Feb / Mar 2016 Lite Mapping Challenge: The Heist

[Tonnichiwa]

Yeah, I agree with ChickPea, this is looking great! Love the story you are creating with this too. I hope the bad guys get caught

[Savage Orc]

here's another update. Was debating if I should put forests on the map as it is supposed to be focused on the railway, but I went ahead and did that as well as adding a desert and plains/grasslands. And a few other things.

Please let me know what you all think. Is it too much? Not enough? Do the elements work for a map (tree icons, grass icons, desert icons, etc..)? Does everything have to be labeled? (I named a couple big forests, but not the smaller ones as I was worried it would look too crowded or to fit the lettering would be too small to read. Same with some of the rivers.)

I just don't have that much experience with map making, just some hand drawn maps back about 20+ years ago (OMG, now that I think of it It's closer to 30 years, yikes!) and I want to include everything that I can without overdoing it.

As always any suggestions, comments, criticisms are welcome.

### LATEST WIP ###
The Heist4.jpg

[Bogie]

Love the concept and presentation, and the map is very good. I'm not sold on the bright red lines representing the train tracks. From a map brochure point of view the red lines are easy to see and follow and the legend clearly shows they are the railway tracks, but there is nothing that makes me think "train tracks" when I just look at them. Maybe if there were little hash-marks on the red lines or little train graphics just above some of the red lines it would help me see that. It is a small detail, so if you prefer the plain red lines as is, they are fine.

[Savage Orc]

Love the concept and presentation, and the map is very good. I'm not sold on the bright red lines representing the train tracks. From a map brochure point of view the red lines are easy to see and follow and the legend clearly shows they are the railway tracks, but there is nothing that makes me think "train tracks" when I just look at them. Maybe if there were little hash-marks on the red lines or little train graphics just above some of the red lines it would help me see that. It is a small detail, so if you prefer the plain red lines as is, they are fine.

Thanks for the comments. I like the idea of the hash-marks, considered doing them before but wasn't sure. Now I will go in and add them.

The red was suggested by another member and it helped make it stand out as I roughed in the railway to so I left it. I changed the blending mode to multiply (tried all the blending modes) to see if it would blend better with the map, which you can see a little texture through it, but I guess it's still too bright. The suggestion was maybe it was red ink, but I will either tone it down or change it back to black.

Everyone here has been so great with their comments and suggestions, I really appreciate it. Thanks.

[Bogie]

Instead of bright red, see how it looks with a rust brown color and the hash marks.

[Ilanthar]

I really like what you have so far and I kinda agree with Bogie. A dark or brownish red may work better. Good catch with the bad language and mistakes .

[Savage Orc]

I will give it a try and post another update when I can. Not sure what else I will add, if anything.

I was thinking of trying a "painting with light" technique (digital version of a photography technique) to give the overall tabletop a less flat (pools of light) look, but not sure I can pull it off. We will see.

Edit: not the writing words or pictures type painting with light, but more what is used in commercial product photography.

[Savage Orc]

I tried some different shades of red as suggested and nothing seemed to look quite right so I changed back to black. Added a few touches and I think I might be complete with this map, maybe I will tweak it some more. Sometimes I just can't help but fiddle around with it. I had thought about adding some coins or something to the table, but I don't think I would have time to make them myself and wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to take something off the internet, so I left it out.

Anyway, Let me know what you think. Thanks for any comments or suggestions.

### LATEST WIP ###
The Heistv5.jpg

[Ilanthar]

The new railroad is very good and the bloody finger print is a nice touch!

[Tonnichiwa]

I love the finished product. It reminds me of something I would see in the Dungeons and Dragons setting of Eberron.