A few battlemap previews

Colmarr · Jun 23, 2011

Morrus said:
If you liked those, you might like this....

I do indeed, but what is it? It's obviously a 3D version of the docks map, but for what purpose?

nortonweb · Jun 23, 2011

Lets you visualise the topographic layout?

Morrus · Jun 23, 2011

Colmarr said:
I do indeed, but what is it? It's obviously a 3D version of the docks map, but for what purpose?

Just a nice way to visualise the scene. It's just a little extra; I'm not even sure we'll stick with the idea, but we're runnnig off some 3D versions of the maps in the first adventure to see how they look. Sometimes maps don't quite convery the impressions of height and such very well.

Rugult · Jun 23, 2011

Morrus said:
Just a nice way to visualise the scene. It's just a little extra; I'm not even sure we'll stick with the idea, but we're runnnig off some 3D versions of the maps in the first adventure to see how they look. Sometimes maps don't quite convery the impressions of height and such very well.

I think it's a fantastic way of demonstrating heights. It will be useful to most GMs, especially for ranged combat (*cough* guns *cough*. Height is fairly important when determining cover and range, so these maps fit the bill quite nicely!

Riastlin · Jun 23, 2011

Aye, I agree with [MENTION=53273]Rugult[/MENTION]. These are a great way to visualize for things like line of sight, cover, concealment, etc. I'm not certain it will make or break things either way (i.e. the game will run perfectly fine without the 3D maps), but I certainly can see where it would help in any encounter where height can play even a modicum of a role. It can also sometimes help a DM to visualize an otherwise complicated map. The Nexus map from Siege of Bordrin's Watch in the SOW path comes to mind here. I had a lot of trouble determining if there was simply an error on the printed grid or if I was just not seeing it right.

I guess that as with most things, it's gonna come down to costs. If it costs you noticeably more to use 3D maps I'm not sure its worth the cost (as great as they are).

/fingers crossed that the cost is negligible.

Colmarr · Jun 24, 2011

Morrus said:
Just a nice way to visualise the scene. It's just a little extra

It is indeed nice, and yet another example of why EN publishing is a publisher to follow.

Riastlin said:
If it costs you noticeably more to use 3D maps I'm not sure its worth the cost (as great as they are).

/fingers crossed that the cost is negligible.

I hope the idea is to use these in addition to the normal maps, not instead of them. I can't make a MapTool map out of a 3D image.

Oh, and BTW, I fiddled around in MapTool last night and got all the preview maps to align pretty well with the MapTool grid. Not perfectly, but close enough that no one's really gonna notice. And I have to say, that hedge maze map is awesome when you throw vision blocking layers around. It's gonna drive my players mad! :devil:

Edit:

Morrus said:
It's a setting buried somewhere in your settings, but I can never remember where it is (it's one of those annoying non-intuitive loactions).

Found it. Settings > Networking > Group Memberships.

Riastlin · Jun 24, 2011

Colmarr said:
I hope the idea is to use these in addition to the normal maps, not instead of them. I can't make a MapTool map out of a 3D image.

Aye, I definitely assumed the 3D image would be in addition to the regular images, which is why I figure cost will be an issue. Its expensive enough to print/publish the image once, I'm guessing its more money to run it a second time, particularly in a 3D format. As I said, hopefully the cost is negligible enough that they can run both (at least for those encounters where elevation comes into play) its just that it won't surprise me if its too costly.

SirCharles · Jul 17, 2011

I'm really enjoying reading Island at the Axis of the World!

Seeing that there are not separate .jpgs for the battlemaps like in Wotbs (at least, not yet), I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to make these maps printable for game use. I have Paint.net and all but I do not know how to make it so that the battlemaps work for "non-virtual" gaming.

Any help is greatly appreciated

.

Marius Delphus · Jul 17, 2011

You can copy the images using Adobe Reader. In Reader 9, for example, use the Select Tool, click to highlight the map image, right-click on it, and choose Copy. Then switch to Paint.NET and paste. (In Photoshop, if you create a new image it automatically sizes the image based on what's on the Clipboard. I don't know if Paint.NET does this, but if you need a blank document open you should be safe if you start with an 8"x10" image at 300 dpi.)

rangda · Jul 18, 2011

Morrus said:
I don't think I understand.

I'll add my 2 cents in. I don't use DM software (yet) and this is largely the reason why, but I do posterize the maps and print them out on 13x19" paper, which has similar problems getting the maps into the software.

The first problem is getting the monster markers off the map, this is a huge PITA and although I don't have to do it for every map in WotBS I have to do it for some.

The second problem is that the maps don't have a correct DPI scale set in the files (although some of the WotBS maps from the first couple of modules did). What the DPI is doesn't matter nearly as much as it being set correctly in the file and you telling us what it is. The idea is that if I take the image and print it out I want the squares to print out 1", I don't want a map on a page with tiny squares. This DPI has nothing to do with the DPI you use when laying out the PDF's; the map may be 5"x5" 300 DPI in the pdf (so 1500x1500 pixels) but if it is a 100x100 square map then it's 1500/100 or 15 DPI to get the 1" squares to print out as 1" squares. This is the number that is useful to those using software (and those printing out the maps life size).

I don't know how hard it is for the map makers to supply this data, but to do it after the fact we have to guess. So for example I load a map into Photoshop and play with the DPI until each square is vaguely 1" (usually I err on the side of a bit larger as I'm using them with minis). For example most of the maps for WotBS 6 (which I just did yesterday) were ~33 DPI when you blow them up to have the squares print 1".