Eberron DMG Battlemap

[Grain]

Hey all,

This is one of my first attempts at a battlemap for a VTT. I used CC3. Its pretty simple really, but if anyone would care to critique it and offer up any recommendations on how to improve it then I would greatly appreciate it!

George

[tilt]

Hi Grain, congrats on your first post and first map Great job ... the things I'd critique would be the shadows of the trees (and perhaps outer walls) are to low, so they look more like bushes. The shadow on the bodies are a bit to far away from the body making the body float a bit over the ground. Are the light stonetiles wall?.. if they are, you shouldn't cast a shadow on/in them. But looking good and have some rep for your first map

[ravells]

I'm not a CC3 user so I can tell you what's wrong (but not how to put it right!).

1. The repeats on the grass texture are very obvious...if you can in CC3 put another texture on top with a lower opacity and set to multiply / overlay to break up the repeats. if you can still see the repeats, put another one on top of that.
2. Get rid of the the drop shadow on the blood, it makes it look like it's floating (like tilt said about the bodies), but more so with the blood - the flatter something is, the less of a shadow it casts.
3. I'm not sure if the structure is meant to be a building or a cave, but the inner line of the walls look a bit weird (looks like you were snapping the corners to the grid), I'd make the inner line follow the outer line a little more.
4. Are there any other boulder symbols apart from the ones you used? The repeats again are showing (natural features may look similar in shape but they don't look exactly the same) you can get away with it when you have enough different symbols (usually 20 or so depending) so the eye doesn't pick up the fact that some symbols are exactly the same.
5. The path you've used for the road is a bit angular for something which is textured to look like a dirt track....maybe try to mess up the edges a bit and make it more rounded and (if CC3 will let you) put another texture on top set to overlay or multiply with the opacity reduced a bit.

Hope that helps but it's a very good start for a first map. Much better than mine when I first used CC2.

Best

Ravs

[Midgardsormr]

Most VTTs create their own grid overlay, so having one on a map that's intended for VTT use is unnecessary, and in some cases annoying. I'm pretty sure there's a way to modify an existing path so that the line goes through a vertex with a curve instead of a corner, but I don't remember off the top of my head how to do it. I think it would be a good thing to apply to the path—the straight lines are unnatural.

Give some thought about how the fight will play out considering the chokepoint. You may want to provide more territory outside of the building—if I were using this map, my players would almost certainly want more room to move about outside.

[Aegeri]

Most VTTs create their own grid overlay, so having one on a map that's intended for VTT use is unnecessary, and in some cases annoying.

Actually I prefer having a grid because it's good for a visual aid for the PCs anyway (especially as this is a 4th edition map) and it sets the size the grid should be on the map as well. Invariably on maps with grids I'm forced to turn the grid on anyway, so having the grid on the map is not a bad thing at all IMO and I run two maptools games! Providing a map without a grid though is a good idea and doesn't hurt.

The actual map itself I think is a pretty good effort. I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I think this map is lacking a symbol on the ground, which may be vaguely important to the encounter so you might want to make something equivalent to it for the map.

[Grain]

Wow! Thanks for all the great advice guys!I'll make the changes and post a new image as soon as I get an opportunity to do so.

G

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild.

Hmmm....CC3 help...SOMETHING I CAN DO!

OK, to fix issues.

Move the Blood Splatters to a sheet with no Drop Shadows (Perhaps the SYMBOLS FLAT Sheet), thus you will eliminate the 'floating blood'.

For the Walls, looks like you are using two separate sheets for the walls. Put the Sheet with the INSIDE of walls lower on the list so it is drawn 'above' the outside of the walls, this will eliminate some of the wonky shadow play.

To get the shadows on your trees longer than the other shadows, place them on a new Sheet (Perhaps calling it TREES, or something). Then you can give it a longer shadow than the walls and other items.

For the path, I like to give my roads an EDGE FADE INNER effect to have them fade away as they get close to the edge.

With the boulders, use some of the other boulder symbols and place them on top of the other boulders, and change their size and angle a bit to break their shapes up a bit.

Look to the examples maps (all done with CC3) in my Signature as well as the tutorials (the Books to the left) under my Avatar. They will give insights as to how I use CC3.

ANy questions, feel free to ask.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

The grass and floors really tile quite a bit,
and look much too evenly lit.
With a grunge brush you could fiddle
to break it up a little
then on my game table this proudly could sit.

[tilt]

in a poetic mood today Reckless?

[Grain]

Hey all.

I wanted to thank you again for the advice you gave me on my map. It really helped improve it!

We had our first session last monday. If you care to...I've got the adventure log that uses this map from that session on my Obsidian Portal page:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campai.../adventure-log

Thanks again!