I'm not really sure this is much of an update. My work schedule picked up this last week, so I (again) have not gotten as far as I would have liked (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it). I have played with a couple of things, not for the better by and large I'm afraid.

First thing I am most generally pleased with is the progress on re-drawing the buildings (considering they are not yet done, don't bother looking at them). It's a pain to re-do them, but I like right angles, and it will give me the opportunity to correct the population dispersal problem. That neighborhood at the bottom of the map was far too large, put that way to make a desirable population count (2500-3000 at 3.5 average adults/household). By squeezing a few more people into the north, I can cut houses in the south, . You may notice that as many buildings as possible were given a perfect North/South orientation (definately more convenient to the mapper, @Sigurd *poke*). As per ravells' very first comments/suggestions about my town I have attempted to use fewer rectangles, but upon reviewing his latest Port City, I realize that I cannot compete with his idea of irregularly shaped buildings (@ravells *poke, poke*).

Second, to me, but probably the first thing anyone will notice is the forest.
The only good thing I can say about it is it's a vast improvement from how it was represented previously. Gandwarf made the comment in jfraziers tut, too "clip-art", and I think the term applies even more here than there. I also think it's too busy. It will probably be redone. Can anyone point me towards some botanical resource information? I have questions like; What kinds of trees could I likely find at 40-50 degrees north lat, about 1500-2000' elevation? How many different species is one likely to find in one forest? Diagrams of tree species dispersal in a forest, and diagrams of tree crowns for specific species.

Altered the hue of the grass, NOT happy with it's current state. trying to find something more lush (living green), not neon. If I fail in this I will go back to its initial color.

@jfrazierjr, I've toned down the grass texture a bit. I'm not sure what to use as an alternate grass texture. I do intend to add a lot of soil/dirt, to break up what currently appears to broad expanses of grass (around the buildings of town, animal enclosures, the graveyard, and a few barren patches out in the open will be mostly dirt). It took me forever to figure out which layer mask I had to alter to get the river to blend better with the swamp (my first guess was actually correct, but there was another mask interfering that I had to track down to erase a handful of pixels on the river's edge). And thank you for the forest suggestion, I like this "style" much better, even though I need to re-do the forest, again (for the fourth time).

@torstan, I still think the forest needs to be toned down, but I do think its current state is better than before. Sorry I haven't quite finished the buildings yet, but thanks for the tip. That's exactly what I want (I think).

@Everyone, Thank you all so much (esp jfrazierjr and torstan) for your patience with me and continued attention, even though I appear to crawling along to the lot of you.

Stern's Bridge GimpTut 2.95 @75%.PNG