Clipboard & printable maps

[8thJinx]

Yep, thanks, I'm trying.  I tried flying today in the offline arena, trying to get my buttons workable.

I realized it would probably help folks if I explained how I got the color photos.  The actual terrain is a lot more detailed.  What I did was I ran the screen shot through a "cartoon-er" adjustment in the software, which turned realistic looking terrain into more of a cartoon image, and then faded it a little to wash out some color.  I had tried using the raw image but the level of detail - combined with the icons and such - was too much, I thought.  So when you get into AH3, the fields will look more realistic than what the color maps show, especially with the cloud shadows (which I turned off).

Here's the raw image:





Here's the cartoon effect with washing:

[bustr]

Jinx,

You know there is a second large airfield type patterned from an 8th Air force base in England with a sprawling village attached to it and a river that runs around it? Check out A1 on NDisles. There is 1 or 2 manned gun positions you can get into from the airfield's hanger menu. I'm not sure why Greebo didn't use some of this one on his CraterMA map. It will create a giant GV fight and furball trying to capture it. One of the manned guns in the village covers the map room.

I hope when the map is converted to AH3 which has a central island with three large airfields and all those GV bases into the center this giant airfield gets used. It will keep down the ability to over run the whole island which has some great furballs and tank battles other wise.

[HanzUp]

8thJinx, these are great, and thanks for all the time and effort you're putting into this! I had started trying to do some, but I like yours much better.

Are you doing these maps at a larger size before reducing them to 512x512? If so, would it be possible to get full-size versions? (I'm putting them on a tablet instead of on the clipboard.)

[BowHTR]

Jinx,

You know there is a second large airfield type...

There's also 3 different Vehicle fields from what I can find.

[HanzUp]

There's also 3 different Vehicle fields from what I can find.

Yep, there's a small base with one (apparently indestructible?) vehicle hanger, two auto guns, no manned guns and no radar.

[BowHTR]

Yep, there's a small base with one (apparently indestructible?) vehicle hanger, two auto guns, no manned guns and no radar.

I wasn't able to drop it either. Must be a hardness setting unless its meant this way.

[8thJinx]

I wasn't able to drop it either. Must be a hardness setting unless its meant this way.

I'm calling that the single-hangar motor pool.  I'm not sure if it's indestructible. 

[8thJinx]

Jinx,

You know there is a second large airfield type patterned from an 8th Air force base in England with a sprawling village attached to it and a river that runs around it? Check out A1 on NDisles. There is 1 or 2 manned gun positions you can get into from the airfield's hanger menu. I'm not sure why Greebo didn't use some of this one on his CraterMA map. It will create a giant GV fight and furball trying to capture it. One of the manned guns in the village covers the map room.

I hope when the map is converted to AH3 which has a central island with three large airfields and all those GV bases into the center this giant airfield gets used. It will keep down the ability to over run the whole island which has some great furballs and tank battles other wise.

I thought I saw a base in AH3 with part of the runway crossing some village streets. 

[8thJinx]

8thJinx, these are great, and thanks for all the time and effort you're putting into this! I had started trying to do some, but I like yours much better.

Are you doing these maps at a larger size before reducing them to 512x512? If so, would it be possible to get full-size versions? (I'm putting them on a tablet instead of on the clipboard.)

Thanks.  I'm doing all of the image work at 1100x1100, with the final image work at 900x900, then reducing it to 700x700 for blue lines and text, grids and border text, then going to 512x512 for icons.  Adding the text and icons at 700 then reducing just gives you blurred icons.  I'll put together hi-res 900x900's also, but I'll have to loop back and do ones for the GV bases and port at then end.

[1ijac]

Yeah, my concern is the larger the base gets, the crazier the color maps are going to get.  I'm working on the small airfield now.  Maybe I'll do the large airfield first, and see how crazy it gets.

