New Map Board Poll/Call For Ideas/Requests

[Simon Landmine]

As some of you may have noticed, I doodle new MegaMek map boards fairly often - usually 32x34 (four sheets) or sometimes 64x68 (sixteen sheets) in size. And I've got a little .txt document that I use as a jotter for map ideas. Right now, I've got a touch of indecision about what to have a go at next (at a time as yet undefined), so the poll above has the current contents of my .txt file. (This is a non-binding, advisory, poll - I fully reserve the right to come up with something else, or to do the above out of order.)

If you've got any more ideas for maps that you'd like to see me make, let me know, and if I think that I can do something worthwhile with the idea, I might well give it a punt (or it might inspire someone else to make one).

(Also, I'd like to read any AARs for battles that take place on any of my maps - especially if you've got screenshots!)

[Daryk]

I vote for more valley of death... rolling map boards FTW!  :thumbsup:

[Simon Landmine]

I vote for more valley of death... rolling map boards FTW!  :thumbsup:

It's already 22 boards long! Which means 330 hexes, so just under 10km of gauntlet! Which is not to say that it can't get longer - if you're going to fight your way up a valley, you might as well make a go of it!

(Although it should be noted that the Canal board can be a bit of a challenge for tracked or wheeled units once the bridge is out (unless they're Dodge Chargers, presumably) - at least without bridge-layers.) Hover units will be unimpeded, though. And it gives an opportunity to sail a Monitor past.)

[pheonixstorm]

Looks like someone forgot to vote 2 more times lol

[Daryk]

Fixed!  Missed the "pick 3" bit...  :-[

[BATTLEMASTER]

Here's a challenge:  Create a map based on your real-life neighborhood.  Homes, buildings like the local pizza shop and school, maybe there's even a baseball field or tennis court that could be the center of a circle of equals or something.

I tried doing this myself and found it hard for me to adjust where I live to a world that resolves direction in hexagons  :D

[Simon Landmine]

Here's a challenge:  Create a map based on your real-life neighborhood.  Homes, buildings like the local pizza shop and school, maybe there's even a baseball field or tennis court that could be the center of a circle of equals or something.

I tried doing this myself and found it hard for me to adjust where I live to a world that resolves direction in hexagons  :D

I'll add it to the list - although I live in South London, so it's basically a profusion of roads in random directions lined with terraced two-and-three-story brick houses, so there wouldn't be a vast amount of variety. Might still give it a try, though.

Although I've already built a map based on where my parents now live (the first of my coastal map series), admittedly shrunken somewhat to keep it from just being rows of roads (and to fit it on the 32x34 board). It's got several of the key features, though, including the museum that my mother volunteers in.

[trtw]

as long as you keep enjoying the process I hope that you'll keep making as many maps as possible. I'll play any maps you make.

[Simon Landmine]

as long as you keep enjoying the process I hope that you'll keep making as many maps as possible. I'll play any maps you make.

Cheers! It's like doodling with a (possibly) useful outcome. Although admittedly I did find my hindbrain musing about a couple of those map ideas while I was lying awake staring at the ceiling last night, so ... [grin]

[Taron Storm]

I would say maybe historical battles from our history or maybe from the btech history.  I would imagine some would like to play the battles for Hesperus II, Misery, Helm, etc.  You can use some local maps for the fall of the original Star League.  Just my two cents.

Great work! Please continue.

[Simon Landmine]

I would say maybe historical battles from our history or maybe from the btech history.  I would imagine some would like to play the battles for Hesperus II, Misery, Helm, etc.  You can use some local maps for the fall of the original Star League.  Just my two cents.

Cheers! There's been a suggestion elsewhere of looking at the maps in the NAIS Succession War Atlas for some ideas - some of them could well work, although they'd probably need to be scaled down to make a useful MM board, as a 64x68 map is still only about 2km a side (roughly). Might make for some good inspiration, though. (And I had been considering Waterloo, among others. :-) ) Ta!

[BLOODWOLF]

I've been playing MWO lately so, I think it's possible to pull off those maps in MM:
https://mwo.smurfy-net.de/map#n=alpinepeaks&m=skirmish

If you play it as well you can always go into the testing grounds game-mode and then use the spectate camera to fly around the map to get specific details.... Or I might try to do it one of these days.

[MoleMan]

It would be cool if you made a series of maps designed to play one after another, in a flashpoint style? Maybe try and copy those in the HBS battletech game?

[Iceweb]

I love your style and would love to see you take on a volcano base map. 

Maybe a research lab to fight over?  Or a Geothermal plant using the volcano heat?

[Simon Landmine]

I've been playing MWO lately so, I think it's possible to pull off those maps in MM:
https://mwo.smurfy-net.de/map#n=alpinepeaks&m=skirmish
If you play it as well you can always go into the testing grounds game-mode and then use the spectate camera to fly around the map to get specific details.... Or I might try to do it one of these days.

Look like they could be interesting for inspiration (especially River City). Ta for the link! (I don't play MWO, though - I'm abysmal at FPS!)

It would be cool if you made a series of maps designed to play one after another, in a flashpoint style? Maybe try and copy those in the HBS battletech game?

