# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Dungeon/Subterranean Mapping >  Goblin Lair

## xv43

Okay, this is one of my first maps... it's a goblin lair.

I'd love suggestions on ways to improve it, or just general comments about it.

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## Sagenlicht

Hi xv43,

I like the map  :Smile: 

If you are looking for improvements, how do you plan to use the map? I guess you should consider adding a grid to it?

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## xv43

I plan on using it in maptool. I decided against having a built in grid because using the maptool provided one gives me more control over where the grid lies on the naturally shaped cavern.

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## meleeguy

That is an attractive, solid map imo.  Good work!

Some points you might want to consider:

1) Your torch holders are lost against the black floor, making the flames 'float' a bit disconcertingly.

2)  The 'wall' texture is nice but could use some grunging up.

3)  More and different mushrooms?

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## Steel General

Nice, keep up the good work.

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## delgondahntelius

Ya... MapTools lets you set up your own grid... Most VTT's do so I would advise against it, good choice with that. 

Great looking map, the only improvement (probably for later maps since this one is in the complete stage) is that caves rarely have such smooth and curved walls, granted there are plenty of them out there, the feeling I get when I see it is something that should look a bit rougher and less circular. Other than that... great job, can't wait to see some more!  :Very Happy:

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## xv43

I suppose I could rough up the caverns a little more, make them more angular, although since this is a lair, maybe the goblins smoothed out the walls somewhat to make it more habitable... maybe they didn't, though, they're goblins!

I'm not sure what color I could make the torch holders to make them stand out a little more... any suggestions on that?

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## meleeguy

Oh the shape of the caves is great, I meant the texture.

I'd just put the torches close against the cave wall like in all the movies.  :Smile:

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## delgondahntelius

oh ya... leave it the way it is for sure... I was just suggesting it for a next map... that one has come along to far to go in and mess up the walls just because I personally think they aren't rough enough ... no no no.... won't have it... 

 :Very Happy:

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## Sigurd

Really solid map.

No real criticisms.

If you want some stylistic tweaks:

I'd reduce the dominance of the earth texture after about 2 feet of wall. The strong crack pattern sort of detracts from the main focus.

I'm assuming the left section with the squares are sleeping mats of some sort? ? If they are not really ungoblin you might want to reduce their perfect straightness and\or give em some dirt.

On the right you have a couple of circles that look like barrels. You might want to gunge them up a bit and at least turn em a bit so that the grain is not identical on each one. Unless thats intentional for some reason.

Still either way I like the map.

Sigurd

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## xv43

Here's what I'd like, and I don't know if it exists, but a way to put a random rotation on an object within gimp. It's really a pain to rotate things manually and hope for randomness, it would be nice if I could get some kind of filter or script that would put random spin on something. Any ideas on that?

It would be pretty easy to go back in and dirty up some of the stuff, I've gotten some good "dirt" overlays that I could just drag onto the sleeping mats.

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## Redrobes

> Here's what I'd like, and I don't know if it exists, but a way to put a random rotation on an object within gimp. It's really a pain to rotate things manually and hope for randomness, it would be nice if I could get some kind of filter or script that would put random spin on something. Any ideas on that?
> 
> It would be pretty easy to go back in and dirty up some of the stuff, I've gotten some good "dirt" overlays that I could just drag onto the sleeping mats.


RobA is your Gimp Script Fu Master.

Here are my comments - again probably for the next map.

The background wall texture is too bright and distracting where all the beef is in the dark hidden away bits. Try a dark background wall and the map will pop out and look better.

The shadow on the bevel on the walls is lit but the shadow on the floor of the map is uniform in all directions. Because of this it looks like the walls are not connected to the floor and float above it.

The background texture is a bit too clean and also kinda too repeating. Try blending two or three different textures together next time or take the one and scale it to three different sizes that dont multiply together well - like 1, 1.27 and 1.74 or something like that. The blend will make the pattern not repeat any more. I use and send textures too www.cgtextures.com they have zillions of free ones to send you into a dizzy spell just deciding which one is better.

In general its a good map and I am going to bonk you with my +3 mace of repping. Look forward to your next one.

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## xv43

Sweet, I hadn't seen that cqtextures site, thanks for the tip.

I'm gonna see if I can't figure out if a script to randomly rotate exists, or if I can't figure out how to make my own... failing that, maybe I'll PM RobA about it.

I need to look into blending textures, I'm not sure how to do that.

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## RobA

> Sweet, I hadn't seen that cqtextures site, thanks for the tip.
> 
> I'm gonna see if I can't figure out if a script to randomly rotate exists, or if I can't figure out how to make my own... failing that, maybe I'll PM RobA about it.
> 
> I need to look into blending textures, I'm not sure how to do that.


I guess the question would be, is each object on its own layer?  That would be simple enough to script.  If, however there are multiple objects all flattened onto the same layer it would be more difficult...

-Rob A>

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## xv43

> I guess the question would be, is each object on its own layer?  That would be simple enough to script.  If, however there are multiple objects all flattened onto the same layer it would be more difficult...
> 
> -Rob A>


I usually rotate them as I'm putting them down, so they'd be on that temporary floating layer at the time.

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## RobA

OK - Try this:



```
; random_rotate.scm
; by Rob Antonishen
; http://ffaat.pointclark.net

; Version 1.0 (20080931)

; Description
;
; Script to randomly rotate the  floating layer
;

; License:
;
; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
; (at your option) any later version.
;
; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
; GNU General Public License for more details.
;
; The GNU Public License is available at
; http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

(define (script-fu-random-rotate img inLayer)
  (let* 
    (
	  (varAngle (/ (* 2 *pi* (rand 360)) 360))   ;random angle to rotate
	  (varLayer (car (gimp-image-get-floating-sel img)))         ;get floating selection ID
	)
	
	; it begins here 
	(gimp-image-undo-group-start img)
	
    (if (<> varLayer -1)  ;if here is a floating selection
	  (begin
        (set! varLayer (car (gimp-drawable-transform-rotate varLayer varAngle TRUE 0 0 TRANSFORM-FORWARD INTERPOLATION-LANCZOS TRUE 3 TRANSFORM-RESIZE-ADJUST)))
        (gimp-floating-sel-anchor varLayer)  ;anchor
		(gimp-displays-flush)
       )
	)
	
	;done
	(gimp-image-undo-group-end img)
  )
)

(script-fu-register "script-fu-random-rotate"
        		    "<Image>/Filters/Random Rotate"
                    "Randomly rotate then anchor the floating selection."
                    "Rob Antonishen"
                    "Rob Antonishen"
                    "Sept 2008"
                    ""
                    SF-IMAGE      "image"      0
                    SF-DRAWABLE   "drawable"   0	
)
```

Just bind it to a key press.  When you have a floating selection, just kit the defined key and it will randomly rotate the floating selection and then anchor it.

-Rob A>

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## xv43

I think I... I think I'm in love!

This is exactly what I wanted... I'd like to learn to write script-fu, but I'm not very good with painting programs in general, and figure I should learn how to do things by hand before I start trying to automate them.

Thank you so very much.

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## RobA

No problem, xv43!

Knocking out little helpers like this is only a few minutes work once you know a bit of Tiny Scheme, and how the script-fu has to be structured.  Certainly not as simple as recording a macro, but still, not to bad.

-Rob A>

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## torstan

The light wall texture really jumps out. I'd drop it darker than the caverns and desaturate it. The eye tends to get drawn to the bright colourful areas of a map so I tend to try to make the focus the lightest and most colourful part.

Other than that general comment - that's a good first map. Definitely very usable.

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