[WIP] Castle Ravenloft 2D Battle Maps REDUX!

[wthrasherb]

Hey folks! I had a busy day yesterday, so I didn't get much map work done. I'm trying to make up for it today though!

The piece I've been working on is "finished". There are a few nit-picky details I might "clean up", but the map is finished for the most part.



I've started on the next section. Shindig had his maps broken up kinda weird for file size purposes I think, so I'm ATTEMPTING to merge the last two slices of his map (parts b and c) into one. Also, this map will include what is "MAP 3, MAIN FLOOR" in the Curse of Strahd Adventure. Map 2, Walls of Ravenloft, just doesn't really have any "encounter" material written in the adventure, and both the main castle gate AND the front doors to the Keep are WIDE OPEN when the characters arrive at those locations initially, so I figure they won't dally too much.

Here's all I have so far for the other 2/3rds of this current map:



And here is a quick "attachment" test to see how these two parts match up since I did them individually. I have turned off the grid/gloom/mists overlays on the first map portion since I haven't added those elements to what I've done today...



You can clearly see there are some matching issues and an obvious seam.

Lesson: do maps like this all as one piece THEN cut it apart.

I'm not working with the beefiest of computers, so I'm always hesitant to work on super huge files.

Ok, so Yesterday I did an upload test to Roll20 of that first map piece to see how it looked after compressing. It looked fine and the grids/dimensions are perfect. If I try to create ONE HUGE MAP for this part not only will I have to possibly compress it too much to make it uploadable to Roll20, but there is no "functional" need to have this large of a map ALL on one "page". Depending on how the DM runs the game, there's not REALLY any encounter material setup for the outer courtyards and gates and such. So for now I'm not going to correct the "joining" issue. The pieces are intended to be used separately in my game. If for some reason I get a ton of requests to make it all one map, I MIGHT take the time and go back and correct stuff. But for now I'm trying to work as fast as I can in my free time to get some decent usable maps for my game and get the adventure up and running.

Also, FOR NOW, I'm trying the castle walls as the dark color they are here, but the INTERIOR keep walls/color scheme may be slightly lighter. I'm not sure yet, but I'm pretty sure I don't want it as dark as the outside walls.

Please feel free to leave feedback and/or comments.

I know there's not much "map" to comment on yet... be patient! More coming soon...