Conquer Club

I like how Elarn has a territory that's completely separated from the bulk of the continent (though that doesn't really alter the number of border territories it has)

Good idea, but it is extremely similar to alexander's map

d.gishman wrote:Good idea, but it is extremely similar to alexander's map

But in fact it's not so can people stop repeating that all over again? Let the map maker do his job. At least this map has some potential for playability not only eye candy...

DiM wrote:gameplay
*you still have too many continents.
*some rivers don't really act as impassable. for example the river in Aria - Sarangian zone. it does not form any impassable borders except between Parthia and Sarangian. the point of the rivers is to reduce the number of external borders not internal ones.

I will make some changes again on borders ...

DiM wrote:graphics.
*army circles are too big. if i'm not mistaking a good size is 24px
*you have 1px borders for the neutral parts and because of this there's a lot of pixelization
*the coloured circles in the legend should be larger so we can view the colours better.
*bridges are bad. try to do something that really looks ike a bridge. wood or stone
*the sea is very dull because it lacks a texture
*add some inner bevel to the rivers, make them thicker and add texture.
*some parts of the map have screwy bevel. for example Sidon looks like it's floating on top of Pelusium when they should be on the same level.
*the text is strangely skewed. look at Ancyra or Trapexily.
*also you might want to move some labels to avoid crossing borders or army circles (ie Susa)
*still talking about the text. Thrace label is barely visible.
*text font is readable but it has no spark. get a font that really add feeling something persian, ancient, etc.
*the mountains look rather strange. maybe because other map elements have bevel and the mountains don't.

About circles, mine is 25*25 after Ruben Cassar said I made them bigger ... (I don't think 25 and 24 have many differents )
you said "a lot of pixelization", I can'r understand what's your meaning ... can you explain more?
Will make colored circles larger ...
I'm searching a good bridge graphic to maje something like it ...

And about your other ideas, all of them are nice, thank you and I will use them ...

Evil DIMwit wrote:I like how Elarn has a territory that's completely separated from the bulk of the continent (though that doesn't really alter the number of border territories it has)

That's some diversity ...

Ruben Cassar wrote:

d.gishman wrote:Good idea, but it is extremely similar to alexander's map

But in fact it's not so can people stop repeating that all over again? Let the map maker do his job. At least this map has some potential for playability not only eye candy...

Thank You Ruben Cassar, for your patronages ...


And Now Atfer That New Ideas, I made this one:
[Many Things Changed!, 10 Continents, 44 Countries and ......]

heya, I wouldn't have impassables in the middle of a continent, the continent as illustrated in Aria and Elam.


Also, some of your bonuses are too high still.

Unless they are starting as neutral territories, any continent with just 2 territories should have a bonus of only one as it provides an unfair advantage if someone starts with them.

That is the same with any territory with just 4 territories should ideally only have a bonus of 2, I suggest Bactria's bonus should be lowered from 3 to 2 and Elam and Pasaragrade's continent bonus should only be 2 also.

look at it this way, say someone captured all 5 continents on the right hand side, they would only be defending from 2 points whilst collecting a whopping bonus of 22 for 22 territories

the graphics are much improved though, keep up the good work

Night2 wrote: you said "a lot of pixelization", I can'r understand what's your meaning ... can you explain more?

aliasing and antialiasing is all about pixels and lines.
your borders are aliased meaning diagonal lines aren't smooth. what you need to do is use the blur tool or increase the size of the brush from 1px to 2px and set it on antialiased.

here is a pic that explains better.

nice improvements regarding the graphics. i like them.
but here's more:
* some text labels are hard to see. mainly those in the sea and those in Armenia. i would add a slight glow in the colour of the continent. or in white.
* the sea labels are not in the same note as the rest of the labels. they are white and with a different font. try making them as watermarks. look at keyogi's revamp of middle east and see how the continent labels are put. make your sea labels the same.
*in Hyrcania there's a bit of neutral terit going into the caspian sea. shouldn't that bit also be part of Hyrcania? if yes, then make it green.
*some of the thicker borders look bad. as if you drew them once with a 1px brush and then came with a 2px one and drew again over the old ones. look at the yellow-green border. it's very clear there.
*remove the bold from the legend it makes the text hard to read.

nagerous wrote:heya, I wouldn't have impassables in the middle of a continent, the continent as illustrated in Aria and Elam.


Also, some of your bonuses are too high still.

Unless they are starting as neutral territories, any continent with just 2 territories should have a bonus of only one as it provides an unfair advantage if someone starts with them.

That is the same with any territory with just 4 territories should ideally only have a bonus of 2, I suggest Bactria's bonus should be lowered from 3 to 2 and Elam and Pasaragrade's continent bonus should only be 2 also.

You are correct, I should change some bounces and borders again ...

nagerous wrote:look at it this way, say someone captured all 5 continents on the right hand side, they would only be defending from 2 points whilst collecting a whopping bonus of 22 for 22 territories

the graphics are much improved though, keep up the good work

This is correct, but I think the interesting of this map is this ...
For test I will make an other border with Elam from west ...

DiM wrote:

Night2 wrote: you said "a lot of pixelization", I can'r understand what's your meaning ... can you explain more?

aliasing and antialiasing is all about pixels and lines.
your borders are aliased meaning diagonal lines aren't smooth. what you need to do is use the blur tool or increase the size of the brush from 1px to 2px and set it on antialiased.

here is a pic that explains better.

Thanks, I understand and will make them smooth ...

