The Dawn Of Ages - Quenched

[Kabanellas]

Neon, I've done this before but here it goes, the cliffs with a color burn - I could go this way as well:

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[natty dread]

I liked them better black.

[Kabanellas]

Brown Cliffs

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Black Cliffs

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Black Cliffs with Shaded Mountains

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[natty dread]

Black cliffs & shaded mountains, definitely. IMO.

[AndrewB]

Brown cliffs, shaded mountains.

[Industrial Helix]

I like the mountains shaded, but I want the cliffs to be the same shade as the mountains?

Otherwise, black cliffs and shaded mountains will do.

[thenobodies80]

I like the mountains shaded, but I want the cliffs to be the same shade as the mountains?

I think it's worth a try

[Kabanellas]

ok - here it is

Shaded (cliffs and mountains)

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Brown Cliffs - shaded mountains

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Black Cliffs with shaded mountains

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[natty dread]

Now I think the first one (with matching shades) looks nice. Either that or the one with black cliffs, both look good to me. Can't decide.

[Industrial Helix]

I'm really torn between Brown cliffs and black cliffs.

The brown cliffs look nice and the shading seems about good on them.

But the black cliffs do a lot to shape the map into a landmass. With the brown cliffs, theres not a whole lot separating the land and the sea and it all just blurs together. I think if the sea were blue or something, that the brown cliffs would work better. But making the sea blue just isn't feabile on this map.

I know I suggested the brown cliffs, but after seeing it I'm going to have to go with black.

[AndrewB]

Shaded (cliffs and mountains) - 10 thumbs up!

Different coloring for cliffs and mountains really stands out as odd to me.

[Kabanellas]

I'm backing Andrew here!

We should go for the ALL shaded version

[RjBeals]

I'm backing Andrew here!

We should go for the ALL shaded version

I think this as well. Looks beautiful - nice job.

[porkenbeans]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to take a crack at those mountains. Well, here is what I came up with.

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Click image to enlarge.

[Kabanellas]

Thanks Porken! That’s an honest and possible solution. Very close to Tolkien’s maps.

Like I’ve said before, we could go in a thousand ways concerning the graphic aspects of this map... And we’ve been discussing these mountains since late October 2009 – 4 months of drawings, debating, redrawing, sketching, debating, trashing, well.... you know

I’m very happy with what we have at the moment. And I would pretty much like to bring this map into conclusion and proceed to the next stage.

That being said, I'm proposing this version to be the elected one:

Click image to enlarge.

[RjBeals]

nice attempt pork. I would suggest you use those mountains in one of your maps, but Kab's map looks good the way it is.

[porkenbeans]

nice attempt pork. I would suggest you use those mountains in one of your maps, but Kab's map looks good the way it is.

Yes, I agree that this map is looking good, and there are a lot of aspects of it that are really spectacular. The mountains however are its weakest points. Kab asked me to take a stab at them. I am sorry that I have not gotten around to it until now.
That said, I think that the current ones are fine. My only nitpick with them is the shading is on the wrong side. As a result, they kinda seem out of place, if you know what I mean. If this was corrected, I believe that they would blend in better, and not seem to stand out so much. I can not wait to play this map, so, I hope that this can be resolved soon. It seems to be the only thing holding it up.

[RjBeals]

Click image to enlarge.

[/quote]

That said, I think that the current ones are fine. My only nitpick with them is the shading is on the wrong side. As a result, they kinda seem out of place, if you know what I mean.

Now that you mention it, I see what you mean. I don't think it's an easy fix though, and honestly it doesn't really bother me to much. Mountains are the biggest pain in the ass for any cartographer. You're trying to represent 3 dimensional height on a 2 dimentional flat map. And make it look good. Kab has done that very well in this map (actually, not a 2D map). Some of the best mountains i have seen on this site. I give him much props for that. I've spent countless hours trying to figure to perfect moutnains. And am still not satisfied with anything i've ever come up with.

Pork - the mountains you created kick ass as well. But like I said, don't toss the file, just incorporate them into one of your own maps. I think Kab's mountains deserve to stay as is here in this map.

[Kabanellas]

yes Porken, I know what you maen... though at this moment it not seems like a problem to me. But we could go with the previous version (only shaded mountains - rather than cliffs & mountains)

Shaded Mountains

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Shaded Mountains & Cliffs

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[natty dread]

Why not just put the shade on the other side?

[Kabanellas]

all shadows (trees, towers) are directed to NE... so the sun shines from the SW

[Kabanellas]

Looking at it … this version makes perfect sense. There’s a certain shininess in the Cliffs that go quite well with the sun positioning in the SW. I like it

Click image to enlarge.

[natty dread]

Oh, right... I forgot, there was discussion of that before... silly me.

Hmm, this is a pickle. But I have to say, I should thank you for it: since following this thread and seeing what kind of mayhem the shading issue can bring about, I have started paying very close attention to keeping the shading consistent in my maps.

Anyway, I don't think it's such a big deal. Thinking about it, if we consider that this map is of a fantasy world, of approximately a medieval era, well, people back then didn't know that much about perspective and stuff like that... So it'd make sense for the mapmakers of that time to make some mistakes with shading directions as well.

edit: on the other hand, would it be such a big effort to just flip the shadows of the towers and trees? Or do you have them on the same layer as the towers & trees themselves?

[Industrial Helix]

Looking at it … this version makes perfect sense. There’s a certain shininess in the Cliffs that go quite well with the sun positioning in the SW. I like it

Click image to enlarge.

Go with it and lets end the discussion. Just make the executive decision. When it comes to actual gameplay, I doubt anyone will give it a second thought... (so I've found with the graphical quibbles on 13 Colonies).

Let's move on. This version looks great.

[AndrewB]

Agree!