Woes...of a map maker...

Mr. Guberman · 10-07-2007, 07:48 AM,

Gents,

My favorite part of scenario design, not. For those of you who have helped me...you know how I complain about it...for those of you who have not...the maps just appear...without comment...

I'm getting ready to close out my files and put this map to bed for the day...have been working on it since before 0500 this AM and it is now 1705 here, now. Have patted the wife off to work, dealt with the boy...fed the dogs, taken them outside a few times, haven't eaten, yet...made about 8-10 PBEM turns...and I've had it.

Just wanted to relate some of the things I go through when making a map, for those who are interested or might relate.

A few years ago, I completed the map of the Bilin area of Burma (Myanmar for those of you today...amazing that it has come back into the news...). Notwithstanding renamed cities and locales, population growth, ad nauseum...I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking at...and was proud of the finished product. That map was based upon a few different maps, but none of them closer than 1:500,000, except for a situation map...that was really not very accurate or complete...for those of you who do this, you know I had to make a lot of assumptions. That was fine...until I discovered a 1:250,000 map of the same area...1946, no less...and really, that is only just TWICE the detail of the previous...yeeet!. I wasn't going to let that bother me...mmmmm....right! Looking it over, I could just not let it pass.

Started redoing the map, by eyeball and ruler, my usual technique. Got energetic, collected my allowance, and bought Paint Shop Pro, so that I could emulate Huib's technique of mapping, so nicely described here at the Blitz. Got tired of boobing around with PSP (kind of like a monkey trying to figure out a math problem [una changa con la problema matimatica]...you should have seen it...) so went back to eyeball and ruler (we don't use sliderules anymore...we have calcumlaters...I rectum they're purty good). It's a large area to cover with this map so, inevitably, there will have to be a lot of asumptions made constructing the thing...some may call it "poetic liscence"...I call it educated guessing...at best...and...believe it or not...I really do shrink from the problem when I have to do it...but somebody has to...it's a dirty job...

A few of the things that have crossed my mind while working here, specifically:

"That hill and stretch of terrain looks bald. It can't be bald. Here, a gully...must be a tree or two here...yeah...has to be"...

"There must be rice paddies here...there must be. Hmmm...it's the dry season...this area must be dried up paddies...yeah, that's the ticket"...

"...bunch of green on the topo...must be jungle...heavy jungle?...scatterred trees...egad"...farm fields?...oh no...

"by Jove, I know they crossed the river...here!...but it shows just river...no swamps, no fords...just river...well I'll show them"...and the literature describes the river as a "roaring torrent" in the area north of Bilin...whoo boy...the rocks must have got in the way...

"this hex...I'm going to make it a barren beach...just because I want to..."...they'll either fight for it, die for it or leave it alone...but...I'm gonna make it a beach hex...

Any of you map makers experience the same kind of fatigue?

The map is about 33% complete...after having been 100% complete...before I saw the light...sheesh. ...and the wife just walked in the door. Maybe I'll start working on it in an hour or so...se la vie...anybody got any OOB's they want me to work on?...

Cheers
Curt

junk2drive · 10-07-2007, 08:19 AM,

Do it for fun, not obsession.

I've just seen one of your big maps. Impressive.

I've only made a couple of maps so far. My first, I thought, was good enough for gameplay and representation of my choice for battle. A critique pointed out that it was too flat. That is correct but I don't know what to do with 250m hexes and rolling terrain.

My point is ya gotta make some compromises.

Take a break and send me a turn.

Mr. Guberman · 10-07-2007, 08:42 AM,

Junk,

I'm a geologist. Turn coming henceforth...

Cheers
Curt

Von Luck · 10-08-2007, 05:55 AM,

Anybody who goes to all the trouble of trying to bring out fairly accurate battles well done.Granted your not going to get terrain units etc 100% right but thanks for all the effort nice to see some are helping us to enjoy this game a bit longer.Something i would like to do myself but a long way off.

Hobbes · 10-09-2007, 05:36 AM,

I've yet to try Huib's technique although I want to in the next scenario if I ever get time to make it. Making the map is normally the part I most enjoy - that and the historical research. Testing a large scenario against myself on the other hand I find most tedious. I do it but boy it's a pain.

Cheers, Chris

**Warhorse** · 10-09-2007, 09:08 AM,

I've started a few maps using Huib's instructions, very well done and easy to follow, definitely makes for an easier time of map-making, which is very hard in the absence of 1:250,000 scale maps.

Mike

Asiaticus · 10-13-2007, 02:11 PM,

My techniqe has been to cut out an area of a map I want in a Jpg file and grid the thing around the edges with KM marks and use that to locate the path of rivers, towns, hills, etc as x,y landmark points on my CS battle map file. I find the lowest and highest elevations and establish what the base elevation and delta will be.

Lay out the rivers and roads towns and then fill in topography starting with hills. I use my landmarks as points to measrure the locations of the various local features that I fill in section by section around them. Sort of like painting a picture. Often I sketch in the general elevations in the maps areas and then cut away or add to it untill I am satisfied that it looks right and then put on the icing of covering terrain features.

If I have one of the the good AMS topo maps its pretty easy.