Hong Kong [Quenched]

[casper]

UPDATE: FOR THE LATEST VERSION OF MAP CLICK HERE




link to small

Here's my first attempt at a map. Any and all feedback is welcome. I haven't named the regions yet although red is Hong Kong Island, brown is Kowloon, and green is Lantau Island. If anyone from or familiar with Hong Kong has names suggestions for blue, orange, and purple let me know! My biggest concern at the moment is the brown region which is a little cramped and could be very difficult to hold. I will decide on bonuses later. Please feel free to post what you think they should be. At the moment the regions break down like this:

countries / borders / attack routes
green 4-2-2
red 6-4-4
blue 9-4-4
orange 7-4-5
purple 8-3-4
brown 8-6-9

Anyways let me know what you think...what you like..what you don't like.. would you want to play this map? etc. Thanks.[/url]

[Hoff]

looks like a good start. With some work on the overall visual appeal of the map i would play it. I'm sure others would too.

[Jota]

This looks nice. The ocean probably needs to be toned down somehow: it's a very strong color that kinda distracts a bit from the land. Not sure how to make a color more background-y, though. Also, the country names could be easier on the eyes: I'm not sure if they need a different font or just mixed case.

As for bonuses, I'd probably go with something like green 2, red 3-4, blue 4-5, orange 4, purple 3, brown 6-7. An extra connection between Tai Lam Chung and Sunny Bay would push blue up into a more solid 5. Also, I think brown might have too many borders for it to really be worthwhile. The mountains along its edges don't really seem to be doing much to limit that: Kwai Tsing, Tai Wai, and Wong Tai Sin are all still borders despite being partially blocked.

[casper]

hi jota. thanks for your comments. yeah i am not 100% happy with the font either.. just wanted to get something up to show people and get some feedback on. will work on that. i can tone down the ocean no problem. and will find a way to reduce the # of borders that brown (kowloon) has...

[Red Army]

And please redo the ocean... It will drive me nuts if I ever play on this map.

[HighBorn]

needs work but has potental

[AndyDufresne]

Well lets see...



~~Visual Appeal~~


---As it currently is I think the ocean has a lot of potentinal. I like the fact that it isn't the same ocean as other maps. But I think it needs to be toned down a bit, but I think keeping it somewhat similar would be an interesting plus.

---I like how the continents look and feel, though the pinkish continent seems a little bright, as with a few others. Toning down teh colors would also be more pleasant to the eye.

---As stated earler the font does need some tweaking, but I think you can surely find one that will flow with the map.

---Are the green amoeba's on the map mountains? It's rather hard to tell, some works needs to be done.

=================================

~~Quick Suggestions~~

---Keep names of countries off the white circles. It will clutter it up and make the countries even harder to read. The center of the map seems almost too dense for the font (though finding another font will probably help alleviate the problem).

---I'm not too big of a fan of the bold, white continent connecting lines, perhaps look into a different style or something to change though.

As for bonuses and such, I'll comment back later once you have a workable legend up.



--Andy

[Marvaddin]

Wow, good map.

To help you with Brown problem, I suggest:
1) Make non-crossable the borders between Tai Wai and countries from other continents. Same to Wong Tai Sin.
2) Cut off the route between Yau Tsim Mongand Wan Chi.

Very very good!! Im impressed!!

EDIT: I loved you put the analysis already

[rocksolid]

Voice in dissent: I like the different feel of the ocean, looks kind of papery, which has a nice Asian flavour...

[casper]

thanks to everyone for all the input so far. i'll post a revised map as soon as i have time to work on it some more.

marvaddin: i like your suggestions on fixing the brown region. gracias.

andy d: yes those are mountains. you might not like em but they're better than just a thick brown line like some maps. i agree that the white "bridges" could use some improvement.

rocksolid: thanks. that's what i was going for. i didn't know most people would dislike the ocean so much. i'll see about toning it down a bit... most likely that texture is going to stay though.

hold tight for version 2!

[Banana Stomper]

I like what you did, or what it looks like you did. I had the same idea, to take a picture from google earth or something and put transluscent colors over top. Something about the map makes it difficult for me to look at though. Its really busy, really crowded, a lot going on. One thing that sorta gets me is all the white. White boarders, white letters, white attack routes. Makes it kind of harsh on the eyes. I don't know if i would play on a map so bright and busy. But i guess bright and busy is very asian. Either way, it all boils down to me not wanting a seizure.

