Conquer Club

iancanton wrote:a small nitpick: in the abbreviation key, maha sarakham is Mah., while bangkok is BKK. the styles are different, with one being capital plus lower case plus a dot, while the other is all capitals without a dot.

i'd say it looks neater if maha sarakham is represented by MS instead, without a dot. mahasarakham university abbreviates its own name to MSU.

http://www.inter.msu.ac.th/AboutMSU/?page=history

one-way attack is missing a hyphen.

one more spelling issue is srisaket, which is usually spelled nowadays as sisaket, without an r. below are the local government and university websites.

http://www.sisaket.go.th/sisaket_en/index_en.php
http://www.sskru.ac.th/sskruen/

the watermark effect really is giving to the map that extra something it didn't have before. nice work!

ian.

OK ian.. thanks & changed

[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5011/5447668634_eb27df7b85_b.jpg[/bigimg]

[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5447066355_ced13bb2d7_z.jpg[/bigimg]

-griff

Thanks, ian. I've corrected the spelling of Sisaket in the xml.

FarangDemon wrote:Thanks, ian. I've corrected the spelling of Sisaket in the xml.

ahhh... dont know how i missed that spelling of Sisaket... i didn't scroll down the whole way when i was reading & fixing at the same time... FIXED!

[bigimg]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4079/5447106615_56e9d2283b_b.jpg[/bigimg]

[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5447101595_d237f7e738_z.jpg[/bigimg]

-griff

On the small map, the title text doesn;t look quite as crisp as on the large map. Sometimes this happens when you resize an image and the text changes to decimal point sizes (ie 7.67pts instead of 8pts). Could you just check to see whether the values are rounded, and whether or not changing the size of the title text (fractionally) improves the clarity of it. If it makes do difference, then don't worry about it

Also you should turn auto-hinting of the text on. I'm not sure how it is done in photoshop but in GIMP it increases the quality of small scale text considerably.

natty_dread wrote:Also you should turn auto-hinting of the text on. I'm not sure how it is done in photoshop but in GIMP it increases the quality of small scale text considerably.

Play around with some of the anti-aliasing options - see if there's a difference between 'crisp' and 'sharp'

The text was already 9pt for all terts on small map, but it was "smooth" this is "strong" the other ones didn't make much of a diff.... this one did tho.

Strong *new*
[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5098/5449089527_0662825a3a_z.jpg[/bigimg]

Smooth *old*
[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5447101595_d237f7e738_z.jpg[/bigimg]

-griff

The XML has passed the validation check, but on the small map in particular it looks like some territory names could be shuffled about to help the numbers fit more easily.

Additionally, it may help to keep territory names on a single line wherever possible line instead of hyphenating them... Places like Narathiwat, Kanchanaburi and Chanthaburi could have the text labels extending outside the map area.



Also, I think it may help to clarify Bangkok/BBK by including a definition within the xml label by having it read "BBK - Bangkok", for example

[bigimg]http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5457993291_46e25bb77a_z.jpg[/bigimg]

Can't the XML move around the digi 888's a bit too in some of those tight areas, example Phang Nga (move it above name) and in Satun move it to the left towards the ocean so it doesn't go over its neighbors name, there are a few places where if you just moved the digis around a bit it would be fine, i updated the names too, looks good now IMO


-griff

The XML wizard shows digits as 88's not 888's so I didn't realize how it would look that way.
I moved the digits you mentioned plus a few others.
Let me know if anything else needs moving.

Also changed the name from Bangkok to "BKK - Bangkok" and Maha Sarakham to "MS - Maha Sarakham"

Updated the link to xml and small map in the Official XML Checks.

FarangDemon wrote:The XML wizard shows digits as 88's not 888's so I didn't realize how it would look that way.

This gives me an idea, I could offer different cursors. Map is looking good, now the gameplay needs careful attention.
I also agree with MrBenn in that hyphenating on a map where so many names may be unfamiliar to some players should be ruthlessly minimised because the dropdown will not have these names hyphenated presumably.

