Map Making Steps

[Mad Russian]

This sequence of play uses HexDraw to create a map. I will create a map for the interactive DAR scenario.

The first thing we have to do is to identify a place on Google Earth that looks like a good place for a battle.

Paderborn was the German training center in WWII where General Rose of the 3rd Armored Division was killed. I'll use that area.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The area should be 20km from east to west.

I use the ruler function on Google Earth to make sure my area is large enough. It doesn't hurt to make it just a bit bigger so it will fit the entire map area.

Here is the area I've chosen to fight in from East to West.





It's a good idea to pick interesting terrain if you have a choice. Get a nice mix of terrain on the map to make maneuver possible. Also, include enough of the map so you can pick out terrain features for when you are setting the road net map and the elevations map.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The map will need to be at least 15km tall. Again, I add a bit to make sure it will fit and I try to get enough area in the screen shot so that I can easily determine the boundaries of my map.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The next step is to get a map that we can use to put roads and rivers on our map.

At the far right of the Google Earth (GE) tool bar is an icon that switches the view to Google Maps.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

That changes GE to what I call the distant view.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

In the upper right hand corner is the map and traffic icons.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Clicking on the map icon changes the view to the road map and terrain view.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The map scale has to be set right to get our maps here to line up in HexDraw correctly.

The scale must be set at 1mile/2km. The scale is in the lower left of the viewing map. You can use the mouse wheel to change the scale to get it where you want it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Time to cut our map to size. I will take a screen shot of the area and crop it down to size.

The battle area seems to center on the small village of Atteln. So I will center that in my map area and take a screen shot of it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The terrain map must be resized to 3809 Pixels wide and 2856 pixels tall.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

To get to the elevations part of GE go back to the icon in the upper right corner and mouse over the Satellite portion. That will bring down a pull down menu, on that menu is Terrain.

Click that.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The scale should still be the same. The battle area should be centered. Just take the screen shot and crop it just like you did with the road map.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

I then mark the different elevations on the elevations map in general areas in colors that are easily seen in HexDraw. I personally use red and neon green.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

All this was to get us to the point where we have two maps the same size and scale. They must both measure the same. In this case the dimensions are 3809 wide and 2856 tall.

One map is for the terrain (roads, rivers, towns, forest coverage, etc.), the other is for elevation changes.

I will start with the terrain map. I need to see where the rivers are. I make all my maps with a base elevation of 2. I then lay the rivers/streams on it. River/stream flood plains will normally be below the surrounding terrain elevations so I want to know where that is.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

I check my map settings for the map size I'm trying to create for FPC.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Once I have my map size set I make everything a level 2 elevation. This has been by trial and error. This is what works best for me. As you work with HexDraw you may find other formula's that work better for you.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Now we are ready to place the rivers on the map. To do that we have to import the terrain map we created and sized.

We will ask for a new background. Once it is loaded into HexDraw you can click it to have it display in the map work area of the program.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

I center the map where I want it and check the actual straight line distances between two points to make sure the scale is consistent.

In this case I check between Atteln and Lichtenau which is 7km in actual distance and is also 7km on my map. We are good.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The last thing I do before starting work on the map is to mark the orientation hex. Since I have both a terrain and an elevation map I will need to line those up in exact locations as I switch back and forth between them.

Here is my orientation marker. Shown in three levels of Transparency.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

At this point the map is just a paint by number project.

I work in a specific order.

1) Water. Because it is normally the lowest point on the map. I want to know where the water courses go.

2) Elevations. There are times I need to adjust the elevation to fit the map terrain so it works in the game as it does in real life. I want the elevation on the map early so that I can get it as close to accurate as possible.

3) Roads. This normally takes the longest and I work hard at getting the road net accurately on the map. It is the biggest challenge to portray correctly. I try to make my road net go through the hexside cleanly and not down a hexside. SO that the AI can determine where the road is with no ambiguity.

4) Towns and villages. Once I have the roads in I need the towns/villages so I can set the fields and forest.

5) Forest. Depending on the terrain this can also be time consuming. Especially since I sculpt the forest to show where the elevation changes are at a glance. That takes extra time.

6) Fields. Lastly the fields go in any 1-2 elevations that have nothing else in them.

7) Remove the orientation marker if I haven't already.

There is a reason why battles are fought where they are. [:-]

One of the main reasons is terrain. Make your map with as much attention to detail as you can and it will come through in the way the scenario plays.

Trust me on this one. [8D]

Good Hunting.

MR