Changes planned for Napoleonic titles.

[-72-]

Feedback regarding hex borders directly on the art -and the logical argument for why they should not be done was used to change Seven Years War.

I guess my point being is that feedback can be where you find it, and I oftentimes find it around the traps (one of the slang expressions I was taught down here).

I totally understand about the images on counters; that's sort of a new thing that came along in board wargames as well. I don't entirely know where it originates from -but it goes back a long ways ... I mean even Panzer General was doing it in the 1990's although that really was more of a puzzle than a wargame...

One of the complications I have found in design with the new level of 2D is that you look at it and need to add a layer so the impulse is to just convert an existing graphic (in other words one at a smaller size) to the new larger size. I don't know that that is probably the most advantageous sequencing to be doing that.  I mean what I am working on right now might take that exact path but it is something worth exploring and experimenting with I think.  

-Meaning I think maybe a potentially better way to work with the newest size units is make your initial design based upon the new amount of real estate, so to speak -and then scale it down -so maybe you take elements as the 2 other levels progress smaller.  

I do really like the addition of the single image maps (I sort of wished it would have been introduced for the 2D level as that might have had an impact - it would have also meant that they could have been done for maps covering larger areas than just using the 3D style- but they aren't.  What I like is that it establishes a naming convention so that anyone so inclined to give it a go can.  With the Civil War series, the one thing I am not overly keen about is that there is either a bug or an intentional design aspect that prevents a couple of selections being deselected and then not saved for when you open up the program the next time.  For example. say a user prefers the b/w images -while you can select those in a menu - you have to select that every single time you open the program -and honestly it is annoying as all hell to have to do that.  I assume it is a bug -and if so fair enough... the same holds true with the single image maps... you cannot simply select to look at the other style without having that show up every single time that you open the map. In fairness there are some work-arounds for this that involves moving or renaming files ... but, well ... anyways ... my point I guess is that I don't think this update should maybe include programming to that level -but one never knows until you see it.

Hexy - that's true - it shouldn't be with the single image maps so much as essentially from what I can tell by nutting out how I would work them - is you overlay them over a screenshot of the larger map and use opacity so that you know what you are designing aligns with a hexside ... the hexsides are still what the game is looking at underneath -so technically speaking the artwork itself doesn't have to directly conform to that -it can vary some -- you should find that with roads, fields, woods, orchards, etc -and to a limited degree anything that runs along a hexside.  But I mean that is just common-sense and having looked at a lot of physical game maps over the years.

I got told my own style sort of channels the Clash of Arms titles- but I wasn't actually working off of those - and to be fair while I do have them (and they are great -- the La Bataille, and Battles in the Age of Reason series -among others ) - I didn't actually have any to work off of until after the fact -so it was sort of circumstantial.  In SYW, at any rate part of what had to be done was to amalgamate work that came from elsewhere.

Back to the images on counters ... and I don't know if NB will go as far as CWB by assigning a different graphic to each sides' leaders (it should in my opinion - but I have no idea what all the brief is for that) ... a simple star, or a crummy flag ( mine or whoever's ) doesn't seem to cut it.  You have a lot of room now to make something happen - in my own project I think I have it easier- there were no uniforms more or less, and most from the same class background would have dressed in a similar fashion - I only have a single Leader area I can use on the bmp file -so I might go with an image there -but only for a Leader -- I haven't put it in stone though ... so I mean don't take that as gospel. It does, though make for some interesting possibilities that were not there before.

Question -and I sort of know that there are limitations with this - because the counters themselves will not be able to change facing --- I was at one time thinking of going with some silhouettes, along the lines of what SPI did with their Civil War series ( that began back in 1976 with Terrible Swift Sword) -- need to come up with a more aesthetically minded arrow for facing ... but I mean that is sort of academic really.  I don't know if that works better or not - I mean there were no NATO symbols used at the time ... it was largely rectangles to show infantry formations... I don't know the answer - it is something to work around with.  In the design project - it will just be NATO symbols like always -- but I may do some work in that space outside stock imagery later on.