Celtic 7 Nations v4.0 [Quenched]!

[The Bison King]

You could do this by putting the modern names in the mini map and the Celtic names on the actually map or vice versa. Just have them be see through. Play around with a light faded font that wouldn't distract anyone into thinking it is the name of a territory.

A good suggestion, but I tried it and it doesn't really work. There's just no room on Mann or Cornwall. I think It's either Do or Die. I'm still leaning towards using the modern names.

[The Bison King]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

New Upload!

No big changes though. More Border cleaning, and I changed Brittany's color to be a bluer green to make it more distinct from Cornwall.

Did we ever resolve the XML issues?

[natty dread]

Not sure if I already suggested this (my memory fails me) but I think stonehenge should look like stonehenge, ie. a circle of stones.

Giant's causeway icon looks a bit blurry. Any way you could sharpen it?

I think the sea routes would look better as thin dashed lines, rather than dots. The big fat dots make the map look a bit cluttered.

The inner borders of Scotland look blurrier than the others...

Also, the "7 nations" part of the title looks kinda plain. Might want to experiment with it a bit? Try making it darker but with lower opacity so it looks like a part of the picture.

That's all I have for now, keep up the good work.

[mattattam]

I think the sea routes would look better as thin dashed lines, rather than dots. The big fat dots make the map look a bit cluttered.

I'm personally over dashes. They are in so many maps. If it feels cluttered I suggest making the dots smaller instead.

[ender516]

I am pretty sure we can produce XML that works (natty did). I have not done it myself yet, and I am tied up this weekend, so it may be a few days. On the bright side, once the encoding is correct, I doubt there will be much to do, since there are no army circles to aim for. If gameplay remains unchanged, then the XML should be fine.

[The Bison King]

Not sure if I already suggested this (my memory fails me) but I think stonehenge should look like stonehenge, ie. a circle of stones.

I don't recall you making that suggestion. The problem there is that Stonehenge from an aerial view just looks like a circle. It only looks like Stonehenge from the side or an angle. The Celtic tree of life is an important Celtic/Druidic symbol which probably had a strong significance to the people and rituals of Stonehenge. It seemed fitting.

Giant's causeway icon looks a bit blurry. Any way you could sharpen it?

I'll look into it.

I'm personally over dashes. They are in so many maps. If it feels cluttered I suggest making the dots smaller instead.

I prefer this solution. It'll take some time but I can make the dots smaller.

The inner borders of Scotland look blurrier than the others...

Yeah, and I don't know why I'll just re-draw them.

Also, the "7 nations" part of the title looks kinda plain. Might want to experiment with it a bit? Try making it darker but with lower opacity so it looks like a part of the picture.

Maybe an outer glow? I definitely like the slight transparency solution.

I am pretty sure we can produce XML that works (natty did). I have not done it myself yet, and I am tied up this weekend, so it may be a few days. On the bright side, once the encoding is correct, I doubt there will be much to do, since there are no army circles to aim for. If gameplay remains unchanged, then the XML should be fine.

That's great!

[natty dread]

I don't recall you making that suggestion. The problem there is that Stonehenge from an aerial view just looks like a circle. It only looks like Stonehenge from the side or an angle.

Not necessarily. If you put the camera on top of stonehenge, directly at the center, all the stones will be shown at a slight angle - each in an angle opposite to the center.

I prefer this solution. It'll take some time but I can make the dots smaller.

Doesn't photoshop have a tool for this?

Also, the "7 nations" part of the title looks kinda plain. Might want to experiment with it a bit? Try making it darker but with lower opacity so it looks like a part of the picture.

Maybe an outer glow? I definitely like the slight transparency solution.

Try setting the layer blend mode on overlay or multiply. Generally, layer blend modes are a very powerful tool when used correctly...

[The Bison King]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Dot's were made smaller, Scotland's borders were redrawn, I re-imported the giants causeway, I added a army circle over ynysek syllan, and I used a different tree of life for the Stonehenge marker.

I'm still not sold on using a literal representation of stonehenge for the territory. I think there's definitely room for the image of stonehenge in this map somewhere. I don't know well see.

[natty dread]

The smaller dots are definitely an improvement.

I think you should still consider using the actual stonehenge for stonehenge. You have the drawing skills to make it work. It doesn't have to be in top-down perspective, you know...

[The Bison King]

I suppose I can give it a try. I mean, it would "make sense"

[mattattam]

I like the additions You didn't mention the outer glow you put on "7 nations". I'd still like to see another font used for 7 nations that has a more circular/wavy Celtic feel to it. Nothing too fancy though.

Also I suggest moving the word dyfed down so it is closer to the dots that are illustrating a connection there. Right now it looks like the dots are associated with gwent until you look at it for a second and figure out which territory name belongs to which. I think doing this would make it easier to figure out which territories are connected when you are attacking.

[Teflon Kris]

I like the additions You didn't mention the outer glow you put on "7 nations". I'd still like to see another font used for 7 nations that has a more circular/wavy Celtic feel to it. Nothing too fancy though.

I think its maybe the # 7 in particular that doesn't quite seem right somehow.

