Version 11.6 FRANCE 2.1

[Mishalex]

Thanks Rj, but they are not clip art moutains... I made it myself on illustrator...

[Lancelot du Lac]

The map is vector. May be, speak you on the pictures around the map ?

[Mishalex]

Here, you can see that i just had change some of the moutain size and shadow in order to be more realistic as everybody wanted... Lancelot were close to the reality in his 10.2 version of the map... I'd just changed some things...

What do you think ? For me, it's way better than the last moutain version i presented yesterday and closer to the graphic design of the map. RJ, if you take a look at the first version of the map, you'll see that the texture of the background is essential, cause, without it, the map looks still and unfinished...

[RedBaron0]

I.... think RJ might be onto something. Its worth a try to look at the map without texture at all and then build off that concept. Try a very simplistic mountain; say something similar to what is on 3 Kingdoms of China.

[Mishalex]

Guys, guys, guys, have a look at the FIRST page of this subject, you will find all the different version of the map INCLUDING the map without the texture... And then, at the page 4 you'll find this post Industrial Helix:

Think you can add some texture to this map? If you need help doing so, let me know.

And this one from Koontz1973:

ndustrial Helix has asked for some texture, this is a wonderful idea. You can go for a plain simple paper texture so the map looks like it came from an atlas or something more exotic. But this will be a must have for the map.
Right now, your map is just a flat colour, whilst nice, it makes the map look like an ordinary map. Giving it a light texture would really make it come alive.

And here:

OK then, here is a couple of my maps with and without the texture.
These first two are from the mag map in the main foundry. As you can see, the colour of Romania is this bright ghastly purple but after 3 layers of texture are added, you get this dark red that is not a solid colour. And this is what your map needs to be, not solid blocks of colour.

And this from nolefan5311

This is shaping up to be a gorgeous map. Very nice work...the texture really added another dimension to it.

So, I understand everyone wants to give their opinion, but there are as many different opinion as people playing on CC. But more important, the players who gives their opinion don't even take a look at previous post or version of the map, so it's getting more and more difficult to continue here...

[Lancelot du Lac]

I would even add that the map without texture too bland.
Now we must stay focused on the mountains. This is the last step.

Give us your advice to draw perfect mountains.

[isaiah40]

The texture is fine, maybe increase the opacity a tad to make the texture a little less noticeable. On the Paris inset - I just noticed it - you need to have the surrounding regions on it so the players know what borders what. The mountains are better, they look like they are pasted on. Maybe do a gradient color from the brown to transparent, so that the region color looks as if it goes up the mountain a tad bit.

[Lancelot du Lac]

The borders 's region are on the Version 10.4. That is your preference ?

Who vote for the border regions ?

[sempaispellcheck]

The borders 's region are on the Version 10.4. That is your preference ?

Yes, but could you make the text a bit larger than it is on 10.4? It's really hard to read there.
And that actually goes for the whole map, not just the inset.

sempai

[Le_cardinal]

Hello,

perhaps somebody already wrote it, but there are many misspelings in the departement's names :

Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Hautes-Pyrénées
Hautes-Alpes
Alpes-Maritimes
Bouches-du-Rhône
Drôme
Saône-et-Loire
Côte-d'Or
Haute-Saône

And if you want to be more precise, all departements that have a name made of several words should have dashes between all those names. Example : Indre-et-Loire. But most important is the list above.

Thank you.

[Lancelot du Lac]

May be we should change the color of the region, the mountains look less like Clipart.Then add border's regions, as in this example:




What do you think ?

[Aleena]

I do not think the mountains look any more like clip art then those on the New Zealand map which reciently have been approved ...

viewtopic.php?f=358&t=156364

I like the mountains here, in fact I think they are better then those on the New Zealand map...
Even like the shadow casting they have....

He all ready stated they are not clip art and he took the time and effort to draw these beautiful mountains himself...

Sometimes it seems like different standards for different map designers, not sure I fully understand the base platform guidelines you all go by when judging others work...

[isaiah40]

I probably shouldn't have said pasted on. They look more like they are "floating" on the map and not "part" of the map. As for the example Lancelot, that does look much better IMO. Now get the rest of the mountains looking that way and we should be good to go on those. For the disputed regions, if you have the image in the circle, make sure you put about a 50% opacity on them so the numbers will be easily seen. Don't forget to place the region names around the Paris inset regions, like you have in Version 10.4.

