The above PR was merged, thanks @nickv2002 for doing that. While playing around with these maps for X-Streamer I found it best to reduce the image size even further, and also make them into transparent png images. The main use case would be for putting on a Stream Overlay. Since OBS Studio already defaults to a black background, by making the black areas transparent, it helps to greatly reduce the overall filesize and makes it take up less memory in whatever program is being used to view or display them. In addition, once the files are reduced down to a 1080p HD size, you can run them through pngquant to reduce them even further. After doing this, I managed to get each map down to between 121k to 300k without loss of quality for the streams. The only thing that would make this even better if there was a way to get rid of the Mission Objectives text. It's hard to read anyways on the screen, and would really help clean up the images further for streaming. Most of the commentators are going to be more interested in the Deployment Zones and the actual map itself. I tried automating the removal of the missions, but they aren't consistent where they are in each of the maps, so I figure this would have to be done in whatever source program you are using to create the initial maps. Everything else can be automated using ImageMagick and PNGQuant.

I've opened a bug with the feature request, but currently have my own massaged versions I'm including in the program.

30% off all orders is the best deal of the year if you want Pixart printing on these maps:

https://www.pixartprinting.com/signage/banners-mesh/pvc-banner/

Sale runs to 11:59 pm CST on Saturday, November 25th.

You can order the full set of all pre-HotE maps for less than $80

We’re slowly working on the many new tiles from HotE but have no timeline. Thanks for the community help on that.

PixArtPrinting Cyber Monday sale with same 30% Discount as Black Friday runs through this evening to 11:59 pm CST on Monday, November 27th.

https://www.pixartprinting.com/signage/banners-mesh/pvc-banner/

BTW, if you haven't yet, I recommend ordering the maps from the Droid Reinforcement wave as it's very likely that some of these maps will rotate into tournament play soon. Here's a map strip with just those 3 maps.

it looks like that map is at least twice as big as it should be. I've shrunk some of you maps down and they still print out way too big from pixart. is there a recommended reduction or size to compensate for this?

am I doing something wrong?

FYI.......email received from Pixart.

Quote

Dear customers,

Over the past two years, you’ve helped us grow from a quiet printing company with zero customers to a dynamic provider of custom-printed products for over 15,000 creative professionals and marketers, and we couldn't be more grateful.

We’re fortunate to have built an engaged, supportive customer base, so we’re turning even more focus onto what matters to you – what will make your lives easier, and help your businesses grow. We are excited to announce that as of January 1st, Pixartprinting will now be Printi!

We’re making significant investments in our product line and ordering capabilities, and we will continue to focus on a best-in-class customer experience and a streamlined ordering process.

The Pixartprinting website will remain active until December 31st, after which you will be re-directed to the all-new Printi.com.

Over the next few weeks, we'll send out a series of emails that will try to answer all of your questions, but if you have any questions now, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,

The Printi Team

On 12/3/2017 at 11:03 AM, buckero0 said:

it looks like that map is at least twice as big as it should be. I've shrunk some of you maps down and they still print out way too big from pixart. is there a recommended reduction or size to compensate for this?

am I doing something wrong?

Make sure to look at the readme files. They'll tell you the printing specs. Grab the image .jpg from Nick's link above. put those specs from the readme into Printi (the artist formerly known as Pixartprinting) and they print out beautifully.

For those 3 maps, readme says: "Print ReinforcementWave4Droids.jpg at 59.92 inches wide by 24.0 inches tall (152.1968 by 60.96 cm)"

To anyone having trouble printing (tagging @buckero0 here) feel free to DM me here or on the BoardWars Discord or open a ticket on GitHub .

If you are having any problems, the following info helps me help you:

1. What image you ordered (a filename or link for specificity)
2. What size you printed at (you can find this in your Printi Order History )
3. Specific info on the problem (an email from Printi or a picture of your maps that didn't turn out as expected)

Thanks!

Thanks to the valuable contributions from @leacher and Paul Windram , I'm pleased to announce that the first skirmish map from Heart of the Empire is complete!

It's Uscru Entertainment District from Ahsoka's pack:

Full size images are available on the GitHub project page . (JSON has been updated too @kingargyle )

Also important today: if you're from the US, there's an important battle for Network Neutrality going on right now. If you care about this project: you should know that GitHub, Discord, and other sites/services used in the creation of these maps rely on Network Neutrality to work as we all expect them to. To learn more and help keep the internet working for us all, please go to BattleForTheNet and contact your representative. Thanks!

On 12/12/2017 at 5:17 PM, nickv2002 said:

Thanks to the valuable contributions from @leacher and Paul Windram , I'm pleased to announce that the first skirmish map from Heart of the Empire is complete!

It's Uscru Entertainment District from Ahsoka's pack:

Full size images are available on the GitHub project page . (JSON has been updated too @kingargyle )

Also important today: if you're from the US, there's an important battle for Network Neutrality going on right now. If you care about this project: you should know that GitHub, Discord, and other sites/services used in the creation of these maps rely on Network Neutrality to work as we all expect them to. To learn more and help keep the internet working for us all, please go to BattleForTheNet and contact your representative. Thanks!

Thanks, Nick. I'm going to be doing a point release of X-Streamer this weekend, so will update the json reference in there as well.

Thank you. Really looking forward to the new 4 player map.

Wow, these seem like they are a great thing to have. I just started playing Imperial Assault; the campaign began with once-a-week missions a few weeks ago and I played my first skirmish match this past Saturday.

