# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Board Game Mapping >  The Battle of Four Armies (WIP)

## timallen

I've been working hard on that TC Tennis game.  But Man does not live by Sport games Alone.  Alan at VPG asked me to also develop a map for a little game he has been developing called The Battle of Four Armies (not to be confused with the Battle of Five Armies out of the Hobbit).  This game was already well developed and had, IMO, a pretty nice map drawn out by the designer.  Here it is.

It has a nice hand drawn look going for it, and the font used is perfect!

----------


## timallen

But Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do what the publisher asks.  So I took the already nice file and came up with my one take on it.  First I ported out some graphics from CC3- a tree, a tower, hills, a mountain, and houses.  Then I used another program to create the hex field.  Then I added all that stuff together in Photoshop.  

I remember seeing how some people using CC3 had created a sort of 3D look, by clever use of perspective, and I thought that approach might be a good one to use here.  This is the result, minus the text.

----------


## timallen

Alan liked the look, but pointed out that the hills were actually supposed to be spurs to the big mountain.  Also he wanted the "valley" to be a bit more green.  So it was back to Photoshop.  And here we have what I sent off to him today, with the text simply cut and pasted off the original to see how it all looks.

Personally, I really like how this one is turning out.  I might have to change the hills a bit (might have a tad too many) and I think I still have to mess about with the angle of some of those shadows to get them all pointed the right way, but overall I think this one is a keeper.

----------


## jtougas

Thats really cool  :Smile:  The only thing is if this for commercial use (and I assume it is) be careful about using Profantasy items I'm not sure about the license on them.

----------


## timallen

I am pretty sure it was OK.

I went and double-checked.  This is off the website:

"...(i) Subject to the restrictions in section ii and iii, you may freely distribute the maps you create using OUR ARTWORK in CC3 format, but not the source image files (PNG and bitmap artwork) associated with them. You may freely distribute flat files (for example BMP and PNG) exported from CC3 containing OUR ARTWORK. You may publish such maps for commercial gain."

Since I am not "distributing the source image files", I think I am OK.

----------


## jtougas

> but not the source image files (PNG and bitmap artwork) associated with them.


I think that part might be the trouble. I think it's ok to use all the .png and bitmap files in a CC3 formatted map but not by themselves. The only reason I'm even bringing this up is that it's a really nice map and I wouldn't want you or your client to have any legal trouble  :Smile:

----------


## timallen

The rest of the legal stuff:

_"You may not redistribute any map that in our sole opinion is, or appears to be, for the purpose of disseminating OUR ARTWORK. Think of your maps as documents, and our symbols as fonts. You can print a document containing Times New Roman font, but you can't give the font file away, or produce a "font book".

(iii) You may not produce commercial products which consist predominantly of floorplan-resolution exports of OUR ARTWORK without written permission from ProFantasy Software Ltd. This includes but is not limited to PDF dungeon tiles."_

I"m pretty sure that means I am OK.  Although that bit about "floorplan-resolution exports" might be worrisome.  Depends on how you define your terms.

----------


## loongtim

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but based on my understanding of the license you are completely OK to get commercial gain from this map. In fact, I just conversed with Simon from ProFantasy on this subject: http://www.profantasy.com/rpgmaps/?p=369.

----------


## Jaxilon

Sounds to me like so long as you are not selling their source images you can create whatever you want from them and use them to make money or anything else. I think it is similar to using textures from places like Genetica (sp?). 

Anyway, good looking map you made.

----------


## ravells

Great looking reworking of the original map (which was pretty nice too), Tim. I really like the perspective view.

A few minor suggestions: You've got a white matting problem with your hill symbols and some of them are layered incorrectly. The dead tree could use a bit of touching up, it looks like you've lost a little colour just inside the stroke. It looks like you've used a faint 'weave' texture for the ground? It's worth checking out Genetica's free textures, their grass texture, 'Just Add Bison' looks like it might work perfectly here. Also check out some of the land textures in the 'mapping elements' sticky, they might work quite well too.

best

Ravs

----------


## timallen

Thanks!  I know I have to do some work on those hills.  I just kinda threw them up there quick.  Really, they should get smaller as the "spurs" move away from the mountain.  I'll work on that, and getting the layering right and see about the matting problem (which may or may not show up when printed).

And I will check out those other textures to see if any of them look better.  The texture was a bit of an experiment for me.  I wanted a texture that looked vaguely like farm land and found one, but when added, it did not have any perspective and looked odd, so instead I added that same texture to a separate page, flattened it, then ported it over to the map and warped the image so it Did have perspective.  I'm sure there are easier ways to do that, but this worked!

----------


## jtougas

In case I didn't mention it Great Map  :Smile:  (and I'm glad we got the legal stuff sorted..  :Smile:  )

----------


## timallen

Here is what I just sent off to Alan.  The designer said he liked the fold lines from the original so I added them back in.  There are still some bits that could be touched up (like around the mountain), but Alan seems to want this ASAP and so if it seems like he likes this one, I am going to say its done.  (Alan will be adding in all the text himself in Illustrator.)

----------


## Sapiento

Really a fine map!

----------

