RPTools.net

I don't recall seeing anyone mention this here (though I may have just missed it), but there's a Kickstarter (already fully funded, with two weeks to go) for an isometric map builder:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ho ... or-role-pl

Looks interesting.

Pretty neat.

I think MT could do this just as easily if we had the art for it though. And one of the issues with building something in Dungeon Builder and importing it into MT would be that the objects would be baked into the map so tokens wouldn't be moving behind them (like objects in MT's ISO mode can). But it does look like if they hit their $30.2K mark (likely) they say that they will put their art assets in a "mod" file... which *might* mean that the art assets would be accessible and exportable for MT. Still, that ends up being about a $43 art pack.

I asked on the Kickstarter whether it was true isometric or twice as wide as high and got this reply:

Hobbyte wrote: Hi David,
It's actually angled a bit more than true isometric, where the diagonal lines are 30 degrees off the horizontal lines. However, the difference is small enough, that you can squeeze our maps to fit a true isometric grid without it being noticeable.
I'm looking into the possibility of making this an option when rendering images, but it will depend on how well the campaign does and on how easily it can be implemented.
I hope that answers your question
Thanks for writing!
Kim

Not quite sure what they mean by that as true isometric is 30 degrees. Plus for a map of any size, that difference will soon mean the grid is out of alignment. It would be nice to have an example to test.

The artwork is most of the hold back for isometric. It's the same issue going full 3d or animated gifs, sure, it would be cool to do but your artwork is so limited compared to current 2d artwork.

One thing that would be cool is if MT could "draw" textures vertically like walls. It probably wouldn't be hard. Maybe a metakey when pasting an object lets you drag a mouse to drop down repeated objects down a gridline? Then drawing walls could be quick and easy! (and floor tiles)

There is already a (very good) isometric (and orthogonal btw) map builder. It is Tiled and it is free. What is lacking are iso ressources to use with it. And there doesn't seem to be enough interest for VTT isometric display for ressources to be produced.

Bhoritz wrote:What is lacking are iso ressources to use with it. And there doesn't seem to be enough interest for VTT isometric display for ressources to be produced.

This place seems to have a bunch of stuff: http://opengameart.org/art-search-advan ... =Isometric

But, really, it'll take someone putting together sets to see some real adoption.

Here is a bunch of ISO stuff, too:

http://jeffdaze.com/code/isometric2/donkey ... %20assets/

Sample:

Oh there are some ressources, but a big part are strategic mapping stuff. And those that could be used in a battlemap are few enough, when compared to top down ressources, that you'll have to make your scenario to fit your maps instead of making the map to fit your scenario.
If you try, for exemple, to have the maps for an SF scenario with the interiors of a ship, a scene at a starport and the exploration of industrial ruins, maybe you'll be able to barely make the maps, but you'll be hard pressed to do it.
And I don't even speak about having different styles assets to cater for different tastes in maps (which is something that is possible with top down maps).

But the real point I was trying to make is that having a new app to make iso maps does not solve the bottleneck problem of isometric gaming. We already have one application to make iso maps, we can have two, three, four... apps to do it, as long as there is not (much more) iso assets to put in them, they are going to be mostly useless.

They did make the stretch goal that puts their art into an accessible format (png, IIRC), which makes it, as noted above, a somewhat pricey part pack.

I've just discovered that Profantasy has an add-on for Campaign Cartographer called Perspectives that does isometric stuff:

https://secure.profantasy.com/products/ ... #&panel1-7

No idea if it's suitable for use with MapTools, but it does apparently include 800 color bitmap symbols and 1000 vector symbols. And guidelines for turning 2D symbols into 3D.

Anybody got any experience with this?

taustinoc wrote:I've just discovered that Profantasy has an add-on for Campaign Cartographer called Perspectives that does isometric stuff

Turning a 2D map into isometric is no big deal (rotate and scale), but extruding the flat elements is quite intriguing, how does the vertical part looks like?

BTW, if you are ready to put some work into it to have a really good result, you can turn simple 3D paper models parts (certainly walls and floors) into isometric elements. On "normal isometric, it would just be a 30° skew. On the kind of isometric used by Maptool, it would just be a little more difficult.