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Postby Mr. K on Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:46 pm

I don't think this is too big of a deal, but it might be helpful if you change the wording of the text. People should be able to guess what you mean by "forward" considering the shape of each piece of the track, but maybe if someone is looking at this for the first time and doesn't really understand the concept, maybe the word "counterclockwise" might be helpful somewhere in there.

Other than that, this seems like a really cool idea. I was skeptical at first but its coming along very nicely. Good job!
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Postby gavin_sidhu on Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:48 am

I know your going for the roman style, but if you are going to have a map with no bonsuses write no bonuses instead of "no bonvses"
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Postby rocksolid on Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:45 pm

Hey all,

Consensus seems to be that the readability of the white on black in the legend at the centre works well, and I think it's true that it will look less out of place if the title at the bottom follows suit. So here's two possibilities, both with the title on a field of black marble (this from further north in the Apennines than the white stuff) and one with the legend on black marble and the other with an improved original legend. My main concern with the black marble legend, which I think looks good, is that the black marble might get confused for a lightning storm.

Image

Image

I think one of these two will be the final legend. I experimented with the sand a fair bit and this was ultimately what I was most satisfied with - other ones weren't even really that close. I think K's suggestion on putting counterclockwise in the legend is a good one.

So now, I'm most looking for feedback on the little guys flying around the track.
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Postby barbu1977 on Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:59 pm

Just caught this and did not read the 5 pages so I don't know it this has been talked about. But what about you give 1 bonus army to the inside lane of Caligula and Honorius?
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Postby AndyDufresne on Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:03 pm

---I like the blue ripple effect the best out of it all, most appealing.

---Top charioteers are my favorites.

---Also, some names still seem faded (either in whole or part) Compare the left and right to the bottom and top...

Edit: ---Also the coin looks little odd with the blue ripple, look into making that beautiful.

---Have you considered using more of the blue ripple effect, say instead of the crowd? Just curious.


--Andy
Last edited by AndyDufresne on Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby reverend_kyle on Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:37 pm

bleu marble is best.
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Postby spiesr on Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:20 pm

The background in the corners hurts my eyes.
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Postby rocksolid on Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:25 am

Fixed the names in the corners so that they're like all the others; tried to fix the coin so it sits better.

Messed a lot with the racers, and left one of them in pieces after a wreck (in some of these races, only one would be left at the end!).

Image

Glad people like the black marble, but I really want to hang on to the crowd, so I don't intend to replace them with marble. If you've seen Ben-Hur, you can't really imagine the race without the roar of the crowd. Vital to the feel I'm looking for.

Sorry for hurting your eyes, spiesr, but this crowd is the one I'm happiest with. Previous pages have some other examples for you to look at. Let me know if any of the others hurt less.

As for the bonus for holding the two inside posts, that is kind of a cool idea as those are by far the most strategic points on the track. But part of the impetus for this map was to give CC a full no-bonus map, so I'd rather keep it pristine.
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Postby gavin_sidhu on Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:33 am

Thats a crowd... Its hard to tell.
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Postby Jota on Sat Jun 10, 2006 1:39 am

I agree with the others about the marble. It looks nice. And it makes the center seem like it's intentionally not a part of the physical plane of the map, rather than unintentionally so, which is a good thing.

I'm not sure that the broken chariot works for me. The idea does, but I couldn't tell what the picture was supposed to be until I read your description of it. Also, is it just me, or does everyone seem to be in the inner lanes, and hardly anyone in the outer ones?

If you wanted to do any more editing on the crowd -- and I'm not saying you necessarily need to -- then you might look into shifting the colors to ones that are more setting-appropriate. I'm guessing that bright blues and yellows were probably less common as clothing colors back then, compared to whites, greys, and browns. Also, most spectators were probably dark-haired and bare-headed.

Oh, and I still can't officially condone Julian :) But I suppose K would actually be worse, which would mean having to jump from I to L. Hrm. (Hey, speaking of which... if "counterclockwise" doesn't have a U, should it really have a K?)
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Postby garionoldwolf on Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:13 am

Jota wrote:(Hey, speaking of which... if "counterclockwise" doesn't have a U, should it really have a K?)


I believe that is a U but with the font that he's using it looks like a V, I stumbled across a font that was like that earlier when I was working on a signature.
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Postby resitnecdan on Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:17 am

That letter is definatelly a V
I guess he just wanted to keep the roman spelling kind of :P
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Postby Haydena on Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:23 am

Just something I think would look better for the bottom right racer would be to move him into the second lane, to spread the racers among the lanes a bit more...
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Postby fluffybunnykins on Sat Jun 10, 2006 4:50 am

could the veins in the centre marble be less distinct, at the mo it looks to me more like a dark pool... they seem more blended under the title???
I think the crowd are a great feature, though there's maybe quite a lot of yellow heads for the mediterranean (now I'm getting really picky!)
I like the a-j thing with the names.
Just one thing eludes me, what is this 'counterclockwise'? Is it some form of corruption of the english language? :twisted:
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Postby rocksolid on Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:53 am

Another attempt at the crowd...

Centre marble blurred a little. The bottom marble was never blurred. I think the blurring here accomplishes the opposite of what it's supposed to - makes centre marble look more like a pool, rather than less.

Image

Yes, those are Vs. Jota, my sources seem to think that there was a K in the Roman alphabet (a bit surprising to me too) - the letters that they wouldn't recognize were the w, z, u and of course the offending J. So while the K in counterclockwise seems to be ok, the w should actually be vv, but I tried that and I think it would only confuse people; this is also why I won't change K even if you convince me it wasn't a letter - while the v-for-u thing is obviously understood, I think some people will get a little lost with covntercloccvvise. As for Julian, I wanted to avoid jumping to L - even if K is a letter, there were no emperors whose names started with K.

