Nordic Countries [Quenched]

[Evil DIMwit]

I don't think this map ought to have anything to do with Vikings. The modern Nordic countries have enough interesting going for them without resorting to millennium-old history. As Helix suggested, you should try to incorporate each country's flag colors.

I think you've done the cities-connected-by-lines look quite well. If you do decide to keep it, I'd suggest making the water paths more similar to the land paths -- perhaps the same style as the land paths, only dotted.

I don't like how you can see the land behind the legend. It makes it a little confusing to look at.

[natty dread]

Thanks for your opinions, E. Dimwit. I might adjust the legend and the sea connections... But, as for the sea connections, I'm not sure if they will be visible enough with the blend mode I'm using on the land connections. I can try it...

As for you, I. Helix, here's version 13 which is a double version - one with borders, one with connections.

Version 13 - borders

[bigimg]http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5541/northeuropev13.png[/bigimg]

Version 13 A - connections

[bigimg]http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7528/northeuropev13a.png[/bigimg]

The new colour scheme should give a more "nordic" feel to the map. I realized that differentiating the bonus areas with colours wouldn't be necessary anymore, since there's a minimap that shows the bonus areas... So, now it should also be clear which bonus areas are in the same country.

[Industrial Helix]

It's an improvement I think. I like the territories over the cities for sure

Norway, in particular, looks pretty good with the variances of blue. Maybe try it with white instead of sky blue? Or perhaps red?

For the other countries, I don't quite understand where the green is coming from, yellow and blue in Sweden would be great and blue white should go with Finland.

Denmark looks good as well, though I'm leaning towards red and white.

OR you could push this blue thing and go with the cool colors of the north. and swap white for green in all the continents.

You may want to clarify if Mariehamm is Swedish or Finnish.

Iceland, to me, feels like a 2.

And you're major continental borders are pixelated.

Still don't like the font... I'm not saying go Viking with it, and even using a Viking font wouldn't nec. suggest it was a Viking map. To be honest, anything smoother would be better. If you want to keep the style o the current font, perhaps a typewriter font would do?

Anyway, nice work in serving up a major update today!

[Evil DIMwit]

OR you could push this blue thing and go with the cool colors of the north. and swap white for green in all the continents.

I wouldn't recommend that, since Greenland already has a thing very much like that going.

Iceland, to me, feels like a 2.

Is that taking into account the capital bonus or no?

[natty dread]

I feel like I should explain the new colours a bit, and my reasons for choosing them...

Iceland (green -> white): this represents, of course, the glacier in the middle of Iceland, and the green on the outer borders is, well, green...

Norway (blue -> cyan): ocean colours for norway, since there are lots of fishermen in norway... and whale hunters...

Sweden (blue -> green): OK, well, I don't really have a good explanation for Sweden, it just fits the theme.

Finland (green -> blue): this represents the forests and lakes of finland (of which we have LOTS!)

Denmark (blue -> grey): I forgot what this represents...

It's an improvement I think. I like the territories over the cities for sure

Thanks. Maybe I should put a poll about it....

You may want to clarify if Mariehamm is Swedish or Finnish.

Really? To me it seems pretty obvious... It's dark green, and the outer colour of sweden is blue...

Oh well, I guess I could change the colour of sweden...

Iceland, to me, feels like a 2.

Yes well, it does get a 2 (1 bonus + 1 autodeploy).

And you're major continental borders are pixelated.

That's intentional. It's an effect which works really well with the texture of the land, it kinda highlights it.

Still don't like the font... I'm not saying go Viking with it, and even using a Viking font wouldn't nec. suggest it was a Viking map. To be honest, anything smoother would be better. If you want to keep the style o the current font, perhaps a typewriter font would do?

You're referring to the minimap font, or all fonts?

I wouldn't recommend that, since Greenland already has a thing very much like that going.

Yeah, I don't think I will be doing that. However I might yet try the "flag colours" or perhaps even "flag textures" for the countries... Just to see how it would look like.

Stay tuned for more updates...

[Industrial Helix]

I see your reasoning... but would still prefer flag colors. It's not a deal breaker though and I can live with it, change sweden up so it differentiates from Finland.

I dislike all the fonts. It's just they're too blocky.

Pixelation never looks good, it looks careless.

Looking forward to seeing what you've got coming up!

[natty dread]

I see your reasoning... but would still prefer flag colors. It's not a deal breaker though and I can live with it, change sweden up so it differentiates from Finland.

Yep.

I dislike all the fonts. It's just they're too blocky.

Even the title? :/

Pixelation never looks good, it looks careless.

I disagree. It can be used as an effect, to accentuate, to blur, or to go for an "90:s video game" retro-look. However it needs to be used carefully, and a large pixel size usualy looks better than small. In this case, the thick bevel/shading on the shores is pixelated with 4x4 pixels, then blended with overlay and reduced opacity, to accentuate the texture of the land area. Personally, I feel it works nicely. Take a moment to really look at it, try to get past that first instict of "that's pixelated, not good", and really look at it. You'll see what I mean.