DiM wrote:nice improvements regarding the graphics. i like them.
but here's more:
* some text labels are hard to see. mainly those in the sea and those in Armenia. i would add a slight glow in the colour of the continent. or in white.
* the sea labels are not in the same note as the rest of the labels. they are white and with a different font. try making them as watermarks. look at keyogi's revamp of middle east and see how the continent labels are put. make your sea labels the same.
*in Hyrcania there's a bit of neutral terit going into the caspian sea. shouldn't that bit also be part of Hyrcania? if yes, then make it green.
*some of the thicker borders look bad. as if you drew them once with a 1px brush and then came with a 2px one and drew again over the old ones. look at the yellow-green border. it's very clear there.
*remove the bold from the legend it makes the text hard to read.

* I will make labels correct ...
* About that neutral terit going into the caspian sea, that was not conqured by Persian empire in 2500 years ago and is not a part of Persian Empire ...

I agree that you should tone down the bonuses, but I do like how you have a large number of continents -- don't combine any more.

While it's nice to see some effort put into the early stages of a map for a change, I'm just not sold on the idea. As mentioned by others, it's very similar to the Alexander's Empire map and I personally find that map much more appealing than this one is turning out to be.

Some suggestions however. You've got some very bright 1980's colours going on for a map based on an ancient empire. Perhaps that is ok, I just find it a bit out of character. The colour also has something to do with this, but I mostly think it's the detail in the dead territory... the map is excessively busy. I can't just look at the map and be comfortable with it. My eyes are darting all over the place trying to escape all the distractions.

A couple of other little things present themselves. The tiny legend for one, it's hardly practical. Also the army shadows are too dark, particularly on some of the green and blue continents. I would look into a lighter shade, since army numbers are going to be impossible to read with the shadows as they are. There is a large chunk of wasted space down the bottom of the map. Perhaps crop this out and see if you can add more room where you need it.

Thanks from all ideas ...


With attention to your ideas, I changed the map to this one:

Why is pasagadae worth 3 but dahae worth 2? They have the same amount of borders and countries.

unriggable wrote:Why is pasagadae worth 3 but dahae worth 2? They have the same amount of borders and countries.

Pasargade have 4 countries ...
Y didn't see the Kish island in the Persian Gulf?
Also Pasargade and Elam are in an important place that is the main roude from west to east ...

Nicely done, night2. I go to bed, get up and there's a new map ready to play.

Fireside Poet wrote:=D>

Nicely done, night2. I go to bed, get up and there's a new map ready to play.

Thank You

I hope this be the ideal map for other ...
I'm wating for their opinions ...

Night2 wrote:Thanks from all ideas ...


With attention to your ideas, I changed the map to this one:

This is actually a very nice start... Quite a jumpy from the previous version!

I would tone down the background images a lot. Fade them out so they are more neutral, but I do like the stone effect so the colour is good.

I like the legend and the map title, the papyrus effect is good.

As for the map itself, the colours are really very bright and the bevel effect is too much at the moment. Tone the colours down a fair bit and lose the harsh black shadows (perhaps a light grey would be better). The colour combinations clash a little as well, so I'd play around with different colours next to one another for the best effect. Google 'colour wheel' to find which ones match.

The bridges and mountains are a little too cartoony for the rest of the map. I'd go with simple lines, check the Cairns Coastal map for example, and for the mountains I'd go grey not brown. They look a bit like turds, though, so a re-draw might be in order, else consider getting rid of them altogether as they don't add anythign to gameplay - Elam, Bisitum and Ragae are all still border territories.

Beautiful map! I'll just agree with everything Keyogi said - no point in me wasting space

Hmmmm ...

The new map is this:

The colors are now darker ...
Bevel size got smaller and it's colors from withe and black changed to bright gray and dark gray ...
Armies circles changed to light color ...
Bridge's graphic changed ...
Maountain's graphic changed ...
Some trees added ...
Created by added on bottom left ...
And some other very small changes ...


Now here is 2 questions for me ...
1- There is a bridge between Elam and Bisitun ... It should be there or I clear it?
2- As KEYOGI said, army circles should be lighter ...
I tested it but in my idea it's not beautiful as dark ... now I should let be light or the dark was good?

Keeps looking better!
I think this map is different enough from Alexander's Empire to warrant continuing.
I also prefer the light army shadows.

Maybe change "tree" to "forest" as well.

Gozar wrote:Keeps looking better!
I think this map is different enough from Alexander's Empire to warrant continuing.
I also prefer the light army shadows.

Maybe change "tree" to "forest" as well.

Yes the Forest is better ... I will change

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And isn't there any more ideas? can I start making the XML file??

I like your talents and abilities, but I'm not quite sold personally. But I say that usually early on.


--Andy

it doubt if we accualy need this map...

we have the Alex empire. The whole setup/ gameplay will be too similair
And with the speed the maps are made at the moment, we will have a very big bunch of maps in the soon future.

It's not an ideal situation to end up with more then 50 maps i think.

@lack/andy/keyogi: is there a policy dealing with the number of maps?


@night2: We all see you have good abilities in mapmaking. But this is (in my opinion) not the map cc needs at the moment. Just dont spoil time, but try something different. maybe an map of the egyptian empire, or the aztecs, maya's or inca's. There iare lots of places left to paint...

I agree with Spritzking for the most part.

As for the # of maps, the more the better. If we ever think we get too many, we'll consider other options, but lets do that in the future.


--Andy