The Fight for Alexander's Empire [Quenched]

[kronas]

I like the map, it is very nice.

[Mr. K]

Hmm... Well if people feel that way I could scrap the project. Personally I thought it would be an interesting one to play for the historical feel it could give. Also I thought the oceans and the idea of controlling the seas being incredibly important could be a fun new feature. Also I know a lot of people complain about the Middle East map. This could be like a newer version with better graphics, but without copying it. It'll still be much different, but for those who wanna play in that general area on a pretty looking map.

[AndyDufresne]

I wouldn't scrap the whole idea of the map. The historical quality gives it value. But I would suggest looking into perhaps a different layout of it all, perhaps not exactly like what Rocksolid found, but something that will set it apart in visual appeal from the middle east map.


--Andy

[Haydena]

Yeah, don't give up Mr K. Make it look a bit different and loads of people are gonna play it. I love the style of the Ancient Greece map!

[Mr. K]

Well I haven't even begun to work on the visuals yet, so don't worry about that. All I did was put some colors down and the names down, so yea theres going to be a lot of changes in the visuals before i'm done with this. The picture there is just to give ya the idea.

[Marvaddin]

The idea of controlling seas is good, but then how about make countries the other seas, too? So, maybe they could be an sparse continent, but with a great bonus...

[rocksolid]

Hey K,

I know Alexander's meant to be dead...but his successors visualized the earth the same way. I was watching Oliver Stone's Alexander last weekend, and they have Ptolomy as a kind of narrator, and he's tracking Alexander's progress throughout the movie on one of them oldie maps...and the controlling the seas idea could work just as well on the antique map. However, one weird deal on the antique map would be that if you conquer the territories on the periphery, you'd be conquering seashores that never actually existed except in the Hellenistic imagination...

Anyway, I just threw it out there as an option, and one that might allow you a little more liberality of style than an accurate map. But I had been wondering if the (un)popularity of the Middle East map wasn't in there somewhere... I look forward to playing on whatever map you make of this area.

[Mr. K]

Anyway, I just threw it out there as an option, and one that might allow you a little more liberality of style than an accurate map. But I had been wondering if the (un)popularity of the Middle East map wasn't in there somewhere... I look forward to playing on whatever map you make of this area.

Actually I didn't realize how similar it was the the middle eastern map until people started mentioning it. Then I realized thats another reason this map might be good to have.

[thegrimsleeper]

Well, I think your map's got a good concept behind it, and I rather like the idea someone else threw out there about a string of coutries that had linear attack options, so you'd be following the path that Alexader took in real life... It seemed like an interesting idea. I also think that the "antique" map would be worth doing as well, I'd like to see one day a map like that... 1400-style, where going west either brings you back to India or off the edge of the world.

Also, as far as the Middle East map is concerned, I heard a rumor that someone was working on a re-rub of that... but you didn't hear it from me.

[kronas]

Don't scrap the map, it is a great idea. I think it would be a great one as is.

[Mr. K]

Okay so I did some aesthetic work on it.



Unfortunatly its REALLY wide... So I tried smushing it up, but now I think it looks ugly this way. Any suggestions?



I know the numbers on the continent bonuses don't line up. I can fix that later. Any suggestions on the bonuses? I had kind of a difficult time figuring continent bonuses for Ptolomy and Kassander, because of the Seas. So I treated them as if the seas were part of the continent, and then was generous.

So what do you guys think?

[Jota]

For the squishing, how does it look if you resize it proportionately, so that the height and width scale down together? Also, are there sea routes that are missing from this map, or does Cyprus not actually border anything else in Antigonus' region? Also also, "Kassander" is a bit hard to read in the legend.

[Mr. K]

When I squish it proportionally, everything becomes too small, and the map stays really thin and strange looking. Like, even to bring the width to 800 pixels (which is pretty large), everything becomes illegible.


Yea, I forgot to add the route from Cyprus to West Cappadocia, but it'll be there by the end.

Yea, I noticed that about Kassander too. I'll get to that also.

[Haydena]

Why not try taking out the writing for now? Then resizing it and adding the text later on? That way it wont become illegible when resized...

[Jota]

What if you boost the font size? It looks like most of your countries have enough room in them that it shouldn't be too big of a problem. I usually develop my maps at a higher resolution as well, and just shrink them down when I export them for the site.

[Mr. K]

I considered that, but the font size is already really crowded in the territories around the Agean.

Does everyone agree that the smushed up version I posted looks ugly, or is it just me?

[Jota]

Yeah. I'm sorry to have to say it, but it does. I wonder if there's some sort of graphical trickery/distortion you could do that would let you lop off some of the right side of the image without having to drop any countries. Maybe involving redrawing some of the borders on that side of the map. But that could be a lot of work, especially when it's not certain whether or not it'd help.

[Mr. K]

Yeah. I'm sorry to have to say it, but it does.

No need to be sorry, just wanted to make sure.

I'll think of something next time i'm working on it. Until then, feel free to keep suggestions coming.

[kronas]

sweetness! i love it!!!

[rocksolid]

Shouldn't it be Macedonia instead of Makedonia? BAA HAA HAA HAA HAA!

But seriously, I think you want MesOpotamia instead of MesApotamia. Land between the waters instead of table of waters.

[Mr. K]

haha, actually you're right, it is apparently officially spelled Mesopotamia. I just assumed it was with an A, because (here we go again) the name actually is Greek, meaning "between the rivers" and "potamia" is "rivers" and "Mesa" is "inside" so I just assumed. But google tells me you're correct, so i'll change it next time.

[Mr. K]

I think I got the size issue straightened out.

Its coming along pretty nicely, i'm not sure what else needs to be done. If anyone could give me some suggestions on the continent bonuses that would be wonderful. Other than that i'm about ready to start working on the XML.

