Floating Terrain

[Castilater]

Hi, I know I'm not one of the regulars, but lately I've had the idea of floating land.

The idea has 2 possible uses I can think of:
1. Save pieces in building mountains
2. Simply having floating islands
Ex: You've built 2 maps near- but not connected to- each other. When explaining, you tell your friend, "It's above the lake." (or any other situation)

Frankly, I see it as simply aesthetic, and a bit superfluous; but one of the things I've enjoyed in playing this game is the amazingly versatile terrain, allowing someone to do whatever they want- within limits.

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I could use or how I could make any possible (preferrably clear) heightening object.
Probably the biggest problem would be height differences, but still, anything would be helpful.

[flameslayer93]

good idea! Here's my pitch:

Use a small thin wooden table and place it over the already existing board. Then on that place your floating land. Take note that the table's legs could be LOS blockers also. Maybe that'll work!

[Castilater]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

good idea! Here's my pitch:

Use a small thin wooden table and place it over the already existing board. Then on that place your floating land. Take note that the table's legs could be LOS blockers also. Maybe that'll work!

Interesting.
A friend of mine has a lot of scrap wood AND machinery, I could maybe make a small table.

Side note: I dug out some Bionicles I had in a shoebox and fashioned some pieces together.
Results were not substantial, sadly.

[flameslayer93]

yea, bionicles are not exactly sturdy

[Castilater]

Eh, I tried to make them sturdy.
Got plenty of pieces.
I mainly tried it 'cause I saw that some guy had used K'nex (I believe they're called), so I attempted with my closest thing

[wriggz]

Knex would work (they are very strong) however I would put a 24 hexer upon a clear tub (like the ones candy comes in). It would be about 15 hex high and nih invisable. (also very sturdy).

[Lamaclown]

This site has some pics and examples of one way to do it.

I saw a wargame board tutorial on one site that had a whole canyon of floating rocks. If I can find it I will post a link to it. It looked really good.

[Castilater]

Originally Posted by Lamaclown

This site has some pics and examples of one way to do it.

I saw a wargame board tutorial on one site that had a whole canyon of floating rocks. If I can find it I will post a link to it. It looked really good.

Yeah, that was a pretty good thread on a similar subject.
I may try the wire-holding-up-structure-camoflauged-as-roots-or-water thing when I can.

My B-Day just passed by recently, so I do have some money for things if I need it.
(It's important to mention, I'm 17)

Also, if the wire thing fails, I can try simple plastic and make it fit in the edges between spaces (The same could possibly be attempted with wood).

Wire first however.
Probably my biggest issue is keeping it balanced, versatile, and able to hold substantial weight.
I figure, for versatility, I'll have different shapes for bases(most likely just 24 and 8-hex), and different lengths (having maybe 3 or 4 of one length to hold a 24-hex... and maybe an 8 as well). They would also need to come in vine and waterfall varieties (obviously occupying the space beneath them: a necessary evil)
My biggest thing is creating mountains, so this'll probably just mean now my mountains are over-the-top (but that would probably work out well).
If I were to build a mountain, I'd need the frame to be able to hold it, and many figures. I'd rather not have limitations.

[Purplebeard]

Reminds me of something my brother and I did with legos as kids. We had a four plate square section of the old moon crater plates we linked together on a board that we hung from the ceiling with fishing line. Worked pretty well for a long time as a floating space base, even handling the cat jumping and sleeping on it once in a while. Wish I had pics of it still, and can't do it nowadays with my kid's legos, those old moon crater plates go for a fortune. Sigh.

[Castilater]

My main issue with fishing line is how the platform would rock and sway.
Any way to counteract that, or is it simply a constant issue?

[Pickledpie]

I remember from some YouTube video a while back that said you could use those little plastic tables in the middle of pizza boxes. Like one of these.



I think that you were supposed to slip the hex over the top of the table, and it ended up being exactly for hexes high or something.

The video said that they fit snugly, but usually they were too big. However, the triangle shaped ones seemed to always fit.

Not very tall, but still a good way to make stable, floating terrain.

[AliasQTip]

I often use castle walls to create elevated sections of a map; not exactly floating but close. With just a few castle pieces you can float a 24-hex easily and it's structurally sound. My Secret Bases and Zombie Pit battlefields employ this technique.

Secret Bases Battlefield

Building a seperate area off the side of the map has been used by a number of cartographers here on the site to create caverns and the like. I built an entire sperate identical battlefield into my map Quantum Entaglement. The players could make quantum jumps between maps. It really added another dimension to the game. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Quantum Entaglement Battlefield

On a side note, I had originally wanted to place one quantum map above the other using the castle-wall-support technique but it created problems such as restricting the movement of large figures so the idea was scrapped. You can read about it here if your interested: AliasQTip's Battlefield Design Blog.