Planning Maps - setting priorities

[-72-]

I wanted to give the larger playing community the choice of which sets I give priority to.

With that in mind, I will list the 9 that I still have substantial work to do in this regard below, and will go based upon what the community wants.

I may post this over at Wargamer.com as well as Gamesquad.com's applicable threads, however I recognise the robustness of the SB community here -so will start here.

Please note, that I will automatically be giving priority to new titles as they come out (noting that Rich Hamilton has alluded to the fact that one is nearly ready over on Wargamer.com ).



Also a follow-up question; so far I have not bothered with doing screen shots of maps that are about 9 kb or smaller ( there are a lot of 1 kb maps that basically amount to a single screen shot -and even then not a full screen in many cases).

Would the community find any value in adding these to the mix as I do maps? Or should I just focus on the larger maps?


**Note: the poll allows for multiple choices, which is good- if you choose more than one, please let me know a preferred order via posting ( say your top 3 ).

Also note, that I have done the maps for DBP, SAW, MW, and SCW so far (although I still have to updated those titles' respective titles in order to link to the full sized maps).

Thx,

Steve :)

[Compass Rose]

Boy, this reminds me of those "If you were on a desert island" questions!

There are so many good titles here it is really hard for me to pick a top 3 etc. If I had to pick one title to start out with I'd have to go with RV based on the fact that it is the last WWII era game to be released and it is a very popular title on the ladders.

I chose all of the listed titles except WW and AOTR since I have found myself playing RV alot more then those other two "Eastern Front/Winter Battle" game titles. As for ES, PW, PF, KW, Nam, and TOD, I have the most interest in those titles, within the SB series.

In my opinion, I would like to see small planning maps as well as the big planning maps being released. It is a very nice asset to have a "bird's eye view" of a battle map to help plan a strategy against a PBEM opponent!

Keep up the good work Steve! :bow:

[-72-]

Chad- they'll all get done ... I guess I should have pointed that out - it is just -which ones do you want first?

It is all the same to me, really.

AotR has some maps that are also in RV -so it sort of is like working on both at the same time (I am meaning the Stalingrad map, Balta, etc...).

I should mention that if no one checked out the SDC blog this past week, I stuffed up majorly- and managed to delete my Squad Battles' maps album there. I got it fixed, and it can now be found at the link below:

http://gallery.hist-sdc.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2822

The size limit on the Gallery is set at 2 mb (I think by my host) ... at any rate, you can check out what I got so far.

[TheBigRedOne]

Based on popularity alone, RV and MW should probably be done first. These are the two titles that book the most games here.

I would be willing to make these available to the community through Task Force Echo Four as well. Between your site and that one, it would give a large amount of coverage to the SB world. Just a thought.

[-72-]

Based on popularity alone, RV and MW should probably be done first. These are the two titles that book the most games here.

I would be willing to make these available to the community through Task Force Echo Four as well. Between your site and that one, it would give a large amount of coverage to the SB world. Just a thought.

Alan: sent you an email at your Yahoo address - sounds good to me...

And I should have left RV off the list, as that is the obvious next choice (since it is the newest title I hadn't done).

It also should be noted that there is a bit of crossover from some of the titles - for example, there is a Stalingrad map in RV as well as AoR, although I didn't check the date stamp and assumed they are the same one - others include ones like Balta and I think Borisov, etc -so basically doing those is killing 2 birds type of thing.

Anyways - will get to RV next (with a possible time out to do the next SB project that Mr Hamilton referred to -these have a fairly quick turnaround time), but am interested in what after that the community might be interested in.

[-72-]

Red Victory is underway..

I am going to change the plan a bit- in that I will go and work on the dedicated RV page as I had with some of the other titles, in order to get some links up to the full-sized maps).

I finished up the Kharkov map earlier this morning (full sized it is just under 9000 x 9000 px and about 48 mb I think).



I have about 12 more larger maps to go (not counting the more generic set -which I need to sort of do something different with the names- so that I can associate the screenshots with a folder for them all) -so probably about 16 more left to do.

I have an album so that anyone interested can check progress (even if only to work out if I still am alive or not ).

http://gallery.hist-sdc.com/main.php?g2_itemId=2839

[jmlima]

Never mind.

[Wolfgang]

These maps looks really fantastic. Curious though, how do people use planning maps in sqb?

[-72-]

These maps looks really fantastic. Curious though, how do people use planning maps in sqb?

A lot of times the maps themselves are larger than some of the individual scenarios (and those end up using portions of a larger map). So it may assist someone in deciding if they want to create a scenario -as to what type of space they would have to work with.

I suppose as well, that they end up showing the casual viewer, what the topic might be about; sort of along the lines of say -it is a starting point, but like having a board wargame without a box back featuring some of the components. I don't necessarily know, specifically what all anyone uses them for -but I do think it can also give guys an idea about where they might be fighting if they haven't ever played a certain scenario.

And finally, it might (I say might, as I can't answer for anyone other than myself- but it does do this for me), give modders an idea for where and what they have to work with -in terms of context.

That, plus it also gives me something more than the Press Kit material, to show on pages for the titles - and since I have been on a roll doing them -and it is different from what JTS/HPS provides in a lot of cases ( but not all ), it is probably the least I can do, personally, right away...

-All that being said - it leads to the actual purpose of my post:

I did get done with (most - I left off the generic maps for now -and there are several- like 5 or 6 -I will get to them later), the revamped page (I'll get to them all -I swear it) for: Red Victory.

http://hist-sdc.com/spotlights/sb_red_victory.php

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

The larger maps look great, especially if they can actually be used for gaming, not just perusing. I'd like to see the ability to have up to a div fight to the point where you have, for example, 1ss PzD vs rus inf div with tank bde in support, meeting engagement, you each start with small recon elements and then as the battle goes, you can bring in more troops of your choosing be it a company, bn, rgt/bde or a mixed force at a cost of vps or something and the force you control is up to you up to a whole div with support units if you think you need it or think you can fight with just one bde. You just have access to the div you chose to fight the battle with. Of course the scenarios would be longer and the objectives are what you decide you have to have. The object is to destroy the opposing force, no vp hexes, just casualties and maybe giving points for calling in more troops. Neither side will know what the points are until the end of the scenario. You only realize your opp brought on more troops because you bumped into them on the battlefield.

A random map generator would go good for that, but the OOBs is where the bulk work would be as I see it better having the actual div rather than generic, for example U.S. 1st inf div vs U.S. inf div 1944. Some units would vary during the course of the war. Then consider having a choice of all the units from all the nationalities present and those yet to actually be added makes for a large selection of units to choose from.

Would also like to see some larger scenarios. Some of the operations in French IndoChina as a whole. Yes they would be longer scenarios, but if people really want the experience you have to do the whole thing and do it right or most people just take the fire before the game starts because they are impatient. Much more strategy would be involved with some of those longer scenarios. Besides that, it could make for some interesting team games if people are interested.

Or if everybody really wants to get ambitious, with a complete OOB, ww2 could be fought as a div vs div fight or campaigns or operations if not want the entire ww2. Cdrs have OOB of divs plus supporting units like the Tiger Bns that would be allocated and opps get their assignments and opposing player not knowing if you are going into battle with an inf div vs a pz div or whatever.

I guess I should mention if there were some longer and larger scenarios that there should be some way to resupply units unless they are isolated of course.

It's pretty obvious my mind has alot of time on it's hands.