Nugget #8 - Organize Your Castle

[ShibuyaCloth]

Many take time to design a nice looking dominion. It is not always easy to do it properly. You suddenly figure out that you have too few or too much space left for what you wanted. To ease a little the burden, here a little tool that can help you! Sketch your future Queen- or King-dom.



It is a not a complex & fancy tool, but it helps place what you want before overhauling the map.
 
Example
In the designer tool my old kingdom would look like this:


 
Which translates into (nearly)...



Usage
The tool is made in MS Office Excel 2010 format, thus usable on any MS Office version 2010, 2013, 365, or above. Save the file locally on your hard drive where you can find it. Open it with Excel (or any equivalent spreadsheet application). Once in Excel, you need to "Enable Editing" before starting your layout, button in the yellow warning box on upper part of the screen.

Once in the Tool, the only worksheet of interest is the "Layout" tab. The map is divided into plots the same as the Caste Story Map. Each plot is a 4x4 cells area that you can populate with your objects. In each cell, you can only put items from the pop-up list. A detailed legend is available on the right of the layout map. The "Scope" column indicates the objects related to a given type. Those pop-up lists have no effects; they are just for information.


Downloads

• Nuggets (PDF)
• Designer Tool (Excel)
• Layout Map (Image)
• Castle Story Map (Image)

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[queentina3]

That is really neat! I think I'm going to use that as I'll be doing another redesign soon!

[ndtrance]

This is amazing, thank you for sharing it with us! I have a tiny kingdom but like a lot of people I want to redesign when this event is over.

[reliquary]

This is RAD!

I'm just bummed that the diagonal angle of the squares does not allow you to make a decent circle with trees.
My star is forever wonky because of this. And it won't allow a 5 pointed star.....
I do a lot of planning and finding angles before moving ALL the trees...this is perfect. thanks
& I cannot wait to redecorate after the event!

[ShibuyaCloth]

This is RAD!

I'm just bummed that the diagonal angle of the squares does not allow you to make a decent circle with trees.
My star is forever wonky because of this. And it won't allow a 5 pointed star.....
I do a lot of planning and finding angles before moving ALL the trees...this is perfect. thanks
& I cannot wait to redecorate after the event!

Well there is a small trick to have round trees, I can used predefined round icons but limited to 3 colors. Maybe in my next version. Ans yes this is RAD and not intended to be detailed. The goal is to be able to see the overall footprint of objects.

[aldalin]

I had to log in just to thank you for this, and express my amazement at the amount of work that must have gone in to making it. This is so awesome. Thank you!

[ShibuyaCloth]

Happy to see that it has any use. Have fun designing!

[reliquary]

Well there is a small trick to have round trees, I can used predefined round icons but limited to 3 colors. Maybe in my next version. Ans yes this is RAD and not intended to be detailed. The goal is to be able to see the overall footprint of objects.

Na, your graph in squares is Awesome!
It's the actual game board tilted at the perspective angle that makes it wonky...if that makes sense...lol

I have a negative space(open meadow) that I like to experiment w/ different geometry....and every.single.outer.space filled in with trees.
The open meadow was in a heart shape w/ the point in the SE and it looked pretty good...but I had to go and change it...lol!
I'm gonna use your graph to see what else is possible

[meme1098]

Na, your graph in squares is Awesome!
It's the actual game board tilted at the perspective angle that makes it wonky...if that makes sense...lol

I have a negative space(open meadow) that I like to experiment w/ different geometry....and every.single.outer.space filled in with trees.
The open meadow was in a heart shape w/ the point in the SE and it looked pretty good...but I had to go and change it...lol!
I'm gonna use your graph to see what else is possible

I like the design you have now. The star with the glittering glimmerdust troves makes it look as if the star is twinkling.

[reliquary]

I like the design you have now. The star with the glittering glimmerdust troves makes it look as if the star is twinkling.

Aww thanks!
When I do start a rearrange....it is a royal Pain to move all those trees...lol!
This chart will make it soooo much easier