Battlegrounds

[icycalm]

The overworld can be accessed embedded on the Battlegrounds site: https://akbattlegrounds.net

Or directly on World Anvil: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/akbattlegr ... eb58c82f04

When you click on a pin (not merely mousing over, but actually clicking on it) remember to check whether an "Open map" button pops up at the top-left of the screen over the D&D Ultimate banner, in which case you can click on that to zoom into a new map.

As you can see, the Inner Sea Region map is no longer at the top, as I've had to add the Golarion map now that we have a group in Azlant. The new Golarion map is fully updated, with pins for Azlant and the Inner Sea Region (both of them with text descriptions, and in the Inner Sea Region's case even climate, trade and culture information), a campaign pin for the Ruins of Azlant campaign, and a party pin for D&D4 with all the characters' names (in the future I plan to add their pics too, I am just waiting until I have some time to figure out how to do it elegantly).

That's all the updates I have for now. I'll be working on more of them today and throughout the weekend. I hope by Monday or Tuesday to have the entire overworld fully updated. There's tons of shit to be added in, which is why it's taking me so long, but when it's done it will be incredible, you'll be able to zoom in from recoil's shop all the way to Robo's manor, and out again across a continent and into a lost island chain in the middle of a distant archipelago.

[icycalm]

I've updated the Sandpoint Hinterlands map after the end of Skeleton King's Crypt: https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... a13440b5e8



I made two changes:

• Switched the exclamation mark color from black to gray. Black is for unlocked Master of Combat Scenarios, and grey is for completed scenarios/adventures/campaigns in general.
  
  
• Instead of the scenario description saying FOLLOW STORY it now says READ STORY.

I might create a more elaborate method of presenting completed adventures on the overworld in the future. One idea is to include the ENTIRE chatlog on the overworld, so that you won't have to click through to the forum to read it. Same with stream videos, perhaps I can find some way to embed them on the overworld. Technically I can do it already, but I am not sure of the best way to present them. I worry about the maps getting swamped with icons, and what to do about that. The upcoming Codex (=wiki) could also take some or all of that content. But for now, I am happy with the current simple presentation method. Once a bunch more content has been unlocked, and the maps are starting to get loaded with material, it'll be easier to see what the issues are, and take it from there.

[icycalm]

Here's a cool little update I just finished: https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... mmer-40000



I removed the Warhammer 40,000 theme music video from the top and replaced it with "Astropath", which is my 1-hour-long overworld music for the 40K galaxy. Normally, when you go to the galaxy page, this music should play, but unfortunately autoplay music isn't possible in Cult Engine 1.5 because programmers hate music and can't tell the difference between a web game and Amazon, so they treat the entire internet as if it's Amazon, and prohibit music. Nothing can be done about that, it's not even the engine's fault as the browsers themselves have banned autoplay in recent years, i.e. the user needs to click on something first in order for music to start playing. All this is resolved in Cult Engine 2, and I'll move the overworld there eventually, but for now clicking to hear music will be necessary.

So what you should do if you want to experience the galaxy optimally is first click on the music to start playing and then control-click on "ENTER THE 41ST MILLENNIUM" to open the galaxy map in another tab, and then switch to that tab. And voila: you're navigating a normal videogame overworld with music. Of course right now there's not much there, but when there are hundreds of POIs and countless hours' worth of content on there, you'll get what I am trying to achieve here.

The music is incredible by the way. Just listen to a couple minutes while exploring the galaxy. Even with no content, it's unbeatable. You've never experienced such an overworld. Even Star Citizen can't compete. And this isn't even my main overworld lol, it's just a side-game. The main overworld will require an insane amount of work to get running, and I am gearing up for that job by training with this one.

The other part of this update is that now there is a window with an embedded version of the galaxy map below the music video. It can be panned around as normal, but no zoom features, and the POIs can be scanned but not clicked on. So you might say, what's the use for it then? Well this sort of embedded map will be included in every Codex page of a POI, and once there are hundreds of POIs you'll be glad for it because it'll show you exactly where each is located. Plus it just makes the Codex pages look cooler, giving you a preview of the map/area you'll arrive at if you click through to the location.


P.S. And what about the Warhammer 40,000 theme music that I removed? That's going to go earlier in the site process: in the setting select page that comes before the Warhammer 40,000 Start Screen. So that you can click on the music to play before you arrive at the start screen. It's all because programmers are dumb.

