Hex March Volume 1: World Map Builder

The Hex is Marching in and this set has got EVERYTHING you need to build a breathe taking World or Region map. With 925 Tiles you can literally shape the land in an infinite number of ways. Planning a Pirate Adventure, this set has over 60 Islands to hop. Heading into the Mountains, 40 variations of Hand Drawn mountains are ready to give your map that professional Tolkien-like feel. Roads, Trade Routes, Rivers, Trees, PALM TREES, Dead Trees, Swamp Thing, Desert Settings, you name it! Symbols for your Cities, Caves, Ruins, and so much more. This set is also perfect for creating West March style maps! The Hex Tiles all fit in Roll20 at 95x95 pixels, and can be exported to your favorite Hex building apps if you choose to build it there instead!&nbsp; <a href="https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/set/1839/hex" rel="nofollow">https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/set/1839/hex</a>...

<a href="https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/set/1839/hex" rel="nofollow">https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/set/1839/hex</a>... Probably should have the link go there instead! Nice set though!

Weird. I got the link from the set. Thanks for looking out though! I grabbed the link from the sets banner. That's happened to me before, I don't know why.&nbsp;

Lol more than 900 pieces and that "Vol 1." in the bottom right corner make me think that there will be a Vol.2 and maybe more! Altough there are many good hex sets in the marketplace this is the best I think. I think I'll take it. Good Job!

Thanks Gainmarco! There are some good Hex sets out there, Chiben Grove has some great stuff (unfortunatly he did H-Hex tiles other wise Id say its compaitible with his- maybe a spin will work?) Cecil Howe also has a few sets that are fantastic, and both of our sets are to the same dimensions. And yes, I will confirm a Vol. 2 will be coming out soon (how soon, we'll see- this set took a good chunk of time, but the math and ground work is done so hopefully Vol 2 won't take me a month to build). I have an ever growing list for Volume 2 already, and should be as big as Vol 1 if not bigger. I plan to put more coastline variations, a good load of Jungle tiles (since there's a big item coming out soon from the big brother that inspires us artists), Buildings and other markers, an Arctic region with a few styles (snow, glacier, frozen rivers, tundra), Wastelands, HELL, Volcanos, craters, Lava cracks and rivers, Walls (probably 2 or 3 variations too) bridges, more roads, tents, cities, monuments... thats my list for the most part for Volume 2. If there's anything anyone wants to see in particular for Volume 2, feel free to tell me! I've already started chipping away at a few tiles for it! As for "maybe more" (than 2 Volumes)- that is not confirmed, but a high probability of happening in time. I'm going to try to get as much stuff crammed in Volume 2 so that it is as near complete as can be (outside of extremely Niche stuff like a Land of Candy- which I actually REALLY want to do, but I doubt it will be a top "hit", lol, I still don't care and will probably make it anyways just for fun). I can say I can see a Volume 3 being something like Underdark or something... who knows...

I've got a nice set of Chiben Grove. Hex 'n treks or something. If you would accept a little feedback it would be nice (I don't know if this is already implemented in your set) to name pieces, maybe with a suffix, as to help people who would buy it to understand how to combine them (piece compatibility). It will be a hard work to search among 900+ pieces to figure out those who fit with a particular one. I know this is not easy at all, but is for a better usability. I hope you will find this little advice useful for your work =)

Also, if you have the time, I'd highly recommend looking into Tiled for making a tutorial on how to use your pieces with that software to make maps faster and export them.

I have not seen Tiled, but I've used this set in Hexkit. I'll check it out. Maybe do one for each. I've never actually created a tutorial before, but I'm willing to give it a go!

I am very interested in this set as I am looking to build a hex crawl style of game, however building maps from pieces generally isn't a great experience (both from a tool and performance perspective) and even more so with hexes. So if a tool could be recommended and a tutorial prepared, I personally would be very interested in picking up this set and likely others.

