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An alternative to pins on maps

G

Grey Mage

Well-known member
Some maps (usually urban ones, I should think) will have many many pins as the details of the city are fleshed out and various businesses and NPC locations are entered.

As an alternative might it be possible to just have a small colored dot similar to what Denis did here with his City of Greyhawk map?

Link to his map: http://melkot.com/locations/cogh/cogh.html

The ability to just see the dot and hover it would be helpful.

Perhaps pins versus dots could be selected as a preference?
 
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I can definitely see advantages here. I love pretty maps, and could see city maps especially being so covered with pins over time that you couldn't see the art . . .
 
Circles, squares, triangles, donuts.... Even icons for cities, towers, trees, mountains, hills.... Make the whole image or icon green if revealed.

Hover text is essential but it would be nice to toggles some text as always on.
 
Sorry for second post but sometimes a picture is worth a bazillion words. Here's a map that I just uploaded to the Realm Works community over on G+. If you can tell me which pins are towns, forests, mountains and places of interest, you've played too much in this setting.... :D

https://plus.google.com/104499183668414545928/posts/Z3k9Dk1NFAJ

The little green "player knowledge" dots are nice, but they can easily get lost. I can't even imagine trying to do a city like Magnimar or whatever where I want to identify a LOT of locations.
 
We'll definitely be taking a look at alternate icon styles/modes/preferences for map pins. Nothing's certain, but I'm imagining the next step using the category icons for the associated content instead of the pin icon. This at least would allow you to differentiate communities from regions, generic locations, encounters, quests, etc.

You may also want to try out using maps at different levels of detail with pins that link to more detailed maps. Try shrinking your full map in a paint program by 50% and importing it. Pin only it's various regions and maybe some key cities. Then crop your image at 100% size around a region. Add all the more detailed pins to the closer zoomed region map. Then just associate the region topic (with the more detailed map) to the region pin on the more zoomed out world/area map. Rinse and repeat as needed. Boom, now you have a series of hierarchical maps that you can drill down into to get more detail, or back up to get a broader and less cluttered overview. It's not exactly Google Maps but it will get you places.

I'll be doing some kind of video tutorial on this in the future.
 
Category icons are a nice approach.. also, if all of them can be toggled based on the category (Show Communities; Hide Communities), that would be a nice add-on to that.
 
"Try shrinking your full map in a paint program by 50% and importing it. Pin only it's various regions and maybe some key cities."

Excellent approach.

This would be much more doable if we could draw outlines around the regions to clearly delineate them. Rob's already said it's in the works. But your suggestion would benefit from that additional step which is likely much more difficult to implement.

One reason to not go the region route is that the full-world view with a bazillion pins allows us to look on the lower righthand side for that esoteric place you know is somewhere but have no clue where to begin.

I simultaneously want an overview map with everything including regional borders; and I want regional maps that are more manageable and just as detailed.... And a pony.... :rolleyes:
 
Good suggestion @Silveras. I'll keep it in mind.

@AEIOU(and sometimes Y? :)) If you're feeling artsy, in the meantime you could always add some semitransparent blobs with photoshop (or Paint .NET) to your high level maps to make the areas more clear. This of course assumes the borders and political boundaries don't change too often, but even it they do, RW lets you change the underlying image without disturbing the pins and reveal mask. It's more work than if we handled regional boundaries in RW ourselves, but it will get you by until we do.
 
AEIOU said:
One reason to not go the region route is that the full-world view with a bazillion pins allows us to look on the lower righthand side for that esoteric place you know is somewhere but have no clue where to begin.

I simultaneously want an overview map with everything including regional borders; and I want regional maps that are more manageable and just as detailed.... And a pony.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

One nice thing about going the regional route is it will be easier to track down that esoteric place if you know the name of it. Just find it in the story/world almanac. Then you should be able to track down the region map it is attach to using the content links list.
 
Stop talking sense, Joe. :) Doing stuff outside of RW? It's kinda funny but I'm so focused on trying to figure out how to do EVERYTHING in RW that I've tuned common sense out.

Add category icons and I'll skip the pony request.
 
