Experimenting

[RockinHarry]

3 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

That's a really nice looking format. I was thinking along those lines for WW2 missions, for the tac map at least. I find heavily de-saturated works nicely for modern era for my taste. Operational maps come in handy for folks who know very little about the conflicts covered - the old grog breed seems to be dying out nowadays so it's not a given that folks will know the history. But that's along the lines of what I was considering - 50-50 op map and the rest used for the OB reinforcements. Or even just what is necessary for the Operational to use in the Strategic box instead. That would work for Montebourg. If the player doesn't know where Normandy, Luxembourg or Italy are, well, I'm not overly concerned about informing them

A lot of my early works just have nice pictures in those boxes. They don't even look good nowadays, especially 'Hasrabit', some of which are absolutely ghastly. My old campaigns badly need an update.

Thanks. Yep, depends upon which player types one wants addressing I think. With BFC format it´s very hard to make all happy. I rather tend to make two scenario/campaign versions, each addressing the grog and one more the beginner or interested. It´s not considerably more workload for the maker IMO. Otherwise I´d rather provide some internet links to historical stuff or add additional reads like i.e @GeorgeM with the zipped mission package. Did I mention that BFC briefing format s*cks? lol But to be fair, I currently don´t know any wargame that provides more flexible and creative means to design briefings, so...

Heavily desaturated or grayscale maps... I find too much color is straining for the player/reader as well, similar to text info overload, all worsening the situation IMO. But I own, read and evaluate dozens my original WW2 period german (and US, UK, few Sov) manuals and regulations. Map/sketch formats, intel providing and gathering, orders schemes and other stuff have big parts in those. So I have a strong bias towards those methods that stress simplicity, clearness and leading to results in quickest and most efficient ways. It also adds a nice "historical touch", depending for which player side one got to make a briefing.

 

[RockinHarry]

4 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

Too many times I found all the tentative contacts misleading or it was so obvious as being irrelevant. Before your attack, I think there has been a patrolling program for some time. I would include some standing patrols in a scenario. Or include some POWS taken during a raid the previous day. Unlock intel by a touch objective with a spy located. Campaigns lend themselves better, I think.

 

Misleds are part of the game. Call it disinformation or Maskirovka. But you can do it in more creative ways actually. While BFC does not allow to "reveal" particular enemy units dispositions, there´s some workaround to get it into a mission nonetheless. However.... who says that an enemy unit (most the time beeing unspotted at mission start) is and will remain at "known" position? You can make the AIP move them off via scripting, set up traps or simply...misled.

Yep, standing patrols is something doable in the game. I´m sure the wishlist threads are full with good ideas, but it likely remains like that. Many good ideas that never get picked up by BFC. So us players and wannabe mission makers need to be creative. However, while doing ingame recon can be and oftenly is fun, parts of that can eat lots of mission time, both for battle planning and its execution. If it´s missions with limited execution times (game turn amount) then it can lead to hasty playstyle and applying not well thought out tactics and battleplans. Of course this can be made a particular mission type, but IMO needs beeing combined with other mission design measures for credibility. Just making a mission with limited game turn amount and declare it "difficulty level" is bits of...well, not my desired playstyle at least. But that´s all matter of tastes of course.

2 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

@RockinHarry did you download the paper textures or did you make them in your program?

all made in GIMP. Basically captured the original ingame maps overhead looks with FRAPS, then apply some filters for certain effects. Above map/briefing style is just an example from couple years ago. Worked that out with @GeorgeM during CM1 (BB, BO and AK) high times. Today I simplify even more (sketch type) and outsource unnecessary info to a PDF or Word file. But depends on mission type and other things.

[chuckdyke]

30 minutes ago, RockinHarry said:

Above map/briefing style is just an example from couple years ago.

Ok something I can do we have a library of paper textures. I think it is part of the packaging of your creation. Not strictly necessary but it attracts people. Thanks for your attention.

[Paper Tiger]

Yikes. I guess that's the masterclass of briefing artwork. I get a stress headache considering the work that must have been involved in doing that for a campaign with many missions. I think I'll stick with what I'm doing.

This was just a trial to see how to upload photos to this forum from a new hosting site since I'm not using Photobucket any more. But it's been very useful to see what other do for their briefing artwork.