American Civil War [Quenched]

[Elijah S]

7th Revision


Notable changes:
-Pixelation has been addressed
-Rivers have been changed to follow actual geographical path
-Bridges repositioned and one added
-All states have been spelled out and fonts made uniform
-Legend realligned and fonts resized accordingly
-City circles made smaller and less pixelated
-Army circles placed more center in their territory

[Lupo]

It's the first time I look at this map.

I have some advices to give you:

- You made fonts uniform and that's good, but, at least for me, font in 6th Revision was easier to read (for the size, I mean); so, I would suggest to increase a little bit font size.

- In Lousiana I would invert territory name and army circle position, in order-Army circles placed more center in their territory in order to not cover Missisipi river.

[cairnswk]

My Version

[cairnswk]

OK...Elijah S....here's the go in the map above.

1. i have gone over your borders with a 2px pen totally black with .5 gaussiuan blur....this is what i was hoping you can achieve....please forgive some areas of smudging...but you will see that it certainly straightens those borders out and removes that jaggered look.

2. some of the left side states need their text centered in alignment

3. some armies could move more towards where i have the red circles.

4. there is a difference in the spacing in the legend where i have marked....you appear to have used two different fonts for the topp and bottom remarks.

5. the northern states maine to connecticut don't appear to have the same texture applied as the other states.

6. the title looks fab, as do the other things that you fixed in the 7th revision....great work!

This is really improving and you are going to be so proud, as will CC....excellent work...keep it up!

[Elijah S]

8th Revision


Notable changes:
-Pixelation addressed... again. This time the borders have been made larger using vector lines and a slight gaussian blur.
-Some army circles have been repositioned.
-Legend spacing is more consistent.
-A texture has been added to the blue states.
-An slight overall texture has been added to all states.
-Yellow territory titles have been centered.

[cairnswk]

8th Revision

Elijah....this is looking so much better; what do you think, are you happy with this?

OK, the next step to be working towards (if there are no further objections to anything from the Foundry, assuming you will attend to or justify those issues) is the large map.

You are required to complete a large version (I wouldn't go anything wider than 800px) of this map. You may be able to simply use the re-size function to increase the size of elements on the map the large version.
The only thing you will have to re-work if you upsize this way is the size of the army shadows themsleves.

It is recommended that the army shadow circle be 24 px dia. this is unfortunately a tedious piece of the mapmaking process, however WidowMakers has completed a tutorial in Map Making Tools for the Army Circles, check there.

You need to show both maps together, with the army circle numbers on both versions.

See how you go!

[Elijah S]

I'm pleased with the progress and think this map's about's ready for final forge.

Since the height's a pretty good size, I may not go quite to 800px wide for the large map, but I'll try a few sizes before posting it.

The army circles, while yes, tedious work, should pose no problem.

Thanks for all the assistance... let's get this thing into production! I'm anxious to start kicking ass playing it!

8th Revision

Elijah....this is looking so much better; what do you think, are you happy with this?

OK, the next step to be working towards (if there are no further objections to anything from the Foundry, assuming you will attend to or justify those issues) is the large map.

You are required to complete a large version (I wouldn't go anything wider than 800px) of this map. You may be able to simply use the re-size function to increase the size of elements on the map the large version.
The only thing you will have to re-work if you upsize this way is the size of the army shadows themsleves.

It is recommended that the army shadow circle be 24 px dia. this is unfortunately a tedious piece of the mapmaking process, however WidowMakers has completed a tutorial in Map Making Tools for the Army Circles, check there.

You need to show both maps together, with the army circle numbers on both versions.

See how you go!

[cairnswk]

I'm pleased with the progress and think this map's about's ready for final forge.

Not so Elijah S, this is still some way off Final Forge.

And when it gets to Final Forge, are you ready to and or have you got someone doing the xml for you. All those coordinates don't just magically appear.

Since the height's a pretty good size, I may not go quite to 800px wide for the large map, but I'll try a few sizes before posting it.

The army circles, while yes, tedious work, should pose no problem.

Thanks for all the assistance... let's get this thing into production! I'm anxious to start kicking ass playing it!

Don't be anxious, but work methodically and take each step slowly.
I can understand you want to start using the map, but I don't think it will be ready for play for a short while yet. You could prove me wrong though.

[Elijah S]

"And when it gets to Final Forge, are you ready to and or have you got someone doing the xml for you. All those coordinates don't just magically appear."

lol... I enjoyed this. Ah, the supportive, yet somewhat biting and condescending tone.

Having written a considerable amount of web-script, including java and html, I don't think the xml should pose any particular problem for me.
-I've not only read Lack's Tutorial, but also printed out a sample of the script format.

The coordinates (army circles) are still subject to being moved, so I won't begin the xml until they are fixed.

The maps, small and large, are below.

The small map: 620px wide x 499px high.

The large map: 750px wide x 604px high.

[Elijah S]

***I just noticed I'm missing Maryland's army circle in the lg. map... I'll fix that with the next update.

[Coleman]

While you do that, some of the army circles are looking a little bit too bunched up with their territory names.

Wisconsin, Sioux Territory, and The Badlands to name a few, easy solution is to just move the army circles down a few pixels.

Speaking of Sioux territory... Sioux is an incorrect name white people gave to the Lakota. Regardless it still appears on a lot of maps and what not so if you don't care I won't bother to try and force you to change it to Lakota Territory.

[Elijah S]

Not to stray too far off topic here, but that's an interesting observation Coleman... although the name would more aptly be "Dakota" rather than Lakota...
The link below leads to a brief, but enlightening bit of Sioux history.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-gene ... ndians.htm

While you do that, some of the army circles are looking a little bit too bunched up with their territory names.

Wisconsin, Sioux Territory, and The Badlands to name a few, easy solution is to just move the army circles down a few pixels.

Speaking of Sioux territory... Sioux is an incorrect name white people gave to the Lakota. Regardless it still appears on a lot of maps and what not so if you don't care I won't bother to try and force you to change it to Lakota Territory.

[Coleman]

I'm just going by what the natives call themselves. Dakota may not be right either but I don't have time to research. I do know for certain people that claim themselves to be Lakota are annoyed by being referred to as Sioux. It's possible Dakota and Lakota are two tribes that somehow fell into the same classification. But if you get really deep into it the Lakota aren't all necessarily one tribe either.

But you're right this is off topic.

Hopefully you can get the army circles a bit more away from the text so they don't look as clustered.

[Evil Pope]

Hmm.. I think that the textures may be a little too.. strong, might be a good word. Do you think softening it up a bit might make it a little easier on the eyes. A bit smoother, but not perfectly smooth?
And something about the bridges doesn't feel right.. they're nice bridges, but I feel that you could edit them a bit. The shadows of the bridges make them look like they're above the land, not connecting the two sides. If you understand what I mean, I don't think i'm being clear enough.

[cairnswk]

"And when it gets to Final Forge, are you ready to and or have you got someone doing the xml for you. All those coordinates don't just magically appear."

lol... I enjoyed this. Ah, the supportive, yet somewhat biting and condescending tone.

Having written a considerable amount of web-script, including java and html, I don't think the xml should pose any particular problem for me.
-I've not only read Lack's Tutorial, but also printed out a sample of the script format.

Elijah S. I am sorry if you think this is condescending and biting. It is simply my way of asking questions, and for all we know, you might not have the skills to do the xml..i don't know that you had already done webscript etc....And i thought it was rather resumptuous of you to announce that the map was ready for final forge...back on oct 4 post...you don't get to make those decisions.

Please don't cut off your nose despite your face, when people are only trying to help you get your map done.