As the creator of a D&D 5e rules hack for playing games in the world of Fallout, I was excited to find these post-apocalyptic and science-fiction map elements.
Having now purchased all 4 parts of the Apocalypse Metropolis collection, plus the Space Metropolis pack, I can say that they are good for the price (but don't click Add to Cart just yet, read my warning about the license terms below first).
THE GOOD
You get a large number of high quality graphic elements with which to put together your post apocalyptic maps. With a little imagination, you can easily put together buildings/scenes beyond those intended. By combining elements from multiple packs, with little to no editing on my part, I've been putting together a pretty convincing multiplex cinema.
$7.99 a pack may seem expensive but considering the large number of decent quality elements included, I think it is a fair price.
THE BAD
1) If you planned to use these packs to create maps for an online game, like I did, hold off on purchase! The license terms are hidden way down at the bottom of the description (I recommend the publisher move them up to near the top) and they expressly prohibit "implementation as assets in interactive digital entertainment". Had I noticed this I may not have purchased these packs since that was my intended use for them. I wanted to run games in roll20, and possibly stream them via twitch. This seems impossible on the terms of the stated license.
It seems to me that the publisher is really shooting themselves in the foot with this license. These sorts of mapmaking elements are primarily used by people running games in virtual tabletops, and the license deprives the publisher of that consumer base.
2) I did have some difficulty with the contents of these packs that I was forced to resolve myself before they became usable. When first downloaded, I was unable to open ANY of the included .png images in Photoshop, paint, or any other image editor. I suspected that the very long file names (which included various descriptive tags in square brackets) might be the problem. It turned out I was right. Once the tags were removed from all the file names I was able to open the image files no problem.
TBH, I would recommend to the creator to remove these tags to begin with. But here is a quick solution for you:
Using bulk rename utility (http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk) I was able to batch replace the tags with only a few steps. If you encounter this problem you can use this or a similar software to do the same.
Once the utility is installed, select all image files you want to rename, then right click and select Bulk Rename Here from the menu to open up the utility.
In the utility's "Remove" section, change the Crop dropdown to Special, and put "[asterisk]" without the quotation markers, where the word "asterisk" represents an actual asterisk symbol (I can't use it here as it is used as formatting for italics). Tick the box that says "Trim", then rename.
You may find some files still have the tags - a few didn't have the closed brackets. Run the utility again, and instead of "[asterisk]" put "[asterisk".
3) The preview image for this pack shows it contains images for "The Fallen City". In actual fact, the folder in the zip file is named "Abandoned Metro" but it seems to include all the graphic elements used to make up the cover for The Fallen City, so it appears to be the same in everything but title.
SCORE
I can't give this product a 5 star review because of the problems I had opening the image files. However, I'm not going to hold the licensing issue against it as that was my mistake (though I do feel the publisher could have laid out the product description to make the license terms more prominent). Thus, I give the product 4 stars on the basis that it is excellent provided you only intend to use it to make maps for your personal, offline games.
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |