Remixed Master Sets

[Sir Heroscape]

For Feldspar Dungeon I felt the allocation was pretty solid to be honest.

[RainyDays]

I thought that this was an interesting idea so I decided to play around with the Ruins of Ghostlight Fen set and came up with this:



I'm not a very experienced mapmaker but I found this set challenging, not a lot of terrain but several LOS blockers (and large ones to boot). Also, not sure how I feel about only 8 road tiles. It seems that with such a small number there's not really much you can do with them than make a small path (as in you can't make loops, X's, or other shapes).

However, it was a good challenge working with something new and this is a very intriguing concept. I'm excited to see what comes of it.

[GameBear]

I'm thrilled to see this! Thanks for taking this on, @caps . Cool to see interest in the project, and even a couple sample maps already.

Originally Posted by caps

Ruins of Ghostlight Fen only has 8 wall-walk tiles, is that enough to do something interesting with or do we need to move more over from Feldspar Dungeon?

I would rather keep all the wall-walk tiles together to maximize potential. @Awaken515 did well incorporating a functional road, and it gives the map a unique look, but having only 8 hexes of road really limits options.

Originally Posted by caps

Durgeth Fortress and Crumland Outpost both have 5 24-hexers. Is that a good map-making challenge that will bring us some new and interesting map outlines? Or is it just obnoxious and one of them should swap a few 7 hexers over in order to get a 6th 24-hexer?

I agree with the conclusion you already reached - 6 and 4 is better than 5 and 5. Avoid odd numbers of 24-hex tiles if possible.

Originally Posted by caps

Ruins of Ghostlight Fen has dramatically more level 0 tiles (shadow, ice, swamp water, water) than Feldspar Dungeon, but I counted those hexes when balancing out the hex count. Does that make RoGF maps too small?

Nothing wrong with lots of level 0 when deployed well.

---

As you continue to tweak the mixes and add more, I'd love to see visual representations (VS images) of the contents of each set. If you can find a decent way to lay out the contents, that would make it a lot easier (for me at least) to grasp what's in the mixes, compared to reading the terrain list.

Great start! I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

[caps]

I think I would move road tiles over; closer to 12-15 in RoGF. But I don't think they all need to be in the same set. There are already lots of maps that have beaucoup road; what does it look like to have maps that have limited road? I agree with everything else GameBear said. I'll try to make those VS images this weekend.

[Grison]

Originally Posted by caps

I think I would move road tiles over; closer to 12-15 in RoGF. But I don't think they all need to be in the same set. There are already lots of maps that have beaucoup road; what does it look like to have maps that have limited road?

This approach resonates with me, and I also agree with the comments that 8 road tiles is too few. Given that a figure must start and travel fully on the road for it to matter, 8 tiles makes it highly unlikely that the road is actually useful. 12-15 seems like a better number, but it's still small enough to require "road light" designs.

Originally Posted by caps

Ruins of Ghostlight Fen has dramatically more level 0 tiles (shadow, ice, swamp water, water) than Feldspar Dungeon, but I counted those hexes when balancing out the hex count. Does that make RoGF maps too small?

While I don't think the maps will necessarily be too small, it certainly encourages them to be flatter. A few extra road/wall-walk tiles may also help mitigate this a bit. RoGF has a very unusual allocation of pieces, and I'm really curious to see what folks come up with.

[Nomad]

I am thrilled with the idea of having new map parameters to design maps with. As I understand the initial post, we can still add in another terrain set or two.

I could choose to build a RoGF map with a RttFF set, correct?

Hmm . . . think of the possibilities.

[Grison]

Originally Posted by Nomad

I am thrilled with the idea of having new map parameters to design maps with. As I understand the initial post, we can still add in another terrain set or two.

I could choose to build a RoGF map with a RttFF set, correct?

Hmm . . . think of the possibilities.

That would be a ton of LoS blockers...

[caps]

Originally Posted by Nomad

I am thrilled with the idea of having new map parameters to design maps with. As I understand the initial post, we can still add in another terrain set or two.

I could choose to build a RoGF map with a RttFF set, correct?

Hmm . . . think of the possibilities.

Yes. Although for starters I would encourage people to explore what they can do with the limitations of no additional expansions.

[caps]

Originally Posted by caps

Durgeth Fortress and Crumland Outpost
1xRotV
1xSotM
1xFotA

Durgeth Fortress - download the .vsc (VirtualScape collection file) here

1    hive
1    gate
4    wall corner
2    wall end
3    wall straight
25    battlement
11    ladder
8    grass 1-hex
2    grass 2-hex
4    grass 24-hex
2    grass 3-hex
1    grass 7-hex
1    rock 2hex
1    rock 3-hex
1    sand 2-hex
1    sand 3-hex
2    swamp 1-hex
2    swamp 2-hex
2    swamp 24-hex
2    swamp 3-hex
10    swamp 7-hex
22    swamp water
10    wall-walk 1-hex
1    wall-walk 9-hex
15    water tiles

Crumland Outpost - download the .vsc (VirtualScape collection file) here

1    ruin 3-hex
1    ruin 2-hex
6    wall corner
2    wall end
4    wall straight
25    battlement
11    ladder
9    grass 1-hex
4    grass 2-hex
2    grass 24-hex
3    grass 3-hex
4    grass 7-hex
7    rock 1-hex
2    rock 24-hex
3    rock 2hex
3    rock 3-hex
4    rock 7-hex
5    sand 1-hex
2    sand 2-hex
3    sand 3-hex
7    sand 7-hex
12    swamp water
11    wall-walk 1-hex
1    wall-walk 7-hex
14    water tiles

Durgeth Fortress (and the collection file) has been updated to v2 with:

• -2 grass 1-hex tiles
• -1 grass 2-hex tiles
• -1 grass 3-hex tiles
• -2 grass 7-hex tiles
• +1 grass 24-hex tiles

Crumland Outpost (and the collection file) has been updated to v2 with:

• +2 grass 1-hex tiles
• +1 grass 2-hex tiles
• +1 grass 3-hex tiles
• +2 grass 7-hex tiles
• -1 grass 24-hex tiles

Originally Posted by caps

Feldspar Dungeon and Ruins of Ghostlight Fen
1xBftU
1xSotM
1xFotA
1xTT

Feldspar Dungeon - download the .vsc (VirtualScape collection file) here

2    dungeon 1-hex
2    dungeon 2-hex
2    dungeon 24-hex
2    dungeon 3-hex
3    dungeon 7-hex
2    grass 1-hex
2    grass 2-hex
1    grass 3-hex
2    rock 1-hex
2    rock 2-hex
2    rock 3-hex
3    rock 7-hex
2    sand 1-hex
2    sand 2-hex
2    sand 3-hex
8    sand 7-hex
12    swamp water
9    wall-walk 1-hex
1    wall-walk 7-hex
1    wall-walk 9-hex
10    water tiles
30    battlement
14    ladder
10    wall corner
4    wall end
7    wall straight
1    gate

Ruins of Ghostlight Fen - download the .vsc (VirtualScape collection file) here

21    ice
1    rock 3-hex
1    rock 7-hex
8    shadow tiles
12    snow 1-hex
12    snow 2-hex
2    swamp 1-hex
2    swamp 2-hex
2    swamp 24-hex
2    swamp 3-hex
10    swamp 7-hex
22    swamp water
12    wall-walk 1-hex
10    water tiles
20    battlement
8    ladder
3    glacier 1-hex
3    outcrop 1-hex
1    glacier 3-hex
1    outcrop 3-hex
1    glacier 4-hex
1    glacier 6-hex
1    hive

Feldspar Dungeon (and the collection file) has been updated to v2 with

• -4 wall-walk 1-hex tiles

Ruins of Ghostlight Fen (and the collection file) has been updated to v2 with

• +4 wall-walk 1-hex tiles

[caps]

Here is my first draft of a map using Ruins of Ghostlight Fen. I call it Ghostlight Mere. It needs a lot of work (I probably need to swap the start zones to be made of 7-hexers...) but this is the rough idea I have. It is not symmetrical, but I think that's okay.

[caps]

And here's an early draft of a Durgeth Fortress map; I call it Swamp Rocks.

It is inspired by the "classic" early-days Heroscape map Turret Rocks which is a deeply flawed map, but I also think it has the bones of an interesting map. With this one I've tried to mitigate most of the flaws of the original. It probably still needs some work but I think it has potential.

The Durgeth Fortress terrain set is a challenge to work with (though in a good way, I think), or at least it was for this map. I would have liked to have a little more relative height advantage on the hills (and perhaps a road tile on top of them) but I didn't have enough tiles. Perhaps if I find a way to shift the start zone 24-hexers over and in a little bit...

As I said, more work to do

[caps]

Happy New Year, everyone!

I am curious if anyone has had a chance to try out the proposed "remixed master sets" and has any thoughts on how they work out in practice. I've been happy with them so far (though I still need to try a few of them out).

My goal would be to have something "finalized" that we could use for a map contest starting later this month.