I strongly suggest you download and have a look at how people have built modules for other similiar vintage games. It will give you lots of ideas on hex and counter sizes.
How many counters might stack in a hex? More than a couple and it will get very crowded.
With simple counters like this, you might like to look at Game Piece Images which allow you to build counter images inside Vassal itself.
8Kb is huge for a 50x50 counter, but it is hard to much with jpeg scans. Have a look in the FAQ and tutorials section of the Vassal site for tips.
My advice was based on the idea that you would be using the scans
directly. If you plan on manipulating the results in a graphics
editor, then you are better off starting with more resolution and then
having the image processing program do the scaling. They have more
flexibility (usually) than scanning software, so you can control the
quality of the scaling better.
I think that for the final result you want to end up with about twice
life-size for your final graphics, and use that as the most magnified
zoom level. Scaling down works better than scaling up, because there
are better ways to guess what to keep from the extra information than
trying to guess what to add when the information isn’t present in the
file at all. This, by the way, is also the basis for Joel’s advice on
the 300dpi scanning.
TIFF should work fine for line art. It is a loss-less format and can
be converted using your image program. I would stay away from JPEG
for anything except photographic images. The typical thing that you
will see if you use JPEG with any compression is that lines get
halos. This is annoying for things like hex grids, and really obvious
around text, where you really want a sharp boundary to aid readability.
On May 17, 2008, at 10:44 AM, Joel Uckelman wrote:
Yes, the half-toning process used in most printing is also the source
of a lot of artifact in scanned images. Some of the nicest maps (like
Gary Krockovers modules for The Gamers Civil War Brigade Series) are
redrawn by hand and are thus able to use solid-color fills. That
avoids the problems with the artifacts and half-tones from scanning.
Also, if combined with allowing Vassal to draw the hex grid, it allows
a lot more image compression, since there are large areas of solid
color.
Ok, I’ve got what I think is a fully functional module. I’m aware the map is a bit of a patchwork and it’s earmarked for improvement (still, it works!), but if anyone cares to critique or comment upon any other aspects I’d be very grateful.
In the end I just used simple jpegs and it comes out at 4.4Mb.
When I come to redo the map, can I just swap out the map image and restretch the grid without disturbing my campaign scenario setup?
Also, does anyone know of a good freeware (preferably) hexmap creation programme that would be useful in ‘hand drawing’ a new map?
One thing I learnt by bitter experience was that each image used must have a unique name on your PC, though they can share the same name within the module, e.g. in the pieces palette.
I know this will not work. If you change the size of the grid, you will find that counters from old saved games will maintain their original absolute positions, not their grid coordinates. I changed grid sizes once on my F&E module, so I’ve seen it happen.
Though, if you can size your new map to the old grid correctly, you can change images without any trouble at all.