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natty_dread wrote:Ok, so this is in graphics, time for me to step in...
Firstly, the border around the land area looks blocky and pixelated, it's going to need a redraw. There's two ways you can go about this (that I would recommend)...
If you're by now more comfortable with your ability to draw freehand (it can be done with a mouse, it's just kinda tedious) you can do that. Try the ink tool: set the settings so that you set both speed and size variation to 0, and use a round brush (I don't think calligraphy would really fit here) and you can get a much smoother & more consistent line than with the paintbrush tool.
Or if you don't want to do it freehand, you can select your land area and convert the selection to a path. Use the advanced settings, by shift-clicking the selection-to-path icon, and in the advanced settings set both Error treshold and Align treshold to minimum, leave the others to defaults. This gives the best result in most cases in my experience. Now when you have the path of the land shape, you can use it to stroke-path the land border. However, the shape may be slightly different from the existing land shape... so you may want to select the path, use path to selection and use the selection as your new land shape.
Ok, the next thing on the list is... the territory borders. These look nice otherwise but the glows are a bit inconsistent - they look stronger on some areas than others. You should look into that - try playing with the layer modes and the colour & opacity of the glow. Also, the colour of the borders themselves could be made a bit stronger.
Next... the forests look crappy, redo them. Sorry. They just don't fit with the map style, and are too pixelated and noisy - try a smoother style.
The mountains... I get what you're going for with them, but they are going to need more work, as well. Redo them as well.
Then... the bevel on the land area... after you've redone the land borders (and possibly adjusted the land shape if you go via that method) you'll want to look into this. I don't know which method you've used for the bevel but it doesn't quite work - at some places there's some emboss artifacting which doesn't look good. If you used my bevel script it would have settings designed to get rid of this... (shameless self advertising here). Anyway, look for a way to get rid of it. If you have the bevel on a separate layer from the land area (you should) then you could try applying some gaussian blur on it, it may work or may not...
Anyway, I would have more things to say about the icons, title & legend, but I think this is enough for now. If you have any questions regarding the methods I've described feel free to pm me.
pamoa wrote:you are doing great some minor suggestions
about southern mountain range
it gave the strange feeling that it's not a border
I think it is because of his colours which are quite the sane as the land around
maybe you should try to put more green inside
landing zone
you should try with a border with the colour of other borders
ships and plane
the graphics are great but to my opinion they blend to much in the background
as your graphic stile is very contrasted
maybe you should try to give them some drop shadow
legend
you have a nice white border to separate each field
why don't you try to put it all around each frame including aircraft's
keep going
edit
a last point
to my opinion you should put a line under the mine fields
it seems empty now
Flapcake wrote:the mines you have in the legen look much better than the mines at the map, just a quick comment ohterwise your goin in the rigth direction
natty_dread wrote:Well, the land border is better... as far as line work is concerned. I think, however, the border colour is a bit too light. Also, not too sure on that whole bluish-tint to it... I realize you're trying to do something different than the standard black borders, but the current colour just seems kinda faint. Also, at some places the borders are really hard to see now (the westernmost area) and some places they just clash with the land (the brown areas).
I suggest at least making the borders darker, and going from there.
Also, the land colour goes "over the lines" a bit on territories 3MI 3 and 4th 4. On 2Bn 4 the border is cut off from the edge of the map.
As for forests... I'm sorry, but you can't just flat out refuse to work on them further. I've had to do dozens of designs on different impassables on some maps. Current forests are better than the previous ones, but they have this kind of plastic feel to them, which doesn't really seem too forest-y to me.
The mountains... well, the problem is, they don't pop up enough. They look too flat to be impassables, and the two-tone colouring is too jarring, you should go for a more smooth gradient to get the look you're probably going for.
ALZ and BLZ icons: these look too plain and pasted-on, they should also pop up from the map more. The BLZ icons are nearly impossible to read.
koontz1973 wrote:The colour is light, that was the reason for the lighter glow, to make then stand out better.
koontz1973 wrote:With te mountains though, they are jagged rocks but what I can do it make the lower third more of a slope than a mountain and then go with jagged rocks.
koontz1973 wrote:I know about the LZ icons. I bloody hate them too, just have no idea how to do them. I have tried everything from shiny tiles, matt tiles, round tiles, blah blah blah, even tried to copy Dims villages in his last map. Nothing seems to work. I just need inspiration for them.
koontz1973 wrote:natty, when I said the colour was light, it was to mean that the colour was lighter than black.
koontz1973 wrote:Tried you idea for the Lz's and did not like it one bit.
natty_dread wrote:You probably didn't do it right then...
RedBaron0 wrote:Much has been said on the pixelation here, so I won't beat that dead horse...
The ships look pretty bland and generic, I'd look into something else there, and the planes I'm 'meh' on. The British chopper is awful, while the Argentine one is world better. And the mines have been mentioned...
The playable surface itself is generally pretty good. Add a glow or shadow by the Argentine flags, they are blending into the sea background. Why is there a starburst behind the legend? its kinda distracting.
natty_dread wrote:Here's what I suggest for the LZ:s
thehippo8 wrote:I've been thinking how to approach this one.
I have gone back to this image and compared that to this.
Some good things in the first image not seen here ...
1. The flag of Argentina is light blue, I liked that colour behind the Argentinian planes.
2. I know you were doing what the others asked about more clearly demarking the areas with colours ... problem is I liked your original colours more than these! That's not to say give u7p on different colours, I just don't really like them.
3. I preferred the old borders. Check out the Cyprus map ... that has thicker borders on the outside than the inside.
4. I liked the mines, maybe you can reconsider the awful orange things!
5. The landing zones before were in keeping with the map. I don't feel the boxy things work.
6. As ugly as the old mountains were, I liked them!
7. I preferred the sea having texture.
8. I thought the ships stood out better in the earlier image.
That'll do, just my impressions and no doubt others will disagree. It has been interesting to watch this map develop as I have a similar idea but want to see this come to fruition first!
koontz1973 wrote:
4. I liked the mines. How do you draw a circle 5 pixels wide with points coming out without it looking like crap. The current solution is temporary. I intend to put the mines back in at a later date.
5. Landing zones will be one of the hardest things to get everyone to agree on. I am still not happy with nattys solution but it is better than my shiny box.
koontz1973 wrote:natty_dread wrote:Here's what I suggest for the LZ:s
Done as this, better than what I had but still not happy with it.
RedBaron0 wrote:Another thing that pops out at me atm the borders and outlines... very pixelly and jagged, gotta smooth them out.
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