How to make the map?

[ratcharmer]

Perhaps it's too late to make suggestions, but I find that frequently for map/gameboard images where I need to move tokens etc around a powerpoint file often works well.

You can set the map as the background, then just click & drag to move icons for players etc.

Certainly won't be as polished as a flash program though. Maybe for a beta?

[Aves]

So... what was the verdict? Who, if anybody, is making the map? It sounds like the entire project is on hold...

[Scaredgirl]

Perhaps it's too late to make suggestions, but I find that frequently for map/gameboard images where I need to move tokens etc around a powerpoint file often works well.

You can set the map as the background, then just click & drag to move icons for players etc.

Certainly won't be as polished as a flash program though. Maybe for a beta?

Powerpoint would be too clumsy and it cannot be used with a browser.

So... what was the verdict? Who, if anybody, is making the map? It sounds like the entire project is on hold...

I think the map I made looks good enough for beta. Million dollar question still remains: what coding language should we use?

The more I think about this, the less I think we should use Flash. Main problem is that the file would be pretty big, and every time I want to check some small detail, I need to load the whole thing. A regular web page would be much better imo. Then again Flash would be more versatile which is always a plus. I don't know..

[Dragoon1140]

Even if it just for the beta, use the simplest option available.  Let us at least generate interest.  If it all works out and everybody enjoys it, then we can expand into making it into a flash file, if needed.

[Higurashi]

I vote for html. My poor laptop couldn't possibly handle a map in Flash. It already takes half a minute to load my decks. I don't care one bit how primitive it might look.

[ratcharmer]

I put together a google docs file using Bloodshadow's map and a couple element icons as tokens to move around the map to show what I meant.

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUldniqIQatQZGN6bnZqcjJfNGZyenIybmNx&hl=en&authkey=CJSCj4AI

For an actual beta we could edit the permissions so only moderators can move the pieces.

If you still think it's too clumsy I understand.

[Scaredgirl]

I put together a google docs file using Bloodshadow's map and a couple element icons as tokens to move around the map to show what I meant.

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUldniqIQatQZGN6bnZqcjJfNGZyenIybmNx&hl=en&authkey=CJSCj4AI

For an actual beta we could edit the permissions so only moderators can move the pieces.

If you still think it's too clumsy I understand.

It's way too basic in its current form.

I made a map here: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,9052.0.html

As you can see, the difference is that my version has numbered hexagons, terrains and cities. We need something like that to make the event work.

[ratcharmer]

I just grabbed the first map image I found because I wanted to see if the technique was workable before I spent too long fleshing it out.

I've changed the background image to your map and altered the settings so other people should be able to edit the file as well.

Let me know how it's working.
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUldniqIQatQZGN6bnZqcjJfNGZyenIybmNx&hl=en&authkey=CJSCj4AI

[the dictator]

I have to say, I think Ratcharmers idea is really nice, we could use it really well for the beta testing, however, for the real games, I am afraid the map might be to small this way to fit a lot of players on one hexagon.

[ratcharmer]

Yeah, it's primarily meant for the beta. About the only way to "enlarge" it seems to be to add more pages with some sort of a "this way to page 4" going on. So yes, it'd be very awkward with a big group.

The main thing I think this would be useful for is a test run to generate interest.

That being said, how do we determine which bauble is which player? I was originally thinking I'd add text with the player names to the baubles, but that might not fit well in the map (it'd be pretty cramped and hard to read). Maybe we could add numbers to each bauble (ala poison counters) and then just have a table with 1 = Zeru 1 = Antagon etc?

[harry959]

Well, we could have multiple maps running at the same time if we had enough volunteers.

[guolin]

I love ratcharmer's idea: so freakin' easy to use. We could make the icons smaller and put numbers on them to represent players, too.