I agree with the ruthless minimization of hyphenation.

However, we must take care not to create the situation, where someone mistakes the name of a territory for the neighboring territory's label. I have done this twice now in USSR, wanting to deploy to what is actually Turkmenistan, thinking it was called Uzbekistan. All that would be necessary is moving the Uzbekistan label to the empty space below Uzbekistan.



True, if I had better 'stans' geographical knowledge, or had looked more carefully, I would not have made this mistake. But if I, myself, made the same mistake twice, I'm sure it's been made hundreds of times by others that are surely more careless than I.

chipv wrote:

FarangDemon wrote:The XML wizard shows digits as 88's not 888's so I didn't realize how it would look that way.

This gives me an idea, I could offer different cursors. Map is looking good, now the gameplay needs careful attention.
I also agree with MrBenn in that hyphenating on a map where so many names may be unfamiliar to some players should be ruthlessly minimised because the dropdown will not have these names hyphenated presumably.

I took all of the ones i could off like MB said on my last update above... the ones in the center of the map will have to be left like that unless we abv. them, which was what we first did then the mods had us go back to trying to write out the full names... I like it how it is now, i am sure the digis will fit in fine now

Just so you know, you can check the coordinate centering with 888's on the cc mapmaker tool: http://www.conquerclub.com/mapmaker/

How is this looking now FD? hope everything is lining up fine

edit: ok thanks FD, looks great.

Not to rush this or anything but just so the mods know i will be traveling to the states for 3 months. I am leaving this coming monday... ill try to stop in here and there for updates when needed, when i can of course.

-griff

I've been responding to feedback as quickly as possible in order to get this map finished before griff goes.

Thanks for that link, Mr Benn. Regarding location of digits, I've just made similar adjustments to the large map that I had just made to the small map. I'm not a graphics person and I don't know CC cartographers' best practices on locations of digits. However I am the one doing the xml which contains army locations. As I don't have an eye for this, it would expedite the process if any contributor would list explicitly everything that needs to be changed - i.e. move the digits for region x to the left/right...

If you can post all the latest/most up to date adjusted files (as links), then I'll have a look at it for you

MrBenn wrote:If you can post all the latest/most up to date adjusted files (as links), then I'll have a look at it for you

BIG
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4079/544 ... 283b_b.jpg

SMALL
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/545 ... b77a_z.jpg

-griff

And the updated xml?

MrBenn wrote:And the updated xml?

http://www.killersapp.com/thailand6.xml ?
Farang's Official xml checks was last updated earlier today

Yes every time I update the xml I update the link on the Official XML checks to expedite the process. Both image links there are also up to date with grifftron's post.

Here it is: http://www.killersapp.com/thailand6.xml

FarangDemon wrote:Yes every time I update the xml I update the link on the Official XML checks to expedite the process. Both image links there are also up to date with grifftron's post.

Here it is: http://www.killersapp.com/thailand6.xml

Ah - the XML check thread is there so we know when the xml is ready, and to enable us to make sure it validates correctly with borders etc. The check raised some concerns about centering, and we don;t need to re-check the actual xml itself (just the coords)... I shall grab something to eat and then pay some attention to what's going on here

MrBenn wrote:

FarangDemon wrote:Yes every time I update the xml I update the link on the Official XML checks to expedite the process. Both image links there are also up to date with grifftron's post.

Here it is: http://www.killersapp.com/thailand6.xml

Ah - the XML check thread is there so we know when the xml is ready, and to enable us to make sure it validates correctly with borders etc. The check raised some concerns about centering, and we don;t need to re-check the actual xml itself (just the coords)... I shall grab something to eat and then pay some attention to what's going on here

Thanks MrBenn

This being Thailand, perhaps Mr Benn is expecting a bribe to get the ball rolling...