Conquer Club

DiM wrote:looks much better now.

just one more thing. you moved the ... erm .. ph...poles around and now they don't touch the bottom of the map. instead they just seem to float in mid air.
i think you should not extend them towards the bottom of the map but instead do what you did with the title sign. make the poles stick in the map itself.
put some dirt and some grass at the foot of the poles and they'll look great.

Yes, that's why i pulled them up from the bottom, I'm working on that now. Thanks dim for your feedback.

cairnswk wrote:

DiM wrote:looks much better now.

just one more thing. you moved the ... erm .. ph...poles around and now they don't touch the bottom of the map. instead they just seem to float in mid air.
i think you should not extend them towards the bottom of the map but instead do what you did with the title sign. make the poles stick in the map itself.
put some dirt and some grass at the foot of the poles and they'll look great.

Yes, that's why i pulled them up from the bottom, I'm working on that now. Thanks dim for your feedback.

Inversion 6 above
1. Grass added to bottom of poles
2. background tropical tree and beach added on right of map

cairnswk wrote:

mibi wrote:This map needs more flavor. I don't like the Overlay text either, it looks too watermark-ish. THe boat connections needs to be better presented, its all clusterfucked in a square centermeter there. The title and its integration is great though, nice touch.

Hows that for an open face comment sandwich.

Thanks mibi for those comments.
I'm not sure we're going to be able to do something about the boat connections as this is where they EXIST.
However, i'll examine all for you.
Aren't you watching your own Presidential Debate? I am.

the city is a long territory with lots of shorefront, why do both boat connections have to be milimeters apart?

i agree with mibi on this one. the yarrabach and yorkey boats could be spaced a bit more in the city terit.

also i like the palm tree as that area was feeling a bit too empty

mibi wrote:...
the city is a long territory with lots of shorefront, why do both boat connections have to be milimeters apart?

DiM wrote:i agree with mibi on this one. the yarrabach and yorkey boats could be spaced a bit more in the city terit.

also i like the palm tree as that area was feeling a bit too empty

I'm hearing you both...the reason i placed it like that was because all that front city shoreline is mud mangrove swamp and largely inaccessible for boats, however, i have moved them apart more.

I've tried some landscaping etc and it didn't work, and after doing that, i'm kind of thinking that because this map is really cluttered tert-wise in the middle, it's not going to take anymore graphics around the continents themselves. Perhaps that palm tree need to go and be replaced with something else, while you like it Dim, it's wearing thin with me.

Anyway, version 7 below with some small changes.

I'd vote to get rid of the palm tree. It's just...meh.

Also, the grass at the bottom left is less than spectacular. It adds a nice flair, but I think you could do a better job with it.

Overall, I love this map

Ok, you've lost me a bit. The perspective drives this guy crazy. The sign popping out of the water looks all wrong to me. The sign(poles) should be sticking up out the water, at an angle at least. Here you have the sign flat, yet sticking straight out of the flat water. The bottom of the poles, and the water lines should be oval shapped.
The other sign looks fine, because it looks like an image laid over the map, not like it is a part of the map.

Map looks great, I'm almost loathe to point anything out, but since it's so polished, I imagine cleaning up specks here and there is the priority now:

The boat route from Portsmith to Edmonton East has a dot kind of directly east of Portsmith text that could probably be removed.

The tinnie routes (lol can't believe there's tinnies in this map) don't correspond with the legend. The legend is '- - - -' and the routes are '- . - . - . -' The orads don't correspond exactly either now that I look closely

The texture on Northern beaches is a fair bit more noticeable than the other continents, so stands out as a little different style-wise.

The beach on Trinity Point is a bit, hmm, pixelated? It's a little too square and not fadey enough. Mind you it's only like 8 pixels lol, so might be hard to fine-tune

Aside from that, looking great. I'm really digging the subdued green of the non-play areas, the sign in the water is a nice touch. Mount Whitfield could probably use a touch-up. It's a pity topographic maps are hard to find, I could only locate one for this area of Cairns that was about 100x80px

I kinda like the palm tree. Something at least should go there.
Do you think you could do something to help distinguish the walking trails?
Especially the one that runs along the river.
The tinnie and roads are easily identifiable, and the walking trails could use the same treatment.

Thanks guys, i'll get around to attending those issues you've posted about later this week.

Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points on this map. Cairns is surrounded in all those large green areas by high mountains.
Perhaps if they started as neutrals and were linked to existing territories by walking tracks, they could then bombard or attack certain territories within the city areas.
What do you think?

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points on this map. Cairns is surrounded in all those large green areas by high mountains.
Perhaps if they started as neutrals and were linked to existing territories by walking tracks, they could then bombard or attack certain territories within the city areas.
What do you think?

Unnecessary complication, IMO.

ZeakCytho wrote:

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points on this map. Cairns is surrounded in all those large green areas by high mountains.
Perhaps if they started as neutrals and were linked to existing territories by walking tracks, they could then bombard or attack certain territories within the city areas.
What do you think?

Unnecessary complication, IMO.

i concur hang-gliding is not needed

ZeakCytho wrote:

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points ...
What do you think?

