Battlemap: Temple of the Sea

Ralf · July 2015

And here's another battle map from our 13th Age game: a Temple of the Sea, where the waves can roll in and roll out freely.

Created with Dungeon Designer 3 and Symbol Set 2. Click the image to get to my website where you can download a full-size version.

kilma.ard.venom · July 2015

Awesome! Nice design.

jpstodwftexas · July 2015

Nice Colors

Jay_NOLA · July 2015

I love how you did the water rolling in and submerging part of the temple.

Awesome map.

Barliman · July 2015

Beautiful. I took a close-up look at your site, and I love the colored light shining through the stained glass windows in the foyer.

Edit: This would also make a wonderful temple to Strassha, the Water elemental lord in Moorcock's Elric stories.

Dogtag · July 2015

Beautiful transparency effect on the water! Can I ask what settings you used? Did you vary it somehow so it's more opaque closer to the sea, or is that my brain filling that in for me? The reflections of the wave crests is great, too! Really gives the sense of the water moving in and out.

Cheers,
Dogtag

Ralf · July 2015

Thanks everybody!

@Dogtag: It's just one simple Edge Fade Inner effect on the water (50% opacity on the inside), but what might be tricking the eye a bit is that the floor gets darker towards the right - there are a few dark (black 10%) transparencies overlayed over the floor which stack towards the right. I'll be sharing the FCW file when we have SS2 available for CC3+, shouldn't be long now.

seycyrus · July 2015

Oh Man! I had done a similar type of temple, but now I realize how much better it could be!

Mappy · July 2015

Nice work there Ralph! That's a great map. How did you do the curved stairs with a gradient to show the descending steps? Is that a SS2 symbol or does each step have a different black transparency laid on top? While I'm on the topic, some sort of sheet effect to create a transparent gradient could be really handy sometimes, I don't think there is that option with the current sheet effects?

Ralf · July 2015

The stairs are indeed a layered selection of black transparencies - all the same percentage, but they get darker as they stack. Ascending stairs are the same with white transparencies.

You can fudge a transparency gradient with the Edge Fade effects, but only along straight lines.

@seycyrus: Your temple isn't half bad either!

Just needs some detail and variation in the floor fill style.

jedius · August 2015

Wow! I feel like Ralf needs to give a master class on all the techniques for all of his awesome maps

Are the wave reflections/crests just edge faded white polygons?

ArgoForg · August 2015

Hokey smokes, that's some beautiful work, Ralf! I really love the color combinations and the composition on the whole-- did you use a transperancy to vary the light/darkness for the floor?

I'm also sort of curious.... how many sheets do you generally add to your maps beyond the default?

Ralf · August 2015

Thanks for your kind comments, guys.

@jedius: Yes, those are just white smooth polygons with an Edge Fade Inner effect. Two sheets actually for two layered poylgons.
@ArgoForg: Quite a few (5-10 perhaps?) take a look at the attached map. Now that SS2 is available for CC3+ you should be able to see the map properly, if you have both DD3 and SS2 installed.

Dungeon Master Gaz · August 2015

Yet another truly beautiful battlemap, Ralf. Your players must love using these in your 13th Age game. I imagine they must really bring the setting to life!

I'd love to know what the scenario/encounter involves with this one, and have you factored in any special conditions to the encounter like the water impeding movement, or the statue animating, or something?

All the best

DMG

jedius · August 2015

Hey Ralf,

I'm actually taking the time to look through your FCW to learn some of what you did. Maybe this is a basic question - your black floor transparencies - what was the process you used to get them their unique shape? LIST shows me they are not multipolies. Did you trace the walls? If so - does that mean you had to create a drawing tool for these (as opposed to the standard polygon tool) to let you trace?

Similarly, can you please explain how you put the gradient on the stairs in slightly more detail? Particularly how you get the same shape in just fractional sizes to create the gradient effect. I know you mentioned it to Dogtag above but I can't quite figure out how to replicate it (and being able to make stairs of any shape without a symbol seems like a particularly useful skill).

Thanks!
Jedius

Ralf · August 2015

Hi Jedius,

yes, I did create a drawing tool for the floor transparencies. I drew the arcs across the floors as temporary guidelines, then used the tool to trace these and the walls.

The stairs are really done by hand and eye. If you zoom in close you'll see they are real untidy (also see the attached screenshot). After I had created the basic shape for the stair (two arcs, two lines, combined with PathToPoly), I just drew in the black lines delineating the steps. Then I used the standard polygon command (with lots of F5 and F9 modifiers) to draw the transparencies (solid 10 fill) one at a time.

jedius · August 2015

Thanks, that's really helpful!

Denalor · September 2015

Question there on your steps (despite your Explanation).
Tried to do that, didn't work.
Did you use one sheet per stair step ?

This is a CC+ map, right ?

Ralf · September 2015

The stairs are all on one sheet, as no separate effects for the steps are needed.

And yes, it's a CC3+ map.

grayline · September 2015

Wow, outstanding. Really, really nice. Very nice textures, composition, effects. Thanks for some of the insight on the shading/translucence. Obviously a lot of attention to detail that brings it all together absolutely perfectly.

*Tips hat*
-Mike

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Battlemap: Temple of the Sea

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