Author Topic: Official LOS maps format.  (Read 12492 times)

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Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2011, 12:52:02 AM »
Yeah, space, eh? Move to the country, heh heh heh. Even run-down or isolated property is going to be $$$. I don't understand retail or distro.

It seems like an approach might be a properly built web-site with all rules and templates downloadable for whatever $ seems fair. Everything would have to print ok at A4 (and Letter?) size. Then you don't have game boxes or books taking up inventory. The aim would be to get miniatures cast out-of-house and sell them. You might stick the old Black Box miniatures set in a mid-size clamshell together, with dice even. (Add the print-outs and you have a virtual Cheap-Ass Game.) Perhaps you could use pre-orders to get resculpts done, or proper card templates cut?

I'd pre-order a Mk1 with a trident that looked meaner but more importantly didn't arrive looking like a demonic pretzel. Just an example.

Upside: dodge all the paper and card, unified front, nothing new-new needed apart from a casting contract. Once set up the rules and templates and so-on might create some revenue and have a marginal cost of production approaching zero. Just using the old figures you could still space out releases. Each re-release could get you headlines on the gaming sites (The Miniatures Page and Tabletop Gaming News).

Downside: you're doing all the retail grunt work, packaging, posting, shipping. Could eat up time. Not much fun. You still need warehouse space of SOME sort. A full retail website will require professional assistance or $$.

Offline grendeljd

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2011, 03:20:48 PM »
I've posted a quickly done test template sheet, using the templates I created in illustrator. Each tile is sized to 4"x4" on an 8.5"x11" page, with the grey line as a guide for cutting. As far as I know, it would print out size as - I don't have a printer currently so I can't test it. Please have a look and offer up opinions, y'all.

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Offline sgibson260

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2011, 10:45:09 AM »
Hi all,

In preparation for my LOS scenario at GenCon this August, I have made a pdf with replacement LOS tiles (I use a lot of tiles for my GenCon scenario, and mine are pretty beat up by this point).

I have posted the file here:
http://stevegibsongames.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/replacement-los-tiles-metal-floors-all.pdf
And my LOS page on my gaming website is here:
http://stevegibsongames.wordpress.com/legions-of-steel/

<note: to get the correct link, change the <dot> in the URL>

I made all the official LOS tiles I could find, and all the expansions I could identify while I'm here on vacation and away from my LOS stuff. I'm pretty sure I have all the tiles from the base set on pages 1-15.

When I get home, I will have access to all my LOS stuff, but much less time to work on creating fixing and organizing tiles. If anyone wants to take a look and let me know how many of each tile were in the basic game, advanced rules, Junction Point, etc, I'd appreciate it and will add that info to the file. I will also break the file up by expansion at some point. Like a lot of things, I will get to it eventually.....

I will also gin up some objective counters, cave-in overlays, barricades, ladders, etc. at some point, probably during the mad rush leading up to GenCon. In the file, I did add a lot of weird variant tiles that I think will be cool to use.

Constructive comments are appreciated, and I'm especially interested if you'd let me know if I missed any of the official tiles. If there's something you're interested in seeing, it certainly can't hurt to ask. :-)

Good gaming,
Steve Gibson

Administrator Comment updated the links to the real location to bypass the restriction on new users posting links.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2011, 11:29:47 AM by Kindred »

Offline Clark

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #18 on: April 29, 2011, 10:00:56 PM »
The next set of "official" tiles were going to get pretty freaky with blank tiles for super-huge rooms as well as combinations non-connecting halls running in two directions across the tile, and odd shaped rooms.

Offline SgtHulka

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #19 on: April 30, 2011, 08:38:54 AM »
What about just leasing stuff out?

As mentioned in other threads, Litko and Gale Force 9 do custom counters for a lot of game systems, and some they advertise as "official". Since this is all production-on-demand from them, anyway, I'd imagine they'd be stoked to produce "official" LoS counters.

Then, by the same token, if you're going to re-design the tiles and make it a pdf do it yourself, give the tiles to Worldworks or Fat Dragon or Oone to design. Their graphics are pretty much top of the industry.

This way you wouldn't have to pay anything, and you know the LoS stuff isn't gonna look cheap.

Offline sgibson260

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Revised Gibson tiles (black walls, look better)
« Reply #20 on: June 13, 2011, 01:20:00 AM »
Hi guys,

I have revised my homemade replacement tiles with black walls, to make them look better when printed.  They're here:
http://stevegibsongames.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/los-tiles-metal-floors-black-walls-official-tiles-20110612.pdf

You can print them 2 to a page.  The number you need to print to get the official tiles for the basic box and template packs are listed on each page.  I will post all my variant tiles again in the next few days.  Just figuring out how to organize them. 