I've not got around to HBS Battletech yet (although I've enjoyed the HBS _Shadowrun Returns_ line). Wouldn't the link between the maps be more of a plot thing than a map-specific thing, though? (Happy to be corrected!)

I love your style and would love to see you take on a volcano base map. 
Maybe a research lab to fight over?  Or a Geothermal plant using the volcano heat?

[adds to the list] My inner Bond villain is already preparing their cocktails. And thanks for the compliment!

[Wrangler]

Why people wanting the seaport?  We have maps for that.

I would like maps for Small town thing or different terrians that current maps don't offer.

Like say farmlands, Mix heavy forests but with logging roads going though it, to allow tanks and mechs move little more quickly though it.

[Simon Landmine]

Like say farmlands, Mix heavy forests but with logging roads going though it, to allow tanks and mechs move little more quickly though it.

[adds to the list]

For logging roads, I'd love to use dirt or gravel roads, but they're not implemented (there being higher priorities for the devs), so I'll probably end up using 30m paths of clear terrain to represent logging routes and fire breaks, as something irks me about the prospect of fully surfaced roads within a forest, except for the main routes.

I've made a 30x15 farmland map as part of my Valley series, but I agree that a big area of farmland would be good - although I'd tend towards European-style smaller-scale fields, as they're likely to have more interesting terrain than prairies - otherwise you might end up with a 64x64 that is solely 'cultivated fields'. :-)

[Daryk]

Before I forget to ask, have you ever seen any of MapMaster's maps?  He starts with aerial/satellite photos and tweaks them into shape for hexes.  One of these days I'll be able to afford his whole set.  He might be interested in MM conversions of his maps if you were to ask him.

[Hammer]

Before I forget to ask, have you ever seen any of MapMaster's maps?  He starts with aerial/satellite photos and tweaks them into shape for hexes.  One of these days I'll be able to afford his whole set.  He might be interested in MM conversions of his maps if you were to ask him.

He's making them for profit, and we'd be distributing a version of them for free. We'd be effectively under cutting his work.

[Simon Landmine]

He's making them for profit, and we'd be distributing a version of them for free. We'd be effectively under cutting his work.

Aye. Not going to be converting his. They are stunning, though.

Although I have looked into doing something similar from raw images/maps myself - just not managed to make anything I'm entirely happy with as a result, yet, so remaining with the fictional locations so far.

[Daryk]

I figured it was at least worth asking him, though...  A polite no is a more than acceptable answer.  He might even say yes...

[Simon Landmine]

For those following along, I've been working on the "Lake & Dam" map, in between running some tests on the new map editor. I think I've decided on my dam design, with a nice corner in the middle of it - partly to represent a curved damn, and partly because it's apparently not a real dam unless you've skidded a running Locust off the middle to a watery grave (which is what I did in a little test of a prototype design this afternoon).

(I also managed to skid a WiGE into a watery grave when crossing the lake, though I might want to check the rules for that.)

Final map is likely to be 64x68 (or possibly 80x85), and will likely be using the 'grass' theme, going for the temperate style (thinking more Ruhr than Boulder), and is likely to be done in the next couple of days.

And for some reason, I keep typing "dam" with an "n" at the end. Force of habit, I think.

[Daryk]

Yeah, a WiGE should never find a watery grave without complete destruction by other means over water... look up Ekranoplan to see what I mean...

[Simon Landmine]

Yeah, a WiGE should never find a watery grave without complete destruction by other means over water... look up Ekranoplan to see what I mean...

That's exactly what I was thinking. (I mean, yeah, it was a daft WiGE of my own devising (courtesy of MMLab), but even so ...)

[Daryk]

Definitely a bug then...

[Simon Landmine]

Definitely a bug then...

I was afraid that was the case. The WiGE was one level above the depth 6 water, when this happened ...

Code: [Select]

Longley WiGE Laserboat ID:4 (Simon) must make a piloting skill check while moving from hex 1408 to hex 1308 (flanking and turning).
Needs 5 [5 (Base piloting skill) + 0 (flanking and turning)], rolls 4 : fails.

Longley WiGE Laserboat ID:4 (Simon) sideslips 1 hexes
Longley WiGE Laserboat ID:4 (Simon) falls 7 level(s) into hex 1407
*** Longley WiGE Laserboat ID:4 (Simon) DESTROYED by a watery grave! ***

[Daryk]

TW page 55 has the relevant rules.  You want to cite the section about "Elevation Changes".

[Simon Landmine]

TW page 55 has the relevant rules.  You want to cite the section about "Elevation Changes".

As noted elsewhere, the water surface was only 1 level below the WiGE. The bottom of the lake was another six below that. (What's a dam without a lake deep enough to be a problem?) Now reported on the Git.

[Cenalt]

He's making them for profit, and we'd be distributing a version of them for free. We'd be effectively under cutting his work.

I own several of his maps, and at least one of them is represented in MegaMek. Was very handy when we had a crew in town that started a company-level tabletop fight and shifted over to MM to conclude the battle a couple of weeks later.

[pheonixstorm]

I wouldn't be surprised that all of them have been made from the map editor, but I doubt any others are included with MM.