Kevin said: I am very interested in this set as I am looking to build a hex crawl style of game, however building maps from pieces generally isn't a great experience (both from a tool and performance perspective) and even more so with hexes. So if a tool could be recommended and a tutorial prepared, I personally would be very interested in picking up this set and likely others. Thank you for the interest, Kevin. I've been talking with Cecil Howe, and this set is compatible with his Desktop Application "Hexkit". If you are unfamiliar, it is a Hex Tile builder application that him and a few others funded through Kickstarter recently, and he has Hex tiles out here on Roll20 as well, and is extremely user friendly. I have been playing around in the application myself this morning, and it works great with this set! It also allows you to export your map once completed, which will then be able to fit into Roll20 (if you make a large map, you may have to tweek the resolution however, because the Hexkit exports at a printable DPI resolution, but changing the DPI to 72 and works fine with most maps, if they are Extremely large like 100x100 you may just have to cut it down into 2-4 files). When doing this, you will have to use ALT to size the tiles up to the Roll20 Grid. One of the fun things Ive been experimenting with is making a map in that App and uploading it in Roll20, then use clear tiles set at 95x95px (which can then be copy pasted) to link my Map Keys to Character Journals to have a SHIFT DOUBLE CLICK access to the Map Key for that tile. This can also be used to enhance the Tile with Lighting this way!

As for tutorials, I know Cecil Howe has one out on Youtube for his set, I can also make one myself if that helps.

Hey there, Been wanting a nice looking hextile mapper to remake my Map in a cool looking style, so I grabbed the Volume 1 and started to see how it would go, unfortunately, I am disappointed. Each tile comes in at a high pixel ration of 210x210 when moving onto the map requiring every tile to be adjusted down to the declared 95x95 unless I copy an already prepared tile, and then rotating the tiles to face a new direction leaves large and clear misaligned parts between the tiles.

AUSGrizzly said: Hey there, Been wanting a nice looking hextile mapper to remake my Map in a cool looking style, so I grabbed the Volume 1 and started to see how it would go, unfortunately, I am disappointed. Each tile comes in at a high pixel ration of 210x210 when moving onto the map requiring every tile to be adjusted down to the declared 95x95 unless I copy an already prepared tile, and then rotating the tiles to face a new direction leaves large and clear misaligned parts between the tiles. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about the drag and drop tile display from the library to the table. I reached out to Roll20 about the output size when dragged and dropped,&nbsp; or if there's a way to set a default. I didn't get a helpful response from them in this question. As for a large and clear misaligned part, I have not seen that issue. I've used a few methods myself and I have not had that issue at all. Rotating the tiles should not be causing this to happen. Perhaps turning the opacity of the grid up to 100 can alleviate that issue? I'd like to look in to that problem, do you know what tile or tiles are giving you the issue?&nbsp; They are all built on a template, and each tile should have the same alignment. I personally have not seen or heard about any issues with rotation until this post, and I have personally built multiple maps with this set,&nbsp; as have a few of my friends, and this problem has not occurred for any of us. These tiles can also be used in the Hex Kit desktop application for an easier and faster map building process, not requiring any sizing for the tiles. They are fully compatible with that App and were tested by its creator, as well. I'd like to fix whatever problem you are having with the set, it's something I put a lot of time and work into, and my goal is to ensure everyone who picks it up enjoys it to the fullest. I'd be willing to give some hands on help, reach out to me through a PM and I could see what the issue is and better solve it that way, possibly.&nbsp; I'm sad to hear your frustrations as of now.&nbsp; Hopefully there is a solution to this issue.&nbsp;

Thanks Dean! I didn't think to set the grid to 2 units, I'm glad that lines up. That is definitely easier than resizing every single tile! I'm glad the math lined up for that as it should.Plus since I created them at a larger resolution, that means prettier maps! Hopefully AUSGrizzly likes this approach and can get the most out of the set, as with everyone else! If by chance this solution doesn't solve the issue, please let me know so I can figure out a solution or help you trouble shoot your issue further. Thanks!

