Author Topic: Wish list for new maps for ground combat. (Read 6023 times)

abou · « **on:** 11 March 2020, 09:47:19 »

One of the things I have been thinking about now that we are getting a slow trickle of new maps is that I wish we saw more types. For example, I know we have the canyon and box canyon maps, but I wish we had badlands-type maps. What I am thinking would probably be a set of 2x2 maps. The latest Win10 log-in screen caught my eye, which then made me remember my trips to the Badlands of South Dakota. Of course there are others as well throughout the world. Basically a series of winding paths surrounded by steep rocks that are high enough to prohibit most jumpers, but open up to wide, flat prairies. Poisonous snakes optional.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungle_Bungle_Range
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands_National_Park
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands

What other maps would you guys like to see? Just brain-storming here with the hopes that the idea gets picked up.

Sartris · « **Reply #1 on:** 11 March 2020, 09:56:03 »

* something like the gothic quarter in Barcelona - an absolute tangle of streets and tallish (level 3-4) buildings
* Ancient Caldera - an impact crater now full of variable terrain and foliage.
* Mesa Base - a smallish fortified position on elevated terrain (about half the size of the bases in grasslands)
* Small town - light urban area that isn't a full suburban park grid
* River Crossing - something specifically designed for a contested crossing with bridges and fords.
* Waterfall - river that goes over a tall mountain (<8-10 levels)
* Maps entirely made of water for underwater operations

Weirdo · « **Reply #2 on:** 11 March 2020, 10:00:12 »

A large slope - something that can be doubled up and placed edge to edge to create a valley or ridgeline, or combined with Sartris's water map to create a very large river valley.

abou · « **Reply #3 on:** 11 March 2020, 13:16:19 »

Some great ideas that play well together. Seeing some additional templates like a long bridge to match the wide river would be great too. The Golden Gate Bridge is only 90 ft wide -- or just under 1 hex wide. But this is the future and so a 2 hex wide bridge spanning the length with indicated pylons would be nice, which means that a destroyed span wouldn't cause the complete collapse of the bridge.

Daryk · « **Reply #4 on:** 11 March 2020, 17:55:22 »

I might recommend checking out MapMaster's or Simon Landmine's threads... they have some realty excellent stuff! :thumbsup:

abou · « **Reply #5 on:** 11 March 2020, 19:29:48 »

Quote from: Daryk on 11 March 2020, 17:55:22

I might recommend checking out MapMaster's or Simon Landmine's threads... they have some realty excellent stuff! :thumbsup:

I haven't seen Simon's thread, but the main problem with the MapMaster stuff is where can I play with those maps. 4x4 and 4x8... I want to, but those are just too big. Thankfully I'm a slim guy, but it is hard to imagine some players and their girth working around a game that big.

Daryk · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 March 2020, 19:39:45 »

The game stores I've been playing in for the last year or so all have movable tables that facilitate that.

Fear Factory · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 March 2020, 21:17:50 »

Pretty much every suggestion I could make was made here.

How about maps that pay a tribute to MechWarrior 2? :D

Simon Landmine · « **Reply #8 on:** 12 March 2020, 04:50:46 »

Quote from: abou on 11 March 2020, 19:29:48

I haven't seen Simon's thread, but the main problem with the MapMaster stuff is where can I play with those maps. 4x4 and 4x8... I want to, but those are just too big. Thankfully I'm a slim guy, but it is hard to imagine some players and their girth working around a game that big.

Mine are designed initially for MegaMek, where it's easier to get away with the big stuff (and it's often appreciated, although I have made quite a few 32x34 hex (i.e. 2x2 board) maps, which could well work on tabletops).

I wonder if Derv is reading this, as I believe they are now affiliated with TPTB for mapping purposes, if I read the Discord chatter right.

RifleMech · « **Reply #9 on:** 12 March 2020, 05:12:51 »

A harbor with docks.
Military base.
inside and outside of a space ships/space station.
inside and outside of a mobile structure.
Moon base.
Mines
A Dome city in space or tainted atmosphere.

abou · « **Reply #10 on:** 13 March 2020, 13:31:45 »

Quote from: Simon Landmine on 12 March 2020, 04:50:46

Mine are designed initially for MegaMek, where it's easier to get away with the big stuff (and it's often appreciated, although I have made quite a few 32x34 hex (i.e. 2x2 board) maps, which could well work on tabletops.

I wonder if Derv is reading this, as I believe they are now affiliated with TPTB for mapping purposes, if I read the Discord chatter right.

I searched your posts and found a few of them. They look nice. How easily do you think they would be to get printed?

Colt Ward · « **Reply #11 on:** 13 March 2020, 15:20:30 »

The biggest problem I would see is the hex borders perhaps being a bit thinner than preferred but it can be done IIRC. Which was going to be my suggestion, break it up into 16.5 x 16.5 sections.

I have a whole collection of 32x32 maps that are for the most part designed to go together that I keep forgetting to forward to MM team. My city set was used on one of the L2 servers for a while. I even took BT maps and formed the logical groupings into 2x2 that fit the 32x32 map space.

Quote from: abou on 11 March 2020, 19:29:48

I haven't seen Simon's thread, but the main problem with the MapMaster stuff is where can I play with those maps. 4x4 and 4x8... I want to, but those are just too big. Thankfully I'm a slim guy, but it is hard to imagine some players and their girth working around a game that big.