Steve Gibson

Hi all,

In preparation for my LOS scenario at GenCon this August, I have made a pdf with replacement LOS tiles (I use a lot of tiles for my GenCon scenario, and mine are pretty beat up by this point).

I have posted the file here:
http://stevegibsongames.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/replacement-los-tiles-metal-floors-all.pdf
And my LOS page on my gaming website is here:
http://stevegibsongames.wordpress.com/legions-of-steel/

<note: to get the correct link, change the <dot> in the URL>

I made all the official LOS tiles I could find, and all the expansions I could identify while I'm here on vacation and away from my LOS stuff. I'm pretty sure I have all the tiles from the base set on pages 1-15.

When I get home, I will have access to all my LOS stuff, but much less time to work on creating fixing and organizing tiles. If anyone wants to take a look and let me know how many of each tile were in the basic game, advanced rules, Junction Point, etc, I'd appreciate it and will add that info to the file. I will also break the file up by expansion at some point. Like a lot of things, I will get to it eventually.....

I will also gin up some objective counters, cave-in overlays, barricades, ladders, etc. at some point, probably during the mad rush leading up to GenCon. In the file, I did add a lot of weird variant tiles that I think will be cool to use.

Constructive comments are appreciated, and I'm especially interested if you'd let me know if I missed any of the official tiles. If there's something you're interested in seeing, it certainly can't hurt to ask. :-)

Good gaming,
Steve Gibson

updated the links to the real location to bypass the restriction on new users posting links.

Offline Scoutzout

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #21 on: June 24, 2011, 12:19:36 AM »
These are very nice Steve, thanks for sharing.  I have been looking at resin and other terrain out there and trying to decide which way to go. Resin/Printed or made from scratch (ceramic tiles etc)

Do you have any idea what it costs per tile to print and mount in your style per tile? It seems that if I compare the printed tile vs resin the costs are not too far off. Once you count ink, cutting time, mounting etc.

There are advantages to each one (portability, etc) so I am trying to figure out what to do.

Offline Clark

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #22 on: November 06, 2011, 11:47:58 PM »
What about just leasing stuff out?

I'm all for that but leasing means you need to find someone else who figures they can make money off of something that we can't.

Offline grendeljd

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #23 on: November 07, 2011, 09:53:55 AM »
What about just leasing stuff out?

I'm all for that but leasing means you need to find someone else who figures they can make money off of something that we can't.

I'm thinking someone out there would want to design/sell tile sets that would be appealing for use in any sci-fi tile based game but have a strong LoS feel. As SgtHulka suggests - there seem to be many companies out there suited to creating & selling a line of LoS specific tiles/counters already as a product stream. The whole print on demand industry is really a boon to the current state of the gaming industry...
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Offline Clark

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #24 on: November 08, 2011, 06:23:26 AM »
It comes back to "core competancies": what do you do best?  And how valuable is our IP?  That is, if yo umake an otherwise generic product but slap the LOS logo on it, is there any added value?  If not, then it makes sense to enter into strategic partnerships with people who can make LOS compatible materials with a higher quality and at a lower price.

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #25 on: November 20, 2011, 07:03:14 AM »
Retail is a mystery to me.

Something that I'm banging my head against right now, in business, is risk. I am inclined to think that the lower the risk in an enterprise like this, the better. This contrasts with my real-life business where controlling risk seems to be impossible.

Offline Clark

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #26 on: November 21, 2011, 06:59:26 AM »
There was some evolution in the way the templates were done as Marco looked for ways to push costs down.
In the end they were printed 24-up (6-up x 4 per sheet - one sheet made up a template pack and two Template Pack 1
were effectively what you got with the basic set).  They were then glued to cardboard and then die cut 24-up.

If you can print full-bleed (that is, right to the edge of the paper) then you can print 6-up on legal sized.  Marco still has
the dies; perhaps they could be cut into 4 pieces for use on a smaller, less expensive press.  That might allow a micro-printing shop
to make the templates rather than using a larger place where economies of scale don't kick in until you are doing a run of thousands.

Offline Scoutzout

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #27 on: January 30, 2012, 01:07:43 AM »
What was the format or the sizing for the pattern/dies that generated the intersecting tiles? I have seen a lot of different companies use similar tabs and formats but I dont quite understand how these are cut?

Offline Clark

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #28 on: February 03, 2012, 08:30:58 PM »
Our dies were custom-made based on my own design. They are steel set into a block of wood.  I don't recall the the exact size of the paper or press that was used.

Offline smokingwreckage

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Re: Official LOS maps format.
« Reply #29 on: February 04, 2012, 03:24:28 AM »
I know cutting steel has gotten much cheaper in the last 20 years, maybe there's a better way to cut small print runs of card, too? Like, with lasers?

Manufacturing custom parts for machinery has gotten much, much cheaper and much more widely available thanks to computers and plasma cutters.