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Large Map Type Preference (Patreon)

Published:
2020-08-05 20:33:59
Imported:
2021-06

Content

Hey folks!

So, this poll is about a month in the making after the patron survey results in late June. Among many pieces of actionable feedback in that survey, it appeared that there was a fair deal of interest in creating larger-scope maps. In that initial survey analysis, I told you I would create a couple of 'prototypes' of what those could look like in order to give you a better idea of what I had in mind. This poll is that followup; I'd love to know what you thought of them!

The first such direction was last month's Ruins of Rakmalia 'mega map' that covers the area of approximately 2x my regular battle maps for a total of 22x34 squares. This was effectively, just taking two of the five 'paid map' releases that I do each month and very intentionally creating them adjacent to each other so they could form a 'mega map'. Advantages being that this ends up very close to my regular way of doing things while getting cool, merged, 'mega' maps with the accepted smaller disadvantage of forcing both of those battle maps to be within the exact same 'theme'.

The second direction was today's Forest Maps Collection, a set of 9 battle maps covering a total of 51x66 squares. Like the Rakmalia maps, they are seamless with one another (in the correct order of usage) and can be used as one super-mega-map or as 9 separate maps as needed. The advantage here of course being quantity over quality; you all get to expand the collection of maps within a certain theme (e.g. Forests) quite quickly, however the majority of the map(s) was made with assets, not hand drawn like the Rakmalia maps. BUT I'm releasing the whole thing as 1 paid post, not 2 like Rakmalia.

So, having seen some of these methods in action, I would sincerely love to get some feedback on what you all are thinking. I've put a fairly nuanced amount of poll options below and you can choose more than one of them, but please also feel free to leave comments below to explain further. The poll closes in one week, thank you!

Comments

Anonymous

I like the idea of having a collection of maps similar to the forest collection that’s open to further enhancement with all the other assets. That way we can have some variety of baseline terrain we can use to Build our unique encounters upon.

venatusmaps
>>41671848

Hmm okay, so for the forest collection as an example, does that look like just grass+roads? Or maybe with just the trees along the edges? All trees, but nothing else?

Anonymous
>>41671848

I think the forest collection accomplished my vision well enough. I was envisioning more varied terrain, like elevation changes and unique features like various ruins, etc. maybe interesting foliage, maybe a grove... (stuff that’s hard to use assets to build) a section with a bit of water maybe? nothing too specific so we can sprinkle in assets and build to suit.. yet still provide basic variety as a springboard. I am a huge fan of the road assets for example. It’s pretty versatile and I like the variations of road configurations on the forest collection. I can pick one of those maps and build off of it.

Anonymous

Your maps are really cool, but I am more interested in the asset packs. Keep up the good work!

CaptReynolds

I love the idea of fairly simplistic collections made with assets, as they are really flexible and easier to use. Not to mention easier to customize yourself. The occasional mega map is also sweet for climactic encounters like boss battles. I love them both!

Phergus

The Collection style has decent chance of me finding use for one or more of the pieces by themselves or with two or more in a larger map. Maps like Rakmalia, while gorgeous, have a near zero chance of ever finding a place in my games. And that's okay. I'm mostly here for the asset packs and I'm getting more than my money's worth.

Anonymous

The asset lacks are all I'm really after. Maps do look good though and provide some inspiration.

Anonymous

The map collections feel like potentially a cool thing to do as a followup to a new asset pack? (not as all in one post, but like a second seperate followup). I like the custom aspects of the mega maps, (that's the option I voted for) or the smaller maps from before. The collections are still cool, just maybe less often?

Anonymous

So, the forest collection pack really reminded me of the board game Carcassonne and got me to think that these tileable map packs could work really well. In the existing forest collection, you have a set order for the 9 maps, but what you also could do it make maps that can be tiled differently. Basically just make maps where multiple line up with each other depending on rotation and such. Some with little special landmarks like maybe a ruin or something that would be hard to replicate otherwise which could be interspersed. This would make for lots of different maps that can be made almost on the fly by just rearranging different tiles. That said, I don't dislike the Rakmalia map either, and a mixture of both would definitely be cool. It's just somewhat less versatile. Then again, that would likely just depend on what the map is of. I just don't find myself use lava caverns often I think. I mainly just wanted to bring up the tileable map idea rather than argue against the other map style, which definitely still has its place. Also, on an unrelated note, what are the chances of getting some larger city maps in the future? I am currently using Daelbinis as a capital city in one of my campaigns, and that works wonderfully, but I found a distinct lack of big-city maps for capitals and the like with multiple thousand of people.

Anonymous

The forest map is gonna be a godsend. My players like political campaigns and wars, so big maps for big-scale battles are an awesome help.

Anonymous

I liked the forest collection because, as a new DM starting out, this gives me 9 maps for me to bring in, as and when I need them, for things like Wilderness encounters. I'd really like to see, ones in a village, a desert, a town, snowy regions, and most importantly, dungeons. Perhaps call it the DM starter set? However, please note that Fantasy Grounds, which I use for all of my online sessions, struggles with map sizes greater than 2048x2048 pixels (that's their recommended maximum) so loading in the big forest is simply not possible so these things are wasted for any of us that use FG.

Anonymous
>>42045875

Just a note that you can resize maps using free online tools to upload without compromising quality too much so that you can still use it on FG. I'd personally rather have high quality maps from creators than restrict their outputs by what any particular VTT can handle :)

Anonymous
>>42045875

I've had to resize all of my images - I did them manually for best results - but doing a straight resize produced a noticeable loss in quality. Next time I will just create a new 2048 x 2048 image and paste in existing image without resizing. You cannot resize the combined maps to work properly in FG, or Roll20 - they're just too big. And, if you were to print them off, the table would have to be massive.