*** May 2011 Challenge Voting - Map a Nation ***

[Ascension]

This month's main challenge was to map a nation in any style that you wanted to do.

Here is the link to view all of the maps.

Make sure to throw some rep to those that you vote for.

VOTE FOR THREE (3)

[Jaxilon]

Rats, I was going to squeeze an entry in before the last day of the month but this is a done deal I guess. I thought we always had till the end of the month?

Oh well I'll just post in the wip threads.

[Thurlor]

I was going to enter this challenge as well, but doing ones back in doesn't really help with sitting at a computer. Besides, now that I see what I was up against I realize I didn't really have much of a chance.

Anyways, there's so many great entries I'm glad I can vote for three. In no particular order, my votes are;

RjBeals - Molta --> Love the crisp clear lines and the colour choices.
Diamond - Western American Empire --> Nice clean layout, and I love the border.
Djekspek - No Title --> One of the best 'artsy' maps I have seen.

All the rest of the entries were great as well, and I hope one day I actually finish something half as good for one of these challenges.

As for the map I was going to enter into the challenge, well hopefully it'll be posted as a WIP soon enough.

[LonewandererD]

So glad I withdrew, I would have never stood a chance this month. On thatn note, my vote are...

Sapiento's Empire of Tyddarheym - Love the sense of scale
Ascension's Hassassine - Love the indianna jones feel, ah nostalgia...
Ravell's Silmencia - Same as Sapiento

-D-

[tilt]

@jax - the challenge runs to the 25th - but is often prolonged to end on a weekend for those last minute edits

[Juggernaut1981]

Why not come in from the cold by voting and making broad commentary!

Ascension: Generally I love your stuff, but the quasi-Indiana Jones map just didn't grab me. Something about it didn't feel right.

Clercon: Its very neat, but feels drab... Army-Fatigue drab. It would have been good to have a bit more zing in the colour scheme. But it looks well done.

Diamond: Man I like that Art-Deco kind of thing going on... but the "slanted banners" for the land features bug me.

Djekspek: Felt magical, called magical, looked sort of magical. Only complaint is the text for the neighbouring regions feeling out-of-whack... Overall I like it!

Greel: Its a nice almost computerised sort of map and I like it. Thumbs up here.

Lalaithon: The mountainous areas seem not to fit, but I do like the font and in general it feels pretty darned good.

MasterTMO: If there was a bit more of a feeling of Star Trek about it (probably through eliminating the white background), this would be excellent.

Plumcrazy: As a teacher, I love the pull-down chart of this thing. Felt a little too 'clean' and "jpg on website"... if you get what I mean. Maybe some more guts in the colours would work.

Reckless: Felt good, but empty. I know the "less-is-more" theory but this was more of the "less is not much" feeling.

RJBeals: Man, I remember how much of a pasting you gave everyone for the Manhattan Island competition... Again a big-hitter in these and a vote from me.

Rythal: The fonts didn't grab me. They felt too dark and a strain to read. But the rest looked pretty good.

Sapiento: Man another great one. So hard to keep up with that kind of skill.

ZarPeter: Font says "screen", image says "schoolbook". Didn't quite gel for me.

JBGibson: Wow, nice classic semi-modern map look. *ding* Vote for you!

jtougas: Another one with lots of great stuff but the font leaves things to be desired.

Morikahn: Great background... shame about the no-map.

Ravells: As much as it pains me to say this... didn't love it Ravs. You do great work and there is heaps that is great... but I didn't love it.

Torstan: Great start... touch incomplete. Shame.

[tilt]

Great work all ... my votes went to Ascension - beautiful map with a cool indy feel ... Diamond for his great looking map of the "The American Empire" my favorite this month ... and to Sapiento for his cool map of the Empire of Tyddarheym - very nicely done guys

[Hai-Etlik]

Ascension: I like the idea but the execution didn't work. The obviously computer generated effects like the white text, fractal/noise generated looking mountains, and the poor contrast and readability kind of killed it.

Clercon: Similar to Ascension in that it has poor contrast and obviously CG text effects. Otherwise I like it.

Diamond: I like it, although the coastline looks a bit weird, like you applied an erode filter to it.

Djekspek: Again, CG looking text in an otherwise fantasy/historical map disrupts the feel for me.

Greel: Not bad but it's rather noisy which makes it hard to read.

Lalaithon: Obvious CG text effects in a fantasy/historical map again. Sorry, I know I sound like a broken record and I know it doesn't bother other people, but it bothers me. The font doesn't help readability.

MasterTMO: Dark, noisy and hard to read. It seems like every label is in a different font and a different colour with no clear idea what the differences mean. The call out boxes cover up a lot (even if they are partially transparent)

Plumcrazy: I like this one. It really is functional and easy to read, though it would be better if the blacks were a bit darker. Using some of the excess space to provide descriptions of the physiographic/political regions would have been nice. Also a proper map like this would have a date, description of source date, name of the cartographer, projection and datum, and copyright information in a little block somewhere. Although a lot of maps that have scales shouldn't, this one doesn't have one, but probably should.

Reckless: The gradient effects on the scrolls kind of stand out and the lack of geographic detail looks off in comparison to the impressive graphical detail. Also the text is hard to read. I like the art though.

RJBeals: I'm not sure but something bothers me about this one. Maybe it's the intense saturation.

Rythal: Really dark with poor contrast and unreadable text. Hard to interpret as the intensely coloured geophysical base layer makes it seem the red for the country is just another physiographic region; it took me a while to figure out what you were up to.

Sapiento: Beautiful and functional. I enjoy looking at it, and I can read it and interpret it easily. Definitely my favourite.

ZarPeter: The rivers and lakes have a rather pixelated look and are perhaps to thick. The text just looks bland; it's simple but not elegantly so. It looks like a screen font rather than a print one which just doesn't work in this context. The underlines just look ugly.

JBGibson: Text is a bit crowded, but otherwise a very nice map, obviously carefully optimised for on screen display.

jtougas: Dark and poor contrast with unreadable font. Once again those CG effects that look out of place to me in a fantasy map. The geography looks weird too.

Morikahn: Well, it's a pretty background.

Ravells: It's more subtle than the others, but there are still those CG elements disrupting the historical/fantasy vibe for me. It also seems rather blurry in places, particularly along the coast. Other than the blur, I do like the coast effect.

Torstan: This looks like a great start and would have had a good chance to be my favourite if it were finished.

I know I probably came across as overly critical but I'm just trying to be honest and I suppose my tastes are a bit different from the majority.

[LonewandererD]

Djekspek got off to an early lead but Diamond and Ravells and are coming around on the outside! I love close comps

-D-

[mearrin69]

A lot of great maps! Diamond wins my main vote this month.
M