doesn’t mean someone else won’t have a problem if they feel your map or its symbols are too similar to theirs. We can’t accept any responsibility for the actions of others.