I figured out why the Death Star playmat doesn't quite look right (don't worry FFG, I'm still getting one).

Things in Star Wars generally happen on a plane. If the trench is the Death Star's equator then everyone approaches on a east-west plane, but as it's depicted on the mat ships will be on a north-south plane. I think that's what make sit look a little off to me.

Get the starfield one if it bothers you.

Come on... it isn't that simple

Give us CDO (that's OCD in its correct alphabetical order) people something to fret over.

Erm.. If the trench runs along the equator... meaning east west or west east... and it actually runs on the mat North south or south north.

Wouldn't it be simple to just turn mat 90 degrees?

(yes I took troll bait but since i did)

So I'm leavin On a jet plane.. dunno when I'll be back again!

Also the Death star was a sphere, and the matt is clearly flat.

Also the Death star was a sphere, and the matt is clearly flat.

Why are you flattening people called Matt?

On topic, I only think it looks off because it makes the Death Star seem a bit smaller, with Yavin on there too, the fighters would be seeing it much larger in relation to themselves. Granted, it's not exactly to scale, but that might be a reason someone sees it as off. The design however is constantly growing on me, and if I didn't have a rather pretty mat to play on right now I might have bought one already.

I think it's just too...busy? Maybe not the best word choice. It's just so big and distracting I guess. I like my bland starfield because then we focus on the ships.

Erm.. If the trench runs along the equator... meaning east west or west east... and it actually runs on the mat North south or south north.

Wouldn't it be simple to just turn mat 90 degrees?

(yes I took troll bait but since i did)

So I'm leavin On a jet plane.. dunno when I'll be back again!

Are you calling me a troll? Is that something you do to anybody who makes a point you don't feel is valid, or is it personal?

Get the starfield one if it bothers you.

I'm getting both, I did say "don't worry FFG, I'm still getting one"

So you all genuinely don't see what I mean? Turning the mat 90° won't make any difference, they'll still be the wrong plane. Since the mat's 2D you can't rotate it on the required axis. The only solution you could physically implement would be to lay your models on their sides. It's hard to explain (maybe I'll mock up a drawing later), but in the films the ships all approach so their horizontal axis is parallel with the trench's, which is never the case with this. Do you see?

I'm not having a go at or insulting anybody, it sure would be nice if people didn't get all defensive and insulting about it (I know, it's t'intermawebs so that's wishful thinking). I'm merely pointing out where the weird nagging feeling of wrongness that I and others experienced was, in my view, coming from.

For me, the issue wih the mat is a personal one, it's not a major problem per se, but Iies with the printing. I think it is adequate, but could be improved by a modest amount. The contrast is lower than I'd like likely due to the black point not being as dark as I'd like. Also the resolution is a bit low, Could be the neoprene, or that they used a slightly soft frame of the Death Star. I was a bit surprised by the lack of detail In the Death Star itself.

Full disclosure, I'm an avid photographer and printer - what many people find to be a subtle difference in printing I often see as moderate to major. Not that I could do better, as I'm not familiar with that printing material, don't have access to a printer that can print that wide nor do I have the source image....

The effect that you desire is literally impossible without a 3d model of the Death Star floating in the air next to your playmat. If they rotated the Death Star in the picture to show us either the top or bottom of the Death Star, not only would it look ridiculous and not even look like the iconic satellite anymore, now your ships would either be flying over or under the Death Star, which never happened in the movie either!

Here's what you can do to achieve the effect you desire. Play your game on the blank star field mat, and hang the Death Star mat up on the wall next to you, ta-da! Now you're ships are on the same plane that bisects the Death Star.

I can't believe I typed all that out.

Step 1. Paint your room black
Step 2. Paint small stars and galaxies on your new black walls

Step 3. Buy the starfield map

Step 4. Put this on your wall.

Step 5. Play x-wing.

Full disclosure, I'm an avid photographer and printer - what many people find to be a subtle difference in printing I often see as moderate to major. Not that I could do better, as I'm not familiar with that printing material, don't have access to a printer that can print that wide nor do I have the source image....

I know what you mean. As an English teacher, grammatical errors really stand out. The incorrect use of you're/your and there/they're/their make me want to rage. On the bright side .. I love a good pun.

Y'know what's wrong with the Death Star playmat?

It's got a Death Star on it.

"Close" background objects are far more intrusive to scale-immersion than, say, stars or far-off planets. Horizon lines are also intrusive. Planetary or gas-giant surfaces are fine.

Erm.. If the trench runs along the equator... meaning east west or west east... and it actually runs on the mat North south or south north.

Wouldn't it be simple to just turn mat 90 degrees?

(yes I took troll bait but since i did)

So I'm leavin On a jet plane.. dunno when I'll be back again!

Are you calling me a troll? Is that something you do to anybody who makes a point you don't feel is valid, or is it personal?

mazz0, I did not mean for you take that you were being a troll. And my entire comment was based on what I thought was the map from FFG. An image much like this map commonly seen.

