Journeyometer 2: Rivendell is live!

[StuartJ]

Hi Elfcrusher,

I think this is a great idea - and an interesting tangent from your previous (still great) idea of a timeline and gazeteer of events in different locations (I noticed the 'date range' field for creating events!). Having this sort of fan-created material which leverages the existing published material whilst being careful not to replace seems like a great way to go. I don't know if Elfcrusher Enterprises already has a crack team of data inputters on the job, but if not I can lend a hand to get the hex categorisations into a data file for loading.

Re: other maps (e.g. the Fenlon map copied and aged by Heilemann), that's a great idea, but I wonder whether doomed by inconsistencies in map scales and variations in detail? I'd be interested to know how exactly the standard TOR map matches to the Fenlon one: if I recall, Heilemann suggested the Mountains of Mirkwood shifting and some other things..

A further suggestion about complementing the published materials, if you're up for it: perhaps when you are creating an event/hazard, you could optionally allow page references to Heart of the Wild or Darkening of Mirkwood? Then, if the user browsing the Hazardopedia loads in their local PDFs, per what you did with the Bestiary, they could follow the link to the reference for more detail.

Stuart

Stuart

[Glorelendil]

Valarian,

I'd love to use that map. Can you both zoom in and (greatly?) enlarge that map, so that it matches the official map more closely? Eventually we'll want the entire map, but when the time comes perhaps we can cut it up into tiles to make loading easier.

Stuart,

You read my mind. I've actually been taking a slight tangent and building an index to official locations and adventures. I realized that the fan content will be sparse for a while, so the map will need to have some utility beyond just that content. A visual index seemed like a great starting point. So, yes, click on "Beorn's House" and the map highlights and jumps that hex, and it will also list book and page number to official info.

For now I'm building that index as a spreadsheet and importing it, but will move it to the relational database for ongoing updates from the app itself. (I've created two classes of registered user, so that I can "promote" people to curatorial roles.)

[Valarian]

It's a vector (CAD) drawing, so yes. There's a few zoomed in areas already, in LM and player form.

For example:

[Valarian]

I've done a zoom-in for Rhovanion (2000x1600 pixels).
Google Album

[Glorelendil]

Ok, once again I've shifted tack, perhaps overly-ambitiously.

I wrote a tool that is letting me tag regions by terrain, region type (e.g. Shadow Lands), and name. This will let me build the Journey computation tool: just shift-click to select all the hexes you are traveling through, select season and some other options, and Journey information (# of rolls, TNs, etc.) will update automatically.

I'm also building an index, initially of place names (Rivendell, Mirkwood, etc.), and then I'll add official adventures ("Where does Don't Leave the Path take place..." click...zoom...eureka!), all with page references to the various books.

Once that is all done I'll re-release it, again with the functionality to let everybody tag cells with additional information (NPCs, hazard ideas, plot hooks, etc.) But until that information is dense enough to be useful in its own right, the index and journey tool should make the app pretty handy.

Valarian: could I ask for another revision: larger overall (the official maps are 3300 x 2550). If you could do it in .jpg and adjust file size down to about 2mb that would be great, but I can also do that step.

[Valarian]

Valarian: could I ask for another revision: larger overall (the official maps are 3300 x 2550). If you could do it in .jpg and adjust file size down to about 2mb that would be great, but I can also do that step.

Done and in the Google Album linked earlier.

[Heilemann]

There are some inconsistencies in the Fenlon map (the mountains, the murky river (which I added in)) and a few place names (Maethelburg at the top of the Anduin) and various other things, but by and large it's quite similar. IIRC all the cultures' towns are there and in the right approximate place. So far we use that map, while I calculate travels based on the LM map as if it was the same. However, the distances will no doubt be somewhat different.

[Glorelendil]

There are some inconsistencies in the Fenlon map (the mountains, the murky river (which I added in)) and a few place names (Maethelburg at the top of the Anduin) and various other things, but by and large it's quite similar. IIRC all the cultures' towns are there and in the right approximate place. So far we use that map, while I calculate travels based on the LM map as if it was the same. However, the distances will no doubt be somewhat different.

I haven't experimented with that map yet (got off on the travel computation tangent) but when I have a chance to I will. I can handle scale and even aspect ratio differences, but if relative distances vary it will get tricky.

[Glorelendil]

I just pushed an entirely new version of this app. See initial post for details.

[Heilemann]

Bravo!