I definitely thought while setting up the map tiles 'man, this is a hassle. Too bad the official FFG skirmish maps aren't all of the maps from the core set and expansions.' It took way too long to set up and made me shudder to think how the night would have gone had we wanted to play more than one skirmish map that evening.

I read enough of the Armada and X-Wing subforuns here that I figured I should surely check out the IA subforums. I'm glad I did because I wouldn't have seen this thread and these great maps otherwise. Nice work to everyone involved.

I'd like to order some soon. I'll spend some time reading up on the printing instructions. Here's hoping there'll be some kind of "Welcome to the new site!" sale or something similar when the print site becomes Printi after the New Year.

5 hours ago, EYEL1NER said:

Here's hoping there'll be some kind of "Welcome to the new site!" sale

@EYEL1NER They are in the midst of migrating to a new site, but the old site used to give 10% for registering an account. Hopefully for you that is still the case!

The ' current tournament rotation ' image (a group of the 3 maps in rotation) has been updated with the new Mos Eisley Back Alleys map.

But here's just the new map for your discussion/enjoyment.

Thank you guys for working on this project! So I ordered the maps and they turned out great! They were even delivered 10 days earlier than estimated. Now my question is what is the best way to store & organize these maps? I was just thinking of putting a rubber band with a paper that shows the map name - I'm open to any ideas

I like to keep my maps flat under my bed in a big pile so they aren't curled when I want to play. In-Rotation maps on top, no order other than that.

For transport it's fine to roll them up with a rubber band as you suggest, though if you have space in a car you can keep them flat.

Any curls they develop can be reversed by curling the opposite way when you set up but it's always nice not to have to do that.

Keeping them flat for storage like nickv2002 mentioned is for sure the way to go. I've made the mistake of keeping them rolled, and keeping the sides down was a pain for immediate play.

Of transport, I've kept the tubes they were delivered in. a few were really long so I cut them shorter, but they make for really easy transport.

If you aren't on their email chain, Pixartprinting/Printi provided a How to place an order video via youtube. Keep in mind this is a tutorial to their site, not how place an order specific to this thread.

Thanks again to the valuable contributions from @leacher and Paul Windram , I'm pleased to make another skirmish map from Heart of the Empire available!

It's Coruscant Senate Office from Palpatine's pack:

Full size images are available on the GitHub project page . (JSON has been updated too @kingargyle )

A couple of other housekeeping announcements:

1. I'm starting a new job next week and will probably have much less time to work on IA stuff like this project. I'm not abandoning it or anything but all the B-side tiles from HotE still need image editing to cut them out and fix the puzzle edges. These B-side tiles are used with the remaining two 2-player maps in the HotE wave, while the 4-player map largely uses A-side tiles that have been converted (but also relies on some unfinished tiles from the Core). In any case, please get in touch if you have the time and skills to help with this endeavor.
2. Pixartprinting has transformed into Printi , with a new interface and new prices. The order interface is probably a step up from before but the prices are also higher. Hopefully we'll get a sale soon but if anyone here wants to shop around for other online print shops that could also print stuff economically, please let me know. I'm happy to place a test order (even for an EU shop).

Yeah I was finally gonna pull the trigger but it seems liked prices have really shot up. It quoted me like 20 bucks per map (unless i was screwing something up)

23 hours ago, nickv2002 said:

1. Pixartprinting has transformed into Printi , with a new interface and new prices. The order interface is probably a step up from before but the prices are also higher. Hopefully we'll get a sale soon but if anyone here wants to shop around for other online print shops that could also print stuff economically, please let me know. I'm happy to place a test order (even for an EU shop).

5 minutes ago, brystrom1 said:

Yeah I was finally gonna pull the trigger but it seems liked prices have really shot up. It quoted me like 20 bucks per map (unless i was screwing something up)

Yeah I was playing around with it a bit the other day and noticed that if you only print of 1 map the price is significant, but if you print off 3 map (droid wave specifically) its around $7 a map. The other bummer I noticed is that you can't print anything over 108 inches wide now. I printed off a 202 inch print a month or two before the flip no problem.

All in all its disappointing that the prices went up, but still cheaper than the $25 FFG mats. I'll probably only be printing off tourney maps from here on out, if that. Like @nickv2002 , hopefully someone can find another cheap printing option!

Thanks to corrections and info from @ricope , @Ragemundo , and @wannabepudge I've updated the GitHub project page and maps with the following changes.

1. Fix typo in Paps map thanks to @ricope
2. Create HotE group for printing (just 2 maps so far, but will expand as more are created)
3. Adjust sizes in AllMaps group to be max of 6 maps in a strip and less than 108 inches wide (thanks to @Ragemundo and @wannabepudge for separate bits of info here)

Printi currently is offering 15% Banners (the product for printing these maps) with code BANNERS15

Should bring the per-map prices down to about $6 each if you order a few at a time.

Ordered some of the new maps for my play group. Printi would not allow me to upload the .jpg file. I used an online converter to convert it to a .pdf which they allowed. They turned out great, no quality loss.

Edit: this is what I used. https://smallpdf.com/jpg-to-pdf

Is the all maps group up to date? I am looking through it and I dont see the Mos Eisley Back Alley map anywhere...

2 hours ago, jconway2002 said:

Is the all maps group up to date? I am looking through it and I dont see the Mos Eisley Back Alley map anywhere...

Unfortunately no: the changes from the switch to Printi required a number of changes and I haven't made them all yet. I'll try to get those updated this weekend. Thanks for the reminder.