battle map
Latest
App Review: Battle Map lets you create huge worlds in small doses
The essence of a role playing game is, well, ... playing a role. Theoretically, you can play a tabletop RPG with not much more than your thoughts, a rule book or two, and some dice. In practice, though, an entire industry is engaged in releasing products to make imagining and inhabiting fantastical worlds a multimedia experience. Maps, adventures, miniatures, special dice, decks of item cards, and so much more are readily available. The latest entry is a full-featured iPad and iPhone app called Battle Map [US$29.99], which is now available on your iPad or iPhone as a Universal app. At 30 bucks, Battle Map is not cheap compared to most App Store offerings, but look at it against the similar Mac (or PC) program Dundjinni, which costs $39.99, or the PC-only map program called ProFantasy, which tops out at $605 for the whole shebang. Of course, these programs can do a lot more than Battle Map can, but they've also been around for many years. Perhaps in 2015, Battle Map will be as full-featured. In any case, other reviewers have called Battle Map "geek heaven" and a "must have," so read on to see if these words of praise apply to you. %Gallery-104489%
Amazing updates to the UI in 2.3
Tons of amazing gems found in the patch 2.3 notes (Art from our /silly comic called this "the patch that keeps on giving). Here's just a few of the UI-slimming things Blizzard is implementing in the next patch: Auction House categories have been cleaned up-- no more "Plate > Cloak" categories. "Battle Map" is now available for all zones, not just PvP battlegrounds. Does that mean you can pull up the map and see where all players are at all times? Sounds like it to me. Game objects that you can interact with now have a glow around them and their name over them. Wow! No more searching for twenty minutes just to find that little switch you have to click on. We'll be able to send 12 items in a single mail message! Bye bye, CTMailMod. Monsters that need to be looted by people in your party will now have the name of the would-be looter visible in the tooltip. Bye bye, "LOOT YOUR CORE HOUNDS!" Actually, that one I might miss. And we've heard that there are big enhancements to the minimap-- bankers, auction house tellers, repair people, and quest givers can now be optionally tracked on the minimap. Additionally, fishing anglers will be able to track fishing holes-- but only after obtaining a crate that contains a book from fishing. Wild. The whole thing about interactive items glowing? It's like we're getting "WoW for preschoolers." Don't get me wrong, it'll be a huge help to everyone doing quests, I'm sure, but at what point are we getting a big arrow you can see from halfway across the zone that says "Kill This Mob to Finish Your Quest"?Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