[Banana Stomper]

I'm not a huge fan of the mountains.

Also, i'm not really sure what's going on in the legend.

The color of Mauryan Empire doesn't seem to go with the other colors in the map, very bright. Perhaps selucus norths' could be changed too.

The note at the bottom left blends in a lot, try making it stand out a bit more.

The line connecting corinth, cana, and cyrenacia, at first glance they strike me as attack routes. Perhaps put something in the legend specifying what are actually lines indicating attack routes.

When you did the resizing, alexander's head got thinned out. Perhaps take the one in there out and put in another that hasn't undergone any size alterations, well at least only proportional ones.

Move mysia's name down a bit and to the right a bit, i think it will look a little clearer that way.

Each country looks like it is raised individually, perhaps they are separate in photoshop and the texture did that? Try to make them all one entity so that it doesn't look so "bubble wrap" like, as my first map attempt was described.

I'm not sure how i feel about the water. I like the color, i'm not sure how i feel about the texture specifically. I don't know what to suggest about it, maybe just take a look and see if you can come up with something more...watery?

The title is very small on the legend. You have a fair amount of unused space in the upper right. Give a try putting it separated up there, see how it looks. I'm not sure if it'll be better, but it might be.

I like the compass!

[Mr. K]

haha, no offense but i'm going to have to dissagree with almost every one of your suggestions.

I'm not a huge fan of the mountains.

I wanted to use a graphic like some maps use, but I couldn't really find anything I liked.

Also, i'm not really sure what's going on in the legend.

The color of Mauryan Empire doesn't seem to go with the other colors in the map, very bright. Perhaps selucus norths' could be changed too.

I used the same exact color to match the continent colors with the names on the legend... Perhaps your eyes are alittle off. But the legend is a little messy looking, I was going to fix it up so all the words are clearer before I finish it off.

The note at the bottom left blends in a lot, try making it stand out a bit more.

cool

The line connecting corinth, cana, and cyrenacia, at first glance they strike me as attack routes. Perhaps put something in the legend specifying what are actually lines indicating attack routes.

Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about. Those lines are borders. I dunno if you missed it earlier in the thread, but the Agean and the Mediterranean are going to be territories in this map. Those aren't attack routes or anything, they're just more borders. I dont see how they could be confused with anything else, because they're the exact same thing as the rest of the borders on the map, and the sea attack routes look are obvious and look very very different.

When you did the resizing, alexander's head got thinned out. Perhaps take the one in there out and put in another that hasn't undergone any size alterations, well at least only proportional ones.

Good call, i'll get that straightened out.

Move mysia's name down a bit and to the right a bit, i think it will look a little clearer that way.

I would but then there would be no room for the numbers. Im gonna leave it.

Each country looks like it is raised individually, perhaps they are separate in photoshop and the texture did that? Try to make them all one entity so that it doesn't look so "bubble wrap" like, as my first map attempt was described.

I actually spent a good bit of work making sure it would be this way. I did it on purpose and I really like the way it looks. So again, i'm not going to change this. I had it the other way in my other map, and I prefer this way for this map.

I'm not sure how i feel about the water. I like the color, i'm not sure how i feel about the texture specifically. I don't know what to suggest about it, maybe just take a look and see if you can come up with something more...watery?

Again I refuse to budge on the water. I'm especially happy with the way the water turned out. It gives the feel of an ancient map. I don't know if you know what I mean, but a theme in ancient maps always seems to have this very curvey textured crazy looking water, very similar to what I have here. I'm especially pleased with how it came out like this, so I'm going to keep it. I could make it more watery, but I definitely think it would take away from the feel. So again, i'm not going to change this.

The title is very small on the legend. You have a fair amount of unused space in the upper right. Give a try putting it separated up there, see how it looks. I'm not sure if it'll be better, but it might be.

Good call, i'll give it a shot.

I like the compass!

Thanks![/quote]

[Banana Stomper]

Banana Stomper wrote:
I'm not a huge fan of the mountains.

I wanted to use a graphic like some maps use, but I couldn't really find anything I liked.

I'm not really concerned with whether or not you couldn't find graphics you like, they still don't look good as they are. Try different textures/colors/depths

Quote:

Also, i'm not really sure what's going on in the legend.

The color of Mauryan Empire doesn't seem to go with the other colors in
the map, very bright. Perhaps selucus norths' could be changed too.

I used the same exact color to match the continent colors with the names on the legend... Perhaps your eyes are alittle off. But the legend is a little messy looking, I was going to fix it up so all the words are clearer before I finish it off.

Those two comments were completely separate. I know the colors match in the legend and the map. That does not have anything to do with the colors not going with the rest of the colors on the map.

When i said i didn't understand what was going on in the legend, i was referring to the unclear graphics in there. What are they?

Quote:
The note at the bottom left blends in a lot, try making it stand out a bit more.

cool

???

Quote:
The line connecting corinth, cana, and cyrenacia, at first glance they strike me as attack routes. Perhaps put something in the legend specifying what are actually lines indicating attack routes.

Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about. Those lines are borders. I dunno if you missed it earlier in the thread, but the Agean and the Mediterranean are going to be territories in this map. Those aren't attack routes or anything, they're just more borders. I dont see how they could be confused with anything else, because they're the exact same thing as the rest of the borders on the map, and the sea attack routes look are obvious and look very very different.

I understand that the lines in the sea are not attack routes,, and that they are borders and that they are in fact very different. What i'm saying is that at first glance, they strike me as attack routes. I was suggesting that in the legend you specify what are actually attack routes(The pink dotted lines) so that there is no mistake, or at least less likelyhood of thamistake being made. Not an unreasonable comment in my opinion...


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