Originally Posted by TheAmishStig
That's an interesting take on it...you mean start with something like a green neoprene mat, and then put ODE [or the upcoming Battlefields] overlays on it? It might be grabby enough you don't need the poster-tack at all, depending on what it's covered with.
I imagine you'd need to track down multiple copies of a source of overlays to have enough, since the assumption with them is probably "modify a map" rather than "create one from scratch", but from the little research I've done it's a lot more economically feasible than the alternatives I've been looking at.
Viking Mats is in preorder, so prices are going to go up at some point...but right now you can get a 32" by 32" [good for about a green map's worth of space, which are 28.5" x 33"] for $60 + shipping. They also make 27x46 ($52), 25.5x59 ($67), and 39x75 ($117). Custom sizes are a bit more expensive, but go up to 80x50. Battlefields I'm expecting to be in the $35 range; even if it's $40, at 32x32" that's a giant neoprene mat, three geomorphing maps, and three overlay sets for less than $200.
It's an option I'll have to consider. So far I've been looking at going the other way, upscaling hexes instead of converting to freeform movement...with doing the MIB thing, it's important to me to avoid the problems with nudgers and 'come on, you're going to fight me over 1/64"?'. If people are arguing over fractions of a fraction of an inch, they're not enjoying the game, and if they're not enjoying the game they're not leaving with an interest in buying their own copy.
So far I haven't found a pre-cut hex solution I like...$300-ish per green map for Picoarmor cardboard, up to $1200-ish per green map for Litko plywood, so am now doing the research into cutting them myself or getting a 3D printer. The latter's a long-term answer [huge startup costs, just like the airbrush I was looking into], but could work nicely in the long run.
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