This is a phenomenal map on what I believe is a French D&D fan site. This is very much the kind of thing I think needs to be done with the maps on D&D Beyond as well. And, honestly, if a fan site can do it...
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
I kinda hate that "if a fan site can do it" line of reasoning. On the one hand, yes, it proves that a thing can indeed be done, but it doesn't address whether or not that thing can be done by any of the current employees of a company and/or what else would have to go un-done to provide time for some one to do it, and incorporating that coding with all the rest of the coding currently in place, and so on.
And to put it in a solid analogy; I can build a table in a weekend to whatever specifications I want, including having it fully varnished and dried. Expecting that kind of turn around from a larger carpentry firm is ridiculous though, no matter how many carpenters they have working for them, because they've got an entirely different set up and other things they need to be doing.
But yeah... that interactive map is kinda cool. Almost as cool as the one that was part of the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas that TSR put out back in the day.
I've implemented a number of interactive maps like this on various wikis (including gamepedia ones) and the code isn't tough, but there are some potential issues.
You're reliant on a 3rd party set of libraries and that 3rd party make it very clear that they are not liable for any issues you encounter using them, or due to them making changes.
This isn't a big issue for a fan site. If the site is down for a few days because the owners of the 3rd party code made some library changes, then it's inconvenient for people, but it's a fan site, so doesn't matter.
If you're a professional company, offering the interactive map as part of your services, you have a much bigger problem:
The service being down for a few days is WAY less acceptable.
You'll have to pull developers off their scheduled work to fix it, which causes problems elsewhere.
This often means that you need to either license a specific version of the code off the 3rd party and enter into a commercial agreement with them, or you need to write your own set of library code for implementing an interactive map.
That said, it would be cool to see more on the map side of things on D&D Beyond in the future - there are just waaaaay more useful tools to develop first!
I use that map all the time. Dreaming a bit here...how cool if you could place things in it (clickable links to Owlbear), have it generate random building schemes if players, for example, duck in somewhere to hide from the watch...
I layered most of the various module maps onto the large sword coast map since the vast majority are all from the same guy. It allows me to fade individual layers to see overlapping content and landmarks/roads/buildings that might be on one map but not on another - including the underdark. Really helps with the big picture and understanding the world even if not linking content in-game. Forgotten Realms of course.
it’d be great if they could do something like that and have each interactive element link to the various adventures (or at least mouseover highlights of the areas covered by individual mods). Imo it’s probably better and more informative than the current system of just providing a long list on a drop down.
This is a phenomenal map on what I believe is a French D&D fan site. This is very much the kind of thing I think needs to be done with the maps on D&D Beyond as well. And, honestly, if a fan site can do it...
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
I kinda hate that "if a fan site can do it" line of reasoning. On the one hand, yes, it proves that a thing can indeed be done, but it doesn't address whether or not that thing can be done by any of the current employees of a company and/or what else would have to go un-done to provide time for some one to do it, and incorporating that coding with all the rest of the coding currently in place, and so on.
And to put it in a solid analogy; I can build a table in a weekend to whatever specifications I want, including having it fully varnished and dried. Expecting that kind of turn around from a larger carpentry firm is ridiculous though, no matter how many carpenters they have working for them, because they've got an entirely different set up and other things they need to be doing.
But yeah... that interactive map is kinda cool. Almost as cool as the one that was part of the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas that TSR put out back in the day.
Thanks for sharing, this is a phenomenal resource to add depth to the city!
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D&D Beyond FoundersI've implemented a number of interactive maps like this on various wikis (including gamepedia ones) and the code isn't tough, but there are some potential issues.
You're reliant on a 3rd party set of libraries and that 3rd party make it very clear that they are not liable for any issues you encounter using them, or due to them making changes.
This isn't a big issue for a fan site. If the site is down for a few days because the owners of the 3rd party code made some library changes, then it's inconvenient for people, but it's a fan site, so doesn't matter.
If you're a professional company, offering the interactive map as part of your services, you have a much bigger problem:
This often means that you need to either license a specific version of the code off the 3rd party and enter into a commercial agreement with them, or you need to write your own set of library code for implementing an interactive map.
That said, it would be cool to see more on the map side of things on D&D Beyond in the future - there are just waaaaay more useful tools to develop first!
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I use that map all the time. Dreaming a bit here...how cool if you could place things in it (clickable links to Owlbear), have it generate random building schemes if players, for example, duck in somewhere to hide from the watch...
I layered most of the various module maps onto the large sword coast map since the vast majority are all from the same guy. It allows me to fade individual layers to see overlapping content and landmarks/roads/buildings that might be on one map but not on another - including the underdark. Really helps with the big picture and understanding the world even if not linking content in-game. Forgotten Realms of course.
it’d be great if they could do something like that and have each interactive element link to the various adventures (or at least mouseover highlights of the areas covered by individual mods). Imo it’s probably better and more informative than the current system of just providing a long list on a drop down.
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