Maps for MWIF

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Singapore

One of the problems is that a hex covers a lot of ground. In MWIF the hex for Singapore actually is much larger than the island of Singapore itself and should be viewed as including parts of the mainland penisula north of it. The hex and hexside terrain try to capture the various elements of both the island and the portion of the penisula that are in the hex. This is why it is jungle (penisula terrain rather than island terrain). The all sea hexside is a clearly a fudge, meant to show that a major water barrier separates the city from the mainland and combat troops would have to cross it to get into the city.

The whole map is just a continuous roiling mass of compromises - all maps are. I try to ignore as many of the inconsistencies as possible or I would spend my entire time tweaking terrain. Instead, I am going with what ADG did for the European map and keeping the rest of the world as faithful to the WIF FE game maps as I can. The change in scale means I have to revisit some important hexes (e.g., Singapore) but I do so with only the greatest reluctance. I won't see any money until after this game is released - my wife keeps mentioning that.

[mlees]

In your screenshots of the maps (eg post #114), the "dots" that indicate a city/port on the map seem kinda small to me...

Remember, not everyone who buys this game is gonna be 20 years old with 20/15 vision.

As a duly self-designated representative of the "grouchiest" generation, I humbly request a slight upsizing of these "dots".

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: mlees

In your screenshots of the maps (eg post #114), the "dots" that indicate a city/port on the map seem kinda small to me...

Remember, not everyone who buys this game is gonna be 20 years old with 20/15 vision.

As a duly self-designated representative of the "grouchiest" generation, I humbly request a slight upsizing of these "dots".

All map icons are the wrong size, the rivers and railroads are a disaster too. See my disclaimer on the first screen shot.

[mlees]

Hummp. Disclaimer? You want someone with poor eyesight (and spotty attention span) to see a disclaimer?

May I request that you move your disclaimers closer to the hex sides, as they are hard to see...[:'(]

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Post #89

Making good progress on the maps. Here are some screen shots of the 12 terrain types using 136 x 152 pixel hexes in 24 bit color.

I have recoded the program to accept the increase in size and colors while retaining the zooming capability of CWIF. That means that the hexes can be zoomed to be 12 by 17, 24 by 34, 36 by 51, and on up to 136 by 152. The smallest is labeled 25% resolution and the largest 200% resolution. I expect most people to play at 100% or 125%.

A full screen refresh on my system (2.53 GHz, 1GB main memory, Windows XP) takes about 1/10 second - faster than a key click. The screen refresh starts on key press down and it finishes it before I can get to key press up. There is a delay of a couple of seconds when doing a refresh at 25% resolution (all of Europe from the British Isles to the Urals - Stockholm to Alexandria), but less than 1/2 second at 50%. All the others are blazing fast.

The map coastlines are under development so the screen shots here do not show any coastlines. The rivers will also be redone. Same for cities, factories, alpine hex sides, etc..

I have almost completed redoing the counters at 96 by 96 pixels (up from 48 by 48). I will post more information on their redesign with some screen shots later this week.

Post #104

This is definitely a work in progress. I am somewhat reluctant to show so many mistakes but I get the feeling that I should throw something out to those wolves that keep howling at my door.

Many Mistakes
You could view this as a contest. How many mistakes can you find in these pictures?

I tend to throw in other comments with each post and work under the general (though often wrong) assumption that readers have read recent posts (roughly the last 48 hours).

[Cheesehead]

Hey Steve,

Could you throw us another bone and show us a screenshot of China? This is where many of us are interested/concerned about MWiF, as it will be the biggest departure from paper and cardboard WiF. I have always supported your plan to go ahead and unify the map scale for MWiF, but I'd like a peek at how it looks, if its not too much trouble.

Thanks

[mlees]

Thanks for repeating your posts, sir. I can now see the remarks regarding the city/factories/hex sides issue.

My post #124 was done with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Please forgive. I did not intend to accuse you of lying, I had no doubt that you did indeed make the disclaimer that you claimed you did.

[c92nichj]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: c92nichj

Nice to see the progress on the graphics, first impression is very good a few comments though.

The swamp terrain looks a little bit to much like clear, maybe throw in some purple or darker blue to distinguish it easier.

From a personal perspective I would like the mountain to be more grey than brown but that's just a matter of taste.

