Venture-Captain, Illinois—Fairview Heights
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I seem to recall that Paizo had decided to halt production of Map Packs in favor of the newer tiles system. As recently as 1-34 scenarios are still being designed to use them.
Is the intention to continue using them in scenarios to help clear inventory with the knowledge they will eventually become difficult to obtain then you have to print or draw on your own?
Is there a QC process in the works to avoid map packs and maybe use tiles instead, where applicable?
If the intention is to use map packs anyway, I would personally prefer to have them listed as custom maps (which would also save the frustration of maps with misaligned, stretched or gapped spaces).
If tiles become a thing, could we please make it a requirement that the tiles not have to be partially stacked and leaning on each other in a map design?
|
This is not the word of a Paizo employee, but it is the word of someone who has been at several convention panels where similar questions have been asked:
I wouldn’t say that it’s being done to clear inventory of map packs, but rather so they can avoid using the same flip-tiles over and over. As the catalog of flip-tiles grows I suspect you will see them more and more often.
In answer to the question “why not just make custom maps?” the answer that was given in those panels was “budget.” I have no idea what the actual numbers in that budget are, but it doesn’t allow for custom cartography in every scenario. Most have one custom map, but if it has more then something has to give somewhere else.
(I haven’t started using Flip-Tiles yet, but if you do have to stack them off-center, that’s a problem. I’d guess it’s a case of authors using the electronic version and not being aware of the physical dimensions. )
Starfinder Society Developer
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kevin summed up some stuff above pretty well.
Our budgets on scenarios consist of "art" which includes both art pieces and maps. If a scenario doesn't include a custom map, then we can generally sneak in more art. If we have map products that can get us through an encounter, then we prefer to use those. Generally, we try to avoid using anything "out of print" however sometimes events conspire against us in terms of adjusting maps that show up in a scenario and are no longer available for purchase.
As far as going forward, I suspect you can see our ongoing use of in-print products and the occasional custom maps. We've yet to use the new map tiles in Starfinder Society, though I suspect we'll be looking at some of the processes that Pathfinder Society does for their map layout.
-Thursty
(Bureau of Expectations Management)
|
Venture-Captain, Illinois—Fairview Heights
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I appreciate the response. I’m trying to figure out what map packs I might need to buy before they go out of stock to cover the future scenarios (I really dislike trying to draw maps of far inferior quality to the published art for my players). I’m trying to balance this against the possibility that as a customer, I can’t see which are out of print, only which (if any) are out of stock. This is part of my season 2 SFS budgeting for the year.
Thanks again for the response. I’m not sure it helps me anticipate anything more than seeing the map preview a couple of months out does, but I know what to expect, and that’s something.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
-Thursty
(Bureau of Expectations Management)
How feasible would it be to hack out the half squares in the middle of the map you get when you make the map out of map tiles? They're not bad when I notice them before I set up the table but 15 minutes of trying to line up squares and getting nothing resembling on the lines...
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have found that Google's free "PDF to PPT" converter really helps extract images and maps more cleanly than just right clicking on the PDF, if that helps.
Whoa, hold the phone - Google has a free pdf to ppt converter?! Tell me your secrets, Nefreet. Where is this tool, and can I use it to get good quality images from PDFs more easily than screenshot -> paste to MSPaint -> edit -> save as jpg?
|
Venture-Captain, Illinois—Fairview Heights
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
@Kishmo I print them on 36” x 48” with decent quality using GIMP (which is a free image software).
Using Adobe Acrobat, loaf the scenario PDF
Using the arrow tool, click the map in the back of the scenario (the unmarked one)
Copy
In GIMP, ctrl+shift+v to paste as a new image of the same size, DPI, etc.
Count your dimensions in squares (to determine how many inches each dimension should be)
Go to Image > Scale Image and change the unit of measurement in the image size section pixels to inches
Adjust only the width to the right number of inches (number of squares)
Remember to double the inches for 10’ squares.
Tab to the height dimension and it should automatically update, keeping the correct proportions. If the height is larger or just right, continue to the next step, otherwise adjust the height then tab out and your width should now be equal to or greater than you need. This is fine.
Once you are satisfied with the dimensions ctrl+shift+e
Name your file and at the bottom, click select file type and make it a pdf (because it is a vector graphic)
You can now print this pdf at places like OfficeMax or wherever.
