Conquer Club

There's plenty to do! Welcome to Graphics-land

Why do some territories have larger, bolder text?
The outer white outline is awfully think, it could easily be thinner, and I'm not sure about the drop shadow, it really lifts the map off the surface of the rest of the image.
Never hurts to try something different, lets see come curved lines, you don't even have to do the whole thing just a bonus or 2 and we'll get the idea.
Mountains can be better, they're very angular and generic a little bit of difference will do wonders.
The river as it goes into Skopje probably doesn't have to be that long, it might cause confusion that there is another territory there.

RedBaron0 wrote:There's plenty to do! Welcome to Graphics-land
Why do some territories have larger, bolder text?

Those territories (towns) are major towns in those areas (in real life) and the regions are named by them.

Thank you all for your remarks, i work on the map on weekends so i will try to make a couple of versions with all of your suggestions included (including those i am ordered to by Obersturmführer natty ) this weekend or maybe the next one at the latest.
This goes for all suggestions posted in the meantime.

Glad that the discussion is alive and kicking!

Keeping natty happy is a good idea... Fat lot of good it'll do you though!

Hi all,
here are some variations for the new version of the map (should be 1.6, when the variation is chosen), as requested in the discussion.

Changes on all versions:
- River shortened in the Skopje continent/territory
- Map background/shadow is thinner and lighter

1.6.1 Basic Variation:


1.6.2 Relief Variation:


1.6.3 Curved Borders Variation:



Guys who requested the variations (and others of course), please comment so we can choose how to proceed with the map.
Thanks.

The one in the middle with the texture throughout, definitely looks best to me. Let's hear some other opinions though.

The outer white border is way to thick, I'd almost make that border be a slightly thicker version of the "line-dot" country borders you have separating the non-playable countries. You might not need the bevel that if that looks good.

The mountains fit with the graphical style, but they are still too uniform, Do a couple that are a bit different (a little bigger/smaller, double peaks, etc.) and have less mountains, right now you've got tons of mountains sitting right on top of each other.

I don't like how the river just ends abruptly in Skopje. Make it narrower in that end...

I still like the first version. Second is fine, but the colors in first are stronger. (and stronger colors are better colors )
I kinda like the thick border. It makes the country to look like it's slightly up.

Oh and I like the 2nd version best.

Version 1.6.2 with the texture all the way over definitely looks the best. As for straight vs curved borders, I think that judgement should be left to the mapmakers, as it's a stylistic thing.

The mountains are definitely the biggest concern for me; they're too small really - they could be a bit wider and a tiny bit taller? You don;t necessarily need to make them different sizes, but you do need to make them less linear. You also need to make the colour from the background go to the edge - check out the mountains on Wales to see what I mean:

show

Hello,
here's a draft for the 1.7 version, am i on the right track here?
(- too much burn in photoshop, i know, just wanted to ask is this the kind of thing we want...)

changed (the obvious and not-so-obvious):
- the mountains
- the river beginning
- size (it's 840px now instead 800px)
- all the various transparency settings - the relief is more visible now
- the country border - its black now - i like it better that the white one for the relief version

Looking really good!

A couple of issues though....

- the river colour. It's a bit bright, don't you think? I liked the old colour better.
- that weird splotch in Tetovo... did you accidentally erase part of the texture?
- green mountains? Looks a bit weird. The design is nice though. Maybe try the same design but grey? Or at least lower the saturation considerably.

That's all I can see for now... good work!

natty_dread wrote:- green mountains? Looks a bit weird.

Those are trees on them mountains!!

In all seriousness now, this map has come a long way since I last stopped in. I'm thinking I want to play on it now! AS was previously mentioned before about the river going into Skopje. It really needs to taper down so that it doesn't look like it just ends. You could also just continue it to the northern border as well. As Skopje will be on both sides of the river, it will not affect the game play. I understand that the river might not go all the way to Serbia, but for graphics wise I think (IMO) that it should go through to Serbia.

This is my 1 cent worth. Keep up the great work, and hope to see this in Beta soon!!

Looking good, still need to work on your mountains, take MrBenn's suggestion, use your bonus colors to color the mountains. Check out that Wales map for a good example.

840 pixels is too big, the maximum length is 830 pixels, the image must be reduced to this restriction limit at least.

isaiah40 wrote:

natty_dread wrote:- green mountains? Looks a bit weird.

Those are trees on them mountains!!

In all seriousness now, this map has come a long way since I last stopped in. I'm thinking I want to play on it now! AS was previously mentioned before about the river going into Skopje. It really needs to taper down so that it doesn't look like it just ends. You could also just continue it to the northern border as well. As Skopje will be on both sides of the river, it will not affect the game play. I understand that the river might not go all the way to Serbia, but for graphics wise I think (IMO) that it should go through to Serbia.

This is my 1 cent worth. Keep up the great work, and hope to see this in Beta soon!!

I think splitting Skopje in two would just cause confusion in the long run. It won't be clear that it is one territory, it will just look like one label was lost.

RedBaron0 wrote:840 pixels is too big, the maximum length is 830 pixels, the image must be reduced to this restriction limit at least.

tsk tsk Rb.... You haven't done your homework!

Last I checked the limit is indeed 840x800 pixels.

viewtopic.php?f=468&t=105184&start=0

nice, really nice

natty_dread wrote:Looking really good!
- that weird splotch in Tetovo... did you accidentally erase part of the texture?

actually the dark part is mountain and the bright part is valley. It looks a bit strange here, but that is how the relief looks like

@isaiah40
As for the river going in Serbia, that would be both gameplay bad and geographical inaccurate. Maybe the river can be changed how to look at its end (I, personally, am fine with this solution), but it shouldn't be extended further

kristijan_mk wrote:@isaiah40
As for the river going in Serbia, that would be both gameplay bad and geographical inaccurate. Maybe the river can be changed how to look at its end (I, personally, am fine with this solution), but it shouldn't be extended further

That was my other suggestion. Either way it'll be good as right now it looks like it just stops dead in it's tracks.

natty_dread wrote:

RedBaron0 wrote:840 pixels is too big, the maximum length is 830 pixels, the image must be reduced to this restriction limit at least.

tsk tsk Rb.... You haven't done your homework!

Last I checked the limit is indeed 840x800 pixels.

viewtopic.php?f=468&t=105184&start=0

Damnit, I mixed up 840 and 630 reversing the middle numbers...

Since when is snow black? The mountains look really weird with black tops and green bottoms.

cmon man, its a symbol, an icon, an graphic representation that sits well with the rest of the map, you have that kind of stuff all over the maps in conquerclub, dont tell me you dont understand that...

but, of course - i will try to make something more realistic.
remember that this is still a draft for the 1.7 version...

I don't think the mountains looked weird at all. Not every mountain is snow-capped, and not every mountain is covered with vegetation all the way up, either.

n.n. wrote:cmon man, its a symbol, an icon, an graphic representation that sits well with the rest of the map, you have that kind of stuff all over the maps in conquerclub, dont tell me you dont understand that...

but, of course - i will try to make something more realistic.
remember that this is still a draft for the 1.7 version...

I know, but to me I think it is the contrast between the green and black that makes it look odd to me.

How's the work coming n.n.?

Slowly, busy at work, but its weekend so i will continue

Here is the 1.7 version: