G40 Custom Map Projection

Here is a version showing many more subdivisions, one of which inserts another tile in the middle of Australia that could serve as an impassible zone if desired. Along with a bunch of other lines in other spots that one might keep or ditch depending on how they wanted to reshape tiles for different stuff.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hmzuzwg6ytgh5rs/Domination_subdivisions.png?dl=0

base
https://www.dropbox.com/s/khxkql58g73q1n3/Domination_1940_baseline.png?dl=0

For the moment what I did was to take my ideas from the 1900 gamemap, and Heppster’s stuff from the 1914-18 gamemap in tripleA, and then tried to port that into something with a more late 1930s-40s vibe. I think it’s probably possible to create a game in tripleA for TTs on that scale that uses basically the normal rules, just with different starting unit set ups or production frontiers and microsculpts basically for all the units, since the digi sculpts can be scaled down and the map can be scaled. For a more analog thing I’d think one would either need to print a truly gigantic map to play that way, or more likely one would just add the borders they like and exclude the ones they find extraneous, for a game at a more normal playscale. Some ideas for the extra sea zones would be to add oldschool convoy lanes. For a ground game with that many tiles, you could probably keep the same movement dynamics for familiarity or change them for something a bit different I guess. M3 on the ground I think it really taxes the HardAI in tripleA, unless it’s a relatively uncommon unit, but M3 at sea I think could work. I haven’t tried to crack at the rules yet, just trying to draft map ideas that people floated as being potentially interesting. There’s an xml being worked on but haven’t delved too deep yet. Just trying to get the map and unit graphics stuff dialed then figure out what to do with it I guess hehe.
:)

Here’s the first set of supped up digi sculpts… based on Frostion’s set, with some additions I threw together. In tripleA the max display in the battlecalc is 68px tall, so that’s the ceiling there, but in game you can upscale these to like 150% for the map display. I tried to put em together here like a sticker sheet hehe.

And to round it out…

Then here it is sans roundels, so the units can be flipped or colorized more easily. This one shows the Big 6 with a quick color tint, without any masking really, just hard and fast for an example hehe. They could be any color really, if doing the tint thing, just depends on the player’s preferred HEX combos in tripleA. Ideally the player could switch the unit orientation or change their tint on the fly.

Quickie Europe just for an impression of how it might display. Image is indexed so a little choppy there, I’ll probably play with the colors cause that paintjob of the map still had the gigantic border lines and the peach pro-allied neutrals hehe, but anyway, gives the gist…

@imperious-leader Yeah, that’s what I meant about the choppiness and the gigantor lines hehe. I was using one of the earlier paintjobs, indexed with no antialiasing or feathering there, cause it was one of those that I was just shrinking down to 25% scale anyway ,so it didn’t show too much for that purpose, but not the best choice here all zoomed in. I got like half way through laying down some example unit graphics then noticed I’d forgot to shrink the borders hehe. Reason is because I have this baseline file where the borders have to all be 1 px wide, and indexed to 3 colors for it to work in tripleA eventually. I had all the anti-aliasing and blur checked to “off” in my GIMP settings to work on that, cause the colors have to be exact, like 100% black or 100% white, no in between grays or blur, and just forgot to change the settings when adding that layer over the painted one. We’ll clean it up for the final for sure, just wanted to show the units against some color for that one to see how the contrast held up.

Right now I’m battling the TT morphs in central Russia. It’s kind of a challenge, because OOB has Vologda connecting to Smolensk which I’d missed in the connections cause those regions are quite aways apart. It’s just a weird stretch OOB, cause the TT called Arkangel also has to somehow connect with Belarus at the same time as the Smolesk/Vologda but without the other TTs coming between. So I’m just kinda carving stuff away from Pskov and Tver to try and make that work, but Moscow is out of position for all this. Like I think I need to remove basically all the rivers there or knock back the subtle under terrain so it doesn’t look as noticeable just how far away the TT called Russia is from Moscow OOB.
I think ultimately the warp just has to bend to service way the G40 gameboard works, though I was hoping to have some of those TT shapes a little closer to the real deal, but it’s like almost a geometric impossibility given how large some stuff has to be lol.

ps. Here it is with borderlines stroked to show some feathering and noise reduction… GIMP takes forever to stroke, I thought my laptop was having an actual stroke hehe. So it was kinda easier to save that till last, relatively easy to polish as the final step, also cause I have some borders to tweak still. But anyway, it should end up a bit more like this when all’s said and done…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqanzab6s6zssl9/World War II Global 1940 feathered borders.png?dl=0

And the detail with the quick feathers, similar to the Europe view in the post above but with the thinner border and sans units graphics.

Hope you guys are well and happy holidays! I haven’t posted here in a few weeks, but I was kicking around on tripleA and making bunkers and whatnot lol.

Here is set of units for use in TripleA…

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqkn53r1vzjj467/units.7z?dl=0

They can be used with the current WWII Global 1940 map, like that’s how I did the labelling in the folders, but they’re at 54px so kinda oversized there with Bung’s centers. I use them at like 75% unit view which helps with the crowding. On the new G40 map, which is a fair bit larger, they’ll display at 125%. But anyhow, just in case anyone wanted to use them in the meantime on the regular map, figured I’d drop them here as well.

And then here is the crazy super zoom map we’ve been toying around with, painted up with a rough 1941 blocking… I did a quick label key which I’m currently typing out to take it through the tile busting utilities. Squashed a couple typos already lol, but gives a sense for that one. The playscale there is aimed more at computer bouts or like solo vs hardAI.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v4883h0aed6c5q7/Domination_1941_painted_labels_with_sz_key.png?dl=0

We can always revisit the sea zone colors and such. Doing a broken line doesn’t really work for the base, but it could be added in the relief. My hope is for custom Sz colors that can be changed in the map properties with a HEX designation, the same way it works with TT ownership colors. So that way players can change the blue to suit their tastes. This one just shows the generic Classic blue from the web palette, but ideally the player could change it to the water color they like best. I also want to do the same for the black/white border line.

Anyhow, that’s what I’ve been up to. The regular Global materials are pretty much ready to go, so hopefully in the new year we can get that one up. Catch you guys next round!