How to save or move pins if I change the map image

[Szabtom]

Hi,

Here is a scenario that may happen frequently in a future campaign that I am planning.
I will have a small piece of the world mapped at the start, and will add to it as the players explore and travel through it. I will create the map outside FG, import as image, add pins linked to campaign info, etc. Normal stuff.
But as the world grows around the players, I will need to constantly replace the map image with a new one.
Note: I do not want to create a gigantic map and use fog of war, or cut out pieces of it, and reveal it that way. My goal is to reduce prep work (hate top-down world building, cannot muster the will to even start) and to create the world as the game goes on.

Hence the question:
How can I save my pins and have them on the new image exactly as they were on the old image, and avoid having to place every single pin manually again, one by one?

[damned]

No not really - or at least not easily.

[LordEntrails]

Pins are placed in pixel coordinates. I think measured from the top left corner of the image. So if you use a new image file that has more pixels in it, and they grow in the up or left direction, your pins will move relative to where you want them.

You could measure your image pixel growth and go into the db.xml file and mathematically apply an offset to all your pin coordinates, but you would pretty much need to know you are risking making things worse. So, back up and all that.

Now, if you were using FGU and creating the map inside FGU, then you can continuously grow the image canvas size and I think the pins won't move. But haven't tried that and would mean you would have to create the map in FGU from assets.

[Szabtom]

Thanks for the replies.
@LordEntrails
When you say "create the map inside FGU", do you mean using tiles? Is hex shape supported for tiles?

[ironsplitter]

Be careful doing this. If you have the map shared with players and you change the underlying image bad things happen. Even if you do this outside of the gametime when players are not connected, it will cause issues, at least from my experience.

[Griogre]

Have you considered not changing the starting map's size, just adding another maps for each of the adjacent area(s)? That would allow you to grow your explored/known area without having to continually resize any maps.

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for the replies.
@LordEntrails
When you say "create the map inside FGU", do you mean using tiles? Is hex shape supported for tiles?
Tiles or Brushes. See the 2 wiki articles.
- https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/918264/Creating+Maps+with+Tiles
- https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGU/pages/1474568/Creating+Maps+with+the+Brush+Tool

[Szabtom]

Thanks, everyone. I will think some more about this.

[Trenloe]

You are probably better with a number of smaller regional maps. Especially if you’re running FGC, where the maximum recommended image size is 2048x2048 pixels.

[Szabtom]

The pixel count would not be an issue, I think. But looking at the map piece by piece and not having a full map would be a pain that way.
But I understand I am stretching the design limitations of FG - in fact, I have not been able to find any tool that perfectly fits, yet.

[Griogre]

Even if you don't like top down building you can have a world map builder build one for you and you just slice out the part(s) you think look interesting. Donjon has a pretty nice one:

https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/

[Szabtom]

Thanks, Griogre, but the point of the style of game I would like to run is to not have any pre-made map pieces, except for the starting area (which I don't mind creating). The challenge is updating the map image in FG without losing all the pins on the map.

[Rades]

Maybe you could do both? You could have a large, zoomed-out "world map" with a handful of pins that link to smaller, more detailed, zoomed-in map chunks (continents, countries, regions, etc) with all of your city/location-based pins. You could replace/update the world map as needed, and just have to replace a few pins, but the more detailed map chunks would be unaffected.

IE, if your campaign started in California, you would just have a California map with pins to various cities. (No need yet for a world map.) But once the players found the next major area, Arizona, now you could make a world map showing California and Arizona, each with a single pin link that takes you to the more detailed California/Arizona map for those areas. And as they explore Arizona, you add city links on the Arizona map.

[LordEntrails]

I think the OP's point is that he doesn't want to create a large world/regional map. He only wants to create the bare minimum he needs at the moment. i.e. create the starting location, then grow it as needed. It's not defined, and won't be until it's needed.

[Szabtom]

Thanks, Rades. As LordEntrails clarified, the "way of working" will be different.
I am now looking at Kanka.io to manage the campaign data.

[Griogre]

I don't know if you are familiar with OneNote but that's what I use myself - it is generic, but free and I use it for other things so I was already familiar with it.

Here's a part 1 of a 4 part series on YouTube if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqhePj9ratI

[Szabtom]

Thanks, Griogre. My game will heavily focus on the map, so I am l looking for a tool to manage pins, markers, linked entries on a constantly updated map image. FG is good except the last requirement about changing the image.