Hi there,
the crater map is beautiful but IMC is nearly unusable as a play-aid, because the left half ot the city is depicted as being in the shadow of the lip of the crater. This is realistic, but the map is hardly readable as a result.
As a DM, I like to add to, modify, enhance.. the maps I sue, especially city maps.I also plan to give each player an A4 version of the map with information only their characters would know, such as guilds, contacts, etc...
This means lots of private-use photocopies. The map's overall dark finish is a disadvantage in that case.
Does a pure black&white version of the map (a bit like the Diesel maps in early issues of Dungeon) exist somewhere ?
IMHO, by the way, Diesel's maps remain Dungeon's best ever published maps.
In the resources section you can download the life's bazaar web enhancement and all the maps (as seperate files). In there, you have a much cleaner map of cauldron. I think it will fit your bill quite nicely.
I see they've messed up the links. Oh well, googling should also work.
[u]Here's the image I found.[/u]
Unfortunately, that too has the shading problem...the NW half of the city is darker than the SE half.
If you have access to a decent paint program, what I'd do if I were you (tested this, it worked well) is highlight the dark half of town, increse it's brightness and contrast by 25, and see if that does what you need. It looks pretty close to me, and you have to study the map fairly close to see where the "lines" are between the two sections.