Advice needed

[eldrad]

Hello guys,

Me and my gaming group are passionate Warhammer players and we would like to create are own world. General idea is to create a fantasy interactive map very much like this one:

http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of...18/dragonstone

My question to you guys is what is the best way to start? Some members of my gaming group are quite handy with Photoshop and overall design, while others have some knowledge about programming (although not very much). I have already found great tutorials on map drawing which we will definitely use, but so far we dont have many ideas how to implement interaction structure.

End product should allow Game Masters to fill the map with some lore regarding the empires, cities and important sites (although nothing fancy, more like a small textbox with picture here and there). Besides, GMs should be able to place event markers, and occasionally change borders, destroy/found cities etc. So if it is possible we would like to create interactive map that will be editable after the initial launch.

All advices and instructions are more than welcome. Help us achieve our plan to create immersive world for roleplaying and tabletop wargaming!!

Cheers,

Eldrad

[johnvanvliet]

for a database driven online ( html) map

i would start with "LAMP"
Linux
Apache server
( look at hadoop https://hadoop.apache.org/ )
MariaDB
PHP

add in ruby ( there is some gis for rails code) and html5
there are a few GIS web applications , think google map

-- NEVER USED THIS SO...
http://geoserver.org/
-- uses PostGIS)

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE
Flash
Java

BUT
if one of your group is good with java or flash animation
then use what you know
BUT try to AVOID FLASH

[miljac]

Hi johnvanvliet, thank you for your advice.

I am part of eldrad's group, he is trying to find information for us, but he may have understated our programming knowledge as a group.

I am the leader of interactive map project programming part, and this is roughly our summary:

-We have two potential programmers, one is skilful with C#(Forms, C++), and less skilful with MySQL, and other only familiar with programming basics, but eager to learn new skills

-We have one programmer (me) that is working on project for sure.
I am skilful with:
Java (Spring, FXML, jsp, Android)
C# (Forms, WPF, ASP.NET, WP8.1)
C++
Python
SQL databases (SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL)
programming patterns (MVC, DI)

Less skilful with, but always in learning process:
HTML5
JavaScript
Angular
PHP

our constraints are:
-low to none budget
-no current hosting plan

Due to our limited financial resources and knowledge constraints, my plan was to create RESTful Java server backend with PostgreSQL database, and C# (WPF) desktop client. As hosting provider we would use OpenShift cloud hosting with their free hosting plan, since that is more than enough for our project, at least for now.

We choose C# desktop client because of knowledge constraints of two other programmers, this way server and client can be built simultaneously, with other two programmers working on client (with me tutoring them), and me working on server part. Since Forms are obsolete, we choose WPF. That way, we are working on current technology, and both of the programmers can learn some new skills, while still in comfort zone. I choose Java for server because I am currently working on some similar Java projects, so my Java skills are more fresh.

As you can see, we adjusted our project to our skills and limitations, but kept it fresh with new technologies. It is more important for us to build less preferable (desktop app, Java server) but working solution, then to bite off more than we can chew. If this project comes to an end, and we have working RESTful service and client, than I would be more than happy to expand it with more clients (Web, Mobile) and better server backned.

However, I would very much like to hear your point of view after reading this. Any comments, suggestion and criticism are welcome.