by natty dread on Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:32 am
Temper, temper.....
Rb0, Victor makes a good point - the old version, despite having it's flaws, had a certain graphical flair that the current map is missing. It had this sort of vibrancy, like how the map pops out and has some graphical intensity... I'm just pulling adjectives out of my ass here, but I can't really explain it better.
Let me try to pinpoint the things that bother me in the current version...
Firstly, the background: it creates a sort of drab, asphalt-like, flat look on the map. I think part is due to the texture being so weak, and part is the hue - it seems to have a sort of reddish-brown tint to it, which doesn't really work too well at that saturation level, IMO. The colour of the background makes me think of sadness and depression, apathy. What I think you could do to improve this is: increase the contrast of the texture, not overly much, but noticeably, then adjust the hue - either make it totally gray, or take it to contrast the playable area better - the playable area is mostly cold colours (cold red, blue, white/grey) so you could give a warm tone to the background for contrast - I think that alone would go a long way giving this map some intensity and feeling.
Also, a slight gradient could also help - making the edges darker, which would highlight the actual map and bring it to focus better. That way you could also make the map colours a bit darker, they wouldn't have to be so bright...
Secondly, the font. I'm not a huge fan of that font or style of fonts, as Bison King can probably testify... so it may be a bit of personal bias, but I still think you could do better for the font selection. This font that looks suspiciously like Monotype Corsiva has the flaw that it's half-way between an ornamental/script font, and a regular serif font... I think you'd do better with a dignified-looking serif font, something with a little grit to it...
Third... the water. It doesn't quite look right... I think it's the solid colour of it, it looks too pasted on, like it doesn't belong on the map. I'd suggest giving it some depth, lowering the saturation a bit, maybe giving it some gradient or texture, to make it less uniform... bring it alive, you know?
Then, things I like: the silhouette of the city on the inset is a nice touch. The liberty bell looks nice, although it could have a stronger drop shadow to it, to pop it up a bit more, and the bridges and bell icons also look nice.
One more thing, which is totally unrelated to my other suggestions... have you considered taking influence from RJ's Charleston map? I think the style of that map could work quite well for this one. Just an idea that popped in my head - you've already rehauled the graphics once so I don't expect you to go through with this... although I think it could work, and maybe you could keep it in mind as a second option...