King's Court 2 [Quenched]

[gimil]

It's hard for me to find a way out of it because I really like the way they look. But I'll try to come up with something...

The trees aren't bad per se... they might look great on some other map, but on this map they look bad, you know? They don't seem to fit the general style of the map.

Why not make them more similar to the mountains... you know, how a forest from far above looks like just a mass of green, you can't see the individual trees... just make them a vaguely similar shape to the mountains, but a bit more flat, and less conical, maybe with a bit less smooth outline... know what I'm saying? Then give them the foresty look by the way of texture and shading.

I agree with this.

[Kabanellas]

I've done some testing here... What do you think?

[bigimg]http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/4715/scourt2v12bimg.png[/bigimg]

[gimil]

Till feeling the rabbit poo mate. The scale of the trees is still far far far to large.

[natty dread]

Ok if you don't want to do it like I posted earlier, if you want to make the trees from circles...


The problem is you have a pre-beveled tree which you use to sprinkle a forest on the map. This results in this unnatural plastic look.

What you should rather do is take a tree without bevel, sprinkle them on the map with slight colour variation, then bevel the forests collectively, here's an example to show what I mean:

[kaikeva]

Looks great, looking forward to try it out.

[AndyDufresne]

Ok if you don't want to do it like I posted earlier, if you want to make the trees from circles...


The problem is you have a pre-beveled tree which you use to sprinkle a forest on the map. This results in this unnatural plastic look.

What you should rather do is take a tree without bevel, sprinkle them on the map with slight colour variation, then bevel the forests collectively, here's an example to show what I mean:

Blurring the forests isn't a way I'd want to go. Of the map you posted, Kab, #5 maybe looks alright.


--Andy

[natty dread]

Blurring the forests

No one's talking about blurring anything.

[Kabanellas]

I will try your option natty

[AndyDufresne]

Blurring the forests

No one's talking about blurring anything.

Correct, but a net result of fuzzy forests sucks for this map I think.


--Andy

[Nola_Lifer]

I don't see anything wrong with the orignal trees. It is obvious they are trees and gives the map some roundness to it.

[natty dread]

Blurring the forests

No one's talking about blurring anything.

Correct, but a net result of fuzzy forests sucks for this map I think.

What I showed was an example, it's not like he has to use the exact same settings etc. for the effect, it was only to outline the differences in the methods.

[Kabanellas]

I don't see anything wrong with the orignal trees. It is obvious they are trees and gives the map some roundness to it.

I have that same opinion. Like I said before, I really like the way they look at this moment. But I'm free to test some other options... won't be accused of being a hard headed guy

[AndyDufresne]

I don't see anything wrong with the orignal trees. It is obvious they are trees and gives the map some roundness to it.

I have that same opinion. Like I said before, I really like the way they look at this moment. But I'm free to test some other options... won't be accused of being a hard headed guy

Thumbs up.


--Andy

[Industrial Helix]

One point of requested clarification: Do castles lose 4 troops no matter what? Or is that only with the King?

[Kabanellas]

One point of requested clarification: Do castles lose 4 troops no matter what? Or is that only with the King?

the King will yield negative bonus when combined with Castles:

-4 armies for each Castle

but positive bonus when combined with Council Members, Knights and Villages:

+2 armies for each Council Member, each Knight and each Village

[chapcrap]

I never minded the trees the way they were to start with. I think that they match up with the mountains nicely. I think a little darker coloration that Kab has tried out lately, looks better than a brighter green.

Overall, the mountains and trees do look a little plasticky or cartoony, but I like it. I think it looks like an actual board game that you put together (think LIFE or Mousetrap). I do appreciate natty's technique and his variation looks a lot more realistic, but I don't really think that the more realistic looking forest is what the map needs. However, if you get something worked out, I wouldn't mind seeing it.

[natty dread]

But a board game probably wouldn't have plastic trees that you'd have to sprinkle on the board every time you play. Instead the forests would probably be painted on the board. Or if it did have trees that you'd have to place on the board, there would likely be lots of trees in each piece instead of each tree being an individual piece of plastic. And with the method I suggested, by adding the bevel after painting the circles, you could get that look.

[ndrs]

Hey mate, great looking map!

I have no problem with the trees, in fact I think that all versions in your example would work. Personally I favour the ones with just a little bit of texture - #2 & #3

The mountains look cool as well, but maybe you could desaturate them a bit? The base sand colour is fine, but I think they'll fit the map better if you'd tone down the reds and tune the shadows towards a more greyish beige? More like the mountain top at M5.

[Kabanellas]

Guys, I'm sorry for being somewhat absent lately... lot of RL stuff to deal with. I'll be back soon with some testing on the map - taking natty's suggestion

[macbone]

This map looks awesome! It reminds me of Heroscape or Battlelore. Keep it up, Kab!

[Kabanellas]

Thank you macbone!!

ok, I tested a bit with natty's suggestion, but it doesn't really work :

[bigimg]http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af105/Kabanellas/KingsCourt2_V13_test_img.png[/bigimg]

still prefer the original stuff. Like I said before, it's really hard to find ideas on how to change something that you really like....

[bigimg]http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/4442/scourt2v13img.png[/bigimg]

[AndyDufresne]

I think you can probably chalk the final decision for trees up to mapmaker preference, since it has no impact on game play and is mainly a small aesthetic item.


--Andy

[Nola_Lifer]

It works, just not on this map.

[natty dread]

If you had added some variation to the brightness of the colour of the trees before adding the bevel it may have looked better.

Another option is to just do away with individual trees and make the forests in the same style as the mountains (but flatter, obviously).

[Kabanellas]

Another option is to just do away with individual trees and make the forests in the same style as the mountains (but flatter, obviously).

I did that, more or less, with the trees on KC1... the forest hexagons were done the same way as the mountains but flatter ... I wanted something different here