Absolutely! I am actually doing my finishing touches on Volume 2 of this series and plan to submit it this weekend, I'll be creating my "Read Me" note for that today or tomorrow, and will create it to reflect this approach, as I feel it is more efficient. I've been re-testing my tiles all morning, and while my method works for me, this way is much more time saving and is very easy to implement, so I think it's best to go with this approach to make it more user friendly. What I'll probably do is have you take the Read Me note from Volume 1 and replace it with the new one, and I'll type out a little fix for the Pack Description, and note that under the "Anything Else We Need To Know" section of the Submission Form, if that's alright with you. Thanks again for all your help, Dean, I really appreciate you guys a lot! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One other important thing, though, I mentioned in an email to you last month, about the dead space in the Hex Page, and trying to get a formula or "standard" page size for full sized maps created for the Hex Grid. I'm not sure if that was touched on. What I was trying to find out about that page size, is how big should I be making full sized maps with a Hex Grid set to "Snap" into the right place without sizing or adjustments being made. I definitely want to create full sized Hex Maps but the issue I'm facing is getting everything to line up right on the full size page with full sized maps. There is a bit of "dead space" around the border of each page (and that size seems to change depending on the page size) For example, When I create full sized 30x30 Maps for the Square grid, I set my sizes to 4200x4200px to create a map that is good up to x2 size on a 30x30 grid scale in a Square Grid. But those pages don't have "dead space" like the Hex Pages do. Around the border of the Hex Page, especially at the Bottom and along the right side, there is a bit of "dead space" that is there, and I'd like to know how much space that is down there, so I can account for it when I create my full sized maps for the Roll20 Hex Page. The way the page is set up, a full size map doesn't snap to the grid properly and takes a ton of adjusting to get it just right, and even then, larger maps are really difficult to line up just right. I was chatting with Aaron about this (and this gentleman's issue as well) today about that, and am hoping to get a mathematical formula for how much "dead space" are on each page, and how much it varies on the page sizes them selves. It's rathter difficlut to word what I'm asking properly, so here's a pic: As you can see here in this beautifully illustrated image, the space at the bottom of the page exceeds the grid by almost a whole unit on the bottom and about a 3rd or less on the right. The Top and Left have a small bit of it, but it lines up to the edge of the page. That is from a 25x25 page, although It will be a different amount of space (at least it seems like it is) on a page that's say 30x30, or even larger like a 60x60 page (for when I snap 2 maps together to make one really large map). As of now I don't know a formula or page size to pixel ratio that is correct to create my map outside of Roll20 and upload to Roll20 to have it snap just right and account for that "dead space". If done correctly, the end user shouldn't have to do anything fancy, or any in depth manual sizing to get it to fit right, but just plug in the image size and "Snap". At least that's my goal when I set out to do full sized world maps with the Hex Grid. I really would love to know the formula behind the math so I can better ensure quality on my end, maybe even a chart on the wiki page for Hexes could help. I know I've tried a few takes at it myself, and without the actual Math formula for how that page is displayed to include that "dead space", I don't think I'll ever get it right by just guessing. I reached out to The Aaron about this question (as well as this gentleman's issue), and hopefully he can assist when he has the time to do so, or someone else can help figure this one out. THIS IS A SEPARATE ISSUE FROM THE ONE LISTED BY AUSGrizzly BTW, and is an inquiry I really want to know for myself so when I create Full Sized Hex Maps I can get it right the first time, and save the issues of things not lining up properly from ever happening. I'd even be willing to help update the Wiki to reflect anything to do with this topic. Like I said, a chart would be nice. By overlooking other Hex Sets around ,there's a few ways to actually build the tiles or maps in the first place, depending on how you want the tiles laid out. There's tiles that have no overlap and fit right to the edge and to the corner of the "V" and then there's tiles like mine with a little bit of intended transparent overlap to take in account for tiles that have Trees, Mountains or Pikemen Spears (there's another thread floating around the forums about that one) that will overlap into the next tile. A good chart displaying the tile sizes with no overlap, and a chart for a recommended overlap space, as well as a chart for full sized maps to be created at to take in account that dead space would prove more than helpful for everyone, from users, to artists and future artists. Sorry for the wall of text. I've made to many walls of text today. None the less, I really want to get this page size figured out for full sized maps, and I feel terrible about bothering people for that information. Hopefully I can get the information I need so I can crawl back into my art hole and do that instead of bug people for math formulas, lol.

Aaaaaand one other note, that may help others in the future, this is the response I had from Aaron through a PM today about an API Script that can help set the sizes to what they need to be from a drag and drop standpoint: "I feel your pain. I have 2 primary thoughts on this: • In the short term they can use this script to automatically size anything added to the table to 95x95: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2627646/script-s" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/2627646/script-s</a>... TokenMod can be used to do the rotations to the right degrees (here are left and right rotations by 1 facing): !token-mod --set rotation|+60 !token-mod --set rotation|-60 • In the long term, I think a script could be created that would understand things are hex tiles, and do the math behind placing them on the grid correctly at the correct scale."

