August/September 2014 Lite Challenge : The Eskelon Pandemic

[Corilliant]

Added roads, outlined shipping routes.
There will be five maps, four small ones to the side, and this big one; each represents a year into the pandemic.
Pondering over image borders etc.

I'll need to add country borders and city names (and ocean/sea names) very soon. 5 days left
And whilst I like this plain style, are the colours too plain? :/

### Latest WIP ###
AugSepChallenge17.jpg

I'm preparing the Rings o' death now too...

[Corilliant]

It's getting somewhere, but I'm running out of time.
Update:

### Latest WIP ###
AugSepChallenge18.3.jpg

[Corilliant]

I gave up on a particular idea I had.
I now only have to complete those blasted rings and spice the map up a bit.
Please, any suggestions? I would love some critiquing on this just before the competition ends

### Latest WIP ###
(Half-quality JPEG)
AugSepChallenge18.4.jpg

[Chick]

I'm pretty new to this, so my opinion isn't really worth much, but just looking at it as a map, it occurs to me that (1) mountain chains don't exist as a single row of peaks, they normally have more width, and (2) in addition to mountains, rivers are a barrier to the spread of anything, so you might want to add rivers to help delimit the infected areas from the non-infected ones.

Also, the rings are all relative to a point source (town or whatever). The full overall spread of the plague could be done with faint color on the large white expanses, to show how it spread from town to town.

Just some ideas. Overall, I like the map and what you have done with it.

[Corilliant]

Hah, yes, the mountains are definitely out. Maybe we need Mountain Police too
I can't change the mountains in the time I have left now, but maybe I will after the competition, just to see how it turns out.
I'm just finding there to be too much of that white-cream, blue and red colour dominating the map.
Thank you

Forts tend to cover the rivers, and towns line their edges. Ports will feed these river colonies, and forts will strategically protect the bays that hold the river outlets. It's a fairly militarily advanced civilisation, if you ignore the fact it's very over populated and has absolutely no human rights

EDIT: Completed the rings. Now I'm just pondering political borders, or possibly sea routes (after all, those are quite important...), and possibly the light colouring you mentioned. I actually did that when I was planning it, but my layers are different now so it's all mucked up *sigh*
Then I'll add in my final info.

### Latest WIP ###
AugSepChallenge18.7.jpg

EDIT: And I'll clean up my coastlines too.

[Cuin]

Maybe move the title and key onto the map, there is quite a bit of blue space that can host it. I think this would tie it together as a single piece better.

[Corilliant]

Whoops, I didn't see your reply until just now
I don't know, I want to keep this as clean and compact as possible without making it a mess.
Actually, is this messy? :/

### Latest WIP ###
(Getting close to finishing it now)
AugSepChallenge19.jpg

Annoyingly, this also feels like it should have something on the right-hand side, but I tried this a few times and the text just overwhelmed it.

[Corilliant]

EDIT: Nope, still more to do
Any critiques?

### Latest WIP ###
The Eskelon Pandemic FINAL (3).jpg

[Diamond]

I do have a couple:

1. I thought Chick's suggestion of having colored swatches across the land showing the plague's progression was a good one, but I see your point of view as well.
2. I would put some kind of box or border around the inset map in the lower right corner; as it is now, it appears to be an unfinished part of the main map.
3. Perhaps move the Plains of Rliathe label slightly so it's not right on top of the Upper Eskelon one.

Okay, that was three, not a couple.

[Corilliant]

I don't like my coloured borders, they'll need tidying up.
Yes, I'll put a border around the inset map. Good point; ditto Rliathe.
The spread will be a pain to paint, but I suppose I could fit that in if I can find the time.

It's just the total lack of other colours that bugs me...