S3 Series

Some ideas from someone (me) who has no actual idea what it takes to do this:

Depends on how many variables there are, but we always talk about Large, Medium, Small, & Grass fields.

Here's an idea...have the letter in front of the field number actually mean something (L85=Large..M=Medium...P=outPost, A=Artillery etc etc)
OR
Have the numbers mean something 0xx - large.....1xx=medium....2xx=small...3xx=grass (015, 115, 215, 315)

Icons could be something like a solid square = large field, Half filled square = Medium, Solid Circle = Small, Half filled Circle = grass

or

2 parallel lines and a hash for large field
2 parallel lines for a medium
1 line with a hash for small
1 line only for grass


I'm all for something that is easily discernible by sight... dont need to look at the key every time to figure it out.


Wish list: A layer on pdf or somewhere to turn off the blue water. cant write notes over it... uses up all the ink on the printer.. Light colored land and perhaps a light blue hatch around the land where the water is.

something that looks crisp and detailed rather than color blotchy cartoony. light drab hues rather than bright blobs of color. Example: Parchment instead of Yellow

that's my $.02

One thing to remember is that the icons in WBs when you look at the fields in tower are bitmap images and pretty small so its difficult to get more than basic shapes. The planning map that we do for the S is vector based so its quite crisp when you zoom in or out. Trying to get them to be the same in both but it takes time.

Right now we have for the new terrains 5 airfield types
Light blue with black outline.
Black Lines indicating air strip.

Square with two lines intersecting = LAF
Square with one line diagonal = MAF
Diamond with one line diagonal = SAF
Circle with one line diagonal = LS
Point down triangle with one line diagonal = GAF

You can see this in the crimea tower map with icons.

The new greece terrain will have it more finalized. Trying to standardize the icons in both better so some input is helpful.

Went in to look at Crimea. A green box with a "microphone" in it also appears to be a short airfield. Circles of more than one color with a HORIZONTAL line also seem to have usable airfields. IF symbols become standardized, a easily-accessible LEGEND, including icons large enough to discern differences, is critical to understanding what is available.

I do believe there is a problem reading the icon file in WB. It defaults to the basic one sometimes and thats why you see the green icon when you shouldnt. I believe that if we replace the standard icon file with one that can be used by all terrains old and new it wont happen.

Think I have figured out how to have all the icons on the one standard file so that should take the replacement issues away.
Thinking of making the GAF the Round AF icon and the LS the Triangular one, since it wont be used as much.
Village as green diamond and small base as green diamond with diagonal cross since they are land force targets.
New icon for seaplane base.

Will post when done.

just for the record, Muzz's Tobruk terrain map we are using is a very good example of land & water that aren't overbearing and are easy to see.

Do you mean the inflight DDS Muzz makes or the PDF for planning? He also did the Crimea and Japan Island DDS.

I was thinking of the pdf in the planning. at least that's what comes to mind right now.

cc will check it out, its easy to add two different maps at the bottom one for print and one for screen.

ohh, 1 for print, have a black & white laser printer.