If you’re lucky, you can convince them to print as a blueprint for a fraction of the cost. I pay $11for full color 36”x48” and $6 for a 24” x 36”. All but one of the employees at mine will do that for me.
I hope this is helpful and best of luck to you.
For those wondering why I don’t just do this in the future for an out of print map pack, it’s just the frustration of Paizo saying “Hey, we’ve got this great product you can use to show this on something much more portable than a roll of architectural paper, but just kidding. You can’t. Print it on photo paper and spend a fortune if you want it to be as nice as the product we’re referencing but not making available.
At least if it were called a custom map when it’s really a custom arrangement of map pack materials Paizo fully intends to eventually stop production of, it would feel less like an IDGAF to meas the customer. I try to give the highest quality physical experience, depicting the author’s descriptions as I can afford time and money for, as I can. My 8 year old is a better artist than I am. When I draw maps, crates that provide cover are confused for doors. Areas of varying terrain types get mistaken and it just tends to take away from the overall experience when the players have to spend time clarifying which part of my Jackson Pollack is which mechanical advantage or disadvantage to them.
Here’s a great thing you can go out and buy, but just kidding. We won’t sell it to you. Figure it out. I just don’t look forward to that day. At the end of the day, it’s still a business and the business needs to do what it deems in its best interest. Sometimes that might mean the author uses a material that may become forever unavailable 6 months after publishing, but best fits their writing. I can accept that, even if I disagree with it.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh dang Jacob. That's amazing. Thanks for sharing! Excuse me for a moment while I go have a wee scream-into-the-void at all the time I've spent mucking around taking screenshotsof PDFs, deleting text, and removing blotched pixels when all this time I could just use the arrow tool to rip images direct from the pdf...
Anyways - thanks, that is super helpful. I owe you a drink (@ GenCon?) :D
Venture-Agent, Netherlands
|
As a minor sidepoint, as I know someone who made a scenario (I assume a bunch of people do), custom maps are also up to the scenario writer too, for instance, my VC who wrote SFS#1-24 (seriously go play it, and as a disclaimer, definitely not paid to write this >.>) didn't have time to make a custom map, so went with flipmats instead as it worked better!
Also @Jacob - I do every step you do, except I use Posterazor, to cut the image into printable A4 pages in a pdf, then print, cut and stick them myself. Saves me a bunch of money. And I like to think the players appreciate the effort I put in...and my housemates have learned to put up with me commandeering the dining room table for map making...
|
Jacob, this is super helpful. Thank you.
@Kishmo I print them on 36” x 48” with decent quality using GIMP (which is a free image software).
Using Adobe Acrobat, loaf the scenario PDF
Using the arrow tool, click the map in the back of the scenario (the unmarked one)
CopyIn GIMP, ctrl+shift+v to paste as a new image of the same size, DPI, etc.
Count your dimensions in squares (to determine how many inches each dimension should be)
Go to Image > Scale Image and change the unit of measurement in the image size section pixels to inches
Adjust only the width to the right number of inches (number of squares)
Remember to double the inches for 10’ squares.
Tab to the height dimension and it should automatically update, keeping the correct proportions. If the height is larger or just right, continue to the next step, otherwise adjust the height then tab out and your width should now be equal to or greater than you need. This is fine.
Once you are satisfied with the dimensions ctrl+shift+e
Name your file and at the bottom, click select file type and make it a pdf (because it is a vector graphic)
You can now print this pdf at places like OfficeMax or wherever.If you’re lucky, you can convince them to print as a blueprint for a fraction of the cost. I pay $11for full color 36”x48” and $6 for a 24” x 36”. All but one of the employees at mine will do that for me.
|
|
When I extract custom maps for printing, and images for showing on the tablet to players at the table, I use:
pdfimages.exe -j <filename> .\images\i
The command line tool listed above is found on: https://www.xpdfreader.com/download.html as part of their command line tool set.
Then I open up file explorer, and go on a mass deletion, as it pulls more than I need. Then I begin the process of converting the file to a printable format. I believe I was using this for the map conversion. http://www.fantasticmaps.com/2012/01/tips-and-tricks-rescaling-maps-and-sli cing-them-up/ -- I mainly use it to remind me of the math. As I use GIMP to take the jpg and rescale it. Then I use Publisher to break it up. Publisher 2016 allows me to make a custom page and will tile it, and I specify a .3" overlap and the hash marks to show where to cut and where the overlap begins. Then I print to PDF and specify letter size.
