Gary's Heroscape Site & Stuff

[CornPuff]

I am very interested in this. Very cool.

what do you use to enter xml data? what tools do you use? could i see the xslt?

Over on the Battlefields of Valhalla thread I have been talking about maps with multiple "Start zone and glyphs" layers. I would love to see your xml format become the standard for map distribution.

Virtuascape doesn't do Start Zone and Glyph layers well, doesn't do scenarios well and makes Bunjee (and the rest of the Mac users) unhappy. Also it has a closed file format.

Lanscape is cross-platform, lacks snow and castles, and has a closed file format.(Even though i think its XML based, logrey doesn't have intentions to make it open).

I really dig the fact that you are making an XML based format. I would love to use your format to create a map database. If you need any help with speccing things out or some grunt programming let me know. I'm pretty sharp when it comes to coding, and I think that you are on to something good.

[GaryLASQ]

hey CornPuff. i know Logrey has experimented in the past with XML as a format for saving and exchanging maps, rather than the .sol files of Flash. and he plans to work this into his version 4 of LS. (in fact, the .sol files are XML that are "scrambled" for proprietary reasons.)

the one thing i want to do with scenarios is allow plugging different scenarios into the same battlefield rather than doing a "copy" of the same battlefield with each scenario. so i'm still thinking about how to represent this in the XML battlefield file.

for tools, i'm a bit of a reductionist. only using notepad. i should look into other tools though. and i'm still quite the novice with XSLT. i use the Saxon parser on my laptop but haven't figured out all of its features yet.

here is the XSLT file:
http://heroscape.glasq.com/online/sc...attlefield.xsl

however it's far from its final form and it needs more documentation. and this will not be it's permanent url. just putting it at this location temporarily for the purpose of this thread.

Originally Posted by CornPuff

I really dig the fact that you are making an XML based format. I would love to use your format to create a map database.

i was getting started on a map database via a different XML structure back in the HQ days. but that was for organizing PDFs generated by LS. instead i'm concentrating on putting the maps themselves (terrain objects pieced togther) into XML first; then work on a map database (higher level info about maps). although this is a bit of an uphill climb with a learing curve and RL distractions.

you can use this format anytime you want, but it would be better to wait a bit until i get scenarios worked into it which should be a couple more weeks i think.

[kboleen]

Very cool site. I love the rotating avatars. Are they free for us to use?

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by kboleen

Very cool site. I love the rotating avatars. Are they free for us to use?

thanks kboleen. help yourself to the "spinners". don't even need to give me credit or anything since i swiped the animation frames off the Hasbro sight

[auralerogeny]

I got a spinner...I really really like it. And your site is VERY cool, I was checking everything out when I found the avatars, which were way cooler than the crappy one I had. Thanks Gary! I bookmarked your site as well!

[Jaz1597]

I don't know why I haven't check it out before, but your site looks great.

I LOVE the modular map section!

[GaryLASQ]

Originally Posted by Jaz1597

I LOVE the modular map section!

thanks Jaz1597. the modular map section is on a slight pause while i work on my XML/SVG project for storing battlefields/scenarios. plus, this project will help out the Modular Maps in several ways. one will be an auto-point calculator based on my rules for determining points for a modular map (or any map for that matter).

Also, i've just added the "Crest of the Valkyrie" (Flagbearers) to the tables thanks to Riggler's thread.

[Startoker]

Hi Gary,
Love your site, especially the tables which I utilize often. When we play we usually have five (5) or six (6) players. What I would really like to see is a nice six player map where we could finish a game in about 4-5 hours. Ive got lots to work with. Entire collection of figures including all exclusives, about 10 MS, 2 VC, 6 RTTFF, 6 COTA, 2 TT. If you do any projects along these lines please let me know. There just aren't a lot of 6 player boards out there. Thanks in advance for your time and efforts. Keep on 'Scapin, you're a great asset to the HS community.
Regards,
Startoker

[GaryLASQ]

thanks for the high praise Startoker.

once i get a bigger collection of modular maps i will create some senarios that use them. (i'm not real thrilled with the last two modules i made and will probably rework or remove them.)

also with a nice big collection of modules to work with someone could say "ok, i've got these expansions and x number of masters. my buddy also has some terrain. if i build these modules and he builds this other module and brings it with him, we can arrange them into a pretty big map for all 6 players."

[GaryLASQ]

castle is done. yeah!
click here --> The West Barbican of Idona Castle

again i'll mention that if you're using FireFox (or Opera) browser then just click on the above link. otherwise you will need to install an SVG Viewer plug-in (look a few posts back in this thread).

[theats]

cool

[reapersaurus]

I hadn't let you know that I borrowed your Dund rotating image for the NGS game - hope it's OK to steal your bandwidth!

Let me know if you'd rather I upped it to my space...