Baltic Crusades

[porkenbeans]

PNG.- [bigimg]http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv12/porkenbeans/balticmap08finaldraftIIIcopy.jpg[/bigimg]Seems you are correct. I had no idea. I guess I could just go copy the color of the page, and use it under the image.

test- [bigimg]http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv12/porkenbeans/balticmap08finaldraftIIIcopy-2.jpg[/bigimg]

[theBastard]

this one looks good. some colours are still similar, I like more if regions as Sudovia are coloured with "neutral" colour and have border coloured as continent (East Prussia for Sudovia). do you think how to do legends? something similar to my could be nice .

tomorow I will post you more layers if you need any. thanks for your nice work.

[porkenbeans]

this one looks good. some colours are still similar, I like more if regions as Sudovia are coloured with "neutral" colour and have border coloured as continent (East Prussia for Sudovia). do you think how to do legends? something similar to my could be nice .

tomorow I will post you more layers if you need any. thanks for your nice work.

Yeah, just see if you can squeeze in everything. Let me know if you need the boxes tweaked in shape or size. Then like before, give me a transparent layer with your text the way you want it. Just the text, with no scrolly patterns and such. Also, any "frame" shopping that anyone wants to do will be great.

You are welcomed, as always.

[porkenbeans]

OK, so how about something a little more colorful ?
[bigimg]http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv12/porkenbeans/balticmap08finaldraftIV.png[/bigimg]

[natty dread]

IMO the frame in the lower right looks a bit off, when the right edge of the frame is out of the picture. It makes the whole picture look like it's cut off.

You have lots of wasted space on the left side. Remove some of that and add the right edge of the frame to the legend thing.

[theBastard]

nice to see you here, natty

about frames, you mean something as is in my original map? look at the first post...

[Industrial Helix]

Is there a halfway point between colorful and the previous version?

And get rid of the frames please.

[ender516]

I like the colourful version -- no need for something halfway back to the previous version, in my opinion.

[porkenbeans]

I like the colourful version -- no need for something halfway back to the previous version, in my opinion.

Could not agree more. With the colors punched up to this level, you can easily make out the different colors for the bonus regions. And, the overall feel is crisp and clean.

@IH,
You still have NOT told me just what it is EXACTLY that you do not like about the frames. I admit that the ones up now are not the best choice, and I would like to swap them out for a more appropriate style. Something in the way of a very thin frame that takes up as little space as possible. It would be helpful if you give detailed explanations for your likes and dis-likes.

[porkenbeans]

IMO the frame in the lower right looks a bit off, when the right edge of the frame is out of the picture. It makes the whole picture look like it's cut off.

You have lots of wasted space on the left side. Remove some of that and add the right edge of the frame to the legend thing.

Break out your ruler natty. The 840x800 starts at the shadows edge. The extra space to the left and bottom is only showing that the image is on a larger sized file than the 840x800.

[theBastard]

thanks for great interst here, guys

pork, this should be post which gives more clear to the map. at the first I must say this version looks the best for me:

OK, so how about something a little more colorful ?
[bigimg]http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv12/porkenbeans/balticmap08finaldraftIV.png[/bigimg]

now some notices:
1, please kick off some trees at coast (especialy by Memelburg). and those trees which lie in sea.
2, please SAVE the borders. there are some places on yours maps where are borders not visible (especialy Riga is separate region of AB. of Riga)
3, bonus regions (Sudovia, Kuyavia, Zemgale, Selija, Dago, Riga) should be coloured by neutral colour and have border of Continent to which they give bonus - as are in my original map. there should be problem with Riga maybe, becasue there are not enough place - therefore is very important to have borders clear.
4, you have much "brown" colours.
5, the legends could be placed as on my original map...?

here I post for you all layers.

show

[natty dread]

IMO the frame in the lower right looks a bit off, when the right edge of the frame is out of the picture. It makes the whole picture look like it's cut off.

You have lots of wasted space on the left side. Remove some of that and add the right edge of the frame to the legend thing.

Break out your ruler natty. The 840x800 starts at the shadows edge. The extra space to the left and bottom is only showing that the image is on a larger sized file than the 840x800.

And MrBenn did say that we don't have to follow the 840x800 limit so strictly anymore.

Anyway, the frame that's missing it's right edge just doesn't work. It's ruining your whole composition. On the left side you have a drop shadow which shows that the map is actually a painting on a frame, slightly detached from the background. Which is kinda nice. Something fresh, at any rate. But then the right edge spoils the whole thing when one of the frames is suddenly cut off. It's ruining the illusion. It's like, you walk in a room and see beautiful classy paintings on the wall, but then you notice one of the paintings suddenly ends in the corner of the room and suddenly you realize your cheapskate friend has just taken huge photo-prints of famous paintings and plastered them on the wall. You know?