Unnecessary complication, IMO.

DiM wrote:...i concur hang-gliding is not needed

Oh OK.

cairnswk wrote:

ZeakCytho wrote:

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points ...
What do you think?

Unnecessary complication, IMO.

DiM wrote:...i concur hang-gliding is not needed

Oh OK.

I'm glad a decision has been made... I was going to also post in disdain of the hang-glider concept

MrBenn wrote:

cairnswk wrote:

ZeakCytho wrote:

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points ...
What do you think?

Unnecessary complication, IMO.

DiM wrote:...i concur hang-gliding is not needed

Oh OK.

I'm glad a decision has been made... I was going to also post in disdain of the hang-glider concept

Idea Stamp then?

cairnswk wrote:Idea Stamp then?

The old one or the new one?

MrBenn wrote:

cairnswk wrote:Idea Stamp then?

The old one or the new one?

Doesn't matter to me

Welcome once again to the Foundry Proper... onwards and upwards

Mr B

MrBenn wrote:

Welcome once again to the Foundry Proper... onwards and upwards

Mr B

Woot! Thanks MrBenn.

Current Version 7

Hmm, The lines that you are using to denote attack routes are of a style traditionally used in maps to represent borders, so I have to reset my brain to ignore referential knowledge when examining the layout of the map. And I noticed that the lines on the map aren't the same as the lines in the legend - one dot or two? And are there any walking tracks?

The "4" in the mini map doesn't seem to go with anything - I know it's the bonus for East Trinity but perhaps it can somehow intersect with the actual color of the region?

I still have some misgivings about the subject of this map (Seattle population 3 million, least popular regional map; Cairns population 120,000?) but as usual for you Cairnswk it looks very nice and should play well.

oaktown wrote:Hmm, The lines that you are using to denote attack routes are of a style traditionally used in maps to represent borders, so I have to reset my brain to ignore referential knowledge when examining the layout of the map. And I noticed that the lines on the map aren't the same as the lines in the legend - one dot or two? And are there any walking tracks?

The "4" in the mini map doesn't seem to go with anything - I know it's the bonus for East Trinity but perhaps it can somehow intersect with the actual color of the region?

Are there any walking tracks? You either can't see them or are you asking if they exist in RL. Yes they do. Not well used for walking more for dirt biking, but they're there in RL.

Version 8...fixes for above.

I still have some misgivings about the subject of this map (Seattle population 3 million, least popular regional map; Cairns population 120,000?) but as usual for you Cairnswk it looks very nice and should play well.

Hmmm. If we all had closed minds like this oaktown, certain maps outside the sphere called "USA" might never get made nor played. I'm surprised that you apply this analogy as a moderator and believe you should know better in your field of work. Who gives a f*** about the population. Who cares if it is usual for me or not. The important point is that it has character and plays well.

And if it turns out to be map that never gets played then it can be taken from the site and dumped. But at least let the players make that choice, not your preconceived notions of what you think might be popular.
I am sorry for sounding angry with this again, but this is the second time you've gone down this road with me and it appreciated.

cairnswk wrote:Anyone interested in having some hang-gliding attack points on this map. Cairns is surrounded in all those large green areas by high mountains.
Perhaps if they started as neutrals and were linked to existing territories by walking tracks, they could then bombard or attack certain territories within the city areas.
What do you think?

Unnecessary....
But awesome..... I likes it.....

ZeakCytho wrote:Unnecessary complication, IMO.

DiM wrote:i concur hang-gliding is not needed

MrBenn wrote:I'm glad a decision has been made... I was going to also post in disdain of the hang-glider concept

Ah, the problem was indeed that I couldn't see the walking tracks... the old color trouble again.

cairnswk wrote:The important point is that it has character and plays well.

Agreed, cairnswk - I think you put it well. I've had the same issue with other maps that have been a bit esoteric in terms of subject matter - Puget Sound being an excellent example. I think that Puget maps plays well enough, but until very late in its production the community obviously felt that it lacked character. Getting that map to the point where the colors and graphics gave the user some sense of what the region was about was grueling, but it paid off.

So if the criteria are that a map has character and plays well, I put it to you that at this point this map gives me little sense of the 'character' of this region. There are some neighborhoods near a coastline, but it could be anywhere and in any kind of climate; you could rename all of the territories with Egyptian names and call it the Nile Delta and I wouldn't be any wiser. Here is one very telling post from this thread that suggests that I'm not alone in my lack of understanding:

whitestazn88 wrote:is cairnswk actually a place? or did you name the territ after yourself?

I'm not saying you should drop this, and I never have. Just keep in mind that for you this is a region that is very close to home (or, actually IS home!), so for you the "character" of the region is a given. Your challenge in creating this map, as I'm sure you know, is to share that inside knowledge with the rest of us. I want to know what I'm playing.

I certainly don't think that for a map to be quenched it should be a region that I am personally familiar with, but I do feel that it is my place as a member of the foundry community to share my thoughts on the potential appeal of a new map. I would hope that if I came up with a draft that didn't capture the spirit of my subject somebody would let me know... it would've saved me a lot of time and energy back in the old Chinese Checkers days.