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3D map

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 2:32 pm
by Twill
So, obviously my paint skills leave much to be desired, but I thought I would throw this out there and hope it sparks some interest in thinking outside the dimension.

small black squares are countries, large are continents (i.e. 3 continents)
red lines are connections between levels.

obviously this simple cube would never work as a risk map, but with any luck, someone will think of a way to do something similar but in a meaningful way.

Hope someone gives it a good home, or at least the premise doesnt get bashed into the ground :)

Image

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 2:41 pm
by kingwaffles
I've actually been trying to think about how to pull off a map like that for a while. It would be a lot of fun, but I'm kinda getting stuck in the same place as you.... :?

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 3:00 pm
by AndyDufresne
Maybe this should be in Map Ideas ;)

But this idea does sound interesting, though I think the visuals would have to help clarify the map and make it appealing.

--Andy

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 3:13 pm
by Twill
oh yeah, I stuck that thread for a reason didn't I

well crap.

Sorry Andy :)

</me goes back to trying to put his foot in his mouth>

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 3:34 pm
by qeee1
I've been thinking about this for a while too. I think it might work better if you had simply a top down view of each level, and some obvious way of getting between such as a lift or a stairs. It's too hard to display anything of great detail if you're trying to display all three levels and their connections at once... at least that's what I think.

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 4:32 pm
by Marvaddin
This could be interesting, although its not really 3d... The problem is, if those squares were not white, but coloured or had a texture, as usual map countries, how would us see those routes? Of course, if they stay over the map, it can be confusing...

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 4:44 pm
by Twill
Marv, perhaps you could just make the levels transparent and that would solve the line issue.

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 5:56 pm
by VanCleef
I probably have missed many of ideas presented during last months but i get to think of one idea i saw looking at your drawing Twill. I think it was Koolbak that said something about a mall as battlefield. I wasnt sure anyway if it was for fun or serious,( sry KB or whoever it was). But already same evening i thought of it as a splendid idea.
Different stores,restaurants etc with elevators and stairs connecting the floors. Well its a start and im sure with some fantasy it will be easy get enough 'terries' to fill up with. even for the basement.
I can see it already.
2006-05-21 00:49 - VanCleef deployed 3 armies in Toilette
2006-05-21 00:51 - VanCleef attacked Cafe' Ole from Toilette and conquered it from Twill.
It can be a great ¨map¨ and i think of the movie Die Hard where Bruce Willis clear out floor by floor by killing the enemies

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 6:23 pm
by rocksolid
For the idea at the start of this thread, how about a 3d 27-box tictactoe, i.e. continent bonuses depend on you getting 3 in a row in any direction, within a level or between levels? It would make writing the "Continents" part of the XML way more laborious than for most maps, but nothing too crazy.

Alternatively, it could be a 64-box 4x4x4 4-in-a-row game. This would make the centre square less pivotal, as there would be no centre square.

I like the idea...

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 6:59 pm
by Banana Stomper
I see the novelty in it and everything, but i don't know how necessary it is. What does it change in game play except moving the border countries in to the middle of the map? And also the simple square like that obviously couldn't work, no visual appeal. What real set would this be applied to? Perhaps the levels of hell... Hmmmm, perhaps a heaven, earth, and hell map. Could be interesting...

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:20 pm
by Jota
I like rocksolid's tic-tac-toe suggestion. How would you name the territories, though? Also, I still think it'd be very tricky to do something like this without it being awfully hard to read (but that doesn't mean that someone skilled shouldn't try).

And I do wonder how KoolBak is doing on that Mall map... I'm quite interested to see what he comes out with. It's not really the same as this, but it could definitely put the multi-level concept to good use.

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:39 pm
by Twill
Jota, Rocksolid's idea wouldnt be hard to read at all, would be impossible to play tho because every country would have to be defended from every other country because every square would, theoretically be able to attack every adjacent square. (think indochina map)

It would be a completely different kind of game with much more serious defensive positions. it would go on for damn near forever.

The heaven-hell-earth or levels of hell idea could be very interesting both visually and gameplay wise - wonder if you could make certain countries the 7 deadly sins - capture them to sink lower into hell kinda idea.

anyhoo, it could work :)

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:45 pm
by Jota
A comment made by a friend of mine elsewhere just gave me an interesting idea for something someone could do with this: parallel universes.

Imagine several different versions of the Classic map (substantially reduced, of course: not the full 42-country version) layered atop each other like this. Each one is an alternate Earth, and there are portals that link them together.

They don't even necessarily need to have the same borders: one might have Europe as one country, while it's divided into East and West in another. One map might have Japan as a part of East Asia, while another has it in Oceania. Each Earth would be a "continent". They might be meta-continents (where each Earth also contains smaller continents as well), or you might have overlapping continents (where owning all the North and South Americas would give you a bonus, or owning all the Asias).

PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:36 pm
by sully800
Okay, I'm bumping this thread to explain my new thought of how to make a 3D map, because this has been a long sought after and never accomplished playing venue.

(For reference this thread was a more recent one about a 3D map but included less conversation.)

My thought- A 3D map could easily be created in AutoCAD; It's not your typical map making program, but I use it in some of my classes and I've gotten fairly good at 3D drawings from a project I'm working on right now. This type of 3D image would be very good at illustrating exactly which plane any given army resides in, and the connections between territories could be made very clear as well. The problem is that you can only really analyze a 3D object well by rotating it (seeing the different angles clarifies things tremendously).

I recently read about some map ideas where a changing map was suggested (ie the mountains crumble, the river drains, the territories shift, etc). I found those ideas to be very interesting but impractical because while a .gif file could be created to make the image dynamic, the XML would remain static and therefore gameplay wouldn't change.

Then I had the thought of how an animated .gif map could be used- A rotating 3-D map! The borders would be constant but the map would rotate to show you all sides and clarify the image. I still don't know if this would be practical at all, but I think its an extremely interesting concept. The biggest problem is that I know nothing of how to create an animated .gif file to create a rotating image. So if someone on here has the know how to do that, and I could create an appealing 3D image, this might just be a possibility.

Note: I still like the mall concept a lot, but there are tons of untouched 3D structures and set ups that could be created in this way.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:07 am
by garionoldwolf
let me know if you decide to, because I use AutoCAD every day of the week(I'm a drafter) and can probably get a drawing done during my lunch hours.(I get an hour each day)

PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:24 am
by sully800
Cool, I figured some other people on here would know how to use AutoCAD.

I really like working with that program but you are probably much more advanced than I am so perhaps you could fancy up a more basic model that I make if this turns out to be possible.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:27 am
by garionoldwolf
I also use a program called Pro-Engineer that I'd be able to make the model in a bit easier and then the only thing would be figuring out how to get it from a DWG file(cuz with Pro E I can export to AutoCAD) to a jpg or gif or whatever type of pic file we would need.