[porkenbeans]

IMO the frame in the lower right looks a bit off, when the right edge of the frame is out of the picture. It makes the whole picture look like it's cut off.

You have lots of wasted space on the left side. Remove some of that and add the right edge of the frame to the legend thing.

Break out your ruler natty. The 840x800 starts at the shadows edge. The extra space to the left and bottom is only showing that the image is on a larger sized file than the 840x800.

And MrBenn did say that we don't have to follow the 840x800 limit so strictly anymore.

Anyway, the frame that's missing it's right edge just doesn't work. It's ruining your whole composition. On the left side you have a drop shadow which shows that the map is actually a painting on a frame, slightly detached from the background. Which is kinda nice. Something fresh, at any rate. But then the right edge spoils the whole thing when one of the frames is suddenly cut off. It's ruining the illusion. It's like, you walk in a room and see beautiful classy paintings on the wall, but then you notice one of the paintings suddenly ends in the corner of the room and suddenly you realize your cheapskate friend has just taken huge photo-prints of famous paintings and plastered them on the wall. You know?

I was thoroughly prepared for one of our duels, but as it happens, I can get behind just about everything you said. I am glad to see that you understand, and can recognize the "illusion" that I am going for. And, yes you are quite right about how the effect is ruined by the frame going out of frame.

Also, I am unaware of any changes to the 840X800 size limit. How large are we allowed to go ?

[natty dread]

Glad to be of help. And glad we can agree on something for once

Anyway, as for the map size thing, nothing official has been announced, but there was this one post by MrBenn:

It would appear that we're finally making some progress towards larger maps... The details are uncertain, but I'm fairly confident that should a map need more space than the current restrictions allow, that we'll be able to make room for it. I'll keep you posted with more information as and when I can.

I took it to mean that if your map really needs some extra pixels beyond the 840.800 limit, then it could be allowed on a case-to-case basis, but you might want to wait for a blue guy to confirm this...

edit: the thailand map already seems to exceed the old limits (it is 840 pixels high) and I haven't seen a cartographer complain about it yet, so...

[Industrial Helix]

I don't like how cheap they look, but you said you want to change them out so we're on the same page there.

I hate hate hate how they run off the page.

I dislike that they overlap each other. Side by side would be better. Actually, have you considered doing something along the lines of what I did on 13 Colonies? Maybe that would work?

Can you do something about Konigsburg? I really hate how the line goes through it... maybe add a light glow around the words?

I think it might be a good idea to add Sweden in there as non-playable territory. Gotland looks... strange without it.

Thicken the trees between Sakala and Revel, I think.

Again, I'd like to see the Greater Poland or Great novgorod made into some sort of normal perspective. As it is, it looks quite cheesy and powerpointish.

The dotted connections are ok, but I'd rather see some roads for the land connections, something that you might actually find on a map in the medieval period. For the sea, I'm not sure... any ideas?

The last thing I have to complain about is the towns are viewed from a bird's eye view but everything else is straight on... this needs to be consistent.

As for the size discussion. Maps will be allowed an exemption from the rules if they are deemed to be impossible to fit within the boundaries and still maintain gameplay, think like the Trojan War map. We're not going to make exceptions for a few pixels here and there, so most maps will have to comply by the traditional rules. So for this map, you gotta make everything fit within the usual parameters. As for Thailand, I did not know it was over...

[thenobodies80]

yeah, like Industrial Helix said, you must stay with the current size limits.

Furthermore, there are so many images in the last few pages that is difficult to follow the development and understand which is the official version.
If you need to exchange some "not yet finished" images, please use PM instead of the public thread and try to post here only a complete update. And don't forget to update your first post because if you have different images i'll consider the official version the one posted in the first post.

Nobodies

[theBastard]

....

[thenobodies80]

Isn't it a bit too dark?
And don't forget to test colors
[spoiler=colorblindtest][bigimg]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5431/testcolori.jpg[/bigimg][/spoiler]
If you want to test them with gimp there should be an option labelled "show filters" somewhere in the "view menu", for more information take a look here --> http://docs.gimp.org/2.6/en/gimp-displa ... ent-vision

[theBastard]

yes, it is too dark...

colours must match. the shields in legend are cut of regions after all effects.

[theBastard]

....

[natty dread]

In my opinion, all the towns/cities/castles look too similar, especially in the small version. Ideally they should be distinguishable from each other with a glance, but now they're all about the same size and colour...

[theBastard]

yes, I see now. maybe I could perk up them more, so the differences will be better visible...

[Industrial Helix]

You ever think of doing something like stripes for the optional regions, like Lemgale or Sudovia? Perhaps something like German unification or 3rd Crusade.

[theBastard]

yes, I did. but I can not do them so nice as you in Unifications map pack...

[ender516]

I don't think the stripes are necessary here, since the extra region is not shared between bonus zones like the ones in the Unification maps. I think the border is just fine.