Map Making Endevor

Campaign Cartographer vs AUTORealms. I've checked out campaign cartographer in youtube and compared it to my experience with AUTORealm.

CC3 is around 1G, while Autorealms is 3megs. As nice as CC3 may be, It is way beyond what I need and my budget. I have a bunch of Maps I can print out about Palestine. My problem is that these maps are incomplete as they differ from source to source and they are too small for my purposes. So I'm forced to make my own map.

One of the things bugging me is how I can get a JPG in the background so I can trace the outline of Palestine and its elements on to my own Vector based map. I also want to detail some parts, for villages and roads.

I want to use Google Earth Screenshots and layer it at the back to base my elevation colors. I don't mind, being unable to use nice looking map feature, I just need the terrain to create a strategic layout.

Making my own Crusader Palestine Map (which I'm aware it is an altered history in a way that will piss-off the current inhabitants). It was meant to reflect a more tragic turn of history, where the dark ages were extended and more human suffering continued and perpetuated.

You tube has the video tutorial of CC3. There is no youtube of AutoREALM but they look similar enough. If your used to moving between similar softwares this shouldn't be too hard. If your not, it is a useful skill: like Open office to MS word.

Mapmaking. I was inspired when I saw a HARN map. Its interesting to find out villages averaged 6km from each other (from the Medieval demographics made easy). This means that there was a source of food, lodging, and (most of all) water every 1-2 hours walk towards major channels. This 'network' got more sparse as it moved to areas with very little strategic value.

Having a village network around main roads means that major movement can be tracked quite easily. Also, the condition of villages would serve as a pulse of what is happening in a given area.

Since safety and speed would balance out as roads and paths "evolved" PCs can always opt to use their "Navigation" (GURPS) or Pathfinding skill to move towards safer or faster routes. Area knowledge or being able to dig up some information can allow PCs to dig up hidden paths used for obscure or forgotten purposes.

Anyway, i hope to find time to relearn Autorealm. Use autorealm maps in a search and see what images show up.