# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Sci-fi/Modern Mapping >  Planetary Colony Tiles

## Gamerprinter

As per Stahd's map request in the Map Request Forum, here are the first (adjusted) *Planetary Colony Tiles* - as I'm calling these tiles.

Got rid of the "brown Giger-ish objects" and replaced with clean chamfered boxes to keep the style consistent. (From original post in Map Request Forum)

First Tile (redone version) of the Power Plant Tile.

Second Tile is "Big Science" Lab - the "Big Science" projects go on behind a containment bulkhead with transparent window, from the observation area at the top of the map.

As per request, next I'll do a "Small Science" Lab, a communal area/niteclub, and habitation area. I plan to add an Administrative Center, Starport Control Tower, Starship Class A Repair Center, Medical Facility, Constabulary Center with "brig", perhaps a corridor or two, and a couple tiles with exterior areas and outer walls of tile structures.

Even thinking about creating a Planetary Exploration Vehicle - crew of two, with holds for up to 6 riders, equipment storage, rear drop door, and maybe a small weapons hardpoint at top of vehicle. Although whether tracked vehicle or an airborne capable craft - haven't decided.

Too bad, this wasn't a week earlier I could have had a second entry into the Map Challenge -- not allowed I'm sure, but...  :Razz: 

GP

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## ravells

These really rock! I'm jealous!

Hah and you said you couldn't do Science Fiction!

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## RobA

Looking nice!

And fans!  don't forget fans.  Sci-fi scenes always seem to have large, slowly spinning fans going woosh.....woosh.....woosh..... that the characters have to climb through...

-Rob A>

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## Gamerprinter

> These really rock! I'm jealous!
> 
> Hah and you said you couldn't do Science Fiction!


Thanks, Ravs - ah, I actually said "I was more comfortable with fantasy mapping, than sci-fi." I didn't say, I couldn't do it!  :Arrow: 

I do like the 3 intersecting colored rings in the Big Science Lab, I see these as rotating.

RobA - yes, of course Giant Fans, I'll include a maintenance duct with a couple fans...!

GP

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## RobA

mmmm.  perpendicular counter rotating rings....

-Rob A>

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## ravells

How did you do the bevelled structure? I'd love to do the same in drawplus and it looks like you did them in Xara (so it should be repeatable).

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## Gamerprinter

> How did you do the bevelled structure? I'd love to do the same in drawplus and it looks like you did them in Xara (so it should be repeatable).


Simple: create square cornered rectangles for the walls. Create small rounded corner rectangle, turn on "snap to grid", duplicate multiples evenly spaced along the wall with half within the wall rectangle.

Combine all shapes as a single object. Duplicate that to create opposite walls. Since the top/bottom walls are longer, I created them separately then combined all as a single object. Apply the Concrete texture fill, set line width to "none", then apply a bevel on the entire shape - violla!

RobA - Xara Xtreme is also "Flash content creation" enabled, though I have never really dabbled with any Flash for years and years. I've never tried Xara's flash properties, though I am sure, I could easily creating counter rotating rings in Xara and have content ready for VT's like MapTool.

Just something else I have to learn!  :Confused: 

GP

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## ravells

Hmm can't get those sharp bevels, this is the best I can get.

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## Gamerprinter

Xara Xtreme has lots of bevels, and bevel adjustment capabilty.

Flat Bevel (which has been applied to most objects in these tiles), Rounded Bevel 1, Rounded Bevel 2, Flat Top Frame, Rounded Frame (applied to that grated area on SE corner of Big Science Tile), Pointed Frame, Ruffle Frames 1 - 4.

Bevel adjustments allow for square, round or chamfered corners and tighter adjustments for width. Bevel shadows are adjustable as well, noting contrast, angle and elevation of the sun.

GP

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## su_liam

Could we possibly bring back the Giger-boxes in the Science! lab? H.R. Giger stuff is a good thing to put behind a meter of heavily-leaded glass.

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## Gamerprinter

Here's the Class A Starship Repair Center, though I might takeout that main bulkhead door to the south, allowing for larger craft to be parked here for repairs (though I might leave it, and consider this a rear door, that can enclose smaller starships or rise to allow larger ships in the "fore bay".

Otherwise I thought this Tile turned out pretty nice - or even better than the first two, IMO!

I would have placed a starship here getting overhauled, however, I don't know the tech-level, starship class of ships that belong in this particular setting. I might find something to place here, anyway.

Now to sleep, tomorrow a search...  :Cool: 

GP

PS: perhaps I could create a Xeno-Bio Lab and place some Giger-ish stuff in there - egg, Giger box and a Xenomorph in stasis..!

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## Valarian

> And fans!  don't forget fans.  Sci-fi scenes always seem to have large, slowly spinning fans going woosh.....woosh.....woosh..... that the characters have to climb through...


Reminds me of Sigourny Weaver's line in Galaxy Quest when faced with the corridor of chompers ...



