Module ready! Works fine! :mrgreen:
Modules for ABattlemap
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Didn’t update the link :oops:. I did now (and doublechecked ;) ): Shanghai, 1942 setup, connection to Nwe from SZ7,… are correct.
thanks for the correction
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Posted a final version of the map, without naming errors and some optimized territory shapes (nothing major, just made some connections between seazones or land territories a bit more clear), + fixed the placement of some NO IPC-values on the map.
Also, +1 to the first forummer who knows the names of the six people pictured on the map… 8-)
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Stickied the thread.
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How do I use this map?
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If you will look in the Axis & Allies Revised section of the forum there is a stickied thread about battlemap.
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Is there anything by way of a new “map” for Triple A for AA50? I haven’t bought the actual game yet, and thought taking a look the virtual way might be nice. Also, where can I find the rules book? Do I have to go through the errata first? :-P
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Hey, it looks like they used some of my images as the basis for the new toolpieces.bmp. Cool!! You can almost tell the pieces apart!
@DJ: The official rules are posted on the Wizards of the Coast site. (And of course, there’s already an Errata page to go with it. :roll: :lol:) Good luck trying to print them. I had to print it a page at a time on my work printer because the graphics make the printout so big. I’m not even going to try it on my home/inkjet printer.
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@The:
Is there anything by way of a new “map” for Triple A for AA50? I haven’t bought the actual game yet, and thought taking a look the virtual way might be nice. Also, where can I find the rules book? Do I have to go through the errata first? :-P
Triplea does have an AA50 map.
Rules and FAQ at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/prod/axisanniv -
Hey, it looks like they used some of my images as the basis for the new toolpieces.bmp. Cool!! You can almost tell the pieces apart!
Yes, I did :D I mentioned this the first time I posted the modules somewhere, but forgot it in this thread. And it’s true, DD, Cru, BB are very hard to make distinguishable with the toolpieces, tried my best… And since we’re giving credit: the general shape and colors of the map are the work of Atilla at Flames Of Europe (who is also the creator of the whole ABattlemap program).
@The:
Is there anything by way of a new “map” for Triple A for AA50? I haven’t bought the actual game yet, and thought taking a look the virtual way might be nice. Also, where can I find the rules book? Do I have to go through the errata first? :-P
Try pm’ing Imperious Leader, or just browse around a bit in this forum, Imperious Leader has got different maps uploaded at mediafire which are a decent representation of the actual map, and he distributes links to them every now and then.
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Only one thing is missing now from the Battlemap modules and that is a tech chart to keep track of who has what.
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I’ve updated the toolpieces to be even more to my liking. Among the changes I’ve made:
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Cleaned up several of the flags. Some nations just don’t lend themselves well to tiny little circular tokens so a few just use full replica flags.
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Put in more differentiation/details in the ships. Destroyers are smaller, Cruisers face right and are medium sized, BBs face left and are much larger.
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Removed unnecessary chinese units
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Put in a special “damaged IC” in place of the Chinese IC. In our game, Funcioneta and I decided the best choice for damage would be chinese ICs - so this just makes it look more like damage.
Feel free to use these. Just rename them to just toolpieces.bmp and put them in the AA50.GIM ('41) and AA51.GIM ('42) folders.
Whether you decide to use them or not, please let me know what you think of them.
Mediafire folder
http://www.mediafire.com/file/0zqh1qnymzu/ToolPieces_41.bmp
http://www.mediafire.com/file/odm3gngyodq/ToolPieces_42.bmp -
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I like the damaged factory vs using flags
The bombers and a few other pcs look to modern and not WWII
I also like the pcs of nations to be different when possible -
Two great ideas + a little better unit pics = I’ll look into it when I have the time -> january exams are comin’ up.