Another alternate to map pins would be to allow us to place free-form text or text from a specific fieldname on the map. This would allow us to add descriptive names directly to maps -- like Varisian Sea or Shimmerbog -- as a name that you could select as a link. Make it black with white glow or green with white glow depending on player knowledge.

I wouldn't mind even just having numbers 01-99 that could be placed as pins -- for rooms, buildings, locations -- that are clickable to follow links back to the appropriate content.
 
AEIOU said:
Another alternate to map pins would be to allow us to place free-form text or text from a specific fieldname on the map. This would allow us to add descriptive names directly to maps -- like Varisian Sea or Shimmerbog -- as a name that you could select as a link. Make it black with white glow or green with white glow depending on player knowledge.

I wouldn't mind even just having numbers 01-99 that could be placed as pins -- for rooms, buildings, locations -- that are clickable to follow links back to the appropriate content.
Click to expand...

I like that idea!
 
I'm curious about the numbers. In print, the numbers are used as "manual links" so that you can find the correct content. In Realm Works, you can create an actual link by associating the pin to a topic. You can already click on pins to navigate to their contents, and you can even promote your map into the navigation pane so that it stays open as you click from pin to pin. Numbers wouldn't be necessary in this case.

One thing not currently well supported is a single topic describing a whole dungeon. There's no way to link a pin to a particular snippet or section in that topic. However, I don't see numbers helping much here either.

I suppose my confusion is this: if we support clicks on pins navigating to content, what good are the numbers?
 
All published content today uses numbers to identify locations -- rooms, buildings, encounters, etc. If I could place a round circle with a number in it that covers the number on the map that I import that ALSO acts as a link, I retain compatibility with the printed product and I can quickly navigate to the content (and more importantly the notes) I'm seeking.

If I have numbers that refer to the locations, I can use text and icons to identify things on the maps and they will stand out from the module descriptors.

I already use d20pro at the table for mapping and combat. Sometimes I'm forced to use HL if(when) the players go a different direction than I had planned for. I see myself using RW more to prep material for myself and to keep the players informed and engaged -- it's not a VTT.
 
Joe said:
One thing not currently well supported is a single topic describing a whole dungeon. There's no way to link a pin to a particular snippet or section in that topic. However, I don't see numbers helping much here either.
Click to expand...

I've created a topic category of "Ruin/Adventure Site" for this purpose, a sub-category of Location with the Skull icon.

I have also created a topic category of "Chamber" for specific rooms/ caves/ chambers within a "Ruin/Adventure Site" location. For these, pre-defined snippets describe the ambient lighting, sounds, smells, and feel of the air (with tag domain like "cold/clammy", "musty", "dry", etc.). The air quality accepts multiple selections. As I am working with Pathfinder rules, the ambient lighting tags reflect the light levels in the game.

Joe said:
I suppose my confusion is this: if we support clicks on pins navigating to content, what good are the numbers?
Click to expand...

Some topics have (or had previously) a "Map ID" text snippet, and I have added it in my "Chamber" topic type for reference. Bi-directional linking between the map and this might be part of what AEIOU is looking for.

Personally, I find the pin sufficient for my needs.
 
I think what I am seeking is bi-directional "linking" between RW and printed materials -- using the same nomenclature for both so that I can transition back and forth seamlessly between electronic and paper since I don't plan to use RW at the gaming table.

In a year, will I even bother with printed materials any more? And if an Android compatible GM reader becomes available, then RW may very well join me and the printed materials become even more redundant.
 
Maybe a clickable zone, for example a continent map where each of the nations on the map have a clickable area that highlights with the mouse over it.

I know I would use it.
 
The ability to put "brief text over a pin" that shows in player views (so they know what the relieved pin is.
 
A simple drawing tool and text. Circles, squares and the like - filled or not - color choices - text size. Then place the text on the map and the text has a graphic tag if you make it a pin. If its a shape the shape can have a displayable name and be a link.

Also, a way to put MOVEABLE tokens/pins on a map to represent PC, monsters vehicles etc and link them to topics! I am NOT talking active tokens just something to represent the stuff that's in the encounter that's moving or hiding or whatever. If I am using Reveal with an interior map it would be nice to show this stuff and have it linked!
 
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