> What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?

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## ravells

> Xara Xtreme has lots of bevels, and bevel adjustment capabilty.
> 
> Flat Bevel (which has been applied to most objects in these tiles), Rounded Bevel 1, Rounded Bevel 2, Flat Top Frame, Rounded Frame (applied to that grated area on SE corner of Big Science Tile), Pointed Frame, Ruffle Frames 1 - 4.
> 
> Bevel adjustments allow for square, round or chamfered corners and tighter adjustments for width. Bevel shadows are adjustable as well, noting contrast, angle and elevation of the sun.
> 
> GP


Ah ok, Drawplus isn't that sophisticated.

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## RobA

GP - some nasty aliasing going on with that last one's wheeled probey piece of equipment...

-Rob A>

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## Gamerprinter

RobA, not sure what's causing that - when I zoom into Xara closeup, it has that same crummy anti-aliasing going on there too.  :Frown: 

Probably the JPG texture of the grating on that thing is the cause - shrunk down too much and rotated at angle, giving the jaggies...

Anyway, I resaved that and am uploading again (but still think it has problems.) And uploading two more tiles - habitation tiles: one for working colonists quarters and one for colonial officers quarters. There is a communal shower/restroom used by the crew members.

Maybe I'll redo the crew quarters and make one of the four rooms into the communal shower...

GP

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## someguy

Much coolness. I'll have plenty of home game use for these!

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## Gamerprinter

I created a duplicate of the Crew Quarters tile, with the addition of a communal shower/restroom. I figure GMs would print 2 or 3 normal Crew Quarters tiles for every one of this tile.

Second tile is RobA's "whoosh whoosh giant fan" for a maintenance tunnel. Note the endless drop at the center of the intersection, with a ladder going down, and two "Jeffrys Tubes" or verticle ladder access tunnels. Vents in each main corridor enhance as well as the piping both verticle and running in line with the corridor.

GP

PS: when I'm complete with all tiles, I'll post a sample Planetary Colony tile map setup, to show these in action and relatively complete placement.

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## Gamerprinter

OK, the next two tiles...

First one is a duplicate of the "Big Science" Lab tile, with the counter-rotating rings removed and replaced with a giant 3-eyed, insectoid-like, Xenomorphic lifeform kept alive with "Giger-ish" alien tech and a visible force shield in place. This is the Xeno Biology Lab. (per Su Liam's request...) Notice the glass is thicker for this lab, compared to the Big Science Lab tile.

The second tile is the Niteclub/Communal Gathering Place, notice the "Vid-screen" behind the stage/dance floor. Thus training and education, entertainment, restaurant/niteclub, and public meetings can all occur in this large chamber. I can see children's schooling occur here, as well as church, townhall voting, even serve as a cafeteria.

I'm sure I'll provide all the individual map objects (like the Xenomorph) as a downloadable transparent PNG files, when I am through with this project.

GP

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## ravells

Your rate and quality of production is unbelievable GP!

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## Redrobes

> Your rate and quality of production is unbelievable GP!


I would second that - you sure your not telling us about the sweat shop going there with row upon row of cartographers !!!

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## Gamerprinter

> Your rate and quality of production is unbelievable GP!


Strange, but Lord made almost the exact same comment in my Dungeon Tiles thread for this month's challenge.

LOL, no sweatshop, or rather I am both the slave-driver and the Chinese cartographer immigrant women chained to the computer terminals. I am the sweat shop! I prefer to be thorough, whenever possible, and I like being complete with a project. So unless I'm working to death (as am I doing) and see the end result on the horizon - I would never finish the huge projects I place before me.

OK, I was bored, so instead of a Colony Tile, I decided to create the small orbital shuttle craft (to park in my Class A Starship Repair Center.) Note, the rear ramp door is down in this object.

The Tiles are all JPGs - this map object is a 200 ppi transparent PNG object.

GP

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## RPMiller

Great stuff GP! I love seeing the break away from fantasy stuff.

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## Gamerprinter

After thinking about the living quarters I've already provided, I thought, "shouldn't planetary colonies be inhabited by families?" In this vein, I created a family unit module - a bit better than an efficiency apartment, but barely so. Still its quite habitable, compared to the barracks styled quarters already provided.

Tomorrow, I plan to upload the "elevator any floor" and "elevator top floor", as per Stahd's request. Hopefully I'll have the Small Lab and a Hydroponics Chamber ready as well. And soon to follow the Infirmary.

First Tile is the family unit module.

Second Tile is a duplicate of the Repair Facility with a Shuttle being repaired.

GP

PS: I intend to maintain this clean look throughout this set, but I'm already thinking of a sequel - Rimworld Outpost. I'll dirty things up with lots of rust, corrosion, cracked concrete, old parts and systems - yet still very much for a Sci-Fi setting.