[RjBeals]

To keep the mountains from looking like clipart, try adding a shadow to the land. There's already a light direction on the mountains themselves, just add some dark areas to the ground beside them - see graphic. Also - nice map

I still think this will help and satisfy everyone. Keep the current mountains but work on the cast shadow.

[Lancelot du Lac]

I do not think the mountains look any more like clip art then those on the New Zealand map which reciently have been approved ...

viewtopic.php?f=358&t=156364

Thanks Aleena. Thanks all for you last suggestions. Here the last updates with some corrections.

I think now is over.

See you later for the XML


Last update
VERSION 11.1
1. Map Name France 2.1
2. Version 11.1 [9 August 2013]
3. Dimension : 915 * 927

Click image to enlarge.

[pamoa]

6 month for mountains its a lot
the forge is bloody time trap

so just to confuse you a little bit more
here is my point of view
and only a point of view
the shadows are useless and make the mountains looks glued on the map
forget the shadow
but change a little bit the colour of each group of mountains
so the blend better in their background
by example add a bit of green in the Vosges
and again its only my lousy point of view

[Lancelot du Lac]

Thnaks for your advices Pamoa.

But as you say, six months is too long especially for ... nothing. And why give your suggestions after six months ?

Moutains are done. See this map : viewtopic.php?f=358&t=156364 The same mountains !

Now, we must go to the next step, and we need everyone, evry advices again.

Thanks.

[Aleena]

know how you feel - I'm dead in the waters on draft stage - after waiting a month, I got only one suggestion that took, 5 minutes to fix, now i'm dead in the water again... Must be a better way to encourage the process system here...

Maps take years to produce, not because this site insists on high quality, but because it takes a month or longer to get any feed back or direction...

[Mishalex]

And what is yours about the new version ?

[RjBeals]

Maps take years to produce ... because it takes a month or longer to get any feed back or direction...

You need to make people interested. You steer the direction, not the foundry.

[isaiah40]

Okay I have studied the mountains some and have come to conclusion that what is making the mountains "float" on the map is the shadow. To make it easier for you and to not delay this much longer, remove the shadows. The right side of the mountains look good, it's just that left side just looks blah.

On the foreign claims areas, one of two things need to be done: 1 - increase the opacity so the emblem is subdued by another 50%, or 2 - place the 888's outside of the emblems. If you do #2, then I suggest placing the number for Catalogne on an oval so the number can be clearly seen. Personally I would go with doing #2.

On the mini-map, you will need to move ALS +1 to the right of the region so it can be easily read, OR use an outer glow around all of the bonus region names so they all can be read easier.

This is all I have, so while you are doing these, go ahead and get the small map done, color blind tests done, and the 888 test on both small and large and hopefully we can call this good to go. Post all of the tests here and in the first post!

[Aleena]

Ty for the feed back -

But the chat rooms are usually dead based on the number of members on this site - so not sure how to get the idea out there...

I have had a number of players state they like it - but that along does not seem to give me a STAMP...
The people in charge of stamping (if they are not stamping - actually should be more active and help explain all or any reason why we fail to make the next check point.) The community does not have the ability to stamp any project - so even if I was able to double the number of players that say they like it - it will do no good? (Or if you claim it does effect it, then what is the number of players needed to state they like it, for one to achieve a stamp for the next stage of developement?)

Saying it is the designers job to pull attention to the project to help push it forward is a unrealistic and simplistic view of this whole system !!

[RedBaron0]

Look, no one is saying the map looks bad. There are just parts that need to be tweeked. The mountains continue to not match the style of the map and have very simple design problems that many of us have tried to help you guys with. If there really are a lot of players out there that agree with you that everything is fine with the map and its ready, then get them in here and tell us! Just because we have blue shoes doesn't mean we don't listen. But it has to be more than just a bunch of your friends that tell you that it looks great... folks that hang around here have continued to say the mountains don't look right to one degree or another, guys that make maps and do digital artwork. This process is what it is, and even we think it can be tedious, time consuming, and a challenge to anyone's patience.

Please, check out this tutorial on mountain building: viewtopic.php?f=649&t=78687 And see what kinds of mountains you can doodle up with your gfx program. I know its been mentioned before, but its worth being brought up again cuz the tutorial is -that- good, and always worth second and third looks. It's helped me out plenty of times before. I even looked back on to quicky draw some mountains on your map, I gotta clean them up a little before I show yo though, but I'll finish them later since its late here and I need to be up for work in 6 hours. :/

[Bruceswar]

While I really like this map.. The color blind test is a fail.

[Aleena]

What is the actual % of color blind players we have?