Second Map, A Pirate We Shall Go!

[Mikso]

Hello again,

This my second attempt at a map. I think I've improved a bit, though not much probably. Will certainly try to make other maps as well.
Once again, made this map as a scenario for a certain game, hence the strange name for the map which doesn't really make sense here I guess. Oh well...

Critique welcomed!

I'd also like to thank ravells and jbgibson (better late than never) for their welcoming words and advice.

Okvir.jpg

Could a mod possible move this to the Finished Map Forum? My apologies.

[Antman9]

Hi Mikso, I'm new here and to mapping. Interesting map. The first thing I noticed was that the rays from the compass rose kind of distracted my eyes a bit. I kept following them around the page and ignored the islands. I really liked the little dead trees and pyramid and the color scheme is cool. If I had to suggest anything I would try to give the land areas a little more relief. In the tutorials I believe I saw a PDF How-To on how to do just that. The only other thing that distracted me was the yellow hash marks. I'm assuming they are crops or crop lands. They were fine except for the funny looking ones that kind of look like a group of shooting stars. You had several of those set with straight and 90 degree sets and it looked kind of odd. Overall I thought the map was pretty good though. You did a good job of randomizing the islands and mountains. Did you do it all electronically or did you start with a and drawn sketch?

[Grymmen]

Nice!! Very real distribution of objects on this map!

[GrimFinger]

If color and contrast were crimes, then you would be facing multiple felony counts with this map in its present stage.

The bright blue and green in such large doses come across as glare to my eye. The whole white cloud effect, or whatever it is, pollutes the map - but for no good reason. In essence, what does the map gain, for it being there is such large amounts? Absolutely nothing.

There are too many islands in this map, all of them competing for the interest of the human eye, and all of them getting lost in the process. To have that many land masses, with so little detail that distinguishes each one from the other, leaves me sort of wondering what the whole point of having so many land masses on display at the same time was to begin with?

The compass rose chosen for this map only adds insult to visual injury. Get rid of it, and replace it with something less trinket looking.

I am no fan of the icons in use on this map. The yellow contrasts with the green to an acceptable degree, but in the larger scheme of things, your affinity and penchant for over-resort to bright colors undermines your map.

I want to love all maps, because I love maps. However, this is not a map that I love. It is in need of major attention.

[Mikso]

Thank you Antman9, Grymmen.
The map defiantly has flaws (the compass is too harsh), some of which couldn't be helped. The harsh yellow shootings stars mark farm/crop lands. They are all (dead trees, crops, mountains) markers placed for in-game reasons. They serve to label high/low population provinces, resources, magic sites, passable and impassable mountains, etc.
Like I said, I made this map primarily as a game, two player, scenario. As such it needed to be symmetrical. It's also an island map (every island acts as a provinces) to emphasis the importance of sailing. (in-game mechanic which makes for some interesting ideas on this map)


Here's a screen shot of how it actually looks in game. It's a bit different here.
In any case there's nothing I can do about this map any more. It's in use, redoing it would mean wasting a few hours rewriting map code as well and having various versions of the same map would make a mess of things needlessly.

And yes, I did everything electronically, following RobA's guide for GIMP.

Example.jpg

[jtougas]

In game it looks good (it doesn't look bad out of game either) I think the tree symbols are not quite "cartoony" enough though. I think if you used a rounder style of tree they might fit the overall scheme better.

[jbgibson]

It works better in-game than as a standalone map: different styles for different purposes. As far as the contrast and saturated colors - that's aesthetics and thus your call. I'll just note from decades of staring at a CRT all day that I get less eyestrain and headaches from subdued colors and decent contrast than from bold ones or either low or mega contrast. I bet color is something you could tweak without recoding or messing with rules? Even barely a pixel of a dark outline on the land masses might help.

A game board is different from any individual map -- figure your users will be staring at it for hours for the former vs. minutes at a time for the latter. Even distribution of landmasses and filling a rectangle make plenty of sense as a game domain - I'm all the time starting to dispute layout on some Avalon Hill boardgame, and I have to remind myself Its A Game. Lots of pretty maps would make lousy games.

I say good work, with room for modest improvement.

And of course the question others here are thinking too - is this game available? ;-)

[Mikso]

Maybe I could tone down the colors a bit without having to redo the code entirely, they do come a bit hard on eyes as you say.

And in case you're semi serious, jbgibson, I'll direct you to the game demo page;
Dominions 3: The Awakening
And our forum;
Dominions 3
We're a small little friendly community with a lot of modders and mapmakers and fresh blood is always welcome.