Car Wars Arenas

[Magesmiley]

There's one in the Seattle area from Road Atlas Volume 2 that I drew up as a massive, 4 map sheet arena. We actually played on it a lot, as we usually had 8-12 players. I've still got it somewhere on my Car Wars shelves.

[jimmylogan]

Originally Posted by Suncrush

There's a big park in downtown Pittsburgh where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio. I have plans to map it as a combined river/off-road arena for boat, hovercraft and off-road auto duelling.

The real dimensions are far too large for a Car Wars map, so I have to decide how much to shrink it to make it playable, but still feel realistic.

(The Fort, which is the signature piece that would make the arena, is at a place where the land is 1000' wide, and the rivers are 800' across at that point. Even if you wanted to run the rivers to the map edge, defining the arena with buoys, real-world scale produces a 5-foot wide map between the rivers.)

Sounds awesome though. :-) Make sure to share pics! :-)

[Suncrush]

Originally Posted by jimmylogan

Sounds awesome though. :-) Make sure to share pics! :-)

Actually, it would be really helpful if someone had a map grid that's transparent between the gridlines. The one I have is white.

[Chernobyl]

I draw mine using MS Publisher. you can do lots of things with shapes and rule guides in that software.

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by jimmylogan

That's a GREAT idea! I never used them, but had to be some good stuff there... The Road Atlases might have some good content to mine as well...

actually, thats what I meant, the road atlas and survival guides. oops :)

[Chernobyl]

Originally Posted by Suncrush

So... I have a large format printer at work, and I need something I can run through it to test and see if it works. Anyone got an arena map file I can chunk through it?

To clarify, I am NOT looking for something SJ Games distributes as a printable pdf. Either a homebrew arena, or something like the Test Autoduel arena that were distributed as scale diagrams for you to hand-draw at home.

you are welcome to try my new arena the California Autoduel Exposition
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/1...uel-exposition
it is a single mapsheet in size (21x32) with a 1" border around the outside (so paper size is 23x34)

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Chernobyl

I draw mine using MS Publisher. you can do lots of things with shapes and rule guides in that software.

A layout application is definitely the way to go for doing grids and other map markings. I do everything in InDesign nowadays, including drawing the map itself for precision measurements. (Also because I'm not the greatest artist. :)

Vector graphic or bitmap graphic with vector capabilities can do vector grids just as well, but in my experience (or inexperience?) it's more work to do.

Going back...

Originally Posted by Suncrush

Actually, it would be really helpful if someone had a map grid that's transparent between the gridlines. The one I have is white.

If you must do a grid with bits instead of vector lines, you should be able to use either a layer effect or select-by-color to convert from grayscale to a (possibly semi-transparent) overlay. I don't know what tools you're using, but I'll use the freely available paint.net as an example: try putting the black-and-white grid on a layer above your map and set the layer's blending mode to Multiply. All the white should drop out, black should remain black, and gray should convert to semitransparent whatever is underneath.