Dark Continent (Colonial Africa) [Quenched]

by **ender516** on Mon Nov 21, 2011 1:18 pm

When you get to fixing the legend/mini-map, don't forget to label Egypt and fix the spelling of Libya.

When the gameplay comments dry up, I can revise the XML.

by **AndyDufresne** on Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:27 am

It's been a while since I've looked at this map, but it has grown on me, and I can see myself giving it some play time. It's not the prettiest map out there, but use to regularly play on the old Germany map which was steps below this!

Best of luck,

--Andy

by **The Bison King** on Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:11 am

Currently doing an "alpha test" of the map on a print out. 5 player game, so far proving to be pretty balanced. Actually very balanced we keep trading European territories but not to the point where it' the focus of the game and there's no clear leader yet. We've been playing for a while.

by **ender516** on Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:01 am

Good to hear. Maybe I will get going on the XML update, then. By the way, I think the title would look better as

The Colonization of the

Dark Continent

although I am undecided whether the second "the" should be capitalized. (The underlining is just to point out the change.)

by **The Bison King** on Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:21 am

ender516 wrote:Good to hear. Maybe I will get going on the XML update, then. By the way, I think the title would look better as

The Colonization of the

Dark Continent

although I am undecided whether the second "the" should be capitalized. (The underlining is just to point out the change.)

Lol yeah... that was a mistake.

by **The Bison King** on Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:37 pm

OUT OF TOWN TILL 12/5/11

by **thenobodies80** on Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:19 pm

It's passed a month without an update.

Moving this one into the Recycling Box for a [Vacation] period, if you want to continue with the map, then one of the Foundry Moderators will be able to help put the thread back into the Foundry system, after an update has been made.

Nobodies

by **The Bison King** on Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:27 pm

God I'm sorry, I get it I'm lazy!

I'm ready to apply for the super size though.
Sm-900X860
LG-1050X1003

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

As soon as I get approval I'm going to do a complete graphical revamp. I think the gameplay is set. Like I said I gave it a test run and it was seemed very well balanced.

by **natty dread** on Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:05 pm

"Dark Continent"...

... something about that title doesn't sound good to me... like, why is Africa a "dark" continent? Sounds a bit too much like "those uneducated savages"... dark ages and all that... I know it likely isn't your intention, but that's just the kind of connotations the name brings in mind to me...

Anyway, I don't think you're going to need that much supersize. I think you could decrease both map sizes to about 80-90% of that, you'll have room for the legend if you just move things around a bit. Maybe just make the map a bit wider, there's no need to increase the height so much though.

by **The Bison King** on Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:51 am

"Dark Continent"...

... something about that title doesn't sound good to me... like, why is Africa a "dark" continent? Sounds a bit too much like "those uneducated savages"... dark ages and all that... I know it likely isn't your intention, but that's just the kind of connotations the name brings in mind to me...

I knew this would come up.

Africa was deemed “The Dark Continent” (most likely used in print for the first time by US journalist and explorer Henry Stanley – of “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” fame – in his Africa account “Through the Dark Continent”) due to the fact that it remained a mystery to Europeans for so long. While most of the world had been under European control for quite some time Africa held out until the final decades of the 19th century, when it was carved up and parceled out to the main European powers in the Berlin Conference. But even after Africa had been divvied up, in reality the majority of the continent remained largely unexplored. It was not exploited until later when various factors collided enabling Europeans to begin a systematic exploitation of Africa’s vast resources.

I recognize that from a modern day perspective, that title has acquired a bit of a nasty connotation. However from a historical standpoint it really seems to fit the bill. To me it really conjures the image of old fat British nobles smoking cigars and dividing up lands that they've never been too. Which is a perfect fit for this map IMO.

I think the name really fits but I'm willing to change it if there are more people who feel that it is inappropriate.

