The (sadly defunct, it seems) game is a randomly generated dungeon built on-the-fly as are the encounters. This means I need to build enough pieces to cover every configuration possible, using every section. I know I'll have more than I need in the game but better too many than not enough. The sections themselves are pretty small. Walls are 2 tiles, 2 levels high. Corners are 3 tiles, 2 levels high. I finally sat down and figured out just how many of each I needed. Turns out I need 157 wall sections and 72 corner sections. And 23 doorways with doors. Doorways are 2 tiles wide and each door needs to be cast twice to make them double sided. So 46 door casts.
The floor tiles are actually twice what I thought I would need because I forgot to add the wall, corner and doorway bases into the mix. So instead of 60 casts of the floor tile mold I need 120. 10 tiles per cast - 1,185 floor tiles in all. That's not including the fancy bits to fill the room tiles. Since I'm making each one different I'm casting them myself but I still need 340 tiles of some sort to make the rooms.
Floor tile total - 1,525.
Walls are 2 rows high. Each wall needs 3 1" blocks and 2 1/2" blocks. 471 1" blocks. 314 1/2" blocks. Luckily there's a piece on a couple of molds that's 2 1" blocks in a single cast but I'll be mixing them. I could have made a custom mold and made each wall a single cast but that would actually have been more casting. I don't mind building.
Let's continue.
Corners are 2 rows high. Each corner needs 3 1" blocks and 4 3/4" blocks. 216 1" blocks. 288 3/4" blocks. The 3/4" blocks will be the ones I need to cast more since there's fewer on the molds.
687 1" blocks. 314 1/2" blocks. 288 3/4" blocks.
Doorways use separate types of blocks and while I have a custom mold to cast the uprights in one piece (each cast of the mold makes the base doorway) it's currently AWOL. Now that I know how many I need I'll take a little more time to look for it. Otherwise it's 6 pieces per upright, 2 pieces per arch. And I haven't decided on the finishing detail for the tops of the doorways so I don't know what I need there.
Casting!
If I use all the molds that just make the basic blocks I get:
- 17 1" blocks per cast. 41 casts
- 3 3/4" blocks per cast. 96 casts
- 9 1/2" blocks per cast. 35 casts
Yes. 96 casts to get the necessary blocks for the corners. Luckily I can cast just those blocks when I move into casting floors and other bits. Just because a block is on the mold doesn't mean I have to cast it. Only counting what I have completed I still have 600 1" blocks (36 casts), 268 3/4" blocks (90 casts), 266 1/2" blocks (30 casts).
Making this kind of game board takes a lot of patience and a LOT of casting. I did a bunch yesterday, probably 12 casts. That doesn't sound like a lot but if I keep up that pace the 1" and 1/2" blocks will be done in 2 more sessions. The 3/4" ones in about 8 more. But I still have a lot of floor tiles to cast and once I get the basics done for this board I can work on pieces for my arena and another project as well. So a little more than a week of casting left to get what I need and I'll be building at the same time.
Again, this is why doing up totals makes me sad. But it gives me a constantly reducing number of blocks to cast and that shows progress.
The pieces themselves aren't very exciting but once I get enough to make a small example I'll post a picture. They won't be painted but you can see what it looks like.
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