Dean!!! said: There's a chance I'm misunderstanding the issue, but my solution to any art dragging alignment problem is holding ALT while dragging art from the library onto the app. This retains its original size. When I do this, it drops the art at the default size. For this pack, I've found that setting the hex grid to 2 units perfectly matches the ALT drag size. Let me know if that helps at all :) Not entirely true. This only works for images up to a certain size. For example, alt-dragging one of Gabriel Pickard's large encounter maps will drag it out only at 3x3 units.

So I fixed it by making my unit size for the grid 0.95, now when I resize the tiles to be 95px they fit without morphin on rotations, it was an interesting glitch as far as I can tell. I am not complaining as the original size made the map WAY too huge (the one I was using before) and hard for my players to find the locations I was talking about sometimes. Even holding ALT when dragging to map keeps it at 200px on drop. Where when it was at Unitsize 1 it was 210px. Feeling better now, now the only thing I am unhappy about is that there isn't any desertcoast line, stream to coast or stream to river , and that my map is huge and shit. BUT hey, I go big all the time... EDIT:: Found some things out about misaligned tiles. River Bend 18 and River Bend 1 I believe (number might be off) don't match when rotating certain directions. Same with some 3pt Rivers. They fail to match as well on rotations. EDIT2:: Can you remove the damn borders on roads and steams and such, why are they bordered, why does it have a border, its an overlay, it doesn't need one?

I'll take a look at the river tiles tonight.&nbsp; As for desert coastlines,&nbsp; I have a whole lot of those coming in my Volume 2, as well as a slew of arctic tiles, and tons of more goodies. I'm glad you got the sizing figured out. I'm not sure why it does that with your tiles (sizing)&nbsp; as I've not been able to replicate that issue on my end. I'll be making an update for this set to replace the read me note to reflect Dean's method and approach and will go over the rivers again and if I see the same 4 or 5 pixels off on the rivers I'll update those as well. However please don't cuss at me,&nbsp; I'm doing everything in my power to try to help you, and listen to the issues you are having so I can resolve them for you and any future individuals purchasing this set. While I understand your frustrations, being angry and derogatory will not solve a thing. If you prefer the Road tiles without the border that can be done. Do understand that's a preference though,&nbsp; and not a reason to start cussing at me on a public forum.&nbsp;

Sorry, Australian. Damn doesn't come out as a Cuss for us. Same with bloody, hell and other things. Its a language quirk of ours, sometimes we forget that people take offence more towards those words and think we are being aggressive while we are not. And sometime, as of just now, it comes into our writing. So not meaning it in a negative way either. Guess I will be going over my writings to check for Aussie slang. I fully appreciate everything your doing, the map is looking awesome atm and am loving the artstyle. Makes me wish I could draw like that. ^_^ There is only one minor criticism that I would make beyond the Road/Stream borders as they feel more like Overlay items like the individual trees you have. That is that for the Rivers, Streams and Roads, you have a few that are just rotations of the tile in the listing that encourages using THAT tile to make that direction while rotation of a similar tile would be all thats needed as they have little difference in the way they are drawn. At least that in my view. An example of that would be Road 28 and Road 30. They appear the same just rotated preemptively by the pack make up, this is what is resulting in the misalignment of certain tiles I feel. As I have noticed that with what looks like Coastline 85 and Coastline 79, these two also have a very little aesthetic difference, but rotating them to face different directions cause a slight misalignment.

Here is how the map looks so far ^_^ Note: As you might notice there are some extra thick points where two hexes meet, this the boarders of the roads and such causing some slight inconsistencies. Negligible, but still a little annoying to deal with hiding if its bad (sometimes really bad)... As a second side not, Can NOT wait till the Second Pack comes out, so need them arctic tiles for my far North (right) as there be some cold areas up there ^_^ &nbsp;

I understand,&nbsp; and am not upset about the language.&nbsp; I come from food and beverage so I too have a sailors mouth,&nbsp; I just know when communicating,&nbsp; especially in text,&nbsp; others can perceive things as if one is angry and that can cause a rift. so for people stumbling on this thread in the future, they could sense that aggression and be turned away from it.&nbsp; I can assure you the assets are not rotations of the same tile, they are all drawn individually, but when drawing 900+ tiles occasionally my hand might follow a muscle memory and that comes out in the pattern and design seeming similar to another.&nbsp; That's something I will work on for sure. The borders on the roads was something I was on the fence about leaving on or removing in the first place. The feedback on them is something I wanted to hear anyways,&nbsp; and if people prefer them without the border I can remove that. I kept a master file of every tile so that can be done easily and I am definitely making an update to reflect that feedback. They weren't necessarily meant to be rotated, but if people are rotating them and finding misalignment when rotated,&nbsp; that's something I intend to fix. Hopefully I can get the update in for this week's uploads,&nbsp; if not it will definitely be in by next week. I'll probably review volume 2 and might have to push that back to next week as well,&nbsp; if I find any of these same issues in rotating. I can say these sets have a massive workload, and while they are fun to make,&nbsp; and I really am proud of the way they look, they are by far the biggest project I've picked up.&nbsp; I definitely plan to continue to do more hex sets, because they are fun, and frankly I love hex crawls for world map and regional movement. My players love the maps I make with these,&nbsp; and I've received quite a few compliments on them. So if you enjoy this set and it's looks, feel free to drop ideas for additional biomes and specific items you would like to see included in the future. Any errors I make I intend to fix as well,&nbsp; so without feedback,&nbsp; I will never catch each individual small error,&nbsp; and will never know what to look for in future sets to improve on. Feedback and criticism is essential for an artists evolution, and I want to know people's thoughts,&nbsp; so all of this is definitely being heard,&nbsp; considered,&nbsp; and will be implemented. My goal as an artist is to make people happy, and make quality assets set to a top standard, while maintaining convenience and versatility, and evolve constantly.&nbsp; I have a passion for this and am not even close to perfect, but will continue to strive to be the best I can be. Sadly, however,&nbsp; at the end of the day I am human,&nbsp; and make errors,&nbsp; so tell me when you spot one! It won't get fixed unless recognized!&nbsp; Thank you for all of your feedback and criticism thus far. After Volume 2 is out most of the basic building blocks for a standard map will be out and volume 3 and beyond will be more niche items and decor.&nbsp; I think I plan to be making Volume 3 aimed and themed towards hand drawn towns and landmarks, and other likewise pieces.&nbsp; Volume 2 is going to include an expansion on the desert areas, including coastlines, an entire massive Arctic Region including northern snowy grasslands,&nbsp; tundra,&nbsp; glaciers, Icebergs,&nbsp; and a full on Northern Coastline builder. Volume 2 will also include 2 different types of Wall tiles, a wooden,&nbsp; and a stone wall as well as some cliffs and other decor items. This set is a huge value as is,&nbsp; and with the expansions I plan to make, should make this entire series a valuable series of assets. Again,&nbsp; thank you for your feedback.&nbsp; Feel free to reach out for requests,&nbsp; and other feedback and criticism!

PS, your map is looking fantastic! I hope to see your finished version once there as well!

Looking closely at that map,&nbsp; I can see the overlap showing slightly on the road overlays.&nbsp; That's definitely being removed now.&nbsp; Between the feedback and visually seeing that little darker line on the tile,&nbsp; especially around Nepending. Consider it done!

UPDATE: I'm remembering why I left the border on the Roads, because when testing them as an overlay, they sit on top of the Hex grid slightly. One way to retain that Grid is to use the Blank Grid Tile in the set to Go back over the Road layers, to make them uniform and not show the overlap. It's very subtle, but I'd imagine would be noticeable after using them across the full map. Once I finish going through them all again, they won't have any alignment issues, I fine tuned my markers and layouts on my template to ensure that. However if the slight overlay over the Grid Lines bothers anyone, my best suggestion would be to use the Blank Tile to go back over those tiles. I'm also being very maticulous about trying to keep that overlap to a bare minimum where it wont show up either.

Sometimes mind you, you might not want to have the tile at that exact location, perhaps having it end sooner or come in at another angle, this is where the overlay could be useful, instead of having the full 6 point turns for example. The thing with Streams and Roads is that they overlap completely, not just looking like they would cross via a bridge or something, just on top of. Sulpointe to Nepending road/stream would overlap and make it hard to find a good looking path. Perhaps allowing for streams or roads to sit off center from one another so they run along side them.