Messed with the wreck a little. I really want to make it work.

Yes, the racers were all in the inside lanes, which is of course where they would try to be in a race. Unfortunately, because of the confusion that was tied to my attempt at staggering the lane lengths to make it tactically more advantageous to take the inner lane on the map, it's hard to mirror this in gameplay without bonuses, which I'd like to avoid. So I've tried to embrace the fiction that racers would actually go to the outside and moved a few of them out. That's also part of why I wanted the wreck in there - to justify pushing some racers outside who need to go around it - kind of like you avoiding an opponent's large army buildup sitting still on the inside track.
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Postby Jota on Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:53 am

I know this is wrong of me. But the parts of my brain driven by narrative causality and what I've been trained to perceive as dramatic are insisting that the crashed chariot ought to be engulfed in a large fireball.

Possibly with a single flaming chariot-wheel rolling out of it.

I apologize for this.

[Edit: I like the legend better without the blurring.]
Last edited by Jota on Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby rocksolid on Sat Jun 10, 2006 12:03 pm

A worthy 400th post, Jota.
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Postby AndyDufresne on Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:14 pm

Well it's nice to see the map coming along!


---I finally like what you have done with the crowd. To me it feels more like a roaring crowd cheering for blood rather than a soft pillowy carpet cheering for cleaning sprays.

---I'd have to agree that the wreck looks a little weird. Perhaps if you make it slightly more identifiable, (I.E. maybe a chariot wheel spinning off, etc). But the racers are coming along in a rather unique fashion, though I notice it looks like you flip flopped the top chariots with the bottom ones. Maybe instead of just inversing them, is it possible to change the order so it feels like completely different racers rather than a mirror image of them?

---The names are as good as they are going to get I think, though the coin still seems like a pasted image. Perhaps adding more depth to the ridge and rim of it would be something to look into.

---As for the marble, I rather like the blurred effect, though previous entry before it is also fine. Perhaps just my eye's personal preference.

---I'd push again for more distinct areas in the sand/dirt, but you already commented on that so I won't pursue it any more (though it would be nice... ;))


--Andy
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Postby haha on Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:37 pm

there no way u can get more then 3 men a turn maby each arow should be a contrie
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Postby fluffybunnykins on Sun Jun 11, 2006 8:28 pm

I like it, when do we get to try it?
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Postby barbu1977 on Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:50 am

rocksolid wrote:Yes, the racers were all in the inside lanes, which is of course where they would try to be in a race. Unfortunately, because of the confusion that was tied to my attempt at staggering the lane lengths to make it tactically more advantageous to take the inner lane on the map, it's hard to mirror this in gameplay without bonuses, which I'd like to avoid. So I've tried to embrace the fiction that racers would actually go to the outside and moved a few of them out. That's also part of why I wanted the wreck in there - to justify pushing some racers outside who need to go around it - kind of like you avoiding an opponent's large army buildup sitting still on the inside track.


How about this to force the players to take the inside lane:
From Cailgula to Diocletian and from Honorius to Imperius, you canot move diagonaly towards the inner lanes?
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Postby spiesr on Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:00 am

barbu1977 wrote:
rocksolid wrote:Yes, the racers were all in the inside lanes, which is of course where they would try to be in a race. Unfortunately, because of the confusion that was tied to my attempt at staggering the lane lengths to make it tactically more advantageous to take the inner lane on the map, it's hard to mirror this in gameplay without bonuses, which I'd like to avoid. So I've tried to embrace the fiction that racers would actually go to the outside and moved a few of them out. That's also part of why I wanted the wreck in there - to justify pushing some racers outside who need to go around it - kind of like you avoiding an opponent's large army buildup sitting still on the inside track.


How about this to force the players to take the inside lane:
From Cailgula to Diocletian and from Honorius to Imperius, you canot move diagonaly towards the inner lanes?

How about not...
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Postby rocksolid on Mon Jun 12, 2006 1:04 pm

Thanks for the suggestion, barbu...I think I'll keep it simple, as I think in real gameplay the dodging between lanes will happen naturally, as there won't be any strategic value to staying in the same lane.

Another iteration...wreck changed a bit (that's supposed to be a wheel lying there behind), coin image tinkered a little.

Image
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Postby AndyDufresne on Tue Jun 13, 2006 6:12 pm

                  Final Forge


---The Circus Maximus Map has reached the ‘Final Forge’ Stage. I've revived this thread from the pits of the Foundry furnace and have examined the contents. Nearly every major concern has been addressed. If there are any other current concerns, please make your voice heard. There will be two days for you to post any objections; if no one hasposted any protest after two days the map will be deemed finished with the 'Foundry Brand' of approval and will be submitted for live play. If after two days there is still discussion going on it may continue until said discussion has reached the conclusion that the map has reached its final and polished version.

Post questions and concerns if any.


--Andy
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Postby AndyDufresne on Tue Jun 13, 2006 6:17 pm

And to start things off...


---Anyone else notice some purple splotches on some of the chartioteers? And the botton ones look a little odd for some reason. And still not too fond of the wreck in its current state.

---Also the coin is looking better, though maybe soften the edges of it.

---Lastly, the rim around the outer track, seperating the race field and the audience, looks like it could be worked on. Really only a minor thing.


--Andy
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