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Fantasy Map


MTA Dude

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Can somebody help me find a way to start building my own fantasy map? Either a program that easily lets me edit the map, or a map that has all the lines and stops, but no stop words. Thanks.


It also has to be based on the real map, not some third party map.

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I built my own from scratch in a graphical editor. There are programs, of course, but many are paid. 

 

You have to decide whether you want a vector image or a pixel image, and you should also think about how to fit station names into Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn beforehand. It took a month for me to make mine, and it's not flexible, so you will probably want to use some kind of vector software.

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You can also use Google Maps. Go to the "?" button in the bottom right hand corner of Google Maps and click switch back to classic. Then click to My Places -> Or Create with classic My Maps

 

Once you've done that navigate to New York, NY and hover over the "Traffic" on the upper right hand corner. Click on "Transit" and lines will show up.

 

Use place-marks for stops and lines for lines. Easy!


There's no easy way. The best way is to get acquainted with Inkscape and build your own map. But if you want poor quality and quick and dirty, Msft Paint works just fine!

 

MS Paint is good for track maps in my opinion

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The best way to make a fantasy map based on the MTA map is to use some kind of vector graphics program. MS Paint, GIMP and similar image programs are quite frankly inadequate for what you really want to do. Personally, I'd recommend Adobe Illustrator, but as Tokkemon mentioned, Inkscape is also an option and it also has the added benefit of being free of charge to download. Both programs have learning curves but with the many, many tutorials around, including a few transit-based ones here.

 

Once you get past all of that, to achieve the MTA subway map style you're looking for, you will have to modify an official subway map. While they are usually password-locked, there are a myriad of websites dedicated to unlocking PDF files. A simple Google search will yield results in seconds. I should know since I was using a modified version of the subway map for my Weekender service changes map up until my redesign last June.

 

A note though. I believe Censin said this recently, but either way, it bears repeating. Trying to fit other lines onto the already geographically-altered official subway map may leave the map looking distorted in spots, especially in sections like Eastern Queens and Lower Manhattan.

 

I hope that helped somewhat.

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You can also use Google Maps. Go to the "?" button in the bottom right hand corner of Google Maps and click switch back to classic. Then click to My Places -> Or Create with classic My Maps

 

Once you've done that navigate to New York, NY and hover over the "Traffic" on the upper right hand corner. Click on "Transit" and lines will show up.

 

Use place-marks for stops and lines for lines. Easy!

 

Thanks! Works great! For now... But how do I add colors to it?

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Lance, do you use Adobe Illustrator for your maps?

I certainly am. I used to use Publisher from the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, but it didn't have enough features to speed up the mundane tasks of drawing parallel lines or breaking them into segments.
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  • 3 weeks later...

I know it has been 22 days, but it is really hard to make a fantasy map with all the words. So does anybody have a copy of the original map with no words or know where I can find one?


Sorry, I just figured it out. I'll handle it, thanks anyway.

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I know it has been 22 days, but it is really hard to make a fantasy map with all the words. So does anybody have a copy of the original map with no words or know where I can find one?

 

Sorry, I just figured it out. I'll handle it, thanks anyway.

I spent a few days of my time just on the station names and stuff. Have patience and work hard.

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...

 

I don't have a way to expand this... Sorry. I only have MS Paint and apperantly, it wasn't as good as my original copy.

 

And now I got a new problem: How do I post the finished map here with the correct size and resolution?

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also there are no stations. It is small, no east river, no stations zooming in there are no changes

 

1. There aren't supposed to be. They will get the lines first, then the stations because with the stations, the map will be very messy.

 

2. Who cares about East River? Does it really matter that there is a river there? If you want, you can add a line seperating Manhattan and Queens.

 

3. It's for others to start their own map.

Save it to an image hosting site (Imgur is a good option) and post the link here.

 

You know how I can use Weebly to do it? That's what I use to get the picture onto here.

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1. There aren't supposed to be. They will get the lines first, then the stations because with the stations, the map will be very messy.

 

2. Who cares about East River? Does it really matter that there is a river there? If you want, you can add a line seperating Manhattan and Queens.

YES IT DOES. Why are you being so lazy about it.

3. It's for others to start their own map.

What's the purpose if there are no changes?

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1. There aren't supposed to be. They will get the lines first, then the stations because with the stations, the map will be very messy.

 

2. Who cares about East River? Does it really matter that there is a river there? If you want, you can add a line seperating Manhattan and Queens.

YES IT DOES. Why are you being so lazy about it.

3. It's for others to start their own map.

What's the purpose if there are no changes?

 

 

Tell me why East River matters, plz. And there are changes. Getting the text out of the way so you can draw your lines.

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The purpose, if I'm understating this correctly, was to create a map without the station names, but still retaining the current lines, as something along the lines of a template. Personally, I don't see the appeal as I'd prefer a completely blank map, but whatever.

 

@MTA Dude: Like I said, just use an image hosting site. You don't have to host it on a blog or something like that.

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  • 5 weeks later...

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