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## Stahd

just wow... don't know what else to say. these are fantastic!

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## Steel General

*wunderbar!!*

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## Gamerprinter

OK, not so exciting of tiles as far as the set goes, but Stahd requested elevator top floor and one from a lower floor, so that's what these two tiles are. The top floor simulates the Star Port and public level.

I'll start working on small lab and hydroponics center next, then the medical facility. Need to think of more exciting Sci-Fi scenes for tiles - from the great movies...

GP

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## Steel General

How about some kind of machine/repair shop, or an observation dome?

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## Gamerprinter

I'd think the Starship Repair shop, has small connected shops for machine repair, but your observation dome gives me some ideas... Steel General!

1. Observation dome to look at surrounding areas of colony structure - your idea.

2. Telescope or similar technology to view surrounding star systems.

3. Planetary Gun pointed at the sky - located in its own inside chamber where the roof opens up for orbital assault.

Keep giving me more ideas - this really helps!  :Idea: 

GP

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## Ascension

How 'bout an Illudium PU-37 Space Modulator?
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/lkmarvin/Sounds/MARVIN1.WAV

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## Gamerprinter

Sorry, Ascension, the link didn't work for me, but then that was a WAV file, and I don't have speakers on my PC...

Anyway, I got some better ideas now. Since this is supposed to be a generic space colony tile set, I don't want to cater to one kind of possible alien world. Note the family module sits in a desert or moonlike terrains. What if this was a colony on an ice world, a water planet, an airless moon - I really have no idea of the intended use by a given GM for this tiles.

So, I thought I'd create some of the next 4 - 6 tiles as "Points of Egress" to various types of worlds... on a water planet a contained submarine portage for a submarine colony, on an iceworld snowcats or contained snowmobiles near a snowy entrance, and a train or subway station for something like Toff's venus railway map!

Enough talk, hopefully I can get a tile or two finished before the nights over.

GP

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## Gamerprinter

Experiment, a point of egress: the Submarine Portage. This could be used as the portage for a water world planetary colony. You guys know how much I love using water in my maps, and here's a texture I've wanted to use, but had no place for - now I got a place for it!

I figure that most of this submarine is below the waves, so its much larger than it appears in the map.

The upper deck of the pier has a Port Authority office and passenger and crew access, the lower pier is for cargo handling.

The first map is full dimensions at 16" x 20" or 80' x 100' at 100 ppi JPG, the remaining four are exact quarters of this map in 8" x 10" scale so they can be easily printed, then cut to edges and used to piece together a full 16" x 20" map. Quarters are 200 ppi JPGs.

That's it for tonight - I will continue on with this project and see where it goes.  :Cool: 

So what other Points of Egress should I create - access/port for an ice planet, airless planet, train/subway station, ...what else?

GP

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## Ascension

Oh, nevermind my wav file there, it was just Marvin the Martian from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons saying "Where's the Kaboom?  There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"  The points of egress is an excellent idea as it allows for a huge degree of flexibility.  Keep on keepin on.

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## Steel General

GP I know you're working on all the 'egresses', but once you get those done I don't think you have any kind of armory/weapons locker.

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## Gamerprinter

> GP I know you're working on all the 'egresses', but once you get those done I don't think you have any kind of armory/weapons locker.


Oh, I'm definitely not done with the basic planetary colony tiles - I sort of needed a break to spark my creativity, so egresses are a pleasant distraction until I get back into the meat of the basic tiles. I just wanted to play with something else and still be a useful part of the set.

Don't worry a weapons locker is a definite tile I've got to make.

GP

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## someguy

One idea would be to make the external terrain a transparency. That way the GM could paste it over top of any back drop he/she wanted, making the tile universal.

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## Gamerprinter

> One idea would be to make the external terrain a transparency. That way the GM could paste it over top of any back drop he/she wanted, making the tile universal.


This is true, and for VT, I should make a transparent PNG version for any exterior colony maps, (good idea!) however, the original request was for use as printed tiles for an actual tabletop game.

I'll post more map tiles tomorrow.

GP

PS: I'm all for creating VT versions of all my maps, however, I am "Gamer Printer" - I specialize in printing RPG maps for everybody. A printed map is always my first goal!

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## altasilvapuer

*Egresses*
_Aerial:_
Perhaps some sort of bay for a small aerial craft, for colonies in areas where travel by air might actually be more practical and/or efficient, like high mountains, a planet with low gravity, or distant (secluded) outposts on planets with larger colonies elsewhere.

_Misc.:_
Airlocks

*Colony Tiles*
-Storage rooms (mining equipment, pressure suits, etc)
-Hydroponics (as mentioned before)
-Command & Control Room (essentially 'The Bridge')
-Brig
-Decontamination rooms

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## ukgpublishing

And of course if you're going for Planetary Colony tiles, you have hostile environments, so airlock stylie egresses. Subterrainain <sp?> would also be a possibility.

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