Hex Map Scales

[Shadekeep]

Having grown up with the original Melee and Wizard, and the rest of the Microgames line, I have a preference for 1" hexes as well. The real estate is more manageable, as you get more terrain onto the tabletop. And as mentioned, it works nice with traditional miniatures. But the point is also valid that nowadays you can print maps (and miniatures!) to whatever scale you like. So everyone should use what feels most comfortable. The main concern is creating maps that remain legible and attractive at multiple resolutions, which is what I strive to do.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by Rolando

In our time and age you can get any size hex printed in almost any size page, with megahex and dots if you want.

any vector drawing program will be able to do it.

If you want I can wipe a page for you in less than half an hour, and I'm sure someone must have done it already.

Thank you! But yes, I've already done that myself. I did it the lazy way and found online web based utilities, generating a small library of the different sizes for myself in jpg and pdf formats. I didn't worry about megahexes though because I personally don't feel the need, but I do have dots in the center of hexes. A bit over two years ago I self-published a pdf book of right-angle, 7/8" hex tiles I've mentioned here before - if anyone needs that PM your e-mail address and I'll send a free copy.

Lord I forgot til this discussion, but around 1984 when I got my first printer from Radio Shack, and even though it was a daisy wheel printer(!) when I realized the "/" and backslash were at perfect 60 degree angles I went nuts writing a BASIC program to print hexpaper on the thing. Tons of esc codes to micro space and micro-back-space and micro-line-feed and micro-reverse-line feed. LOL - that's a year of my life I'll never get back!

It worked though. Had a menu where I could pick hex size, paper width, and order any number of continuous pages. It was a wide carriage, continuous pin feed printer -- I miss those! For larger maps I just wouldn't separate the pages at the perforation.

Of course it completely wore out the "/" and backslash characters on the daisy wheel after only a hundred pages, and I was only able to get one replacement before the thing was totally obsolete and the daisy wheels discontinued. I was teaching myself BASIC for the first time, so the project wasn't a total waste. I even have some pages left somewhere from the last print run -- I never throw out hexpaper :)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by phiwum

His point, Bill, is that most lines intersecting with a megahex are not diameters, but chords. I've notice that 2.5 is a pretty good divisor to go from hex to megahex myself.

It would be interesting to find a mathematically correct divisor. I'm pretty sure that 2.5 isn't the best possible divisor, but it's not altogether clear to me how to frame the question so that an answer can be found.

I expect it's sqrt(7) (7 being the number of hexes in a megahex) though granularity issues may mean that it's not quite correct.

[Bill_in_IN]

I actually was able to generate 1" hexes that covered most of an 8" x 11.5" page that should lend itself to easy trimming and matching to make a larger board usable board space. No mega-hexes but they can have dots in the center.

https://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/

I had to select a hex size of .6 inches to yield a 1" hex at its parallel edges. This appears to actually be the length of one side of the hexagon. I'm sure that we all can nitpick to be even more precise.

Now, I would like a good way to make counters that can fit into them. I have a printer with plenty of card stock paper. I could make them in multiple layers that is easily handled by my straight paper cutter. I could start by shrinking the PDF counter files that came with Melee and Wizard.

[Bill_in_IN]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Thank you! But yes, I've already done that myself. I did it the lazy way and found online web based utilities, generating a small library of the different sizes for myself in jpg and pdf formats. I didn't worry about megahexes though because I personally don't feel the need, but I do have dots in the center of hexes. A bit over two years ago I self-published a pdf book of right-angle, 7/8" hex tiles I've mentioned here before - if anyone needs that PM your e-mail address and I'll send a free copy.

Lord I forgot til this discussion, but around 1984 when I got my first printer from Radio Shack, and even though it was a daisy wheel printer(!) when I realized the "/" and backslash were at perfect 60 degree angles I went nuts writing a BASIC program to print hexpaper on the thing. Tons of esc codes to micro space and micro-back-space and micro-line-feed and micro-reverse-line feed. LOL - that's a year of my life I'll never get back!

It worked though. Had a menu where I could pick hex size, paper width, and order any number of continuous pages. It was a wide carriage, continuous pin feed printer -- I miss those! For larger maps I just wouldn't separate the pages at the perforation.

Of course it completely wore out the "/" and backslash characters on the daisy wheel after only a hundred pages, and I was only able to get one replacement before the thing was totally obsolete and the daisy wheels discontinued. I was teaching myself BASIC for the first time, so the project wasn't a total waste. I even have some pages left somewhere from the last print run -- I never throw out hexpaper :)

All hex paper is good hex paper. LOL!

I sent a PM to take you up on your offer. Thanks.

[Steve Plambeck]

Originally Posted by Bill_in_IN

All hex paper is good hex paper. LOL!

I sent a PM to take you up on your offer. Thanks.

Got it, and pdf sent. If you don't get it let me know and I'll send again.