Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post

I’m in the process of revamping the webiste/blog. As part of that, I have realized that I’m missing some important pieces: high resolution images of the box covers and maps.

If I do this myself, I will take months so I need your help. If one person takes on one games, we can finish in days instead of months.

Who can volunteer?

Also, I know that some of theses already exist in the world so lets use this thread to consolidate the links.

Sorry only just saw this

So step one would be finding the right image editing program for what you’re trying to achieve. TripleA uses raster graphics images (basically png) and is not suitable for printing. Upscaling the largest relief I’ve made in tripleA and trying to print it at 600 dpi the filesize gets quite beefy. Basically an image that’s like 50mb for use in tripleA is going to climb way up by orders of magnitude into the many gigabytes. It will also tax the RAM pretty hard if you’re trying to edit an image that large (in actual dimensions) like trying to use multiple layers at once. I have a pretty high end gaming laptop and I topped out around 8000p before GIMP started giving me headaches and slowing to a crawl.

What you probably want is an image that you can manipulate as SVG rather than PNG. A vector so you can upscale the image to any dimensions that way (basically the same way font works.) I would try Inkscape or Adobe, and try to get a pull of the image as a vector graphic.

You can start the same as you would in tripleA by creating a baseline image of the basic world map, the continent contours or world warp you want and the territory or sea zone divisions, showing just the basic borderlines in 100% black at 1px width at the desired dimensions for the digital thing.

A physical print would be much larger, so imagine that on your screen you got 72p per inch, on paper that needs to be 600 dpi. You can go lower say 300 dots per inch if it’s very graphic, but a photo quality print is basically like 600p, which is pretty hefty. In a program like inkscape or illustrator etc you can translate a raster image into something that works for stuff like signage, you know, so like making a giant banner image to put on the side of a truck or hang outside a building - same sorta deal here for the scale of the image you’d want to make. Probably the size of a 6 or 8 foot banquet table, possibly larger depending, on what you’re trying to pull off.

If you have the map drawn out at scale, you can scan in sections at A3 or A4 size with a flat scanner and then reassemble the image, to pull it at the highest resolution you can before bringing that image into inkscape to create a vector of it.

ps. here are some youtube tutorial videos on inkscape just to see what sort of stuff I mean. You can probably find more just pulling at those threads. Once you have a map design you can put in tripleA to playtest it by creating a baseline from your svg, exporting the image as a bitmap or png where the borderlines are just solid black ideally at 1px width for those lines, or as close as you can get. For a map image something that’s like 2000-4000p tall and about twice as wide or larger works well for digital sculpts which are png images at 48-54px tall up to 125% currently in tripleA. The map size in tripleA is sorta limited by the unit graphics sizes and the windows in the UI. In inkscape you can make it larger, like for whatever makes sense to have the print look decent. Anyhow, just a quick example you can skip around to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ns028ihACs&list=PL_NagE_y_IhIBNAzw3nFBiF01OKnaltmJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnqtnSTe6qM

https://youtu.be/kS2nrXuR128?t=2611

for tripleA you can use GIMP to make the relief images in png. Here’s an example of similar videos in that program

https://youtu.be/HLmOpEETjEo?t=646

Hi all, thanks for all of the incredible ongoing support- I’m honored to be a part of the community of makers supporting this awesome hobby.

Here’s a major Jan/Feb '22 update for my etsy shop:

New Models!

Flight Stands in 3 sizes USN Balao-class Submarine - Allied super subs! Panzer III (Pz.Kpfw. Ausf J) - Axis light tanks! Kriegsmarine Type 39 Torpedo Boats - Axis escort ships! Damage/Flame Tokens Naval Mines Czech Hedgehog anti-vehicle obstacles Resource Tokens - Oil Barrels, Metal Ingots, and Grain

New Colors!

In good news for all of you non-painters, I am thrilled to announce that after an obnoxious amount of trial and error I have arrived at the full A&A color-matched palette of materials!

Come see all these and more at my esty shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NathanDetr0itDesigns, and don’t forget to use coupon code AADOTORG22 for 10% off!

flight stands.jpg
il_1140xN.3664225780_cl99.jpg
il_1140xN.3641365664_dl4q.jpg
il_794xN.3682146889_bx4r.jpg
il_794xN.3515203612_r9s9.jpg
il_794xN.3441533852_3t64.jpg
il_794xN.3489190781_spcp.jpg
il_794xN.3489237739_dfe1.jpg
il_794xN.3563292919_jhkd.jpg

I just made my own bootleg Italians with Krylon “Classic Grey-” this was a $4 Walmart special.

Between my copies of AAR, AA42, AA41, and AA42.2, I was able to scrounge up more than enough ugly/unique sculpts to give those backward stepchildren of the Axis their own tantalizingly un-purchasable and 1942.2-ready complement of 3 BB (Axis BBs from 41), 5 CA (cut the masts off some small UK/RU BBs from AAR _, 6 TR (axis TR from 41), 8 art (japan AAR) and 4 Bmr (axis '41 bmrs). The rest of the forces are donated with love from AAR Germany, including the 88’s that finally get to serve their intended AAA purposes in the Italian army.

Pictures when I can._

In case this is useful, here’s a page which shows photos of all the sculpt types in A&A 1941 (http://www.axisandallies.org/p/axis-allies-1941-preview-unit-details-and-abilities/) along with a list of how many sculpts of each type are in the game.  Clicking on each picture will give you an enlarged version.

@Private:

It’s the same map Ryuzaki - in terms of territories, szs, etc. Only the artwork is different.

Cheers
PP

I’m aware, sorry for a lack of clarity, but I need the artwork too.

Sounds like a fun project.  The fundamental problem you’d have to solve, however, is the fact that the country names and – even more problematically – the country borders that existed historically in WWI were in some cases quite different from what they were in WWII.If you make them accurate for WWI, you’ll eventually end up in an alternate-history situation in which you’re fighting WWII on a WWI map with WWI powers as players.  It can also be argued that the political extremism of the 1920s and 1930s that eventually led to WWII was a direct result of the way WWI ended (specifically, the Versailles Treaty), and that if you alter the end of WWI then you alter the situation that eventually led to WWII.  That’s fine if working in an alternate-history environment is something you’re comfortable with; you simply have to be aware that you’re dealing with alternate history.

In terms of the map problem, perhaps the only option that would cover all the bases accurately, regardless of the political situation at any given moment, would be to use a simple map that is purely topographical rather than political in its territorial divisions.  A supplementary element could be to add overlays (drawn on large acetate sheets, or something similar) that provide political borders which can be adjusted from decade to decade.

what was the outcome of this?
was the pieces returned?

since its christmas please tell me this had a happy outcome  :-)

(just curious, I haven’t bought anything from mclovin)