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PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 5:52 pm 
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Private First Class
Private First Class

Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2015 3:03 pm
Posts: 17
Location: Colorado, USA
My family and I want to start playing BattleTech; my wife and 3 boys, with two more too young to play yet. We're going for complete immersion in the universe via novels/short stories, the RPG, and wargame. We'll be using Level 3 rules and lots and lots of maps. I haven't had the best luck with Inkjet printers, for many reasons, and I cannot afford a new Color Laser printer anytime soon. So we've decided to use colored pencils and blank grids I print out with HMMap.

We will be playing with Level 3 rules and I figure using those we could see up to 6 types of Terrain, Terrain Modifications, Elevation, Water, and select Weather Conditions per hex (in total). Buildings (which cancel out underlying terrain) and temporary stuff or terrain that gets converted (like Fire/Smoke, Quicksand, etc...) will be printed as counters. Of course you could have more per hex but for the purposes of this project I'm limiting myself to designing templates that can hold any number up to six.

I'll need to design two separate palettes for this that are closely related. One is the black and white lined version that I will print out and color. The other is a full color version that represents what the map will actually look like when colored. I am using two types of colored pencils that are cheap and unlikely to disappear from the market; Cra-Z-Art Colored Pencils 70 Count and Crayola 50ct Long Colored Pencils.

I have colored with them on white printer paper, taken photographs in a well lit environment, had Photoshop auto-adjust color contrast, and taken two samples from each color. One is a 100x100 pixel color average sample which I added to a spreadsheet in Excel (one solid color). The other is a 200px by 200px image sample which I added to a Photoshop Pattern file (actual color/look when drawn). I can use this pattern to paint the hex templates I am creating so that my map looks more authentic. I'm still trying to decide which of the two color samples I want to ultimately use for HMMap.

I am still mocking up blueprints right now so that I can fully understand everything I will need before I start creating my HMMap palettes. In the past my wife colored four maps with markers. To mix things up she came up with some designs where identical adjacent terrain was joined together. She liked it a lot and wants that to carry over to this. While this makes maps more beautiful, it really expands the HMMap palette because I'll need tons of new hex templates to support this and an image file for every possible template/color combination :o.

Still trying to figure out what the number of image files will be but I estimate it to be in the thousands. Quite possibly 10,000+. I'm not super thrilled at the thought but the benefits when this is all done makes it well worth the investment of time. Originally I had planned to share this project with others, as I imagine I'm not the only one out there with a black and white printer and a need for tons of BTech maps.

With the palette so large I'm not sure many will be willing to work with it though. Also, I don't think many folks would assign colors the way I ultimately choose and changing them in the HMMap palette will not be possible, unless they possess an image editing skill set :frown:.

I have also come up with a way to convert a map sheet into an itemized list using an AutoHotKey script I wrote. It automates what would otherwise be a 200 to 300 step process and complete it in 30 seconds rather than 10 minutes, if performed manually. The Script uses Adobe Acrobat DC (to load a PDF of the Map Information sheet and export it into Excel an XLS file), Microsoft Excel 2010 (to partially and conditionally format the text via a Macro), and UltraEdit v21 (also formats the text via a Macro). When I'm done I can turn this M.I. Sheet into this Itemized List.

The column on the left lists all Hexes that contain terrain from 0001 to 9999 with a border around cells that contain multiple terrain per hex. The right column groups and borders hexes that contain the same type of terrain. Whether you want to cover the map from top to bottom or one color at a time, it has what you need. This will make coloring the map easier but obviously most folks couldn't utilize it. Unfortunately, I lack any real programming skills to create a more independent and self contained solution :embarrased:.

Alright so here is a mock map. Note that the colors I have picked are not final. I picked them quickly and only for the purposes of testing HMMap's capabilities.

1. River Valley Custom, HMMap Palette
Image

2. River Valley Custom, My Original Design
Image

3. River Valley Custom, Wife's Alterations (No Elevation)
Image

4. River Valley Custom, Wife's Alterations (Elevation Borders)
Note: The borders are thicker than I want and aren't yet symmetrical. Those were thrown together quickly and will be revised soon.
Image

Finally, in case anyone is curious, here is the Photoshop PSD file I've been working with. This file was created with Adobe Photoshop CS6. It contains all of the possible changes I prepared for my wife. Ultimately she wanted all of them enabled but this might be useful to understand exactly how the map is being modified in images 3 and 4 above. Sorry about the size (112 MB).


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:34 pm 
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MechMeister
MechMeister

Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2001 8:00 pm
Posts: 13482
Location: RCW Enterprises, SC, USA
Impressive.... :o

Keep us posted. :wink:

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