Quest for El Dorado Map Builder Instructions

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Quest for El Dorado Map Builder Instructions

The Quest for El Dorado Map Builder allows you to build your own custom maps, save them, and share them via a link. Maps are built in sequential order starting with the Starting Tile, then continuing through the various map tiles, and finally ending with an Ending Tile.

Map Builder Basics
Rotations
Connection Angles
Space Bumps
Blockades
Click Render to see the rendered map.
End Tile Connection Points
Branching the Map's Path to the End
Map Statistics
Questions or Issues

Map Builder Basics

Definitions & Limitations

You must have a BoardGameHelpers account to build and save maps. Go here to login or create an account.
A map can have up to 11 tiles in it (including the start and end tiles).
All maps require a Name and a Source such as "built by me".
Setting the Map to Public will allow you to share the URL for the map with your friends.
The FROM tile is the current tile you are about to connect another tile to.
The TO tile is the new tile you are adding.

Basic Steps for Map Building

First select the starting tile and its rotation.
Then select the connecting tile and its rotation.
Click the Render Map button to see the rendered map. This populates the FROM tile drop down box in the left column. You'll need to rerender the map each time you add a new tile in the TO column. You can rerender as many times as you need.
Now that your TO tile is in the FROM tile dropdown, you can select it and add a 3rd tile to the map.
Continue rendering your map until it's in the state you like.
You must select an End Tile on the last line to have a Valid map.
Click Save to Database to save your map to the database. This will save it to your account and provide a URL to share with your friends. Note, you can save a Map even if it's not Valid. This way you can come back later to finish it.

Rotations

Tiles rotate around their centers. A 6th rotation would return it to its original orientation. Hex Tiles don't change much when rotated, but Strip tiles do.
Rotations

Connection Angles

A connection angle is the angle off of which the next tile will connect to the current tile. The top of the tile is considered 0° and continues clockwise in degrees similar to a circle.

Tiles are generally considered hex-shaped, even if they aren't actually hexigons. Thus, each tile has six possible connection angles: 0°, 60°, 120°, 180°, 240°, 300°

These connection angles are the same regardless of how the tile is rotated.

As you are connecting two tiles, you are selecting the FROM connection angle. Thus, the TO connection tile is the opposite side.
Connection Angles

Space Bumps

This is probably the most difficult to understand concept in the Map Builder. Once you connect two tiles, the spaces bumps are how you get them to line up the way you want. Two connected tiles start, by default, at 0 (zero) space bumps. This means that for the given connection angle (ex. 60°), the FROM tile's most counter-clockwise space connects to the TO tile's most clockwise space. This is the default position.

Each Space Bump moves the TO tile down the edge of the FROM tile one bump counter-clockwise. You can bump the TO tile until its single final space is connected to the single final space of the FROM tile.

Note that it's possible to have a tile-to-tile connection show up in the same location. In the example above, Tile R (rotated 1x) is connected to Tile D at 240°. At 8 Space Bumps Tile R is located just to the left of Tile D. If you were to connect Tile R (rotated 1x) to Tile D at 300° with 0 Space Bumps, the layout would look exactly the same.

This can be helpful when trying to create branched maps because the Map Builder only allows you to have one TO Tile connected any given edge of a FROM Tile. This means you cannot connect two tiles to the 60° edge of Tile A, for example.

Blockades

Blockades are layed on top where two tiles join each other. The Map Builder allows you to select one Blockade for each tile connection. It does not allow you to duplicate them because it assumes you only have a single set of Blockades from the base game. You don't need to give the rotation as it can be inferred from the connection.

End Tile Connection Points

End Tiles aren't connected in the middle of a tile's edge like other tiles. Instead, they are connected to a tile's "points". This is most obvious in hex tiles, but strip tiles follow the same principal.

There are 6 points, with Point 1 being the upper right point and continuing clockwise around the tile. Again, like connection angles, the tile's rotation doesn't effect the point numbers.
Jungle End Tile

Branching the Map's Path to the End

The basic maps outlined in the rulebook only show a single path from start to end. However, many fan-based and more advanced maps have multiple paths part way or all of the way to the end tile. I call these "branches". In the examples below, Hills of Gold has only one path where Are You Lost? shows the path branches twice and players can choose which way seems best for them.
Hills of Gold Map

The Map Builder allows you to select the same tile twice as a FROM tile (blue column). However, you must select a different connection angle for each TO tile. You can modify the Space Bumps to align the tiles appropriately.

In the Are You Lost? example, you can see that there are 2 Strips seemingly connected to Tile A. Because the Map Builder Doesn't allow two tiles connected to the same edge, this must be done by first, connecting Tile R to Tile A, then connecting Tile Q to Tile R, appropriately setting the Connection Angle and Space Bumps such that Tile Q is laying next to Tile A as required. It takes a bit of getting used to finagling the Map Builder to get the layout you want, but it is almost always possible in the end.

It's important to note that the Map Builder does not monitor or require each branch to be resolved. It just manages the layout and makes sure there is at least one path to the end. This also means that it will not be aware of when the two branches converge further down the map. While the layout looks right, the Map Builder will not recognize an intrinsic tile connection at the end of a branch.

Map Statistics

The Map Builder gives you a bunch of stats on each map you make.

Squeeze Percent - When two tiles are connected, there is a maximum number of travel connections that can be made. For example, two connected hex tiles can have a maximum number of 7 travel connections from the 8 touching tile spaces. This number is reduced by mountain tile spaces since you can't travel on them as well as bumping the TO tile clockwise or counter-clockwise. The Squeeze Percent is the ratio of the actual number travel options to the maximum possible travel options. The higher the Squeeze Percent, the harder it will be for players to travel from the FROM tile to the TO tile.
Average Levels per Connection - Each tile space contains one or more icons indicating its level. When you travel from one tile space to another, you have to take into account these levels. The more levels, the harder it is to travel between the tile spaces. This value is the average number of levels between two tiles. The higher the average, the harder it will be to travel from the FROM tile to the TO tile.
Bottleneck Rating - This score takes the Squeeze Percent and Average Levels per Connection for a given connection and provides a single value indicating how difficult it will be to travel from the FROM tile to the TO tile. The higher the score, the harder it will be.
Map Traverse Score - This is a score that indicates how difficult the tiles are to traverse based on the terrain types and levels of each tile space. It does not take into account how the map is set up, it is based simply on the tiles themselves.
Map Difficulty Score - This is an overall score that ranges from 0 to approximately 160 that is based on a number of factors including Traverse Score and each connection's bottleneck rating. The higher the score, the harder the map will be.
Terrain Report - This is a tile-by-tile report of each tile in the map giving information about its terrain types, levels, and other properties.
Map Tile Report - This is a tile-by-tile report of each tile in the map giving information about its rotation and location within the rendered space. It's really just for debugging the renderer.
Connection Report - This is a report that gives information about each connection in the map. Most of its values are for debugging the renderer as well, but it does show the Squeeze Percent and Bottleneck Rating for each connection.

Questions or Issues

If you have any questions or are running into issues, please contact me on my Contact Form or on BoardGameGeek.