Experimental Army Visualization Method

[Granite-M]

So, I came up with this means of laying out multiple permutations on an army theme. You start with your key, central unit / bunch of units that are the core of your army, and then you lay out all the possible add-ons to that central group (mainly the good / useful ones). It winds up looking sort of like a subway map. This is roughly what I came with, using 4x Zombies as the core group (made in MS-Paint, ugly as sin, and very much a prototype):



...and its key:


Admittedly, it gets pretty complex, pretty fast, and I'm not sure it's really viable as a visualization system, but I had some fun making it and I'd be interested to know what people think. Is this even remotely practical?

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Did you ever check out this: http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ead.php?t=8390

It's like this and Ryougabot did a great job.

[Cleon]

Yes, this is similar to Ryougabot's, but still yours is awesome! Nice Job!

[Granite-M]

Ryougabot was definitely a source of inspiration. I lack the topographical knowledge base, but I feel as though there ought to be some kind of algorithm one could use to generate these... some set of standardized rules for positioning and link/path relations. Most used units further out, ways to minimize the "spaghetti on a plate" look, that sort of thing.

[Sisyphus]

It's cool but, yeah, that would get complicated really fast.

~Sisyphus, who views each army build as a knapsack problem.

[Einar's puppy]

It is deffinetly hard to read. I gave it a run through and I though:hang on, this is 500 points, so why would I add the Marrow warriors?

[feekonea]

Originally Posted by Einar's puppy

It is deffinetly hard to read. I gave it a run through and I though:hang on, this is 500 points, so why would I add the Marrow warriors?

zombies x4....240
su bak na......400
me brug sa....450
marro warriors..500

[syvarris0]

Agreed :P

[Granite-M]

It definitely took a while to put together, although most of that was spent trying to figure out how to lay it out. For example, if you've got a figure that's used more than once, you want to avoid having any paths that run out from it, otherwise you can start getting loops that give you faulty armies. If I can come up with some rules of construction, I could probably cut down a lot of the build time, too.

I think I was looking at this as a tool to put together well before a game, and then bring it along as reference. As in, if you're initially looking at using a particularly-themed zombie (or whatever) army, but as your opponents reveal theirs, you might want to shift your focus. You start off thinking you might like to bring Unit X, but that one gets invalidated by a really good Unit X-killer, so you pick a different path. This sort of thing would probably work best if you've got a core group that you really like, and then you want to lay out the rest of the units that would / could compliment that group.

As to the hard-to-read thing... yeah. It's a bit like reading the subway maps in a large city. I'm also thinking of trying to apply some of Jexik's What's in an Order Marker-style colors as different flavored army themes, the way there are colored lines in a subway map. The red line for strong ranged offense, blue line for strength in defense, that sort of thing.