[ender516]

Moving the "Gwent" label onto England, like "Powys" is now, might be a good idea. As it is, it's about equidistant from Dyfed, Gwent, and Dyfneint.

EDIT:

I figured out the problem with the XML. It wasn't the encoding, it was the fact that my Fileden folder had spaces in the name ("Celtic 7 Nations"). I have now changed that. In case that breaks my old links, I hereby present a new link:

Celtic_7_Nations.1.2.xml

This one has the upper-case UTF-8 in the first line, and no special signature characters at the beginning of the file. It also uses the accented e.

[The Bison King]

Click image to enlarge.

Stonehenge as Stonhenge, Thoughts?

Also I moved Dyfed down as suggested.

Also I'm glad to hear that you fixed that bug in the XML!

[The Bison King]

Oh hey! actually I just noticed a mistake in the XML. Oriel shouldn't be able to touch Connacht.

[The Bison King]

Oh, and another one Celtic Sea shouldn't be able to attack Finistere.

[natty dread]

I like it!

[The Bison King]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Ok recap. Stonehenge physically represented. Dyfed moved closer to the sea connections.

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For Ender, XML requests/fixes:

Oriel and Connacht do not connect, so please remove their connection in the script.

Finistere and the Celtic Sea also connect in the script, this too is not the case, please remove.

and if you could please move the coordinates for stonehenge to hoover above the new center of the image that would be great.

Thank you.

[mattattam]

You could do this by putting the modern names in the mini map and the Celtic names on the actually map or vice versa. Just have them be see through. Play around with a light faded font that wouldn't distract anyone into thinking it is the name of a territory.

A good suggestion, but I tried it and it doesn't really work. There's just no room on Mann or Cornwall. I think It's either Do or Die. I'm still leaning towards using the modern names.

What if you put the name for Isle of Mann off the island to the right. You could put it above the word "mann". For Cornwall you could put it above the territory kenrow. Up to you. I'm fine without it personally but it would be nice to have more historical depth by using both names.

[ender516]

Ok recap. Stonehenge physically represented. Dyfed moved closer to the sea connections.

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For Ender, XML requests/fixes:

Oriel and Connacht do not connect, so please remove their connection in the script.

Finistere and the Celtic Sea also connect in the script, this too is not the case, please remove.

and if you could please move the coordinates for stonehenge to hoover above the new center of the image that would be great.

Thank you.

I will fix the connections right away, but I am going to hold on the Stonehenge coordinates, because, frankly, I don't think the Stonehenge image fits with the map style. The rest of the map looks like something that a Celtic monk might have produced on vellum by candlelight, but he would not have drawn the stone circle with realistic perspective: it just wasn't an artistic style that existed then. If you get a lot of support for the picture, of course, I will fix the coordinates.

Any comment on moving the Gwent label?

And by the way, the é in Domnonée on the map doesn't match the rest of the font. I realize some fonts don't do accented characters very well, so it might look better if you used an ordinary e and painted in the accent by hand.

EDIT: Here is the XML with the border corrections. (This is easy to do in a text editor, but getting the coordinates of a troop number right involves fiddling with wizards and inspectors, which I would like to avoid just now.)

Celtic_7_Nations.1.3.xml

[$nakeface]

i'm inclined to agree with ender here. while the image of stonehenge was well executed, i just think that a visual representation of stonehenge takes away from the overall consistency of the map. it just takes too much attention away from the map itself.

[mattattam]

I like your image of Stonehenge myself. To me it's a stand out picture that accents this map well. It's something that makes this map memorable when people play it. If you want to you could make stonehenge smaller but personally I really like it the way it is. I think taking this image away would be a shame.

If anything you could make something for the celtic sea or giant causeways that stands out more like stonehenge.

[The Bison King]

Oy vey, you guys aren't making this easy.

don't think the Stonehenge image fits with the map style. The rest of the map looks like something that a Celtic monk might have produced on vellum by candlelight, but he would not have drawn the stone circle with realistic perspective: it just wasn't an artistic style that existed then.

This is most accurate to what I felt even before I put the Stonehenge image on there. I just felt like it wouldn't fit having and actual physical representation of the structure. I'm glad some people some like it though, and I think it turned out pretty well. What if I used it in some other way on the map? Like as part of the signature?

If anything you could make something for the celtic sea or giant causeways that stands out more like stonehenge.

Nah, I'm much more likely to revert Stonehenge back to a symbol. That being said I'm glad you like it.

I'll wait to see if a few more opinions surface before I do anything though.

[ender516]

Yes the signature idea is a good way to preserve the effort.

[mattattam]

Oy vey, you guys aren't making this easy.

This is most accurate to what I felt even before I put the Stonehenge image on there. I just felt like it wouldn't fit having and actual physical representation of the structure. I'm glad some people some like it though, and I think it turned out pretty well. What if I used it in some other way on the map? Like as part of the signature?

Lol well I think you should take it off. Go with what feels right to you. It's a pretty sweet picture and you could use it as a signature if you want. Maybe next you could do a stonehenge map around this drawing