This is Sparta!? [2 JUL 2012] v4 P. 1 & 2

[Campin_Killer]

Map Name: This is Sparta!
Mapmaker(s): CampinKiller
Number of Territories: 33
Special Features: Thermopylae Pass loses one troop per turn
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: It's an intresting concept, with the Spartans being warriors. The Battle of Thermopylae had 300 Spartans and 700 other Greek soldiers defending against a Persian invading force of over 250,000 troops. The Spartans held out for 3 days. Anyways, it's a map that I haven't seen an idea for, and would be an intresting map to play on

~Version 4 Added
Too many mountains?
Change to Key color?
And I'm still working on those borders

Map Image:
Large

Click image to enlarge.

[Campin_Killer]

Older Versions

show: v3

show: v2

show: v1.7.5

show: v1.5

show: v1

[koontz1973]

Campin_Killer, firstly welcome to the foundry, and do not worry, we will treat you with kid gloves from the outset. Some things first before we get onto the map. Have you read this? It will give you everything that you need to make a map.
Can I ask what programme you are using? When I know this, I can help you more.

koontz

[Campin_Killer]

GIMP 2.6 (for some rediculous reason 2.8 won't run on my computer, but 2.6 runs fine >_>)

As for the ahndbook I read the topic title rule/draft and map requirements, and skimmed the rest.

[The Bison King]

Shouldn't you gain troops at the pass since it's the stronghold?

[koontz1973]

GIMP 2.6 (for some rediculous reason 2.8 won't run on my computer, but 2.6 runs fine >_>)

As for the ahndbook I read the topic title rule/draft and map requirements, and skimmed the rest.

Good, now we can get onto the map.
Here are a couple of good gimp tutorials that you can use to get your map really looking nice. I would suggest that you read them and start again. Do not worry, you will find that will be easier than trying to get what you have up to par and as you already have done it once, it will go quicker. Call it good practice for later.
viewtopic.php?f=649&t=140723
viewtopic.php?f=466&t=141577
And one more for you to look at.
viewtopic.php?f=649&t=123772

I would advise you to go through these tutorials step by step. You will end up with a map that is 100% better than what you have.

Text - to large, it needs to sit in the territories.
Font for name and legend - hard to read and does not look good. Make sure Hinting and Antialiasing are turned on in the text tool.
Black lines - Follow the guide.

Best advise for you is this - every spare minute you have, practise and experiment with GIMP. Try everything out that you can. It is the only way to learn as guides on the internet, while good, will not cover everything that you want.

koontz

[x-raider]

This is great.
Good luck and I hope to give some more substantial feedback soon.

[Dibbun]

Oh snap, Doxa Sparta!!

show

[Campin_Killer]

Click image to enlarge.

Changes:
Added new territories
Added new bonus
Added Spartan symbol (left side in the gray)
Changed Graphics
Added rivers and land routes
Changed text for Title and Key
Cleaned up borders

[Campin_Killer]

Shouldn't you gain troops at the pass since it's the stronghold?

The location of the pass on the map is infront of the Phoenician Wall (the front line of the Greek/Spartan phalanx). Since the Persians were originaly (before finding the mountain pass) trying to assualt through the phalanx, and were taking such heavy losses, I felt it would be better for the pass to lose 1 troop per turn.

However I'm also leaning towards the "Spartans" region having a +1 or +2 bonus/auto-deploy

[tkr4lf]

Hey, this version looks much better than the first one. I like the changes you've made.

One thing that pops out to me immediately is the borders. I know you worked on them some already, but it looks like you may need to work on them some more. They look kind of blurry in some places, kind of jagged in other places. You will want to get them as smooth as possible. It's hard and a bit of a chore at first, but it's definitely worth it, it will make the map look much better as a whole.

Another thing I see is that your mountains aren't completely covering up the border lines. This one probably isn't as important, but you may want to move some of them just a hair or two south to completely cover that black line.

And one last thing I immediately see, you should probably come up with a better name than "More Ruins"...perhaps a certain type of ruins, or something else entirely.


Nice work so far! I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

[tkr4lf]

One more thing...I really like the look of the water! Very nice!

[Campin_Killer]

Hey, this version looks much better than the first one. I like the changes you've made.

One thing that pops out to me immediately is the borders. I know you worked on them some already, but it looks like you may need to work on them some more. They look kind of blurry in some places, kind of jagged in other places. You will want to get them as smooth as possible. It's hard and a bit of a chore at first, but it's definitely worth it, it will make the map look much better as a whole.

Another thing I see is that your mountains aren't completely covering up the border lines. This one probably isn't as important, but you may want to move some of them just a hair or two south to completely cover that black line.

And one last thing I immediately see, you should probably come up with a better name than "More Ruins"...perhaps a certain type of ruins, or something else entirely.


Nice work so far! I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Yeah the borders can tend to be a general pain in the ass. I'm trying to get both the bonus borders and territory borders smoother, but I accidently jerk my mouse every-so-often using free select and it makes the bonus borders jagged and I have to start over. So that needs to be fixed. The territory borders I'm just drawing by hand (or mouse ) so I'll probably be redoing those in a bit.

More ruins was just a temp name, I was completely brain-dead on the topic of territory names at that point and just put that for the time being.

One more thing...I really like the look of the water! Very nice!

Thanks. My strongpoint...water

[tkr4lf]

Yeah the borders can tend to be a general pain in the ass. I'm trying to get both the bonus borders and territory borders smoother, but I accidently jerk my mouse every-so-often using free select and it makes the bonus borders jagged and I have to start over. So that needs to be fixed. The territory borders I'm just drawing by hand (or mouse ) so I'll probably be redoing those in a bit.

You should definitely take a look at Natty Dread's GIMP tutorial. When I first started, I also was trying to draw the borders by hand using a mouse...it's difficult, to say the least (as I'm sure you know!). A much better and easier way to do it is to use the paths tool. It makes it much easier to get smooth lines and generally eliminates the whole "jumpy mouse" thing. Natty elaborates on it in his tutorial. I think (?) it's in the second part of the tutorial, but I could be wrong. Koontz linked to both of them in one of his posts above.

More ruins was just a temp name, I was completely brain-dead on the topic of territory names at that point and just put that for the time being.

Fair enough.

[koontz1973]

Much better. Well done.

show: paths

Your colours are very bright. Is there a reason why these ones in particular?

koontz