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My HexiCon 2 Map Contest #2 SubductionUpdated Jan-'24
Requires: 1 RotV (+1 small ruin), 1 VW, and 1 FotA (+1 extra and flag)
A couple maps from the HexiCon 2 Map Contest #1, both originally by mad_wookiee: Sasquatch Jungle Gym
Requires: 1 RotV, 1 TJ, and 1 M:tCB (grass and asphalt only)
I'm blushing haha. I would be honored, I'm a frequent viewer of your YouTube channel! I'm going to hopefully fire up the scenario tomorrow and make any final adjustments.
Posted a new map Forsaken Forge playing around with my newly acquired Marvel terrain. (EDIT: Heavily revised the map and shortened it by several hexes from it's previous length. Tips and thoughts appreciated!)
New map up!Dzu-Teh Mating Grounds. This could also be built easily with 1 RotV and 2 TT by switching out starting zone pieces for RotV terrain. I'll take thoughts and prayers.
New map up, Straight N' Arrow. I felt like it was time to stop building BftU/TT maps for a while
If any of you cartographers out there want to shoot my any feedback I'm always appreciative! Enjoy!
PS: Excuse my awful Photoshop skills.
Hey, thanks! The Brandar are treasure glyphs. I couldn't find a good place for power glyphs on this one, but I'll reevaluate after I play test it. Plus, I love treasure glyphs haha.
Cool map! And I think that's awesome that you included an actual image. Many times VirtualScape (as much as I love that program) doesn't do the map justice.
Cool map! And I think that's awesome that you included an actual image. Many times VirtualScape (as much as I love that program) doesn't do the map justice.
Thanks Flash! I really like how Dignan switched to real photography for his recent maps so I took a page from his book, even though I am one of the lucky ones who is able to use the HQ rendering option on VS. I truly can't resist the terrible puns I often use for maps, it seems cannon for the cartographic community though (looking at you Highways and Dieways).
I wanted something that felt a little labyrinthine. There are many choke points of course, but I did try and give figures as many pathing options as possible in such close quarters. The glyphs are closer to the start zones and more protected from LOS than I typically try for, but with just Lodin and Dagmar I don't think it'll break anything too terribly. Brandar glyphs are random treasure glyphs.
I love how you use the actual picture of the map in your photos. I agree with some of the comments above how sometimes Virtualscape doesn't do the map justice.
These latest two look good! I'm a touch worried about the podding potential right by the start zone on Outpouring, but it's got some good features. Deliquesce is definitely my favorite looking map from you - great work! Keep it up!
These latest two look good! I'm a touch worried about the podding potential right by the start zone on Outpouring, but it's got some good features. Deliquesce is definitely my favorite looking map from you - great work! Keep it up!
Yeah I hear you on the podding. I've just been building lots of maps that have low ground in the middle and height towards the edges, so I wanted to flip that and have more of a mounded look. It ended up a little wonky near the start zones with those big height differences right out of the gate. I've only played myself on Outpouring so I'm hoping to get in some playtests with an actual opponent and see what I can tweak. Thanks for the encouragement!
I love how you use the actual picture of the map in your photos. I agree with some of the comments above how sometimes Virtualscape doesn't do the map justice.
Thanks! It's been helping me get better at Photoshop too. You can literally scroll down my maps page and watch the quality get worse as the maps get older haha.
I love how you use the actual picture of the map in your photos. I agree with some of the comments above how sometimes Virtualscape doesn't do the map justice.
Thanks! It's been helping me get better at Photoshop too. You can literally scroll down my maps page and watch the quality get worse as the maps get older haha.
Ive been running photoshop for about 17 years now. Im still using photoshop 7.0. Not sure what the new versions have but Im a pro at the old one. Its funny, 90% of what Ive ever done in photoshop is board game related or miniatures game related.
Alright, so I've been working on a possible ARV submission with the single MS and single terrain expansion. I would love any feedback or potential tweaks that could help it. I'll say one concern I had is that it's a little on the narrow side, measuring about 30x18inches and it's not currently completely balanced as one shadow tile is a level lower than its mirrored counterpart, though maybe that's nitpicky.
This requires 1 BftU and 1 FotA.
Thanks @Sir Heroscape and @Flash_19 for the kind words and encouragement on other platforms. These map building contests really helped bring me out of the forum shadows and I'm so glad I did.
Please enjoy my fancy rotating Underdark skills
Not gunna lie - that rotating picture is pretty cool! How'd you do that?? Was it a screencast that you uploaded to google drive?
So here are some more thoughts I've had as I've looked at it some more:
1) I love the clear start zones, the overall size of the map, and it certainly looks great. Overall it looks like a very inviting map to play.
2) Well done!
3) Overall I have two main concerns, and a couple other smaller suggestions. My first concern is the restrictiveness of the map. There are a lot of choke points throughout the map. While a few choke points typically aren't a bad thing, I feel like it could be quite frustrating to play against rats or any other screen type army on this map as it currently is. There is another thing to consider when a map is too restrictive, and that is can units reasonably fit on the various parts of the map? If you have spaces on the map where some of the bigger figures can't get to (or at least threaten - meaning they can move adjacent to that space), then you've got a major problem. A tournament map can't prevent someone from playing a particular army because of the way that map is set up.
The next concern is the three hex dungeon tile on level three right next to the start zone. If I was running range, I would definitely take advantage of that.
