Feedback Thread: Maps

[Beoric]

No. I can't even tell if @squeen's suggestion will work because you already have an "A1", and I'm not sure if that is supposed to be two locations or one. Is there a reason you have to restart numbering with each building?

 

[The1True]

No. I can't even tell if @squeen's suggestion will work because you already have an "A1", and I'm not sure if that is supposed to be two locations or one. Is there a reason you have to restart numbering with each building?

Yeah. 'C' for example is a residence that goes up three floors without any further connection to the surrounding structures. In the adventure key, I plan on describing each major area ('building') discretely. So:

Heading: Habitat (dark green).
Subheading: C: {Title} (e.g. 'Wealthy Residence')
Lvl 0: 1-2
Lvl 1: 1-4
Lvl 2: 1-4

D: Apartments
Lvl 0: 1
Lvl 1: 1-4
Lvl 2: 1-4

are you suggesting instead that I number the rooms under each Heading from 1-∞ regardless of the 'building' they occupy and/or level they're on? Like:

Habitat:
C: Wealthy Residence
Lvl 0: 11-12
Lvl 1: 21-22
Lvl 2: 31-32

D: Apartments
Lvl 0: 13
Lvl 1: 23-26
Lvl 2: 33-36

I think the problem is going to remain that the reader still might not associate the numbers with the corresponding building letters and end up getting frustrated looking in the wrong place in the text as a result. Squeen's idea to put the letter and number together is solid except it clutters up the page (and is also technically difficult to do in Photoshop (expanded below)). -Which might be another problem, I might be constrained by the limitations of my software regarding adding scattered text to a large, multi-layered artwork.

My problem is definitely associating the numbers with the letters here. Thanks for confirming my fears before I got too deep into this guys! I'll have to figure something else out. I'm definitely open to suggestions!

 

[The1True]

 

[The1True]

wow. dudes, the site wouldn't let me post the above text for any reason, so I screenshotted it. But seriously, what the hell?

 

[The1True]

I gave the A1-etc. thing a shot. Like I said; technically it's a bitch, but doable I guess. Particularly, if I restart the count from 1 at every level. It's a little more cluttered, but not terrible. I just think for VTT's big room numbers obscure the map for the DM.

 

[squeen]

I don't think you need the big letters. Bump the smal font up a tick?

 

[Beoric]

I hate to say this, but maybe colour-coding the buildings, so for example in building C all coding is green?

Ultimately, though, I think your environments are just too complex and detailed for publication, and will be until you have 3D VTTs. Either you need to simplify the environment, or remove coded detail and trust the DM to improvise, or both.

 

[squeen]

You could also experiment with the number slightly descending, like a subscript.
Otherwise, works fine for me.

 

[The1True]

I hate to say this, but maybe colour-coding the buildings, so for example in building C all coding is green?

Ultimately, though, I think your environments are just too complex and detailed for publication, and will be until you have 3D VTTs. Either you need to simplify the environment, or remove coded detail and trust the DM to improvise, or both.

I'm already colour-coding the 10 greater areas of the dungeon! I'm out of colours, lol.

I hear you about the complexity. I guess this was an exercise in pushing the boundaries of what could be done with 2D mapping. Definitely, I wish Roll20 had a layers option so I could show even simple multi-level rooms (like a classic balcony or overpass situation). Unfortunately, I'm way too far in to walk away from this at this point. I've just got to find a way to make it work!

Thanks again guys!

 

[Beoric]

I'm already colour-coding the 10 greater areas of the dungeon! I'm out of colours, lol.

I hear you about the complexity. I guess this was an exercise in pushing the boundaries of what could be done with 2D mapping. Definitely, I wish Roll20 had a layers option so I could show even simple multi-level rooms (like a classic balcony or overpass situation). Unfortunately, I'm way too far in to walk away from this at this point. I've just got to find a way to make it work!

Thanks again guys!

MapTool has an isometric option, I don't know if that helps. I haven't used it since beta, so I don't know how good it is.

 

[squeen]

For today's game, a small keep made with a home-grown CAD program that's actually starting to be useful!

 

[Maynard]

This is great! Very readable stuff.

 

[squeen]

Thanks. The CAD helps get is all to scale, and makes it easy to rearrange, but ultimately I very much prefer hand-drawn maps and will redraw it.

Here's another computer-assist. I need to draw a valley for a Lost World segment of play that's coming up next. The party need to guide a mule-train of raw materials to a landmark in the valley. I totally failed in my first attempt to draw the iso-valley, so I decided I needed to look at it more formally. I made a small 3D "relief tablet" in a home-grown modeler --- it's the 24 miles x 18 mile valley in my case at 1"=1 mile scale, but it could easily be a dungeon at 1" = 10-ft scale.

Here a sketch of my big "Aha!" realization that helped me find the vanishing points.

and a zoomed in view that let's you see the horizontal units across the top. The view was rendered in my ray-tracer with setting for a 35mm lens.

 

[squeen]

The map in this one is gorgeous. The layout is really nice too.

Aberrant Reflections

By directsun Self Published B/X Levels 1-4 At the bottom of an ancient temple, beyond the mirror’s edge, lies the spot where reality was sundered. Fortune and power await those who learn its …

tenfootpole.org

 

[Two orcs]

Drawing a horrible perspective map now by eye (my eyes tells me it's skewed) but it'll be good enough for my purposes.
Edit: work in progress

 

[Two orcs]

 

[Two orcs]