BTW, the Chi IC is indeed the best one, had already made some kind of burned down building for it, but it was quite ugly, so tnx for posting yours…
Edit: simply added your unit pics to the file for now 8)
@Jeffdestroyer: try bigpieces, those have got some different units pics, or feel free to draw some yourself, it’s not that hard and it never hurts having some extra nice figurines :)
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I like the damaged factory vs using flags
The bombers and a few other pcs look to modern and not WWII
I also like the pcs of nations to be different when possibleThe problem is trying to make any real differentiation in such a tiny space. the pieces themselves are only 10 x 15 pixels, and 2 rows and 2 columns are used up putting in the shading to make them look beveled/raised. (Actually I cheated and use a little of this border space for the ends of the BB and CV so they can be a little longer.) That leaves a space of only 8 x13 pixels to work with.
The driving force behind these images was that many of the default pieces that came with battlemap when I started playing AAR were completely indistinguishable. I could never tell a bomber from a fighter or a destroyer from a battleship and in general the pieces were very hard to identify. Therefore I played around with them until I developed images that were at least a little more life-like, distinguishable from each other, and would be immediately recognizable to me. It appears HolKann used those as the basis for AAR and I’ve just put a little more of my personal flavor into these files.
Historical accuracy was definitely secondary to “usability” of the image, although I did try to get some general ideas for the shapes of the respective boats and planes. the fighter is roughly shaped like an overhead view of a Zero or even some of the other figs of the time. It’s pretty generic. You could definitely look at the bomber design and think it implies a more modern design (the wings are too angled), although you could say it’s got touches of a B29, but the most important factor in the way I drew it was that it had to look completely different from the fighter so I could tell them apart.
For me, I am not that “in to” the hardware of the war, and playability was my biggest concern, so making all units look the same across nations is actually a plus. As far as the game mechanics are concerned, a fig is a fig and the easier they are to spot both on my side and the other side, the easier it is for me to play.
If someone else can design better pieces that are more realistic, but still recognizable, then more power to you. I’d be interested in seeing them and potentially using them. In the mean time, I just find them to be a slight improvement over what was provided and thought I’d share with others around here.
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Two great ideas + a little better unit pics = I’ll look into it when I have the time -> january exams are comin’ up.
BTW, the Chi IC is indeed the best one, had already made some kind of burned down building for it, but it was quite ugly, so tnx for posting yours…
Edit: simply added your unit pics to the file for now 8)
@Jeffdestroyer: try bigpieces, those have got some different units pics, or feel free to draw some yourself, it’s not that hard and it never hurts having some extra nice figurines :)
The Chinese IC really seemed like the logical choice for the damage token, Any other unit from an unaltered toolpieces file might be confused for a live unit - expecially AAs (although I briefly considered using chinese boats, too).
And frankly, I found some mean-spirited humor in the implication that the more and more your factories became Chinese factories, the worse they became. :-D
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The Chinese IC really seemed like the logical choice for the damage token,
And frankly, I found some mean-spirited humor in the implication that the more and more your factories became Chinese factories, the worse they became. :-D
He, good one :lol: karma +1
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Yea, the China IC is a good token for damage, but we really need the map edited like in AARe so that there is an area below to represent all the technologies, maybe even a Victory City counter.
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I really like the Big Pieces, so I think that I will start using the Chinese flags as damage token or the Chinese factory itself.
If somone edits the Big Pieces an adds a damaged Factory, it would be the best choice. -
I like the standard ToolPieces.bmp better than the BigPieces. On my large 1920x1200 screen the big pieces do not improve.
What makes ABattlemap with ToolPieces.bmp really comfortable to me ist the Windows tool magnify.exe.Just take a look at
http://i43.tinypic.com/2ns6xxt.jpg
to view a screenshot of my settings. Please note that I had to reduce the size of the picture to 1600x1000 due to tinypic restrictions.
With the help of this tool I have a complete overview and gain a brilliant view to the place where the action is or where I want the action to be ;-)
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Oh, I went back to standard pieces a long time ago. Doesn’t change the fact we need someone to paste a segment on the bottom of the map (or top, but bottom is less annoying) with charts you can place flags on to represent which of the 12 technologies you have and possibly a tracker chart for victory cities as well.
Reference the AARe map for an idea what I am talking about. (If I had a clue what image file needed to be altered, I’D do it myself! It’s just a matter of copy/pasting it from AARe to AA50 and altering the text!)
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