Hello all,

I am creating my first board.  Are there any rules are tips that I should know?  It seems like I have chosen a complicated map for my first one.  It is a map of Middle Earth.

I'm about to unplug for the night, but will be happy to help tomorrow if you're around.

I will be on all day while making an honest days living at work :)

The basics of the Board Design process are explained in the Help Tab (last gray tab on the right at the top of your screen).

The most important thing to keep in mind is to run a number of development games before you try to submit for review, you can find a list of people willing to test here: http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/346/DEV_Test_Volunteers#post_11.

You should also definitely check out STICKY Tutorials in this forum for some good pointers on graphical quality.

Lastly, FYI, I'm also designing a ME map: http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/506/Board. I'm not trying to dissuade you or anything from making one, too, I just wanted to share what I'm working on so we don't make redundant maps. And let me (or weathertop) know if you want any help with the Tolkein lore, we both seem to know a good deal more than is healthy!

shhhh, you might ruin my rep with the star wars crowd. :^)

Well my premium account ran out. So i will have to wait till I get home from work and fork up the money to get one. Also Kjeld, I looked at your map and its not even close to the same thing really, however seeing as though I have just started, I can tank this map and go to a board like Helms Deep or some other major battle. I dont want to step on any toes here just here to have fun :)

weathertop wrote: shhhh, you might ruin my rep with the star wars crowd. :^)

Holy bleep. A Battle of Hoth map. It just hit me. Oh man, this one's going to be fun!

Slimer wrote:  Also Kjeld, I looked at your map and its not even close to the same thing really, however seeing as though I have just started, I can tank this map and go to a board like Helms Deep or some other major battle. I dont want to step on any toes here just here to have fun :)

If you've got a good idea for the board, you should run with it. ME is a big place with tons of detailed lore and open to a lot of interpretation -- I chose a fairly simple board design, but so much more could be done with the basic map. So by all means, keep going with your plan (though a simulation of one of the big battles - Pelennor Fields? - would be pretty awesome too). Also, I volunteer to play any test games!

One thing i dont understand is how to do the borders.

There's a drop down menu that initially starts on the 'Territories' mode. Select 'Borders' to start adding and editing borders. Basically, make sure you've got the Add button selected, then click the territory where the border should start, and then the territory where it ends. A black line should then draw between the two, and some more options will appear with the label 'Border Type', where you can select what type of border (default, view-only, artillery) and directionality (one-way or two-way).

Gottcha, Thanks I will give it a whirl

Kjeld wrote:

weathertop wrote: shhhh, you might ruin my rep with the star wars crowd. :^)

Holy bleep. A Battle of Hoth map. It just hit me. Oh man, this one's going to be fun!

Pssst, might talk to Risky on that one.  I know he's tried a time or two for that.

GL Slimer and ask any and all questions you come across.  And be open to criticism (hopefully it will be constructive) to improve your map and not taken as degrading you.

I can take criticism. Ims ure there will be alot being as though its my first map.

By the way, the doctor is in if you have links and specific questions.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/middle-earth.jpg&imgrefurl=http://stufforama.wordpress.com/2007/06/16/two-great-blogs/&h=1015&w=1013&sz=702&tbnid=50myFSttDSJyEM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmiddle%2Bearth%2Bmaps&hl=en&usg=__e6uEMxjxc1Qq-oO1tk-4HRPOJ0w=&ei=7gpjS6utJovWNfPxpOkG&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=6&ct=image&ved=0CBwQ9QEwBQ.

This is the map I found to make. I may find its to complicated im not sure.

Hmm, an overlay of Middle Earth onto a satellite map of Europe -- pretty cool!

Is there a reason I cant see my territories when I create my first dev game?

Slimer wrote: Is there a reason I cant see my territories when I create my first dev game?

Link?

Potential fill issues would be my first guess.

http://www.wargear.net/boards/designer/458

Keep in mind I started this last night with out editing the picture first. Realized i had to do that this morning. SO I will probably start this map from scratch just trying to get the hang of everything

Slimer wrote: http://www.wargear.net/boards/designer/458

Keep in mind I started this last night with out editing the picture first. Realized i had to do that this morning. SO I will probably start this map from scratch just trying to get the hang of everything

Aye, it takes a while, so not a problem.

Fill Mode takes the point at which the crosshairs (in the Territories tab of the board designer) meet and Fills every connected pixel that has the exact same color.  If all bordering pixels do not have the same color then only the single pixel that is at the crosshairs gets filled.  So your territories are there, except they are only a pixel big in most cases.

This page by Cram gives a bit more insight into this and something closely related (anti-aliasing): http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/317/Tutorial:_Anti-Aliasing