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kbs666
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Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,690

Old October 18th, 2018, 11:23 AM
The "official" realms do things the way describe and IMHO its terrible. You can download Isle of Kandor and see for yourself.


Using a smart image with pins for navigation sounds great in theory until you actually do it. The problem is pins don't have permanent labels only tooltips that only show up if you haver over them. And maps of any size tend to get lots and lots of pins.

For instance:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8p7j49o1y...22.40.png?dl=0

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw
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Valyar
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Old October 19th, 2018, 12:59 AM
Death-by-map-pins. Permanent labels are must-have indeed.

The past is a rudder to guide us, not an anchor to hold us back.
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Merion
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Germany, so please bear with my English
Posts: 378

Old October 19th, 2018, 01:02 AM
I agree, the maps are great and the reveal brush is the sole reason I bought the software, but they still have a lot of room for improvement.

As someone who studied and worked in cartography, it the wasted potential sometimes pains me. The lack of different pin symbols and written labels is really the first thing I'd change. Also for a smooth use of maps for navigation it would really help if one could define area that link to topics or better yet directly to other maps, instead of only pins.

And if you want to get fancy, add a simple grid, so I could link to grid field D4 and have the map open zoomed in on that area.

But I digress... maps are still my goto navigation option for dungeon delving.
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kbs666
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Old October 19th, 2018, 03:29 AM
There are so many things that could be improved but everything waits for the CM.

in this area alone

1) Permanent labels (IMO these should only appear at a certain zoom state or at some other trigger to reduce clutter but that is another thing that could be worked out)
2) links directly to other maps
3) image maps in RW (a defined region in an image that is a link)
4) allowing multiple kinds and colors of pins (should simply allow users to install their own BMP or whatever the image is somewhere).

Yes, I have a lengthy list of suggestion, both my own and others, to post once the CM goes live that I think should be done to improve RW.

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw
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dmbritt
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 16

Old October 19th, 2018, 07:15 AM
Death by Map Pins... I only see this as a problem in a monolithic solution where you are trying to put everything on one map. I am a big fan of Divide and Conquer. Divide everything up into manageable chunks.

Separate your world view into two groups .. one for political areas and one for geographical areas. Then, you have 2 maps(one for each of the preceding groups) which are HIGH LEVEL maps that contain the MAJOR areas. You then place pins for ONLY these two groups... These pins link to topics of the areas and they contain sub-maps. These sub-maps are smaller than the main map and are intended for a more detailed view where towns and other points of interest can be placed as map pins.

These sub-maps can simply be cropped(cropped to represent the area near the pin) versions of the main map or they can be new detailed maps if you have access to such. Either way, you only have the pins you need on the map you are currently looking at.

So, this is my disclaimer, what I wrote above is my theory about how I want to organize my Realm. I am watching videos by Ken Shaw and Josh Plunkett, about the best experts I can find on Realm Works, to see if they have anything to say in their videos that changes my mind.

Edit**
Here is a link to my main Political Locations:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwzjypdpmq...sDemo.png?dl=0

Last edited by dmbritt; October 19th, 2018 at 07:27 AM. Reason: Added Link
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kbs666
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Old October 19th, 2018, 10:17 AM
I really need to change my forum name. FYI I am Ken Shaw.

The sub map idea has its own issues. Primarily the time it takes to load maps during game play. I've found it very frustrating to have play pause while I was waiting through several of those just to get to a topic I needed. I'm not saying it might not be the best solution for you, I'm just warning you that it has its own downsides.

All of these solutions have significant downsides. Right now there are a lot of good solutions that could be a lot better if RW itself was better, and many of them are really fine if your realm is small, but once your realm gets above a certain size then most of these solutions start really not working very well.

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw

Last edited by kbs666; October 20th, 2018 at 04:26 AM.
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dmbritt
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Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 16

Old October 22nd, 2018, 11:34 PM
After much crashing and mysterious behavior with the player view I am not so sure realm works is the best choice for campaign management. I barely have the skeleton of a campaign world input and realm works throws a fit as I incrementally add to it. Revealed topics wont show up in the views or it crashes when I try to change what is revealed. It could be my fault but, boy it sure seams realm works is touchy about how information is added and especially if that information is altered.
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kbs666
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Old October 23rd, 2018, 04:19 AM
Describe exactly the problems you're having and we may be able to help.

my Realm Works videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZU...4DwXXkvmBXQ9Yw
kbs666 is offline   #18 Reply With Quote
dmbritt
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Old November 2nd, 2018, 10:47 PM
@kbs666

Thanks, but I am going to wait until Rob gets the 64bit version fully working and released to us before I go any further.
dmbritt is offline   #19 Reply With Quote
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