[Hoff]

Yeah I agree that the white is just too much. And the ocean looks pretty bad, but i'm a stickler for how the ocean looks. If you want, you can take "ocean 1" from the poll about which ocean looks better. I made that ocean so i dont care if you use it. But its pretty similar to the ocean stomper is gonna use. So its up to you, but the ocean is a big part of the visual appeal of a map. And this current ocean needs alot work.

[Banana Stomper]

There he goes again.

[Jota]

I'd like to point out that I don't actually dislike the ocean; I think it's quite pretty. I just think it sticks out a bit too much, making it harder to focus on the foreground elements.

[rocksolid]

Yeah I agree that the white is just too much. And the ocean looks pretty bad, but i'm a stickler for how the ocean looks. If you want, you can take "ocean 1" from the poll about which ocean looks better. I made that ocean so i dont care if you use it. But its pretty similar to the ocean stomper is gonna use. So its up to you, but the ocean is a big part of the visual appeal of a map. And this current ocean needs alot work.

Number of times "ocean" appears in this post: 8

[Black Jack]

I like the mountains, they do not like like ropes of dog-doo.

[areyouincahoots]

I don't particularly like the ocean, and some of the country's names that spill onto other countries boarder on confusing, but I think there is a lot of potential in this map!

[casper]

here's an updated version with a new font... dark circles instead of light.. couple other changes. anyone have problems with the bonuses? let me know. thanks.

[Jota]

The bonuses mostly look pretty reasonable to me. However, now that Kowloon's borders have been reduced by the mountains, I'd knock it down to a five.

Visually, I think the background still stands out a little bit, but it's not that serious. It might be helped if you stroked the land layer with a white outline that matched the country borders. Even if you don't, I do think that the borderline between Po Lam and Clearwater Bay might look better if it were extended a bit to the west, just because the purple land and the dark blue are so similar in that area. Possibly the same for the borders at the north end of Kam Tin. But that could just be a matter of personal taste.

Oh, and the font and circles look fine to me.

[casper]

thanks. yeah kowloon should probably only be 5. however, i am a bit concerned that the overall bonuses will be too low. e.g. no 6's or 7's. maybe i should open kowloon's borders up again and push it up to a 6 or 7? more feedback would be appreciated! cheers.

[rocksolid]

I haven't looked at game dynamics here at all, but aesthetically I like this version a lot.

[Scorba]

I would keep Kowloon as a 6. It is the hub of the map and will be incredibly difficult to hold since it borders all but one of the other continents, and that is only one step away. I would also up Sai Kung to a 4 or 5 as although it only has 3 borders none of these actually border each other, which makes it very difficult to recapture if someone breaks the continent and dumps a sizable force there. With 8 countries it's certainly too big for a 3, and it's pretty much the same as North America on Classic.

[Marvaddin]

Here I go.

Countries, borders, routes (again):
Lantau, 4, 2, 2: surely 2.
Hong Kong, 6, 3, 3: 3 is good.
Kowloon, 8, 4, 6: yeah, 6.
New territories: 9, 3, 4: I would give it a 5.
Sai kung, 8, 3, 3: really not 3, 4 would be good.
Plover Cove, 7, 4, 4: 4 is good.

Name: Hong Kong is the name of a country, a continent, and the whole map... its a bit strange... Maybe the map name should be other, I dont know.

Im having some problems to see Sai Kung properly, because of the ocean... the colours are alike, I believe you could use a bit lighter colour for the continent.

The continents are well designed, but the expansion seems a bit linear, since almost all border countries are connected to only one border country of the neighbour continent. Maybe some new routes between already border countries could change it... Hong Kong to Sunny Bay, for example.

[kevinc]

Hi,

I'll let others comment on the feasability of the map. But I do have a few comments on the design.

• The Type face used in the first map was sstronger and more legible.
• The sea needs to be toned down. The emphasis should be on the game area itself.
• The old mountains looks better. These new ones actually look like they are insert into the map rather than raised off it. Perhaps it's just where the lightsource is coming from.
• Links between islands. I would suggest having a dotted line between islands rather than a single strong line. It's a good way of showing two places are 'sort of' connected.
• The black border and trim at the bottom again draws attention aware from the map. I would suggest simply overlaying it on the bottom. The black is too strong and conflicts with game area. You have to remember what the focus is on, everything shouldn't grab the viewers attention.
• The font chosen is a little cheesy. I know it's hong kong, but it's just twee. I would suggest sticking with the original font used. It's strong contemporary and professional.

Overall the design is good. It's better than most ideas posted up here, and I think when it's finished it will be great. All the best with it!

[charlieo]

May I suggest making the bridges between counries the same color as the boundaries? I think that off-white/yellow would be more distinct than the current blue, but not as overwhelming as the original bright white.