  You have done some great work Jinx.  I love the blue line maps you did.  Simple, but gives all the info you need.  I had some trouble using colored terrain maps as clipboard maps, because you had to have them in 256 color.  I made all my printable maps in 24-bit color and sometimes appearance got funky when I converted them to 256 color.  I made maps for AH2 and I personally liked basic base layouts with white backgrounds and tried to de-clutter as much as possible.  What made that easier was that the HTC clipboard maps were simple and could be lightened and altered to show .dt object #s, etc..  Your blue line maps are really to my liking.

  Awhile back, I had started some maps for AH3, but slowed down some due to possible changes that HTC may make before AH3 is complete.  I assembled the maps from CM shots and TE shots.  My goal was to make the maps look like what the player would see in the game.  I'll attach the littler large base, medium base and the vehicle base from some of the maps I've put together.  The ones attached were made for printing on 8.5" x 11" paper in landscape format.  The maps themselves are 512 x 512 pixels with a legend off to the right.  If you set the vertical to 512 pixels and the horizontal to 690 pixels, you will get it fitting on a 8.5" x 11" with a .5" in border all around.  I also tried to make the map so I could remove the legend and it would be 512 x 512.  I tried to include the necessary data on the maps so just converting them then to 256 color, they would be ready as clipboard maps.  I'm not sure if the 256 color requirement is going to remain for AH3 or if it will be increased.  Anyways, the maps may give you an idea of the route I took and how they look on a colored terrain map.  You have some great ideas and I'm looking forward to seeing your work.

   BTW, I didn't label the auto guns on the large base because of clutter concerns.  The image I took of the HTC base layout, I think I turned off bump map and changed the time of day to sun overhead.  In doing so, all the gun pits showed up as white dots.  Myself or anyone else wanting to use the map can easily see where the auto guns are and I didn't think the actual gun #s were that important to know on the large base. 

1i

[Bizman]

Excellent job, both 1ijac and 8thJinx!

Personally I like the coloured ones, although the background colour could be even more washed for clarity. Compared to the blue line maps the coloured ones tell a little more about the surroundings such as hills, woods etc.

The count of each target type on the legend is a very good idea!

[1ijac]

    Jinx,  I'm going to attach the AH3 small airfield map and an unfinished small town map.  Again, they are for printing with a vertical of 512 pixels x 690 pixels horizontal.  The town image I made at 393 x 393 pixels left plenty of room for text so I could list gun numbers at different size bases.  I also planned on listing an example of what to type to check downtimes of town objects, guns and whether the flag is white or not.  I feel players new to .dt commands will find that helpful.

    I also agree with you about the terrain being a bit busy.  I wanted to use white text and icons at times, so I was trying to darken mine a bit sometimes.  I like the route you are taking by sending the map through the cartooner in your software.  It seems to de-clutter and soften the terrain.  I like the looks of it and I wish I had done something similar before I threw these together awhile back.

    I'm posting these images so you can get an idea of what the maps look like with screen shots of terrains that weren't altered much.

1i

[BowHTR]

Here is a preview of the direction im headed in with making new maps. Keep in mind, these are not intended to be used in the clipboard. I chose to go the route of not covering any of the targets with some sort of box, to make it easier for recognition of targets, especially for new players. Some of these have bomber lines with headings, some don't. These maps are designed for the sole purpose of making it easier for our squadron to easily identify targets for the type of gameplay we use. You wont find gun markers and a few other things marked on some of our maps.

Here is a preview:
http://blackwidows.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Small-Airfield-v1.3.jpg

http://blackwidows.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Small-Vehicle-v1.3.jpg

http://blackwidows.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Large-Airfield-2-v1.3.jpg

[1ijac]

     Bow, Nice images and easily readable.  Great job!  Where did you take those images from?

1i

[BowHTR]

     Bow, Nice images and easily readable.  Great job!  Where did you take those images from?

1i

I took the images myself in game. Here is a link where you can download/preview all of the current images I have. These are all blank with no text on them. As time goes, I'll have all the fields.

http://files.blackwidows.co/data/public/ahfieldmapsversion1.0