Discussion about positioning of dungeon pieces.

[Redrobes]

This thread is so that we can discuss how to put the whole map together. Just below is an image of the whole map in its current state - a small version of it compared to the full zoomy one.

[J.Edward]

This is gonna be really cool.
I have no particular preference on any placement.
Most of mine now are just connectors for other bits, so wherever they are useful.

[industrygothica]

I have to say that I'm terribly impressed at the warp speed at which this project has taken off. It is truly amazing. I think Red is going to need a bigger canvas before it's all said and done!

Is there a zoomy map available yet, or is it just this one for now? I'm not sure how the zoomy map works exactly, but I'm gonna ask this anyway: Is there a way to link, from the map, each individual piece back to its original image? That way when someone is looking at the map and they decide that a particular tiles works well for them, they can just click on it to get the map, rather than having to track it back another way? I'll admit I'm kind of lost right now, so that might be exactly what you're already doing... or you might have something better in mind. Either way, I just wanted to ask.

Thanks again for getting this going! It's freaking amazing!


-IG

[Mouse]

Well we can only do amazing things with amazing ideas, IG

Red - I love watching the first comment in this thread. It seems that every time I check in its changed again. I do hope you are enjoying doing this as much as I am enjoying watching it happen

[Redrobes]

Its going to change again in a mo when I put up the next couple of changes. But let me answer IG.

I take all the bits posted and I have to make up a mask for them but that is relatively easy this time around compared to guildworld etc where I needed to get the borders spot on in order for them to fit. This time its merely taking the tile and masking in the rock bit and matting out the sorround. No real problem.

For each image I make up an icon and put it into my viewingdale app. It has a grid which I have set to 5' and there is snap to grid option so the icons are all snapping into place great. Its dead easy to work with. I can rotate them to any angle but generally 90 degrees this time. And I can flip any icon in X or Y if need be too.

So I build up that mosaic of bits which is all in a kind of vector placement format and if people have been submitting at 2000 pixel scale then I have the icons at full res.

Once I am happy I export the map and I can do that at any res and it will preserve the original. So I export at 4K for the image above. Then I load up the guild in a browser and upload the image. Straight forward, really quick no problem.

When we get to the zoomy map I have to export the image at 16K and then push the image through my app which chops it up into 6000 images. I zip them all and upload that zip to the guild server and then have to unpack the zip in the right place. Theres some leaflet.js javascript files but they only have to be done once. Then you can go on the page and zoom around on the big map. So its ok to do but a lot more effort than the single image.

On the zoomy map there is level of detail zoom factors. So I think we have 6 levels of zoom. For each level I can put up some links to stuff. So I can have it like Guild City where if you zoom into the parts of the city it links back to the finished map thread for it. I can link to anything so its possible to link to an image or a thread on the forum or that thread can be another zoomy map so see the zoomy map for cwbp1 and it goes through Ansium to your old map. If you went to my Fen land area then it links down a few more levels too.

So yeah I could have some links to finished bits of map or to upper / lower levels of the mapped bit. But again its a bit more effort maintaining the links correctly. I am collecting up the bits in my other thread and numbering them 001 through like 009C or whatever. So I might label the map with small text bits so you know where they come from then you can go to the bits list and click through to the post. Thats a lot cleaner than the zoomy links on the map. I think the links ought to be for upper and lower levels to some place on it.

No zoomy map quite yet. I havent really firmed up where a lot of the pieces are going.

[Falconius]

I think there is a bit of misalignment with the one in the left top corner heading down. Needs to be moved over left one square maybe?

[Redrobes]

I think there is a bit of misalignment with the one in the left top corner heading down. Needs to be moved over left one square maybe?

I noticed it just after I posted it then went and fixed it then went and fiddled with it, then fiddled some more until its not like the original at all and I thought ok well maybe tomorrow it will all loook different again ! Ahh such is the way.

I have some more nice pieces to add tonight so it will look quite different I am sure.

New image up - still just basically collecting up the pieces. Anyone got any thoughts about the general layout. Should we collect up all the caves in one area and dungoen in another or try to mix it up a bit ?

[industrygothica]

I'd love to see a small icon or something on the stairs in that upper left piece as a link to a second level, which would probably turn into another zoomy dungeon entirely. Man, we could keep this thing going forever like that. Undermountain couldn't hold a candle to this!


-IG

[Falconius]

I think it'd be interesting to have multiple levels too once we fill one we can move on to the next. We could ignore continuity errors by saying the next level is just the much farther down. We could also ahve multiple entrances since the 1 floor would be finished. It would also work with the title tags we are using, the next level down could be "[Falconius Dungeon 02]" for second level.

[Neyjour]

I'd personally like to see it mixed up a bit... a cluster of dungeon tiles > a cluster of cave tiles > a cluster of dungeon tiles > etc., etc. Maybe even put one or two caves as joiners in a large dungeon cluster, or vice versa. Yeah... I definitely think mixed would look more visually interesting, and better for anyone who actually plans to play through it. I think it would kinda suck to have to play through a massive swath of dungeon before ever seeing some caves (or vice versa).