Anyway, I don't think you're going to need that much supersize. I think you could decrease both map sizes to about 80-90% of that, you'll have room for the legend if you just move things around a bit. Maybe just make the map a bit wider, there's no need to increase the height so much though.

good idea.

by **The Bison King** on Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:58 pm

Ok just to let you guys know where I am with this map, I AM GOING TO CONTINUE WORKING ON IT. In fact I've very happy with the gameplay right now, and I am hoping to collect the game play stamp. I'm a bit stalled on graphics because I'm lost the Stylus for my Wacom tablet ](*,)

Which for the record is about the most anoying thing on earth to loss since no stores sell them and they cost up to 60$ inline, FML

So until I get that replaced (probably after Christmas) there's really no way for me to work on the graphics. That is unless I decide to go the water color direction, which I have been considering.

by **natty dread** on Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:30 am

The Bison King wrote:Which for the record is about the most anoying thing on earth to loss since no stores sell them and they cost up to 60$ inline, FML

If you have an older model you won't find one from any store, the wacom e-store sells them for all their models but it's expensive... you could try ebay or something?

by **The Bison King** on Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:51 am

natty_dread wrote:
The Bison King wrote:Which for the record is about the most anoying thing on earth to loss since no stores sell them and they cost up to 60$ inline, FML

If you have an older model you won't find one from any store, the wacom e-store sells them for all their models but it's expensive... you could try ebay or something?

I couldn't even find newer models in stores. They should just hang up a sign that read "If you don't have and Ipad, we don't give a f*ck about you and we won't sell you what you need".

Yeah it's Intuos 2 any way, the cheapest I found was 43$ on New Egg. However I might just try and get a whole new tablet for Christmas.

by **natty dread** on Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:10 pm

Ipads are fucking useless pieces of shit and a waste of technology. Oh hey, want to buy an overpriced "computer" which you can use to browse some websites and use some applications, but only those which we approve of?

Anyway... speaking of stylus problems, our cat chewed my bamboo stylus... It didn't break or anything but got some extra scratches. Meh.

by **The Bison King** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:38 am

Ok, I'm currently borrowing my bosses tablet so I took advantage of it and stayed up most of the night working on this:

Click image to enlarge.

I'm playing around with making Greece an Ottoman territory 0 (+1)with Ottoman, but I don't know. It might just be confusing having a non-colonial power territory in Europe.

Oh yeah and this would be the new large.

by **ender516** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:50 am

I like the look, but I too am not sure about putting Greece as you have described. It seems off topic, outside the theme of the map.

by **The Bison King** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:57 am

double oh yeah, I got rid of Russia. It was a completely useless territory.

ender516 wrote:I like the look, but I too am not sure about putting Greece as you have described. It seems off topic, outside the theme of the map.

I'm inclined to agree.

by **The Bison King** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:58 am

The Bison King wrote:Ok, I'm currently borrowing my bosses tablet so I took advantage of it and stayed up most of the night working on this:

Click image to enlarge.

I'm playing around with making Greece an Ottoman territory 0 (+1)with Ottoman, but I don't know. It might just be confusing having a non-colonial power territory in Europe.

Oh yeah and this would be the new large.

(just bumping onto the new page)

by **natty dread** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:09 am

Well, I like the new graphics.

Personally, I would have made the borders thinner. But it's just a personal preference, and at least they look clean and nice now.

The bevel on the legend frame seems a bit too thick. I'd suggest a thinner bevel and adding some kind of metal texture to it. I can make one for you if you don't have one...

Lastly, about the non-playable area being white... seems kinda too bright, hits the eye too hard... draws too much attention from the main map. I'd suggest some other colour, maybe light grey, and changing the current grey areas a bit darker or some other colour.

by **The Bison King** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:42 am

Personally, I would have made the borders thinner. But it's just a personal preference, and at least they look clean and nice now.

Yeah I cringe now when I look at the previous version.

The bevel on the legend frame seems a bit too thick. I'd suggest a thinner bevel and adding some kind of metal texture to it. I can make one for you if you don't have one...

Yeah if you have a texture for that, that would be great. A lot of work needs to be done there. I just wanted to give you guys a feel for the direction I was taking the legend.

Lastly, about the non-playable area being white... seems kinda too bright, hits the eye too hard...

Actually I just haven't got to those areas yet...

by **natty dread** on Fri Dec 23, 2011 12:01 pm

Ok, try this one. Mask it on the frame and try different layer modes until it looks good... If it doesn't work I can make another or tweak it.

In gimp I use the grain merge mode for most textures, I don't know what would be the equivalent layer mode for photoshop though, but experimenting always works.