[Abandoned] - Switzerland

[Unit_2]

Wow, thats really nice But Basel-Landschaft and Solo-Thurn are really ard to tell which is which, try making the mt. a bit smaller so you can see whats what.

[Kaplowitz]

v4

Click image to enlarge.

-Put a bg texture
-Made the yellow more yellow
-Made the mts less red
-Moved the mts over a little

Good or Bad?
Whats next?
Whats needed for adv. idea?

[Kaplowitz]

check this out.

[cairnswk]

Kaplowitz...looking good....although not the colours i would have used for Swisse.

Are you going to add any Alps and landscaping thingies?

[t-o-m]

i always thought of switzerland as bright, sunny, soft top cars, people smiling, happyness while driving sports cars through the sunny alps, this doesnt show any of that

[Kaplowitz]

Cairns, i was just going for a straightforward classic map, if thats what you meant.

tom, i can brighten it up

[Kaplowitz]

v5

Click image to enlarge.

-Brighter
-New BG

[t-o-m]

maybe the accutal map could be brighter, i like the background, maybe that could go lighter? maybe have a background colour of something like white as a bast then have the ocpacity of the picture laye as say 80% - or wat ever and see what happens

for me - this version is a defoinite improvement

[ZeakCytho]

The brightness of the BG is nice in this version, but the map looks weird just floating over the image. Also, the image is rather busy and can distract the eye from the map itself, which, I think we can all agree, is the most important part of this. I'd much prefer a plain texture with an image (or multiple images) in the corners than one large image.

[t-o-m]

maybe do something like on the germany revamp where you have the surrounding boarders and pictures faded inside them

[Kaplowitz]

v6

Click image to enlarge.

What about a lighter bg with a nice plain texture and a pretty cool looking border?
And i fixed the border around the army circles, they were kind of pixely.
You can compare it to the previous versions on page 1

[ZeakCytho]

I love this version.

Some other miscellaneous comments:
1) Some parts of the text are a tad hard to read, such as Basel-Landschaft and Lausanne, since they cross over the territory and the BG. You could fix this by adding a faint drop-shadow/glow.
2) The army-circle borders seem a bit strong, maybe turn down the opacity a bit? The circle-centers are nice, but the edge is too strong.
3) The edge of the mountains, where they blend into the territories in by Bern adn Grenchen is very different than the blend in the rest of the range - it is darker and sharper. I prefer the edge near the northern end of the range.
4) The entire outer border of Switzerland looks a bit pixely...not sure how to fix that, really. It's not a major problem anyway. The minimap suffers from this too.

[Kaplowitz]

Sure, i will fix those!

[t-o-m]

i still think this is really dark

[Kaplowitz]

v7

Click image to enlarge.

-Changed Borders to White and gave a shadow
-Tried to blend in the mts more
-Changed black outline around map to a less pixely white glowy outline
-Gave the text a darker glow for readability

Updates good?
Do the borders make it look lighter now?

[t-o-m]

i mean the acctually terits are dark,
i dont like the white boarders,
the background is too busy me thinks,
the mountains look good,
text seems blurey

[ZeakCytho]

The border of the entire country looks much smoother now, as is the mountain blending

I liked the black borders between territories better, personally, but the white ones really do lighten the whole map. Maybe try grey ones as a compromise? You could also revert to black borders and try lightening the entire BG of the map to brighten it. Or you could have an inner glow around each territory or continent (or an outer glow around each border line) that stretches farther than it does right now. I'm not sure which would look the best.

The text could use a bit darker a shadow, but if that looks bad, it's pretty good as is.

Edit: one small thing. The border between Scuol and Chur doesn't extend all the way to the edge.

[RjBeals]

Looking good Kap.

I think I prefer the white borders over the black, but I'm not so sure about the main continent inner glow. It makes it look kind of weird to me. The slight drop shadow on the whole map looks good. I hope you're going to do something with the background though. It's gotta go. Noise / Motion Blur. No good for Switzerland. But I do like your style - it reminds me of mine!

Also - I'm not too thrilled with the map border and the main title, and you sig. They're okay but I think you could improve. The colors are great, the borders are nice (although my opinion is they almost too jagged in places - they could be smoothed out a bit). The territ names are fine for me. There are a few places that look too cramped and confusing. A smaller font may help.

Nice job though Kaplowitz. You've got good talent.

[Kaplowitz]

I think this ones a winner!
v8

Click image to enlarge.

-Much whiter borders
-Black text with white glow for crisper look
-EDIT: fixed key to represent current map

With the exception of the key, i think the entire map looks MUCH lighter now with the new text, borders, BG, and glow.
Agree? or more?

[t-o-m]

i think the legend need lightening up, but it looks good, well done

[Kaplowitz]

i think the legend need lightening up, but it looks good, well done

refresh

[Kaplowitz]

Looking good Kap.

I think I prefer the white borders over the black, but I'm not so sure about the main continent inner glow. It makes it look kind of weird to me. The slight drop shadow on the whole map looks good. I hope you're going to do something with the background though. It's gotta go. Noise / Motion Blur. No good for Switzerland. But I do like your style - it reminds me of mine!

Also - I'm not too thrilled with the map border and the main title, and you sig. They're okay but I think you could improve. The colors are great, the borders are nice (although my opinion is they almost too jagged in places - they could be smoothed out a bit). The territ names are fine for me. There are a few places that look too cramped and confusing. A smaller font may help.

Nice job though Kaplowitz. You've got good talent.

Wow, i completely missed that post!

1-I can change the BG, i will try some other things next update
2-Thanks about the style comment, actually when making the base for the map and the icy colors i kept thinking of a mix of Feudal War and Iceland.
3-I can fool with the title and stuff
4-I just used this map:

Click image to enlarge.

for borders, and i figured that jagged borders were just how Switzerland was! I can smooth them out if you think that it is hard to tell what is where.
5-I can make the font smaller

[ZeakCytho]

I preferred the black text with white glow to this new one, personally. I also liked the black borders better, but these new white one's aren't terrible.

I'd keep the title just as is; I really love the font on it right now.

[Kaplowitz]

I liked the black better too, but it really had brightness issues, and this definitely helps that IMO.

[gimil]

I think your going about the colors all wrong, I feel that this map should have a neutral feel to feel swiss.