I have been playing around with different configurations for a custom table and wanted to note some things I’ve landed on that I really like. A main one thing is having the map mounted so that it can slide around as needed on top of a bigger playing area. My table is 65” x 95” in total with a 5.5” arm rest around the outside and the middle is a recessed neoprene surface. I have the OOB Global map mounted on 1/2” rigid foam with a 1/2” aluminum frame around it. This allows the map to slide up close to whoever’s turn it is, but then be in the middle so both players can roll dice In front of them without disturbing the map and in easy view of the other player. (Plus we like lots of room to roll the bones). This ability to adjust the surface along with a standing height, makes it comfortable for long uses because you can move around more and don’t feel as tied down.
Things I’ve learned and changed from original design - I originally used too big of a frame for the map and mounted it on too high of a foam block (you can see these pictures at the bottom) - it made it hard to see the other player’s dice and the big frame took up too much real estate. My global map is mounted on much thinner foam (the framing is bad, you can see if you look closely) but I also used much thinner aluminum angle for the frame. This gives just enough grip when needing to move the map around (I use furniture slides on the bottom, which glide very nicely on the neoprene) but doesn’t make the whole thing too bulky. Having it an inch or so off the surface keeps the dice off, but isn’t so heigh that you can’t see the other player’s dice rolls. When playing other versions (such as Zombies) the board is much smaller, but it can easily swap in and out on the same table since it can move around where ever it is needed or be pushed aside.
I originally made it normal table height, but found long reaches while sitting were harder and it just felt cramped. Standing height with a bar stool is a great way to have the best of both worlds.
The 5.5” rim around the table itself gives you a nice arm rest that doesn’t interfere with the gaming surface. I’m playing with how to best add some cushion to this part - open to suggestions. Sometimes I just lay a piece of leftover neoprene on it.
Dice bounce nice on the neoprene and stay off the floor. It also feels nice and has enough give to allow things to slide but be picked up easily. Wouldn’t definitely go with neoprene again as a surface covering.
I made the drawers open to the inside of the table so you can stay hunched over the action while accessing and stowing stuff away. 50/50 on whether I would keep this if I were to do it again. If I were doing it again, I might try to build customer drawers form scratch using actual drawer glides, but that was beyond my ability when I first did this, so I just used clear plexiglass boxes with aluminum pulls mounted on them. It’s nice having them clear, and I was happy with how the pulls came out, but without glides they can be a little fussy sliding in and out of their slots.
I originally designed the table so that I could put a cover surface back on top when not in use, but find I don’t really ever do that, so if I were to do it again, I might not mess with that part (I never even finished staining those as you can see in the pictures).
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Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post
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Ok guys, finally an update, as I mentioned in a vid, the file is hard to work with as there are so many layers, the file is 4gigs…… in addition, I was stumped on a art style, I messed with OOB, real, color, aged… ive always has a soft spot for aged crap. I found some great pics of a UK WW2 planning map, and that’s what i decided to base my colors and style off of. Im sure this theme will be disappointing to some of you, but i hope some of you still like it.
As the art has been decided, its only weeks away from being completed… and what lit my fire is, talking to some of my guys, we will be putting on an event here in Orange County this summer, and i want the maps to be in play!
Water is completed, as the fonts, more detail will be added to land masses, as well as map crap.
Hope you like the pic, shows the color theme.
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Looks fantastic dude, reminds me of an old treasure map for some reason… keep up the great work.
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The roundels look kinda jpeg ish, i hope your making your own vector roundels?
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Looks awesome brother
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Nice! I’d love to see a larger image sample if possible, hard to get a real flavor from a couple islands and sea zones, but I am not sure if you have made enough progress for that.
@Imperious:
The roundels look kinda jpeg ish, i hope your making your own vector roundels?
Agree with IL, however the text and other images have similar effects so I am assuming it is from using an actual jpeg for a screenshot.
