Cave Assets Preview
Added 2019-01-02 22:59:46 +0000 UTCHello all!
As far as 'previews' go this is a little skimp, but ever since you all voted on Caves to be the next theme for our next Public Assets Pack I've been working on developing a logistical solution to them. Caves having inherent walls and floor built into them make them difficult to modulate in the same fashion that assets from previous packs have been.
They offer a similar difficulty to road pieces where if they are not made along a specific grid or uniform measurement they can be frustrating to line up accurately and when they are made along that system they can appear unnatural.
So after experimenting with a few options I've decided to go with... tiles!
I've actually done an asset pack in the past using tiles, though not nearly in the same scope as I'm hoping for with this cave theme. As you can see from the examples above, I'm hoping to create a variety of caverns and tunnels all set within an 40x40ft square tile. Digitally these will arrive as 4in squares, physically printed as 8in squares making them especially easy to print from home.
If you're not familiar with the tile system for modular creations (Carcassonne, anyone?), nearly every tile will have at least one of four means of egress that are uniform across every tile, making them easy to line up with each other in different variations to create your own cave systems! They will still be at battle map scale and I put in the extra work and research to make sure that the textures for the walls and floors are seamless, meaning that there won't be annoying edge lines between the tiles.
All in all, I'm hoping to create about 32 of the standard tiles (16 of which are featured above in sketch form) with another handful of tiles at a larger size for big caverns, more elaborate entrances, etc. IF YOU have any suggestions or ideas for specific caverns or tunnels you'd like to see please let me know by commenting below!
Comments
Esteemed most venerable Venatus (good rhetorical start, isn't it), allow me to suggest that the cave tiles project will be comprehensive and continous enough to cater to the dire need of many many tiles with numerous options. The Venatus Cave System Complete sorta. To make these the definitive onestop for any cavers I suggest you (if you have not already) scrutinize how caves are in real life. In doing so you will add stalagmites, various shapes and elevations within a single cave/tile, cracks and holes to below and above, etc. Resounding yes? <3
Anders Bersten
2019-01-03 17:08:58 +0000 UTCPerhaps a couple with a river or stream running through them? Doesn't have to be water even, just the lines for it as with a transparent tile one could make it lava , acid or whatever..
Frank Bartlett
2019-01-03 11:47:19 +0000 UTCNoted!
Venatus Maps
2019-01-03 06:32:33 +0000 UTCThank you for the thoughts James! I can tell you I'll be supplying the pack with samples of both wall and floor textures, both of which will be 'seamless', meaning you can stack as many of them next to each other on any side without edges showing. That in combination with having options for a transparent floor so that you could isolate the walls should get you 90% of what you're suggesting right there. And I will of course include variations without a grid! Appreciate your excitement!
Venatus Maps
2019-01-03 06:32:26 +0000 UTChooooly dang I absolutely love this idea and I can't wait???? I also love the idea of like...idk the Glittering Caves in LOTR kind of tile? Just incredibly gem encrusted.
Nikki N
2019-01-03 06:13:00 +0000 UTCWell I really like the idea of having tiles in this set, but if I could be so bold I'd like to suggest something additional to the tiles. My idea is to have a texture layer the same size of the ones like the grass or water ones that normally come with the asset sets and have it be the same as the wall texture on the tiles. Then have at least one texture layer that's at least 1/4 of the full one, and have it be the same as the cave floor texture on the tiles. Additional cave floors would be nice as well but aren't needed. Then you would just need to make the line drawing that designates the wall of the cave. On one side of the line it would have at least 1/4 inch of the wall texture and on the other side of the line some of your fantastic shadow alpha blending (wish I knew how to do that). Then to make a cave, tunnel, etc, a person would just start with the base wall texture, and place the cave floor texture layer under it so it's hidden. Then import one of the wall line drawing layers, place it as wanted, and use the eraser tool to erase the wall texture up to the line exposing the floor texture. You could make a few straight walls and a few angles like 90 and 45 degrees. Even get more creative with them if wanted. I'm sure I'm not explaining this well enough so I could e-mail you some additional information if you want. Thing is what I'm suggesting could also be a patrone only pack if you want as well. To be honest I'll more than likely do something like this using your tiles, but having you supply what I'm suggesting would make it so much easier and more polished looking. As well I'd also like to request that the tiles not come with a grid if possible. And lastly it would be great to have some extra items like large stones similar to the water ones we had with the water pack, and maybe some cliff faces so we could add changes in elevation. Still, with all that said, I'll be more than happy with whatever you produce for us.