[icycalm]

Just about ready to run the first Battlemaster scenario, Battle Honours; if all goes well, the first dice should be rolled later today. And it occurred to me that the 40K overworld markers I've been using—the crossed swords and so on—are VERY hard to make out: you have to know pretty much exactly where they are in order to find them, which defeats much of the purpose of having an overworld, let alone at 10K resolution (it is in fact that high res which makes the markers hard to find). So I really should replace them with something more eye-catching. BUT I really like the current ones. They are very cool and very in line with the 40K universe. So I found a compromise solution. The currently available content AND the upcoming hype content will be presented via large and colorful pins as shown above, while the completed content will use the cool crossed swords markers and so on. This will work really well because eventually MOST of the content on the map will be of the completed variety: hundreds of missions and so on; while the available missions will be just a handful and the upcoming hype content will be sparse too. So what eventually will happen will be HUNDREDS of low-key cool markers that you can explore at leisure since there's nothing urgent about them plus maybe a couple dozen larger colorful pins that pop out of the map so you can't miss them. For now though, since we haven't completed anything yet, all you can see are the large colorful pins. Take a look: https://akbattlegrounds.net/w/multivers ... edef4eca9b


Green pin on the left and orange on the right; quite distinguishable

And here's what the colors mean as of this writing:

Black Exclamation Mark Pin: Failed Content
This probably won't get much use in Battlemaster because there's no such thing as failure here, since the plot and the metaplot are never at stake (because they're written by the developers). It's mostly meant for the roleplaying settings where you're playing an adventure that has a clear goal such as: "Defeat the runelords." That said, there ARE Warhammer roleplaying games (Imperium Maledictum is the latest and currently running 40K one), and those adventures will of course go on the same map as the tactical missions, so we should have occasion to use black exclamation pins even in the 40K galaxy map, eventually. Just not many of them. And not for a long while.

Blue Exclamation Mark Pin: Available Content
This is content that can be played right now. All a player has to do to play it is go to the Battlemaster forum and start a thread, linking back to the content's Codex page, and the Battlegrounds Bot powered by Cult Intelligence (CI) will take it from there.

Green Exclamation Mark Pin: Running Content
This is content running right now. No one can join this content at this time.

Grey Exclamation Mark Pin: Completed Content
Done and finished. At which point its marker changes to the more low-key crossed swords etc. markers that I was using before. Which means that there's no reason for the grey exclamation pin to be used? Probably, unless I think of some use for it. But maybe I will use it for the roleplaying settings where there are fewer adventures than the tactical missions. We'll see. I need to see how the maps look like with many of these on them before I make my choice.

Orange Exclamation Mark Pin: Locked Content
This is locked content. Cannot play it yet. Look at the Requirements field to see how to unlock it. If ALL the requirements are blue or green which means you can unlock the content imminently, the exclamation pin will be yellow. If at least some of them aren't, or aren't on the overworld yet at all, it will be orange.

Red Exclamation Mark Pin: Urgent Content
This again is more for the roleplaying settings than the tactical ones. The purpose of the red exclamation pin is to indicate that a catastrophic emergency is unfolding—e.g. the runelords have broken through and wiped out the team that was fighting them—therefore calling on all heroes in the area and beyond to converge in this region to fight them. At that point it's no longer a structured adventure or campaign but a free-for-all taking place on the Master of Heroes/4X layer and following those rules. It's basically a wargame at that point.

Violet Exclamation Mark Pin: Unavailable Content
This is content that hasn't been played and was for a time available but no longer is because some other piece of content ended in such a way as to block this or render it moot. It sounds like a niche case, and I suppose it is, but there is already a potential such case on the horizon in the Master of Heroes Tutorial that SriK is currently playing. Or consider what happens to the various future adventures in the runelords saga if the runelords score a complete victory: they all become unavailable, perhaps forever. So violet content is usually lost forever, but I suppose there might be cases where it can be unblocked if some condition is met, at which point the pin will change color to green or something else, depending on the case.

Yellow Exclamation Mark Pin: Locked Content
This is locked content. Cannot play it yet. Look at the Requirements field to see how to unlock it. If ALL the requirements are blue or green which means you can unlock the content imminently, the exclamation pin will be yellow. If at least some of them aren't, or aren't on the overworld yet at all, it will be orange.