South Africa 1885

[Industrial Helix]

Actually, I'm thinking I might do the map in water colors... definitely a page out of Bison King's book, but I think its a good idea and might work the theme quite well.

[porkenbeans]

I'm aware that this is totally stupid and cheesy but I wouldn't mind seeing a lion or giraffe in that upper left corner.

That's not cheesy at all. Any icons that are unique to an area, are perfectly appropriate when making a map/game-board.

[Industrial Helix]

I think I have an idea to work in some lions but not so much the giraffe. Stay tuned on that.

In the meantime, it seemed the the first order of business would be to address colorblindness.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[The Bison King]

Actually, I'm thinking I might do the map in water colors... definitely a page out of Bison King's book, but I think its a good idea and might work the theme quite well.

Looking forward to seeing it!

[ender516]

The issue I have right now, which becomes more obvious when looking at the colourblind test, is that the order of the legend does not correspond well to any ordering of the zones on the map. I understand that the order in the legend is driven somewhat by the length of the names, but some room for juggling might be freed up by moving the "Ports connect to supply ships" note down to the open ocean south of Port Elizabeth or E. London.

[Industrial Helix]

I think Evil Dimwit organized it but I'm not entirely sure how. I'll have to look it up. To be honest, I don't see any point in organizing the list by geographical place. When I play the map, I'm going to look at the color and and then find the corresponding color.

[ender516]

Well, I found that the colour looked somewhat different on the legend icon than it did on the map, so I found your approach a little time-consuming. (This may be due to the difference in the background colour: the map seems to be a fairly pure white, while the legend area seems a bit off-white.) And, as I said, I think the colour blind are going to be at an even bigger disadvantage.

[natty dread]

I think the "ports connect to supply ships" text is redundant. You already have lines going from the territories to the ships, and if people can't discern from that that they are connected then they should go play tic tac toe against a trained monkey or assemble a 2-piece jigsaw puzzle rather than be on CC.

[Industrial Helix]

Well... the reason the legend and the map don't correlate in places is because I changed the map colors to accommodate colorblindness and didn't change the legend. So Basutoland, Stellaland and Griqualand West are all off. But the other colors seem to match, don't they?

And Natty, you are spot on. That text is going to go, as are the ports likely.

[natty dread]

Hm, I would keep the port icons in some form at least. They add a nice touch and they aren't really in the way of anything - unless you have trouble fitting army numbers, in which case you can just move the port icons further to sea.

Maybe just make them thinner. I think the port icons would look real nice if they were drawn in really thin lines.

[ender516]

I think the colours are mostly right, but not knowing the geography, I keep getting confused trying to figure out which is what (I am trying to identify zones based on their size and bonus), plus the colours look different here at work this morning than they did at home last night. I think I will let it go until you have updated both the legend and the map, then I can be specific in any criticism or suggestion.

I like the port icons too, and natty may be right about drawing them with thin lines.

[Victor Sullivan]

I like the 2x bonus idea with the ports and ships, but the map seems kinda busy and a little hard to read. Possibly a font change will help? And I thought Swaziland was one word, but maybe that's just me being weird again.

[Industrial Helix]

Still working on this!

Hmm... yeah, maybe swaziland is one word. Typically, I just copied the style written on the base map, so that must have been two words. I'm down either way...

As for the font... well... I'm going to go two ways on this. 1) On the original map I've got on the easel next to me, I'm going to put it calligraphy style. But I doubt that will fly for CC so 2) I'm open to different fonts. I'll take a look around and would appreciate it if anyone knows of any good fonts to use as well.

[theBastard]

I like the small map, last posted by you. maybe colours could be more different...

btw, Helix when I´m looking at your new avatar, are you thinking about any historical european map?

[ender516]

I like the small map, last posted by you. maybe colours could be more different...

btw, Helix when I´m looking at your new avatar, are you thinking about any historical european map?

I was curious about your avatar, too. A young Queen Victoria?

[Industrial Helix]

Alright... here's what I've got so far. I'm running into major problems on the transvaal/orange free state border, which has prevented me from posting a full update.

Also, bear in mind this is a photograph and not an actual scan.

So here's what I'm looking for. Basically, should I continue with this version idea or should I just stick to computer graphics and grunge up the original map? Or perhaps, should I start over on watercolors?

Click image to enlarge.

My concerns:
The mountains are not so nice but somewhat satisfactory.
Natal's color (pink to the right of the map)
The colors aren't different enough. Basically, I'm going to photoshop clone stamp a section from the map and use that for the legend... alternatively, I may use a minimap.
The numbers are going to look strange on this map.

And lastly, the avatar image is Tsarina Alexandra who is both a fascinating woman and somewhat related to the Russian Revolution map.

[porkenbeans]

I really like the watercolor look and feel, although I do not really think that it is the right choice for this map. This place and time just does not remind me of pretty, pastelic watercolors.

Dark, earth tones, or light faded mono-chromatic colors, would fit better for this subject. Or even a full on rainbow splash, but in bold, not pastel.

[The Bison King]

Looking good, I'll give it a more thorough look over later when I have time.

[natty dread]

Wow Bison, you're starting a foundry fad!

[The Bison King]

Wow Bison, you're starting a foundry fad!

Any way I've given it a more thorough glance over now. Over all it looks pretty nice. I think the pink you used for east coast bonus (2nd from the top on the shore) looks a little weird compared to the other colors. I kind of like how the colors bleed more in the top right bonus compared to the rest. I think the mountains look ok, just a little messy, but the style looks good to me.

I think you could probably get away using this, and correcting the mistakes on photoshop. However, if you took the time to start over, and do the image a second time in watercolor, I'm sure that you would nail it!

[Industrial Helix]

Hmm... so I count a 1 for needs some cleaning up and 1 for no. Not the mas off feedback I was hoping for, but ok.

Pork, here's what I was basing my map on: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEn ... 85_000.jpg

[porkenbeans]

Hmm... so I count a 1 for needs some cleaning up and 1 for no. Not the mas off feedback I was hoping for, but ok.

Pork, here's what I was basing my map on: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEn ... 85_000.jpg

OK, that is a very nice looking map. If you can do something like that, I am on board.

[jasnostj]

maybe mentioned before, but Grigua and Orange Free State were swapped in the latest version (14.6) of the map

[Victor Sullivan]

Do the three blue regions at the bottom pass the colorblind test? The shades are awful similar.

[Industrial Helix]

Hmm... so I count a 1 for needs some cleaning up and 1 for no. Not the mas off feedback I was hoping for, but ok.

Pork, here's what I was basing my map on: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEn ... 85_000.jpg

OK, that is a very nice looking map. If you can do something like that, I am on board.

Well, that's what I was trying to emulate in the painted version. Or at least I was regarding the styling on the 'continents.' You mention pretty pastel colors but I really don't see it. Can you elaborate further? Is it the pinks? Maybe I'll swap Natal out for a darker red or something...

So any input on that would be appreciated.

As for colorblind tests, Natal seems to be a problem. As does swaziland.