Update on creating a better map

Not much got done this week it seems like. I spent most of it plotting everything on a map to get a good idea of where the rail company stops. I assumed since I was a data scientist it would be easy to put into a table and bada-bing-bada-boom. NOPE!

Not all the stops data sets I found were easy to use. So, I had to do them manually. ALL 450+ stops. Yeah it was a lot.

It totals over 40 rail companies between 1850 to 1860. I found 39 different rail lines to plot. Yeah who would have thought there were that freakin many railroads during that period. NOT THIS GUY!

But I got them. 

What I learned was Chicago had almost every freaking rail company coming in and out from the books I looked at. In the map there are 10 rail companies connected to Chicago. Which will go perfect for my lore idea of having Chicago be home to “steam” money.

I am still lacking some cities in the south of Oregon stretching to the south of Wyoming. And surprisingly gaps in West Virginia, and the southern coast of South Carolina to Florida along the coast.

But I am hoping that when I add the ideas for side missions and theme missions it will fill the gaps.

For instance the idea I have for a Kentucky goblins and Mothman mission, I am hoping this fills out the gaps and gives us a better flow.

Things I still need to address:

• How to connect the lines that just end, mostly in the west.
• How am I going to handle all of these cities, as I don’t have the mental capacity to make missions for them all.
• Fix the lore for the rail companies going from the current two (Union Pacific and Central Pacific) into more.

Connecting loose ends

I am thinking once I add the mission cities I want to cover I can fill them out and make them then connect from there, or do more research on if there are any connecting routes. But I am not sure I want to do that.

Handling all the cities

My thought process is to have these either be something like a bonus gift for the band of survivors or just delete them. But I am going to have to wait until I map out the events I want to cover.

Fixing my lore idea

This is a tough thought here. On one hand it would work by saying the two rails bought out or took the rail companies somehow. But the problem with this is that it splits the country into 2 sections, which is not what the lore I was building about how the USA wanted to connect everything. It essentially does the opposite. The other thought is that we have all the companies and each one charges different rates. I am thinking I might go for the second option but want to think about it more.

I also want to address the gauge difference and The Great Gauge Change of 1886 event. I think that would help explaining how they all connect and bring some actual history back to the lore.

Actual game ideas

I would like to keep my campaign spots under 45 minutes of play time. I love playing the game with my kids and friends, but they are done in about an hour. So I think to keep it moving and exciting, make the game missions under 45 minutes, with a goal of just 30 minutes.

This is making me think that it will be 2x2 or 3x2 at most for the maps. But there is a while before I get there.

I did however come up with an idea of what mission you do when you roll into town. My thought was to have you roll 3 D6 and add the totals. And based on the totals get to have a certain mission.

Each stop will have 6 different types of missions.

• You pick (if you get three ones)
• 2- Environmental factor mission type
• 3- Internal factors mission type
• 4- Human factor mission type
• 5- Boundary Failures factor mission type
• All 6’s (666) is the holy moly mission

When I was running statistics of dice rolls, I was able to make the odds on the 4 types equally likely. Which I was very glad my R coding language had some use. So the idea is you have an equal chance of getting an environmental mission (which are two different ones per stop) as you will have a boundary failure type (which will have 5 different ones). I was able to get the rolls to give the odds of roughly 25% per type.

Other things I was able to add

I found a map of the territories and boundaries of the periods and was able to add it to the map. This way we can see the areas by the state or territory. I know this was requested on some feedback I got from the Zombicide discord.

The second thing I got done was draw some ranges of where the abominations will be located. I just need to clean it up a bit so it looks cleaner. And also allow me to add more homebrew abominations in future missions.

Goals for next week

Since it took forever to plot the stops I think it will take a long time to add all the mission ideas I have. There are over 100.

Here are some ideas I have:

• Lizzie Borden Mission
• A mission at the Winchester house
• Skywalker ranch
• Slender man
• Black eyed children
• Kentucky meat shower
• The Great Chicago Fire (which would be cool to have and build on the lore as you go)!
• The Jersey Devil
• The OK Corral
• The Alamo
• Siren Head

These are just some of the ideas I have. I am going to add these. I think it would be really cool to have these, but it is going to be hard to create a mission that uses the content of Zombicide: Undead or Alive and also fits the event or situation I want to add. This means I might have to make homebrew for them. But hey, the more the merrier.

