natty_dread wrote:Ok, now we're getting to business.
Firstly... the dry river: when I last told you to make the borders follow the edges, I meant that they should be exactly on the edge where the colour/texture changes. When the borders are on the side like that, it looks less clear... the borders define the territories, and people are used to territories to be a single colour each - it's how most people visualize the territories. Now, you sort of have two borders for those territories - one black (or red) line, and one colour change. Make it just one border, it helps players to visualize the areas and connections.
Done
Similarly, to keep consistent with that idea, move the impassables also on top of the edges of the river.
Done
Next.. the red border: it's a bit blurry. You should make it more crisp and defined, since it has an important gameplay purpose, and also because blurry, thick lines like that just don't look so good.
fixed. It was blurry and the opacity was turned way down. Should be clearer now.
Reynolds, Jones, Dalton etc. territories: The walls around these territories are too plain - they don't pop up from the image like walls should. Try some shading, more contrast with the surroundings... The same is true with the Shaka area walls, and to a lesser extent, the central brown area... all of those impassables could use more "pop". Make them look more 3d... the current shadings are not consistent, and look too weak. Some drop shadow, dark outer glow, things like that... or higher contrast...
Had a drop shadow in previous version and took it out as it made the rocks float. Been trying lots of different shades of shading. Let me know what has worked.
Which brings me to another point: you have a sort of mess with so many different impassables, so many different textures and colours... you should have a clear contrast between the playable lands & impassables.
Removed 2 of the impassables. The brick walls in the outpost have been replaced by what I call the sandbags. Also the brown bushes have turned green.
Ok, I have more things, but I think this is plenty of things to look into for now... I don't want to overwhelm you or anything
Sniper08 wrote:On another point from Natty , the grey impassibles in the bottem right need some redesign. i cant tell what the yare supposed to be, mountains,hills, giant slabs of rock.
giant slabs of rock.
some other things aswell, try to add more contrast to the ibutho's mpande, cest , nbada and buth. they all have a brown type colour and i think atleast one of them could be changed to a different colour entirely while the others need to have more contrast between them.
Gave the middle of the 3 a yellow look which fits the map.
the nbada ibutho to the right of the river bed is darker and much different to the left which is lighter.
That was due to the lighting effect. Got rid of it for now. Looks better as the sun would of shined evenly over the whole map anyway.
since natty gave u a bunch of stuff aswell ill hold off on other stuff until next version is done.
Never hold back what you think. In the end we will all get to play on this map
MrBenn wrote:This is the latest image in the thread, and is the one I've been poring over...
Overall, the map looks alright - but part of me thinks it's a case of being damned by feint praise! Please accept the following criticisms in the manner in which they are intended - which is to help turn the map from an "alright" map into a "good" map
Please do not think that anything said in this thread causes me offence. I am going to do my best to get all of the aspects right. Do you really think I want to play on a map that looks bad.
In no particular order then:
1. The image feels very cluttered... there are lots of different impassables, which while it makes sense for the terrain, actually distracts the eye. You have two types of wall (I'll assume that they are walls) in the central British area - I don;t really see any need for the different colour backgrounds to the british outpost, nor for the different walls... It would be much nicer to have walls that looked like some kind of fortification/walls, with a bit more depth/height to them.
Removed some and consolidated others.
2. The outer glow/stroke on the Chieftain names needs to be adjusted - at the moment I'm guessing you have the same effect on each piece of text; whereas you would be better to adjust the colour of the glow/stroke to a slightly lighter shade of the relevant territory/terrain colour
Done as you suggested. Looks way better and added to the British names.
3. The trees are too uniform - and perhaps too large? It would be nice to have a slight mix to the forests, with less uniformity to the trees... try different sizes, slight colour variation, turn some trees around etc etc...
Did this before and it did not look right. Did it for this version and still does not look right. Looked at lots of photos of this region and most of the trees do seem to go in one direction. If no one objects, next version will have the trees back to what they were before.
4. Natty already mentioned about the black territory borders needing to be on the edge of the terrain changes - I would also suggest changing the colour of the lines (you can do it by adding a colour overlay to the layers(s) ) to something more brown or grey - and perhaps increase the opacity a bit... you can probably afford to make the borders a little more subtle. Along the regional/tribal borders, I would make the lines a little stronger/heavier to help emphasise those divisions.
Tried the colours and with the palate that I have used, none seem to work or look right IMO. Kept with the black. Natty suggested that I put a glow along the edges of each region. If I do this, then a couple of questions. Do I put it all along the dry river bed as this is technically a different region. If so then what about the wet river. Also, Rorke's Drift, put it around that as well. And the 150 yard line. That would be a lot of glowing lines.
5. I don;t know if this is just me being stupid, but what exactly are the "Zulus inside the 150 yard line"? I cannot see any warrior symbols, so assume you're referring to the green (Zulu?) territories... If this is the case then that legend instruction needs to be made much much clearer.
Changed the word Zulu to territories so it should be 100% clear now. The wording in the legend is also surrounded by the red line. If that does not work, I can put it by the side and how would you word it to not include Rorke's Drift in that statement.
6. I get that the British Front Line Officers are supposed to be firing, but to me it looks like they're leaning/falling over too much ?
Should look better now.
7. There are two river warriors in the (wet) river... One of them has one-way attack arrows, the other does not. For some reason this looks like an oversight/omission ? If this is not the case, then I would suggest adding double-headed arrows to the other warrior so that it is obvious that the borders are two-way.
Added a 2 way arrow and placed in legend as well.
8. The legend at the bottom of the map needs a complete overhaul. It has no style and feels very much like an afterthought. The explanation of the battle is reasonable, but the "11 British soldiers named" who won the Victoria Cross feels like random trivia and a bit nondescript - especially as there are not 11 British Soldier (icons) on the map. There is no mention of the VC being the highest reward for bravery, nor that the Battle of Rorkes Drift saw the most of them awarded for a single campaign. In any case, whether or not the backstory is expanded, that green text is a bugger to read and needs to be changed to something better.
I always thought the legend was an afterthought
With the 11 British soldiers, I did say
named.
Added the line about VC being British highest award.
Rorke's Drift did not win the most VC's for a single action so by putting it in would be wrong.
The text was yellow
but changed it.
9. Still on the legend, the instructions are not clearly laid out, and it is not apparent where the bonuses accrue. It would be better if you could link the text about the river warrior bonus to the river warrior icon, for example!
Can do this and will be on the To Do list for next version. Missed it when doing this one.
10. The warrior/soldier icons are good, but in some places feel indistinct, and look very "stuck on" to the map, rather than an integral part of it. This is particularly the case for the River Warriors - and is probably due to the difference in contrast between the icons and the map itself.
Are they better and if not, some pointers in the right direction would help.
11. The title text feels a little lame and lifeless. I stumbled across
this image which looks like you could take the text and use it as your title, but I don;t know if you have enough room currently?
Added your text. Not happy. Tell me what you think though. To make it match the legend I used the same background.
That's it for now... although I feel like I've only skimmed the surface
Thanks everyone. Here is the next image. Tell me what works not, what does not.
V.26- Click image to enlarge.
Legend overhaul.
Things to look at.Trees?
The texture for the iButhos and dry riverbed. I wanted to keep these as plain as possible to distinguish that these are the main playing areas. Do I need to add more detail?
