I want to really simple layout to serve as a training simulation. The idea is that I think people will find it easier to learn combat if they can role play, but in world they're in a simulation.
I also wanted to try making a map fast. In the past it's been a long, slow process. This is a partially built trolley in a factory that players can use to trying out tactics.
Regarding the training simulation: this has been something I've been meaning to do for a while. I think people need to be able to try the combat to understand it, but even if you say, "We're playing this combat encounter, but don't worry, it's just for practice," it seems to me that the story is still potentially distracting. I think having an in-game story where you're pretending helps let people try out tactics in a way where the character's experience is essentially the same as the player's, so there's no disconnection there.
Regarding colors: I'm still trying to figure out how to manage this. What I'm trying to do is communicate a difference between barriers like walls and barriers like tables. The objects around the trolley are supposed to be robot arms and tool carts and such, and the gray interior of the trolley is supposed to represent the trolley deck. I guess I could remove this and make it white, but in my head you should have to expend one movement to hop up onto the floor of the half-built trolley (although not down onto the floor).
Do you think colors would help? Like blue instead of gray?
I was mostly thinking of the difference between types of barriers. The light grey blends in a bit, I wasn't sure it belonged in the scene or came from the source image.
The different shades of grey does have one advantage - it should work fine for colorblind people. I was thinking maybe dashed lines might be a good way to delineate soft or incomplete cover.
It sounds like I should darken the light grey so it's clear that it's distinct from the background.