Gezzer
2019-01-03 04:37:53 +0000 UTCLooking forward to this. Love tiles for building maps. Midgardia's suggestion of having the floor being transparent will work great for me in my VTT of choice. Including a uniform, directionless, drop-shadow along the walls will give the appearance of depth no matter what floor texture is used. (Well, except a black floor of course. :) Using directionless drop-shadows also means the tiles can be rotated and will still look okay. Probably goes without saying, but, a couple 90 degree turns, a couple dead-end passages and a transition piece between cave and outdoors will be nice.
Phergus
2019-01-03 00:23:16 +0000 UTCReading the other comment about transparent floors so other floors can be used, I guess a good companion asset pack would be floors. Water, slight height variation (little platforms/plateaus making combat placement interesting), holes, lava, stalactites, etc... This is looking great!
Nope
2019-01-02 23:57:52 +0000 UTCOH! and one thing I noticed with another tileset. When making the floor transparent, using a semi-transparent black layer for shading of the wall vs floor works best so that the final mix of floor/wall doesn't look flat. Just like when you give shading to your other assets, basically!
Midgardia
2019-01-02 23:53:31 +0000 UTCIt's been a very educating experience in trying to prettify the black n white maps of MMD, and my biggest challenge has been cave-in areas and outright caves. The third level includes an underground river that will require me to mix a 'water' base with cavern-like walls for it. I've so far used tilesets from Gabriel Pickard, 2min tabletop, Forgotten Adventures, and Dungeon Mapster, sharing my progress on twitter. The whole 'cavern' problem has made me think of trying to make my own modular set, but I think you and other pros would do much better XD Forgotten Adventures does have a very basic cave tileset that follows the suggested system, so I can't take all the credit there. Looking forward to see how yours comes out and hopefully I can make use of it for a lower level of the dungeon!
Midgardia
2019-01-02 23:48:56 +0000 UTCThank you for such thoughtful feedback! Exactly what I was hoping for. I'm already planning on including tiles that are filled with just floor or wall texture to fill in gaps or make large rooms as you describe. Making options for tiles with transparent flooring for other textures is brilliant!
Venatus Maps
2019-01-02 23:36:56 +0000 UTCOkay, as someone who's been trying to use tilesets to re-map Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and having had some (frustrating) experiences with cave mapping, I can maybe give some ideas. Take it or leave it, or grab some of it, I don't mind, I've just had a lot of recent experience trying to map out huge cavern systems using tilesets XD First off, I love how the tiles look. Making sure the 'openings' hit the intersection of two tiles works great both for keeping them lined up AND ensuring openings are wide enough to accommodate tokens. I think this set will work great for generic/unplanned cave maps. I'd suggest including some 4x4 sq tile options with generic 'walls' to build bigger cavern areas or map out things in a more detailed manner. Those tiles would have for example the wall going from sq 1 to sq 1, then 1x2, 2x3, etc. plus some 'straight' walls that go from top to bottom. Add a simple 'floor' tile to fill in the center areas, with maybe some generic 'boulder' transparent pieces for columns and such. A buildable system like this would make it so you have enough varying pieces to keep it looking natural, but have the flexibility of a very modular set. If you wanted too make it for the roll20 marketplace, I'd also suggest making the tiles have no floor/transparent, so it's just the wall, so other floor types could be used with it (for example water, or dungeon floors)
Midgardia
2019-01-02 23:15:53 +0000 UTC