For the terrain you have available, I feel like you've done well at trying to utilize it effectively. However, there might be a couple sections you'll want to think about some more. The area around the central rock is really choppy - it has a lot of up and down with battlements and elevation changes. I'm most worried about the single battlements that are closest to the tallest part of the rock outcrop (they are attached to road tiles). Also, some of the shadow tiles are placed in areas where they likely won't see any use - it would be better to try and use them in places where a unit threatening a key position can benefit from the defensive bonus. To explain what I mean by that, think about where ranged units are likely to try and situate themselves, and put the shadow tiles in a place that would help melee units threaten that position or provide them additional cover as they try and get there.
Hope that helps. Thanks for all the hard work you've put into this map. It really is looking good - I'm sure with a few tweaks it will be a great map to play on!
I'll echo the above. Flash did a really good job of explaining some of my concerns as well now that I've had more time to look at it. I also agree with the good points though. This is a good 1st run. Startzones are clear, it's a really nice symmetrical map, it's visually appealing and uses the terrain well. Flash's suggestions are valid though.
2 additional thoughts:
- Try to keep the integrity of the map as you've currently designed it. Sometimes people will see our suggestions and go back to the drawing board and rework everything. Not so. What you have is working, but it does need some tweaking...so try to keep the map design - for the most part - the way you envisioned it...but the challenge here is now to make small shifts, adjustments and subtle changes that'll open up the map a little more, level it out and make it more refined.
- The road. Right now it looks nice, but it's actually not really helping movement through the map. It's disconnected and relatively short, so most figures will really only get an extra space during their movement. Try to rethink how you want the road to be represented in this map in order to help with the flow of units.
Feel free to mess around with it a little and then repost.
2 additional thoughts:
- Try to keep the integrity of the map as you've currently designed it. Sometimes people will see our suggestions and go back to the drawing board and rework everything. Not so. What you have is working, but it does need some tweaking...so try to keep the map design - for the most part - the way you envisioned it...but the challenge here is now to make small shifts, adjustments and subtle changes that'll open up the map a little more, level it out and make it more refined.
I just downloaded some freeware called ScreenToGif, it did all the hard work and was fairly easy to use. I used it to screen capture VS then saved it as a .gif and shared the link through Drive. I was pretty pleased that it displayed correctly. I'm definitely keeping it installed!
3) Overall I have two main concerns, and a couple other smaller suggestions. My first concern is the restrictiveness of the map. There are a lot of choke points throughout the map. While a few choke points typically aren't a bad thing, I feel like it could be quite frustrating to play against rats or any other screen type army on this map as it currently is. There is another thing to consider when a map is too restrictive, and that is can units reasonably fit on the various parts of the map? If you have spaces on the map where some of the bigger figures can't get to (or at least threaten - meaning they can move adjacent to that space), then you've got a major problem. A tournament map can't prevent someone from playing a particular army because of the way that map is set up.
I always struggle with choke points. It usually happens that I'll fix one and a new one springs up shuffling terrain around. I play tested some Goblin Cutters on it and even though they were falling fast it was too easy for them to clog up passages. A few revisions ago there were less wall pieces. I'll see if I can widen things up and cut down while keeping the theme.
The large figures issue is certainly an oversight here. I haven't been playing any builds with huge figs recently and I really should've moved Nilf or someone around the board a bit. Great advice!
The next concern is the three hex dungeon tile on level three right next to the start zone. If I was running range, I would definitely take advantage of that.
For the terrain you have available, I feel like you've done well at trying to utilize it effectively. However, there might be a couple sections you'll want to think about some more. The area around the central rock is really choppy - it has a lot of up and down with battlements and elevation changes. I'm most worried about the single battlements that are closest to the tallest part of the rock outcrop (they are attached to road tiles). Also, some of the shadow tiles are placed in areas where they likely won't see any use - it would be better to try and use them in places where a unit threatening a key position can benefit from the defensive bonus. To explain what I mean by that, think about where ranged units are likely to try and situate themselves, and put the shadow tiles in a place that would help melee units threaten that position or provide them additional cover as they try and get there.
I can absolutely work on those three hexers, it'll be nice to have those freed up and do a little re-envisioning.
I knew that choppiness by the 3-hex outcrop was a problem. Part of me was thinking about nixing the shadow and the water there and leveling it out, also yes those battlements right there are pretty awful. I was thinking originally I'd have a back-stab path that made it easy to get on top of whoever perched there, but it's too easy to clog up as it is and those battlements just stifle movement too much.
Those shadows towards the bottom of the map have been moved probably 10 times and I know there's a better spot for them, I just have to find it. I need to think about it as you mentioned, helping figures threaten advantageous locations.
2 additional thoughts:
- Try to keep the integrity of the map as you've currently designed it. Sometimes people will see our suggestions and go back to the drawing board and rework everything. Not so. What you have is working, but it does need some tweaking...so try to keep the map design - for the most part - the way you envisioned it...but the challenge here is now to make small shifts, adjustments and subtle changes that'll open up the map a little more, level it out and make it more refined.
- The road. Right now it looks nice, but it's actually not really helping movement through the map. It's disconnected and relatively short, so most figures will really only get an extra space during their movement. Try to rethink how you want the road to be represented in this map in order to help with the flow of units.
So having the road disconnected was conscious, though I'm thinking a little misguided. My thought was that since the map was fairly tight, the movement would be quick enough without it, but now I'm thinking about Knights or Tarns and how I need to keep range at bay by letting melee get to them if I can.
Thank you so much guys! It's all very thoughtful, concise, and helpful. I'm absolutely going to keep revising this and I'll post my next version when I'm feeling good about it. Thanks for taking the time to take a critical look, you guys are awesome!