If you play paper maps without terrain, you could always move the minis like the WWII plotting boards moved unit markers.

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire · « **Reply #12 on:** 14 March 2020, 00:10:07 »

A double-sided map of the Okavango Delta, one side during the wet season, one side during the dry.

SCC · « **Reply #13 on:** 14 March 2020, 02:39:54 »

Quote from: abou on 11 March 2020, 09:47:19

One of the things I have been thinking about now that we are getting a slow trickle of new maps is that I wish we saw more types. For example, I know we have the canyon and box canyon maps, but I wish we had badlands-type maps.

Australian Outback might be better given how much Mad Max influenced things early on, but that might be splitting hairs.

Quote from: abou on 13 March 2020, 13:31:45

I searched your posts and found a few of them. They look nice. How easily do you think they would be to get printed?

In the US it might be do-able, but I don't know how many places will print on legal paper for you, because that seems to be the size for a standard BT map

Daryk · « **Reply #14 on:** 14 March 2020, 06:15:22 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 14 March 2020, 00:10:07

A double-sided map of the Okavango Delta, one side during the wet season, one side during the dry.

Now THAT is a brilliant idea! :thumbsup:

Col Toda · « **Reply #15 on:** 19 March 2020, 10:18:30 »

Easy city maps with zoning or district terrain .

Farmland maps with a river or canals to cheaply move crops to the end of a peninsula to a city . Do the ultimate defense in depth experience.

Sartris · « **Reply #16 on:** 19 March 2020, 13:15:34 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 14 March 2020, 00:10:07

A double-sided map of the Okavango Delta, one side during the wet season, one side during the dry.

you could do a whole seasonal map pack of these - rainy/dry, summer/winter, high tide/low tide, etc

Colt Ward · « **Reply #17 on:** 19 March 2020, 13:28:27 »

I actually like the new map put out in the KS Update for having snow. While MM allows you to flip the template from grass, snow, desert, etc they do not put ice on maps . . . I might have to revise some of my MM maps to make ice or magma added maps.

Daryk · « **Reply #18 on:** 19 March 2020, 17:15:12 »

Quote from: Sartris on 19 March 2020, 13:15:34

you could do a whole seasonal map pack of these - rainy/dry, summer/winter, high tide/low tide, etc

Posts like this are exactly why the quote in your signature block exists... :thumbsup:

Greatclub · « **Reply #19 on:** 19 March 2020, 21:11:22 »

Quote from: MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on 14 March 2020, 00:10:07

A double-sided map of the Okavango Delta, one side during the wet season, one side during the dry.

and all of a sudden the water rises as the dam upstream was blown...

Yeah, that's a map worth having.

Simon Landmine · « **Reply #20 on:** 20 March 2020, 06:56:33 »

Quote from: Greatclub on 19 March 2020, 21:11:22

and all of a sudden the water rises as the dam upstream was blown...

Yeah, that's a map worth having.

Actually [cough], there is a pair of maps for MegaMek depicting a dam-with-lake, and the same dam with a hole in it ... and people have asked for maps for the valley further down, before and after*.

* They're on the list.

Weirdo · « **Reply #21 on:** 20 March 2020, 12:29:59 »

Had anyone played on any of the Kat Wylder maps? They all look really good to me.

Daryk · « **Reply #22 on:** 20 March 2020, 14:03:36 »

Never heard of them... do you have a link to any pics?

Simon Landmine · « **Reply #23 on:** 20 March 2020, 14:22:21 »

Judging by Kat's website, they did the map artwork for the AGOAC set, and looking at the style, quite possibly for the Grasslands Map Set as well.

(And, by the looks of it, some rather attractive Alpha Strike maps.)

Weirdo · « **Reply #24 on:** 20 March 2020, 14:36:20 »

Google 'Kat Wylder Gumroad', and hers should be the first link that comes up.

Simon Landmine · « **Reply #25 on:** 20 March 2020, 14:42:38 »

Quote from: Weirdo on 20 March 2020, 14:36:20

Google 'Kat Wylder Gumroad', and hers should be the first link that comes up.

Ooh, those are nice!

Empyrus · « **Reply #26 on:** 20 March 2020, 14:44:08 »

Huh, those things look like they're tailor made for BattleTech.

Kat's Tukayyid maps that will as part of the KS are looking great.

Daryk · « **Reply #27 on:** 20 March 2020, 15:02:30 »

That's an interesting Wolf's Dragoons homage she's using for the top of her page...

And yes, those are very nice maps. Not ones I'd pay $10 for, but very nice.

abou · « **Reply #28 on:** 27 November 2020, 16:47:21 »

Quote from: Weirdo on 20 March 2020, 14:36:20

Google 'Kat Wylder Gumroad', and hers should be the first link that comes up.

I'm glad I randomly came back to this topic.

NEAT!

Elmoth · « **Reply #29 on:** 27 November 2020, 17:03:55 »

Quote from: Sartris on 11 March 2020, 09:56:03

* something like the gothic quarter in Barcelona - an absolute tangle of streets and tallish (level 3-4) buildings

That is offflimits to mechs. And vehicles in general. Streets are narrow. A humvee cannot pass through it except the only street that they purposefully opened to allow tanks to cross the area from side to side and across the government House and city hall.

Buildings are old and could not stand the weight of a wasp, let alone a bigger machine.

But if you want a make believe area that looks like that be my guest. I would like to attack my old homr :p or jump on my parent's roof.