[Emmdizzle]

definitely 13 with borders but I think each country should have it's own color. Don't know why Finland and Sweden are green and Norway is blue?

[mviola]

i don't really like either 13. I like 12 the best because of the coloring of the map

[natty dread]

i don't really like either 13. I like 12 the best because of the coloring of the map

That's not the point. The point is, do you like the borders or the connecting lines between territories...

[Lufsen75]

I like the borders. IF you make the coutries with their flag it would be really great,

[natty dread]

Am I the only one who would prefer connecting lines? :..(

[Evil DIMwit]

Am I the only one who would prefer connecting lines? :..(

I'm with ya, Natty. Like I said, I think you pulled them off well.

[natty dread]

Am I the only one who would prefer connecting lines? :..(

I'm with ya, Natty. Like I said, I think you pulled them off well.

good to hear.

[AndyDufresne]

Re: the lines, I think they look pretty bland/unfinished. Midkemdil was the first map I think to employ territory connecting lines all throughout---and though I'm not a huge fan of the map, the lines on that map seemed to fit within the traveling between cities theme. The connecting lines on your map, hm, don't inspire much in me.


--Andy

[natty dread]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

[isaiah40]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

Nope!

[AndyDufresne]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

Right, it's a trade off. I'm not against territory connecting lines, I just think the ones you have now aren't cutting it.


--Andy

[Eyestone]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

Adjusting needs to be done. I think you need to give new names to the regions, and only keep the names of some of the largest cities.
- In northern Norway, I think you should replace Hammerfest with Finnmark: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnmark
- Change Tromsø with Troms - http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troms
- Remove Bodø and Narvik, and make it Nordland - http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordland
- Trondheim should be Trøndelag http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%C3%B8ndelag.

The southern part I'm afraid needs a whole new build up to be correct geografically:
A possibility is to use these areas:
- Keep Oslo as it is.
- Vestlandet: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestlandet
- Sørlandet: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestlandet
- Østlandet: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98stlandet
The problem is that Østlandet is very big and should propably be divided in another area, and I haven't got the solution to it right now.


And a short comment on the old version with the cities: You still have Ålborg misspelled. And please get Gudvagen out of the map! Put Molde in it instead.

[natty dread]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

Right, it's a trade off. I'm not against territory connecting lines, I just think the ones you have now aren't cutting it.

What particularly is wrong with them?

Adjusting needs to be done. I think you need to give new names to the regions, and only keep the names of some of the largest cities.

There would be consistency issues. Cities mixed with regions... it just doesn't work.

Borders seem such a pain that I will probably go with the connecting lines, sorry to everyone who wished for borders. But at this point, I see myself as having two choices, going with the connecting lines or scrapping the whole map and starting from scratch. And unless the connecting lines end up being a deal breaker for the map, I don't have much desire to start from scratch at this point.

You still have Ålborg misspelled.

Will fix in next version.

And please get Gudvagen out of the map! Put Molde in it instead.

What exactly do you have against gudvagen? It's not the only small city on the map.
Anyway, Molde could be a viable option. I'll look into it.

[Eyestone]

Gudvagen doesn't even exist. It's Gudvangen, and it's not a city at all, it's a village. It belongs to a municipality which have 3 villages which combined have a little more than a thousand inhabitants. I'd rather you go for Molde which has 24 500 or even Ålesund with 41 000. I actually thought Molde was the biggest of them...

[Peter Gibbons]

So, nobody is bothered by the fact that the territory borders would not correspond to any real life borders?

I don't think anyone should be. I think there are many maps on CC where the named regions are either "close but not exact," or they correspond to a city rather than a region/state/department. The Canada map is a pretty good example of this, where many of the regions are actually just the largest cities in that general vicinity.

[vodean]

13 rather than 13A, coloring is a bit weird. Try making nations shades of the leading color of their flag. I think Iceland should connect to Denmark, as well, because it has so many historical ties to Denmark. it should be Aalborg (sorry, wrong keyboard) not Aalbora

[Sasky]

Iceland should be worth more than 1. It has 4 territories and two ports going to it.

[natty dread]

13 rather than 13A,

Sorry, but I would have to do the whole map & gameplay from scratch if I were to use territory borders. The connecting lines stay, unless they are the one thing that keeps the map from getting stamped...

coloring is a bit weird. Try making nations shades of the leading color of their flag.

I'm probably going to change the colouring. Flag colours are something I might try, but I suspect it wouldn't look all that good...

I think Iceland should connect to Denmark, as well, because it has so many historical ties to Denmark.

Yes, this has been discussed, and I'm still trying to figure out a way to implement this.

it should be Aalborg (sorry, wrong keyboard) not Aalbora

This has already been pointed out and will be fixed in next version, but thanks anyway.

Iceland should be worth more than 1. It has 4 territories and two ports going to it.

Ah, but Iceland also gets a +1 autodeploy to Reykjavik, bringing the total bonus to +2. Also it has only one territory to defend.