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Triforceelf
2009-04-22, 01:33 PM
I have been desperately trying to come up with a simple way for me to show a grid based map for a PbP game that would be simple and easy to use. I think I finally found a way by taking screen shots of the Warcraft III map editor and unit sprites, then moving them around the grid based on movement. The units can be rotated in the editor so thats not a huge issue, let me know if anyone thinks this is a workable idea or if I am trying to hard.

Sample map with sprites to manipulate
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2102/dndmapwciii.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dndmapwciii.jpg)

Sprites moved around as in combat, PCs fighting goblins
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9791/movedt.th.jpg (http://img15.imageshack.us/my.php?image=movedt.jpg)

SurlySeraph
2009-04-22, 01:55 PM
Wow. This is a great idea, and very immersive. You could just draw a grid map in Paint or Inkscape with differently colored dots for different characters and write down which color is which character/ enemy creature type on the side, but if you want to do it this way then good for you. Players generally won't complain about too much detail like this.

OverdrivePrime
2009-04-22, 02:02 PM
Wow, that's very innovative and smart! I'm impressed.

I normally use Adobe Illustrator to make my grid maps for PbP games (and most of my tabletop games too), but sometimes use Photoshop, or even Excel. I'm working on getting to know Dundjinni better, but haven't been real delighted with the file sizes that result from creating a map with that program.

Triforceelf
2009-04-22, 02:13 PM
Wow. This is a great idea, and very immersive. You could just draw a grid map in Paint or Inkscape with differently colored dots for different characters and write down which color is which character/ enemy creature type on the side, but if you want to do it this way then good for you. Players generally won't complain about too much detail like this.

I tried doing the deal with paint, but I realized it would make terrain difficult if for example I needed to have obsticals or rough terrain in the a way.

SurlySeraph
2009-04-22, 02:31 PM
I tried doing the deal with paint, but I realized it would make terrain difficult if for example I needed to have obsticals or rough terrain in the a way.

You can shade squares for difficult terrain and put in darkened squares for obstacles.

Juggernaut1981
2009-04-22, 08:02 PM
Investigate a nice little free-ware program called AutoREALM. It will make the maps, stick grid-lines or grid-dots in Square or Hex and you can just "stick" people onto the map as icons you can shuffle around.

Print it using a Ghost-PDF Printer and voila... or save them directly from the program into JPG/BMP.

AutoREALM: http://sourceforge.net/projects/autorealm/

littlebottom
2009-04-22, 08:34 PM
i love the idea of using warcraft 3, infact i will be doing this myself now, if you dont mind of course.

ive only got 1 problem, i lost my copy of WCIII but still have the expansion frozen throne... and this is a new computer, is there anyway i can sort this out without buying another WCIII?

EDIT: preferably without torrents?

Triforceelf
2009-04-22, 08:36 PM
Investigate a nice little free-ware program called AutoREALM. It will make the maps, stick grid-lines or grid-dots in Square or Hex and you can just "stick" people onto the map as icons you can shuffle around.

Print it using a Ghost-PDF Printer and voila... or save them directly from the program into JPG/BMP.

AutoREALM: http://sourceforge.net/projects/autorealm/

I played with it a little bit, it seems rather limited. Is there a way to make different terrain types or maybe add some detail with out needing drawing skills? I am afraid my own are rather poor, so something that does all the art work for me is kind needed :smallfrown:

Triforceelf
2009-04-22, 08:39 PM
i love the idea of using warcraft 3, infact i will be doing this myself now, if you dont mind of course.

ive only got 1 problem, i lost my copy of WCIII but still have the expansion frozen throne... and this is a new computer, is there anyway i can sort this out without buying another WCIII?

EDIT: preferably without torrents?

If you have your own CD key, you can go to www.blizzard.com and use it to download a legitimate, full digital copy straight from blizzard themselves! The computer I used is about two years old and is a Toshiba laptop.

Also, I just used the map editor, I dont know if you can get that for free some how.

littlebottom
2009-04-22, 08:43 PM
ah cool thanks! i shall see if it works, considering the CD key was inside the case and i lost that with the game, so i might have to see if i can get TFT installed aswell and just use that CD key, hope it works at any rate...

littlebottom
2009-04-22, 09:02 PM
i cant seem to find where to download it from, from that website. i can only find the "demo" :smallconfused:

Triforceelf
2009-04-22, 09:35 PM
http://us.battle.net/?rhtml=y

Thats the link, create a battle.net account and link the games, then you can download the games.

Zavia/GenX
2009-05-22, 11:14 AM
Mmm, as a pc gamer myself, ive used maps from my map editors.

War3's limitation is that its map editor's strength is not terrain generation, but customization of triggers, scripts and what not.

I reccomend civ map creator for big large maps.
SimCity maps are not bad, I do not have simcity 4 but IIRC their BAT editor could theoradically make some really really impressive custom stuff. If someone does have SC4, do try and report back :D

The one editor i REALLY want to learn, is the total war series ones. Either Rome or Medieval2. They dont have a map editor perse, but you can make one the hard way. Each "square" is a diffrent colour, which the computer reads as a diffrent type of terrain. You gotta make an image of small well placed coloured squares. Quite the challenge imo, but some great campaign maps has been made.

Currently, IMO the best maps are still the ones made via CC or dundjinni, or even photoshop. I personally use dundjinni, and occasionally photoshop it to make it nicer.

shadzar
2009-05-22, 11:33 AM
I think I tried that once with either Empire Earth or Age of Empires.

It was crazy, but a good way to design villages.

I don't recall what luck I had with NWN and screencaps.

The question would be for PbP, how much space you got for the images, and how often would you update them in the posts to know what is going on in combats? :smalleek: