Conquer Club

cairnswk wrote:

RedBaron0 wrote:gfx wise I just need the tests(88's, 888's, color blind) As long as there isn't any issues there and all are satisfied with any lingering gp issues, you should be all systems go.

OK, thanks RB0.
Once i hear from ian and koontz that they're OK with GP, then i'll progress to getting those requirements above done.

you forgot my name. you must have been distracted by footy conspiracy theories.

gp is great. all good to go.

greenoaks wrote:...
you forgot my name. you must have been distracted by footy conspiracy theories.

gp is great. all good to go.

is greenoaks pushing to become part of the boys in blue.
or just in over his head.

cairnswk wrote:

greenoaks wrote:...
you forgot my name. you must have been distracted by footy conspiracy theories.

gp is great. all good to go.

is greenoaks pushing to become part of the boys in blue.
or just in over his head.

what does gp stand for

Version 30 S & L and 88s and 888s
Note: CB versions are not needed for this map since the stations have their own codes.

On the 888 test, Line "C" Station CCP the last 8 is invisible. My suggestion would be to expand the stations to accommodate the 888's which means the single and double digits will be on the left a little, kind of like on USA 2.1 with the ovals. This is the only thing I see right now, so I'll let the others chime in as well.

isaiah40 wrote:On the 888 test, Line "C" Station CCP the last 8 is invisible. My suggestion would be to expand the stations to accommodate the 888's which means the single and double digits will be on the left a little, kind of like on USA 2.1 with the ovals. This is the only thing I see right now, so I'll let the others chime in as well.

So is USA 2.1 to become the new template for army holders?

I really don't think it is an issue and making it one would throw the entire series out of whack because this is not done on the other rail maps.
So once again we have disagreement on the rail map on an issue that could have been raised much earlier on if someone was paying more attention.
Right now there is a full moon on, and i don't know if this is a one off bad call, but i am not of the persuassion to modify the rectangles since many of them would have to be moved etc, and i am not in the mood to go changing the entire map and coords around because of this.
Period.
Sorry isaiah, yes cairns spites the dummy again, on a bloody rail map.

Edit, if you have another suggestion that is not all about re-design to address that issue, then i would gladly hear it.

I would be willing move some stations so that is not an issue i.e. the armies appear over lighter ground.
the above station CCP C would have to move about 8 pixels to the right so that final 8 appears over the green rather than the brown.
ATG might have to move right also.

No worries cairns, it was the first suggestion that came to mind. I'm going to wait and see what others can come up with. Looking at it closer, it seems that the right border on each station is causing the problem of the 3rd digit being hard to see. I'll rack my brain for another way.

isaiah40 wrote:No worries cairns, it was the first suggestion that came to mind. I'm going to wait and see what others can come up with. Looking at it closer, it seems that the right border on each station is causing the problem of the 3rd digit being hard to see. I'll rack my brain for another way.

isaiah...i apologise for my earlier reply (feel like coming down with hayfever/flu or some other darned thing)...you should know me by now, but hitting me with that stuff is really hard at this time in the sequence.
I wish we could develop a ticklist of things have to be attended to as we progress the develpoment of these maps, it would make it so much easier when getting to gfx stage, and thus these issues would not arise so often as they would be dealth with in design as the maps progress through gameplay.
I'll post adjusted images so that those offending stations are moved and see what it shows then.
I simply don't want to re-design the whole thing again when it is so close.

If we had a solid, up-to-date XML Wizard, it would be easy to make draft versions of the XML and thus draft versions of the 88 and 888 tests, then these things could be handled very early on. One of those loudmouths in the Tech Team should write one. Maybe that guy who is cross-appointed to the Cartographers. What's his name, again...? Seriously, though, I thought I would have a lot of time on my hands in the evenings while I am on this overseas assignment, but keeping up my own flat (cooking, dishes, laundry) and staying in touch with folks back home, especially as my mother has just had surgery, seems to eat up a lot of my evenings. I am still hoping to get more efficient so that I can put a little more into CC, but I am not promising anything.
The real problem with the CCC station is that the numbers are the new green, which is a bit dark, with the black outline, and they are on a darkish background. If the site would use a double outline of white around the existing black, most contrast issues on all maps would literally disappear. (Putting the white outside the black would let it disappear on maps already using white boxes, ovals, and circles, thus making no noticeable change where it is not needed, and thereby avoiding the whining of most of the people who "liked it the way it was".

ender516 wrote:If we had a solid, up-to-date XML Wizard, it would be easy to make draft versions of the XML and thus draft versions of the 88 and 888 tests, then these things could be handled very early on. One of those loudmouths in the Tech Team should write one. Maybe that guy who is cross-appointed to the Cartographers. What's his name, again...? Seriously, though, I thought I would have a lot of time on my hands in the evenings while I am on this overseas assignment, but keeping up my own flat (cooking, dishes, laundry) and staying in touch with folks back home, especially as my mother has just had surgery, seems to eat up a lot of my evenings. I am still hoping to get more efficient so that I can put a little more into CC, but I am not promising anything.
The real problem with the CCC station is that the numbers are the new green, which is a bit dark, with the black outline, and they are on a darkish background. If the site would use a double outline of white around the existing black, most contrast issues on all maps would literally disappear. (Putting the white outside the black would let it disappear on maps already using white boxes, ovals, and circles, thus making no noticeable change where it is not needed, and thereby avoiding the whining of most of the people who "liked it the way it was".

ender...i hope your mother is well from her surgery...not a nice thing to have to go through at any time.
And you are recovered from your oversease sojourn.
i understand our problem. i will do something towards moving the station so that is it not such a problem.

Couple of things here, and i apologise if this is blunt.



1. i've moved CCP and ATG so they don't offend...this is not an issue and solves the problem in my mind adequately.

2. and change TGU to accommodate the 888s...now this will become an issue for me, even though it looks good and is very compact to fit three digits.
a. having to re-design the whole map, and move the stations is going to be quite a task (which i would prefer not to have to go through)
b. having all these expanded stations means re-designing the buildings for BSB anbd BUA, and honestly, to fit the new stations, theose buildings which look proportionate now - will look ridiculous afterwards like overwidthed squat blobbs.
c. if we add the extra 9 pixels to each station, spread across the map, in some areas it may not affect location too drastically, but in others like the 'guays and 'guyanese lines, RVD and GYN are going to be very compact and look ridi.

You know, with the functions that are in place in this game site like...
1. using BOB (which I appreciate not everyone uses)
2. turning colour codes function on or off
3. mousing over the territory to see how many troops you've got on it (through map inspect)
4. and i recall that the drop list includes the number of armies you have in each territory
5. and i am not sure what "click on" function does since i have never used it, but can't imagine that there is any different argument that doesn't similarly apply to using BOB,
...that going to all this trouble is simply over the top, when the map has not been designed for this;
and to be honest, i am totally against re-design and not interested in doing it. Sorry guys.
As already pointed out, I also think doing this for this rail map will place it "out of theme" with the other rail maps, and mmmm...to me just not good if there is even a hint of having to re-design the other maps to accommodate these wider stations because of new colours.
I will move some stations so that they are not such an issue over darker areas, but re-design...nah!:(

ender516 wrote:If we had a solid, up-to-date XML Wizard, it would be easy to make draft versions of the XML and thus draft versions of the 88 and 888 tests, then these things could be handled very early on...

ender...one of the things that i do with my maps anyway, is write a preliminary xml for all terts to get some idea of the inital placement of these, and usually if i recall corectly, that version of 88s is put up in the very earyl design stages for my maps.
Yes it would help greatly help to have advance functions on the XML and extend those to the XML tool, or even incorporate both of those together (big job - i know)
but it is not impossible right now.
point that occured here, was that no-one (including myself) thought to incorporate the stations as 888s widths required for new colours in the initial stages.
Which is one of the things that i continaully champion for is the prelim checklist and have been doing so now for sometime but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
Our guidelines need to be more succinct so that these issues don't get up cartographers noses at the later stages of development by having to re-work the entire design....and i am not sure if this happened to isaiah40, but you know, somethings can be made more productive with just little changes in process.

isaiah40 wrote:On the 888 test, Line "C" Station CCP the last 8 is invisible. My suggestion would be to expand the stations to accommodate the 888's which means the single and double digits will be on the left a little, kind of like on USA 2.1 with the ovals. This is the only thing I see right now, so I'll let the others chime in as well.

I second this, this map's background map is much more colorful than any of the others in the rail series, and the 3rd number that is running over outside the boxes is getting swallowed up by the outline of the box and the background. Expanding the boxes to accommodate 3 digits is likely the best option to fix this.

re-design of the boxes over this issue is not going to happen. Period. Final say. I am standing ground on this.
I will look at other options of changing colours to overcome the issue.
And the map is certainly not more colourful than other rail maps, especially Rail Asia.
This map is simply darker so it needs to be lightened.
And to show how this argument was ill-born, take a look at these.
Personally, i find these far more offensive than the current image of Rail SA.
Yet are we re-designing these to better accommodate 888s?

My solution: V32

1.

...the 3rd number that is running over outside the boxes is getting swallowed up by the outline of the box...

...to solve this, the borders of army box have been changed to 50% grey.

2. there is 30% opacity vivil light veil over the entire map under the stations and lines.
this lightens the entire map and brings up the army numbers without altering the size of the boxes, leaving them consistent with the other rail maps, making visisble the numbers of 3 digits.

This actually looks much better once I removed my glasses, LOL! I'll wait awhile to see what others think. Are you happy with it this way cairns??

isaiah40 wrote:This actually looks much better once I removed my glasses, LOL! I'll wait awhile to see what others think. Are you happy with it this way cairns??

888-wise i am isaiah, but i think i have some tweaks to make on the legend colours and the outer sea.
tbh, many of those stations may never get to double digits, unless once again there are players who sit and stack.

Version 33.
1. i've adusted the background sea images somewhat
2. brightened the legend
3. move rail lines so they don't offend behind overflow of 888 armies (if any)

Stickied for now, and if no one has any major concerns, we can stamp it in approximately 48 hrs!

Nice work cairnswk!

A little more than 48 hrs, but here is your stamp cairns!!!

Bruceswar wrote:Nice work cairnswk!

Thanks Bruceswar

isaiah40 wrote:A little more than 48 hrs, but here is your stamp cairns!!!

Champion isaiah40

The large for this is being worked on...slowly, but i have to re-size all the stations to fit perfectly the grid system.