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Old 06-30-2008, 09:06 PM   #1
Agemegos
 
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Default [Space] Planetary maps

G'day

Does anyone have any tips for producing planetary maps in the format suggested for GURPS Space (i.e. icosahedral projections tessellated into hexes).

I'm no great draughtsman, so a technique for automatically generating maps that conform with a planet's hydrographic percentage would be very handy.

Failing that, what good ways are there for simply getting the spread-out-icosahedron of hexes superimposed on a graphic so that it can be included into a document and print out nicely>


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Old 07-01-2008, 12:05 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos
Failing that, what good ways are there for simply getting the spread-out-icosahedron of hexes superimposed on a graphic so that it can be included into a document and print out nicely
I doubt I'm telling Agemegos anything he doesn't already know, but you can use a spreadsheet to make a hex map.

EDIT: as that link doesn't seem to work anymore (at least, it wasn't on 30 May 2017), to make a hex map with a spreadsheet, make the dimensions of each "square" 1 unit tall x 1.1547* units wide. A "square" will likely be made up of two rows, so that the "squares" of a column are offset vertically by half a "square" from adjacent columns.

* The exact value is 2/SQRT(3) units.

Last edited by Captain Joy; 05-30-2017 at 12:24 PM.
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Old 06-07-2017, 08:14 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

Very timely that nearly a decade later you updated your post! I was just looking for advice about this.

Can you elaborate a little more on how to do it? I'm aiming to merge Traveller style standard 1000km world hexes with a GURPS style isocahedral plus polar map formatting. Potentially with latitude and longitude lines. My graphic design skills are weak...
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Old 06-07-2017, 10:29 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

Quote:
Originally Posted by wellspring View Post
Very timely that nearly a decade later you updated your post! I was just looking for advice about this.

Can you elaborate a little more on how to do it? I'm aiming to merge Traveller style standard 1000km world hexes with a GURPS style isocahedral plus polar map formatting. Potentially with latitude and longitude lines. My graphic design skills are weak...
For example, set up your spreadsheet so each row is 0.5" and each column is 1.1547" wide. Then make each "hex" consist of two rows and one column. Does that help?

Here is an example where I'm using a spreadsheet to illustrate my defense options. In this case, each "hex" is 6x6 cells.

Last edited by Captain Joy; 06-08-2017 at 06:18 AM. Reason: Added example.
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Old 06-07-2017, 10:52 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

A thing I did once while programming a game, and can't think of a better place to put it, was numbering columns sequentially, and rows alternatively odd and even.

So column 2 would have its hexes labeled 22, 24, 26, 28, etc., column 3 would have 31, 33, 35, 37, etc., and hex 33 would be surrounded by (clockwise from the "north") 31, 42, 44, 35, 24, and 22. This makes it easy to calculate the screen position a token needs to be drawn at, and distance between two hexes is easy to calculate in a program, as (ABS(X1-X2)+ABS(Y1-Y2))/2.
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Old 06-08-2017, 05:15 AM   #6
wellspring
 
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Joy View Post
For example, set up your spreadsheet so each row is 0.5" and each column is 1.1547" wide. Then make each "hex" consist of two rows and one column. Does that help?

Here is an example where I'm using a spreadsheet to illustrate my defense options. In this case, each hex is 6x6 cells.
I see what you mean now. Thanks! I was assuming that your technique would create printable hex maps. But this has its used too.
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Old 06-08-2017, 06:41 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

Couldn't you format some of the table-cell "hexes" to have an internal diagonal line, then set others to have the appropriate top or bottom borders, and thus through really nitpicky formatting get the appearance of hexes rather than of staggered squares?

(Of course, at that point, you might as well throw up your hands and learn Inkscape or Illustrator.)
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Old 06-16-2017, 11:35 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Space] Planetary maps

This might be totally irrelevant but figured I'd mention it: http://inkwellideas.com/2011/09/isoc...map-generator/

It's basically a generator for maps in the GURPSy style, though not specifically for GURPS.
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