WIP - Battlemaps for Curse of the Emperor's Stone...

[mearrin69]

Hi all,
I have a couple of older threads going for battlemaps for my adventure Curse of the Emperor's Stone. I'm going to have a total of six "tactical-scale" maps in this adventure so, rather than starting threads for each, I'm going to just start this one and put all of my WIPs here. First, I'll give a run-down on the maps that are on my "budget", in order of their appearance in the adventure:

1) Intruder Alert/Scalante: A map of the PCs ship, where a sneak has boarded in the middle of the night, possibly resulting in combat.
2) Enter the Lushou: An alley ambush of the PCs by one of the local crime rings.
3) Chase: Not sure how this one will map out but I think it's going to be a flowchart-like diagram with map elements. Or something. In any case, the premise is that the aforementioned Lushou crime folks are chasing the PCs through the city...probably on rickshaws.
4) Ambush: And, yet another ambush by those Lushou jerks as the PCs make their way to the House of the Four Winds. These are just the set-pieces folks, there's other stuff happening!
5) House of the Four Winds: A glorious three-way battle between the Sifeng (Four Winds) monks, the Lushou, and the Zhaodaozhe (Seekers of the Way)...oh yeah, and the PCs...in the middle of a growing monsoon.
6) Temple of Heaven: The PCs undertake their final test in ridding themselves of the Emperor's Stone, with tests of strength, will, and faith in the Temple of Heaven. The ToH is an enigmatic place...larger on the inside than one would expect, and full of surprises.

I don't suppose *any* of that makes any damn sense without reading the adventure. Even so, hopefully the maps will speak for themselves.
M

[mearrin69]

So, here's my start on the map for House of the Four Winds. For now it's a grid (10' squares) and a blow-up of the area from my Haibianr city map. Now to start roughing stuff in. Not sure what style I'm going to end up using...possibly not the realistic textured style from the docks map, but maybe (I really like it but it's a bit of a pain).
M

[mearrin69]

This is as far as I'm going to take it tonight. The roofs won't be so plainly shaped. I'm working on a more complex curved shape with verticals at either end for the larger buildings. Going to take me a while to get it right. Likewise, the wall won't be so plain...there'll be tiled roofs over the gate, corners, and a couple of the buttresses (none of this is pictured yet). There's also no terrain shading yet. Basically this whole thing's on a hill rising toward the top of the map. You'll see that better when I get some shading in. C&C welcome.
M

[mearrin69]

Yeah. Guess I wasn't done after all. Caffeine will do that to you. Roofs are defined a little more and the trees and bushes look a lot better.
M

[Coyotemax]

ooh that's pretty!

[Steel General]

Coming along nicely, like the texture on the roofs.

The drop shadow may be a bit large though *shrugs*

[mearrin69]

Thanks, guys. Agreed on the shadows...just a placeholder for now.
M

Edit: So. Anyone in here a math whiz? Just did a little back of the napkin thingie to help me figure out how long shadows should be. Am I doing this correctly? Been a long time since trig/geometry.
Edit2: I ran this in Excel and see now that l should be d divided by tan alpha, not the other way around. If anyone's interested I've built an Excel spreadsheet that does this (attached). I believe the angle given by Photoshop can be subtracted from 90 degrees to arrive at alpha...thought it was the other way around but I don't think it really can be. I need to relate this back to PS because I use bevel to determine shading on roofs and such.

[Wonko the Sane]

Close...you messed up the last step - should be:

l =   d
    -----
    tan α

[mearrin69]

Ninja'd! Thanks.

[mearrin69]

Lots of work on roofs...hopefully it shows up. Also, reworked building and wall shadows based on my little Excel tool (which is growing in functionality and which I will share as soon as I'm sure it's working properly and foolproof). Tree shadows are still a drop shadow but I'm going to rework that with varied heights and I think I'm going to try to simulate "dappled sunlight" if I can. New compass rose added - the dragon was fine when N is up but looks silly tilted. I need to add some details but I'm not sure what. C&C appreciated.
M

Edit: BTW, I know the road to the gate is a bit off-kilter. Hopefully fix it up by next time. Plan on doing a little roadwork anyway as it's rather flat.