Swamp, Forest, and Jungle are always the problem. They each need a lot of green. We had Clear a paler color (less green) but then Ireland looked very dry. Perhaps more blue in the swamp though.

The gray mountains in WIF FE struck me as hideous when I fist saw them and I haven't changed my mind since. Perhaps a touch of gray though. I prefer a dark brown for mountains as being more in keeping with the overall color scheme for the map.

What do you-all think about the desert?

I like the desert looks great, but I am not sure about desert mountian.

[c92nichj]

Unless you are interesed in play testing? That should start in the first 3 months of 2006. Greyshaft has agreed to honcho it and we might as well start taking names of volunteers now.

Please take my name as well: Nicklas. I allready signed the agreement with Matrix

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: mlees

Thanks for repeating your posts, sir. I can now see the remarks regarding the city/factories/hex sides issue.

My post #124 was done with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Please forgive. I did not intend to accuse you of lying, I had no doubt that you did indeed make the disclaimer that you claimed you did.

Don't worry about my sensitivities. I taught 7-9 grade math in South Philly for a couple of years. My first day there one of my students walked up to me and said: "You sure do dress funny." I also play a lot of golf and program - every time I hit a golf ball I receive a lot of negative feedback. Compilers list my many imperfections daily. Anyway, we all have the same goal here, a great translation of WIF to the computer - as soon as possible.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: c92nichj
I like the desert looks great, but I am not sure about desert mountian.

I am surprised you have concerns about the desert mountain. It is a merging of desert and mountain. Hmmm, maybe you don't like the mountain either - you might have said that earlier, somebody complained about it.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: c92nichj

Unless you are interesed in play testing? That should start in the first 3 months of 2006. Greyshaft has agreed to honcho it and we might as well start taking names of volunteers now.

Please take my name as well: Nicklas. I allready signed the agreement with Matrix

You should post to the thread Greyshaft set up for beta testers (if you haven't already). That way your name won't get lost. We have set up a separate FTP site for beta testing, so large files can be uploaded and downloaded.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Cheesehead
Hey Steve,

Could you throw us another bone and show us a screenshot of China? This is where many of us are interested/concerned about MWiF, as it will be the biggest departure from paper and cardboard WiF. I have always supported your plan to go ahead and unify the map scale for MWiF, but I'd like a peek at how it looks, if its not too much trouble.

Thanks

Not yet. China needs the railroads and cities clearly visible in order to assess the "China Issue". When I have them looking respectable - sure. You may have to remind me. I do not mind being nagged at all; it has little or no effect on my personality.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: pak19652002

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Thanks for the offer. Can you accept BMP? Or should I use JPG?

I know it takes JPG. Don't know about BMP.

Peter

Let's hold off on this for a week or so. I expect to have a nice coastline of the British Isles by then. "I do so hate being seen in public improperly attired." Remind me when you see me post the British Isles graphic here (just in case I forget).

[c92nichj]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: c92nichj
I like the desert looks great, but I am not sure about desert mountian.

I am surprised you have concerns about the desert mountain. It is a merging of desert and mountain. Hmmm, maybe you don't like the mountain either - you might have said that earlier, somebody complained about it.

Taking a second look at things maybe I confused desert mountain with depression.

[pak19652002]

Roger Wilco.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: pak19652002

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Thanks for the offer. Can you accept BMP? Or should I use JPG?

I know it takes JPG. Don't know about BMP.

Peter

Let's hold off on this for a week or so. I expect to have a nice coastline of the British Isles by then. "I do so hate being seen in public improperly attired." Remind me when you see me post the British Isles graphic here (just in case I forget).

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I have put making some changes to the counter graphics. Herre are some samples.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

There is still some distortion converting from bitmap to CorelDraw and then more when converted to jpg

[Shannon V. OKeets]

In the previous post you can see that teh M is not quite centered for the militia.

I have added names for the units and the previous post shows both a supply unit and a synthetic oil counter.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Montgomery seems to be the longest name (I could say something here about that, but I won't).

The names are all done in black, which doesn't work so well for the Belgians you see here (or for the SS units). I'll fix that next.

The bombers and naval air units have there numbers all pushed off to the side to allow room for the scanned images from the board game counters. The labels (F2, etc. are tempoarary place holders).