Until next time everyone
2 Pan Smash

This one I painted a few days ago and finally got time to record it. So far it doesn't say High-noon sun-bleach yet. But the color muted tones I think I nailed.

In my head I am thinking there should be more red undertones to make it look warmer, not so muddy.

I think next test sets I am.going to use a red.primer to a pink or yellow zenithal. Also I have seen a few videos of people using gouache and they looked so cool with the dead matt look. If I can find some gouache paint I might give it a try.

I guess to me this is not interesting enough yet.

This is attempt #5 at the High-noon Sun bleach paint style for my zombicide Undead orAlive characters.

I used an neon orange wash on the skin and then use the darker skin tone wash on the skin as well to give it darker contrasting I think it's a little bit too dark but getting somewhere with progress. the skin tone is not what I thought it was going to be so I got to figure out a way to make it look more radiant orange.

Here is an update to where I am at on creating a supplement campaign system for Zombicide UoA.

My vision is to have at tons of locations and side missions similar to a video game. And also make it non linear so you can choose where you want to go.

I started with all the ideas and ran an script to help me find the best cities to act as what I call terminal cities. These 15 are going to be how you get from one major are to the next. Also they will be the brach off to smaller towns and side quest.

I am trying my best to base this in American history but with some creative liberty.

Here are the what I can terminal cities:

New York

Chicago

Pittsburgh

Atlanta

New Orleans

Kansas City

St Paul

Billings

Omaha

Seattle

San Francisco

Denver

Salt lake city

El Paso

Richmond

Also I have come up with my take on the zombicide lore for UoA. I did take all the lore from the content published by the game that I could find. I might be missing some.

I am still working on the document so let me know if you would like to review, as I would love some input and suggestions. I want to make something that everyone would enjoy using. Just DM and I will send you the link to the Google doc I am using. And if you have suggestions please make a comment on the document.

Please be aware I was trying to be historical and there may be some things in there that offend people, and please note it was not my intention, I am trying to be historical.

I will try to update every Wednesday to hold myself accountable to get this project done and shared with the community.

I can't wait until I get this set up and going with phase 1!!

Edit: here is the Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRzymN2Os9YVkOAyku2IqLq8i524z9ro3m-G4Sv0eos/edit?usp=drivesdk

Okay I think I am finding my color Platte as I am LOVING the one pop of either red, orange, or yellow. the skin I used a red glaze to tone it a bit more.

But as I am looking at the other three I did, I am liking the really bleach skin, like it has ve dried out look.

I am going to try and make more brown for shadows and see it that gives a much stronger contrast to the sun-bleach color platte.

Okay think I am getting some where on the style. I like the sun-bleach look of the colors and the one accent of a deep red.

I use the light tone from army painter in the shadow areas this time and it gave it more of a dirty look.

I think I left my dry brush too wet to get the chaulk look.

The skin tone was used a yellow glaze three layers then two layers of a pale skin tone. This is a maybe. Not sure yet.

All and all not bad. Need to work on skin tones and wash control better.

What do you think? I am open for suggestions.

I am a big fan of Undead or Alive themed Zombicide. But one thing I think it lacks is a better campaign mode.

So last year I told myself I was going make one. And then life happen. But now I am back it slowly.

The image above is the start of the main locations. I have also a list of smaller cities, and then smaller side quest if you will.

My idea was to have it be nonlinear and more of a choose you own adventure. And the ultimate goal sort of say is to bounty hunter all the Abominations. But you can only find them in certain locations.

I have tons and tons of notes, but don't think I actually did something until now.

I am making a Google my maps to build it for now so I can set the locations and the rail lines (the black lines). To get to another city you are going to have to pay with AP points.

And the cities I choose where based on history, mainly 1860 to 1890, of USA events.

I still need to assign the:

abominations,

survivors,

main missions,

the story lines,

the backstory lore,

And character back stories.

And tons of minis that need painted.

I hope you all don't mind me sharing as I was very excited to see some progress!

Once I finish these main huns I will share with everyone.

​

This time a lot more orange hues, but now loving it. Looks burnt but a mustard burnt.

I tried the yellow skin tone and a light tone wash

Dark than the other one for sure.

I am attempting to create a style that resembles a high-noon sun bleach look for my UoD zombies.

I feel I got the chalky dusty look down but not so much the warm tone I was going for. Maybe more orange tone on skin to give it that orange tone, and maybe sepia wash and not the light tone wash.

Does anyone know how to get an orange tint to skin colors? I would love a good way of achieving that tinted skin look.