And they had some how imputed a trench into it. So in my head I was seeing the trench running north and south (top to bottom), rather than east to west (Left or right)

At your comment on calling you a troll here, I went and I looked.

I own myself an ass for not realizing that this was FFG's playmat

In this case Yes turning the mat won't help! However again the way I took the original post it sounded like you were planning a classic trench run, based on the comparison to the trench being the equator

So you all genuinely don't see what I mean? Turning the mat 90° won't make any difference, they'll still be the wrong plane. Since the mat's 2D you can't rotate it on the required axis. The only solution you could physically implement would be to lay your models on their sides. It's hard to explain (maybe I'll mock up a drawing later), but in the films the ships all approach so their horizontal axis is parallel with the trench's, which is never the case with this. Do you see?

I'm not having a go at or insulting anybody, it sure would be nice if people didn't get all defensive and insulting about it (I know, it's t'intermawebs so that's wishful thinking). I'm merely pointing out where the weird nagging feeling of wrongness that I and others experienced was, in my view, coming from.

However

Something that got learned from the research, The meridian trench (Trench's official name) was near the polar north of the death star.

more info here

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Meridian_trench

That all said.

Again I'm sorry if you took insult to my post.

Erm.. If the trench runs along the equator... meaning east west or west east... and it actually runs on the mat North south or south north.

Wouldn't it be simple to just turn mat 90 degrees?

(yes I took troll bait but since i did)

So I'm leavin On a jet plane.. dunno when I'll be back again!

Are you calling me a troll? Is that something you do to anybody who makes a point you don't feel is valid, or is it personal?

mazz0, I did not mean for you take that you were being a troll. And my entire comment was based on what I thought was the map from FFG. An image much like this map commonly seen.

And they had some how imputed a trench into it. So in my head I was seeing the trench running north and south (top to bottom), rather than east to west (Left or right)

At your comment on calling you a troll here, I went and I looked.

I own myself an ass for not realizing that this was FFG's playmat

In this case Yes turning the mat won't help! However again the way I took the original post it sounded like you were planning a classic trench run, based on the comparison to the trench being the equator

So you all genuinely don't see what I mean? Turning the mat 90° won't make any difference, they'll still be the wrong plane. Since the mat's 2D you can't rotate it on the required axis. The only solution you could physically implement would be to lay your models on their sides. It's hard to explain (maybe I'll mock up a drawing later), but in the films the ships all approach so their horizontal axis is parallel with the trench's, which is never the case with this. Do you see?

I'm not having a go at or insulting anybody, it sure would be nice if people didn't get all defensive and insulting about it (I know, it's t'intermawebs so that's wishful thinking). I'm merely pointing out where the weird nagging feeling of wrongness that I and others experienced was, in my view, coming from.

However

Something that got learned from the research, The meridian trench (Trench's official name) was near the polar north of the death star.

more info here

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Meridian_trench

That all said.

Again I'm sorry if you took insult to my post.

No probs, you know what tone's like on the internet!

I've actually had a game on that first mat, the unofficial one, it's a nightmare! It does your head in trying to plot your moves on it, especially seeing the edges of asteroids. You know how early 20th century ships had that crazy black and white angular camouflage to make it hard to judge their position, velocity, etc? It's like that.

the death star isn't blown up???

the death star isn't blown up???

That made me think of a play mat with the image of the Death Star mid explosion printed on it. It would be the worst play mat for an Imperial player to use; as soon as they start putting their minis down the Rebel player would say "What are you doing? I've already one. See, the Death Star is already exploding".

the death star isn't blown up???

That's horribly insensitive, man.

A lot of stormtrooper friends of mine died on the Death Star.

the death star isn't blown up???

That made me think of a play mat with the image of the Death Star mid explosion printed on it. It would be the worst play mat for an Imperial player to use; as soon as they start putting their minis down the Rebel player would say "What are you doing? I've already one. See, the Death Star is already exploding".

"That's fine, we'll just build a bigger one. And THIS time..."

the death star isn't blown up???

That made me think of a play mat with the image of the Death Star mid explosion printed on it. It would be the worst play mat for an Imperial player to use; as soon as they start putting their minis down the Rebel player would say "What are you doing? I've already one. See, the Death Star is already exploding".

"That's fine, we'll just build a bigger one. And THIS time..."

we will leave an even bigger hole in it so that even the millenium falcon can fly through it and help take it out!! lol

the death star isn't blown up???

That made me think of a play mat with the image of the Death Star mid explosion printed on it. It would be the worst play mat for an Imperial player to use; as soon as they start putting their minis down the Rebel player would say "What are you doing? I've already one. See, the Death Star is already exploding".

"That's fine, we'll just build a bigger one. And THIS time..."

we will leave an even bigger hole in it so that even the millenium falcon can fly through it and help take it out!! lol

OK, but NEXT time...