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This is awesome! Reminds me of one of the maps in the Churchill War Rooms in London: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BLxveuNaTU4/T-LFa4R3djI/AAAAAAAAAqU/BK8HoXUKmMU/s1600/DSCN2148.JPG
Would also love to see a bigger picture when you have it!
Kepp up the great work. :)
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Thanks for the feedback! The pic was to basically show the color palette im going for.
@raster - yup, that’s the basic idea, just want a map with that feel, your not going to see colored territories and whatnot. I have some close ups of some UK maps, copied the city marker… red circle with black center :)
As for the roundels, na, I pulled some high rez ones off the net, in png… I didn’t plan on making my own, naturally I can if needed. I concur they do look a choppy in the pic, but I can assure you they are not.
Im being a bad boy today, took the day off so I can work on the map lol
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4 gigs!? Holy cow. Yeah, you must have a lot of layers going on. Still, 4 gigs?!?! Water looks cool, as does the kamikaze and convoy icons! I saw a map that was for a different game completely that was a “vintage” style like what you’re going after. I thought it looked really cool. Looking forward to seeing your finished product.
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looks good. 4 gigs is nothing for a map this size.
A few things I’d recommend:
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standardize the placement of the convoy and kamikaze icons top right and bottom right in the sea zones maybe with a rounded corner rectangle around them (hairline black would work)
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change the IPC number in the circle from black to white so it stands out better from a distance
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bold or change the font of the sea zone numbers as the thins of the font will disappear when printed
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lastly, increase the kerning of the place names so they read easier from a distance
all in all a nice job, like the colour palette you chose.
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Nice to see big progress on your map sired! Interesting old pirate look and feel to the map.
I really like the way the convoy and kamikaze symbols turned out, but I would suggest to play around with brighter colors for the territory names and income values to increase contrast for easy reading
Looking forward to the next update!
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We printed up your older version, its fun to customize and I appreciate all your efforts.
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Thanks for the feedback! I have placed all the SZ numbers in the lower corners of the boxes, I did end up changing the OOB for names with something more along the lines of a 1940’s font. I can easily beef up the SZ numbers for the skinny parts…… As for printing my older version, it wasn’t mine, this is my first version :)
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Palau Island seems a bit too large.
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Palau Island seems a bit too large.
Lol ya… I never liked my I dude standing in the water ;)
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looks good. 4 gigs is nothing for a map this size.
I’d say it is. I just finished a map that is about 30% larger than OOB with over 1000 layers and the .psd file is 1.2 gigs. I was not using 32-bit color so maybe that’s the difference. :?
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The layer FX eats up the file size….I did go through and merge hundreds of layers, the file went from 3.8 gig to 1.3… easier to work with, more hassle to edit.
I’ll have a zoomed out shot later today.
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I’ll have a zoomed out shot later today.
I’m looking forward to see the effects of your nice artwork on a larger scale.
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The layer FX eats up the file size….
Ok, makes sense. On mine, In order to keep file size down and number of layers, I did a lot of it in separate stand-alone projects, even much of the text. And then when I was happy with something, I would merge the layers and import the JPEG into the map project. If I wanted to edit, say some text, I would edit the separate text project file, merge layers, and import again. So much of the FX stuff was done outside of the actual map project. One thing that I found also is to try and keep text in the main map file to a minimum as it slows things down. Raserize your text whenever practical. Looking forward to seeing your finished product.
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Here is the map a far, and a close up…… pay no mind to fonts, placements, etc… im still messing with what I want. yesterday I messed the territories being the same, with border colors to differentiate them, but ended up not liking it… I was against the idea of territory colors, but I like it better then the glowing borders…
colors may change, but the idea will be the same, long ways to go before I can make a judgment call on the territory colors.
I know this is crazy different then oob :-o
Also, might darken the whole thing… the more I do, I find the more there is to do.
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Also, im not sure im happy with the direction of the art….
Another error found in the OOB… Honolulu is on the wrong island, they have it on Maui, not Oahu
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