[Abandoned] - Vietnam

[natty dread]

can anyone suggest a good font to use because i have been browsing through many maps seeing how they make the text look really good and so far i cant seem to replicate it. i am improving using the airbrush but i need the text itself to stand out to. the current text is serif, and i tried using osaka which is crisp but it doesnt stand out very well because it is too thin

www.dafont.com

[kengyin]

thanks

[natty dread]

Also, I almost never use airbrush.

If you have trouble drawing neat lines, use the path tool and the stroke path -function. Working with the path tool takes some practice but it's very powerful when you learn to use it. Experiment with it.

Also, when you add text, check the "force auto-hinter" option on.

[kengyin]

9 pages, 9 versions and half a year later and still in the melting pot, is that a record or what?

[Riskismy]

At the very least it's an impressive feat of patience.

[kengyin]

there are other maps that get into gameplay at 4 to 5 pages and 4 or so versions with not many criticisms and everyone is rushing them along. im not even asking for that much, just the drafting room. please

[natty dread]

Have you sent a pm to Mrbenn or thenobodies80 like I told you?

[kengyin]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Riskismy]

hehe. Grats!

[kengyin]

Current Version

v6.0
-title and subtitle fonts changed to "capture it"
-territory titles changed to black "sansation"
-hanoi and saigon autodeploy changed to white osaka font same as regular text
-bonus area and numbers titles changed to black
-glow put around titles, subtitles and territory titles
-HCMT 3,4 and 6 corrected from killer neutral to decay of 2
-bonus values changed as follows
--red river delta from 6 down to 5
--south central coast from 5 down to 4
-6 territories removed
--bac kan and cao bang merged into bac kan
--ninh binh and nam dinh merged into ninh binh
--quang tri and da nang merged into da nang
--quang ngai and binh dinh merged into quang ngai
--tra vinh and ben tre merged into ben tre
--ca mau and bac lieu merged into ca mau


territories

-7 northeast
-5 northwest
-6 red river delta
-5 north central coast
-1 hanoi
-6 ho chi minh trail
--30 north vietnam
-5 south central coast
-6 central highlands
-5 southeast
-7 mekong river delta
-1 saigon
-6 linebacker 2
--30 south vietnam
---60 total

neutrals
-saigon
-hanoi
-ho chi minh trail 3
-ho chi minh trail 4
-ho chi minh trail 6
-landing craft 1
-landing craft 2

60-7=53 starting territories (golden number)

[kengyin]

what more do i have to do to progress to the next stage?

[natty dread]

The new font looks good.

My advice is to just relax about the forums and keep working on your map... you can work on your map no matter what forum you are in. Eventually you will be moved.

It's like, the destination is not important, only the journey matters.

Anyway... I wonder if a more gritty look would benefit this map. The whole map has a colour scheme that is far too "jolly"... it reminds me of an 8-bit nintendo game or a childrens' cartoon... you know what I'm saying? You have too much yellows and reds. Wasn't the Vietnam war mostly fighting in jungles?

So I would suggest to get rid of the harlequinesque red-yellow-blue colour scheme and look into more broken hues (browns, greys, greens...)

[kengyin]

well i think that gritty would be better for the more battle focused ones rather than an overall conflict like vietnam, the battle focused ones being the ones which focus on specific battles and tactics showing the true side of war with the bloodshed and dead bodies and stuff, those should be gritty such as d-day:omaha beach. but mine is more like the eastern and western front maps, being a large scale one that depicts the geo-political status of vietnam with more general strategies and politics and diplomacy and stuff, what with flags and stuff showing the side of war seen by the general public with the glorious fighting and honour and what the newspapers broadcast talking about how battles are won and land is gained. my colours reflect that, with red being the colour of communism and blue being the colour of democracy and capitalism. also red and yellow are the colours featured in both north and south vietnamese flags so it makes sense to include those, red blue and white are the colours in the american flag (with white being the text colour). i hope this makes sense

[kengyin]

there arent many gameplay suggestions, does that mean most people like it as it is?

[natty dread]

well i think that gritty would be better for the more battle focused ones rather than an overall conflict like vietnam, the battle focused ones being the ones which focus on specific battles and tactics showing the true side of war with the bloodshed and dead bodies and stuff, those should be gritty such as d-day:omaha beach. but mine is more like the eastern and western front maps, being a large scale one that depicts the geo-political status of vietnam with more general strategies and politics and diplomacy and stuff, what with flags and stuff showing the side of war seen by the general public with the glorious fighting and honour and what the newspapers broadcast talking about how battles are won and land is gained. my colours reflect that, with red being the colour of communism and blue being the colour of democracy and capitalism. also red and yellow are the colours featured in both north and south vietnamese flags so it makes sense to include those, red blue and white are the colours in the american flag (with white being the text colour). i hope this makes sense

Sorry but no, it doesn't really make that much sense. Sure you can think of "justifications" for using just about any set of colours, but what I'm saying is the current ones do not really remind me of a dirty war being fought in a jungle... to be honest, it reminds me more of a fruit bowl.

Red-Yellow-Blue - the main colours in the substractive colour system - is a colour scheme that summons a certain sense of naivety and playfulness, almost childishness... they are easily defined colours, which is why so many children's shows use colour schemes derived from the basic red-yellow-blue scheme.

The colours you have in south vietnam are good. Use something like those more, add some browns and greys...

[kengyin]

i will make them darker and grittier but i still want to retain the main colours of blue and red, and ditching most of the yellow (the main yellow is in the flags anyway), then i can put some grey and dark green hues into that

[kengyin]

oh how about world war 2 eastern front, its got yellow and pink

[natty dread]

oh how about world war 2 eastern front, its got yellow and pink

Old maps are bad examples. That map was done ages ago and it is not very good graphically. Standards were lower in the earlier days of the Foundry.

[kengyin]

well i think the colour contrast between red and blue reflect the fact that it was during the cold war and there was so much tension between the communists (red) and the nato aligned countries (blue), those colours are important symbols of the cold war and thus vietnam war, this is not just another jungle war, it is a war with serious political tensions backed by 2 rival superpowers contrasting in almost every way. if i got rid of the blue and red in favour of green greys and browns, those are generic army colours and while represents the army and fighting, doesnt represent the sides in the war and also then i dont even have much contrast between north and south vietnamese territories. yellow is childish but its only in hanoi and saigon (the flags too but those are historically accurate), blue and red certainly are not, nor green.

[kengyin]

heres a super quick mockup of having reddy browns and greeny greys, note the edges showing the previous colour is because i just did a quick fill bucket but actually it could enhance the gritty broken look. is this what you had in mind?

[natty dread]

The land area would be good with those.

The title: you have under the title this light yellow with red stripes, and a red with yellow star. Bright red + yellow is an awful combination, it reminds me of condiments. Remove the title background for now. We can think of something to put there later.

The non-playable land area: this is light orange. Change it to like grey or something.

Then you have these red and yellow things on the left and right edges of the map...

I also have to wonder, are you using layers for everything?

[kengyin]

no, but i accidentally merged the outline with the background colour and impassables (dont worry why) also is it just me or is the poll creation system really munted?

[kengyin]

far out man, seriously i think i will just have to ditch the poll

[Riskismy]

I think the new colours are an improvement as well. The Mekong River Delta and Central Highlands are identical in colour, but I guess it's no bigge with that legend and while they don't border each other.

[natty dread]

no, but i accidentally merged the outline with the background colour and impassables

Oh dear... you don't have a version on hand where they are separate?

Always keep backups. This way if a change goes horribly wrong you can revert to a previous version.

As for this... I think you may have to redo it. It will be better for you in the long run.