AAFitz wrote:
Again I suspect you miss the forest for the trees. The forest is the gameplay and strategy and many alternatives for a map, and the trees are what it looks like. This isnt WOW where we even need incredible graphics. This is a game of strategy, and id just assume play on a black and white map, that had great game play and many options for different strategies, especially on fog as does this one. I may be alone in this thought, but the maps have nothing to do with the game, and my guess is youre better at photoshopping than actually playing the game, so I guess you need pretty pictures to look at while your randomly hitting buttons. The serious players however, may feel otherwise.
But I agree, perhaps the graphics should be better for those unable to fully grasp the game. I suppose the crack whores deserve something too, if they cant figure out the game itself.

Fitz, I am a graphic designer, knocking a maps aesthetics is primarily what I do. If you knew me around the foundry, its pretty much all I did. I rarely made comments to a maps gameplay as that was best suited to someone else. So I only really speak to what I feel comfortable knowing. At the end of the day, its all about the gameplay, but at the beginning of the day, its about how it looks. It hard to get people to the end of the day when they need to choke down a plateful of visual turds. Beyond mere prettiness, there is other aspects of design, like flow, organization, and feel. All of which I touch on when I am knocking a map. There are maps with great graphics but poor design, like Napoleonic Europe. So the aesthetics are not really as low minded as you make it out to be. Apple's success doesn't solely reside with their functionality. The design plays a big part in the success equation. I always shoot for both in maps and suggest others do as well.
I wasn't discrediting CC here. Believe me, I've been inside, outside and all over the problems of the map making community here. I have put in hundreds of hours improving this joint, and sent out too many unheeded "Iceberg" warnings. I'm not the captain here, so excuse me if I prefer not to go down with the ship.