Conquer Club

koontz1973 wrote:Not a cartoon filter. No bog standard filters used. It is around 7 layers with different modes (multiply, burn, overlay etc) painted 2 colours (red and black) in different ways. Edge on roberts was used. Desaturating and inverting on another. blurring on two of them. I am still perfecting the method so it will get better.

Did you try G'MIC? It has various customizable filters which you can use to get a better result.

natty_dread wrote:

koontz1973 wrote:Not a cartoon filter. No bog standard filters used. It is around 7 layers with different modes (multiply, burn, overlay etc) painted 2 colours (red and black) in different ways. Edge on roberts was used. Desaturating and inverting on another. blurring on two of them. I am still perfecting the method so it will get better.

Did you try G'MIC? It has various customizable filters which you can use to get a better result.

When I logged on to them and tried to get them, I got an error message. Will have another go some time but right now, am having to much fun tuning the background image myself. And a filter can never be as good as doing it yourself in the end + it is a learning process.

koontz1973 wrote:And a filter can never be as good as doing it yourself in the end

That's where you're wrong. There's no inherent quality in only using a smaller set of tools. In other words, the method doesn't matter, only the end result.

Filters are not inherently bad... only when they're used in a way that makes it obvious that a filter has been applied. I know you hear a lot of comments like "that looks like a simple photoshop filter" but they usually refer to situations where a new mapmaker has used a filter in an inappropriate way.

However, filters can be used effectively, if you know how to use them. Even basic filters. For example, I use gaussian blur all the time and it's one of the most basic filters available. And more advanced filters can be very useful, if they are not the only tool you're relying on.

In other words... using filters as a crutch to cover up sloppy work = bad, using them to improve the quality of your work = good.

Anyway, if you have problems installing G'MIC, let me know and I can help you. I think it could be beneficial for you in this situation, it contains multiple filters that can be used very effectively to get the kind of effect you need. Especially if you combine them with different layer modes.

[bigimg]http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/545/indonesiay.png[/bigimg]

Since there are no bonus area names yet, I'll just use the old ones:

Barat: +6
West Utara: +1
East Utara: +2
Pusat: +5
North Timur: +4
South Timur: +2
North Selatan: +3
South Selatan: +3

-Sully

splitting utara was a bad idea. we have 39 regions, so 1v1 games start with 13 each if there are no starting neutrals. with 2 starting neutrals, 1v1 games start with only 12 each, which results in a significant disadvantage for player 2, since his deployment is cut from 4 to 3 as soon as he loses one region.

if we make utara whole again and place pancoran in the northern part of timur, then we can avoid having starting neutrals on the map.

the font is really hard to read. it'll be worse on the small map. can u find a better font?

ian.

Thanks Sully and ian for your input. Will have a look at the splits and neutrals again this week. I sort of like the font but if it is hard to read, will change it.

Bonus regions to the way ian suggested.
6 fonts on the board. Which one works the best?
[bigimg]http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5652/indonesiap.jpg[/bigimg]

None of those fonts are very good. I'll have a look for some good text fonts a bit later.

That impassable (river) that splits the red zone in two, I'm not sure it's a good idea to have it there...

About the fonts i agree with natty, you should search a bit more.

thenobodies80 wrote:That impassable (river) that splits the red zone in two, I'm not sure it's a good idea to have it there...

About the fonts i agree with natty, you should search a bit more.

Found a font that seems to work. Will remove the offending river portion. I forgot to put the bridge there.

I really don't think the territory borders you have work for this map. They seem too simplistic, and you should try making them more in style with the land borders.

New font.
New mini map with bonuses in.
Territ lines are changed but not finished. Thought I would see how a thicker line would work as the map is quite chunky.
Removed offending river.
[bigimg]http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2552/indonesiat.jpg[/bigimg]

natty_dread wrote:I really don't think the territory borders you have work for this map. They seem too simplistic, and you should try making them more in style with the land borders.

I wanted them to almost disappear so they can be seen for players but not look out of place on the map itself. Starting work on a new type (not finished yet) but should look like a brush stoke when done.

Yeah, I was mainly referring to the shape of the borders. Like, the line work is too simple, which is probably because you're using paths with only a single or two segments in them.

If you're really unable to create decent borders by freehand drawing with the ink tool, then here's what to do: download & install inkscape. With it, you can draw paths freehand, and then import those paths to gimp. It also lets you adjust the stroke smoothing, so you can set it at a level that will keep small mistakes and wobbles out of your paths. You can copy-paste your map image to inkscape to help with drawing the borders, just set the document size to correspond with your map image size there and your paths will get imported in the right size.

Heya, koontz, you swapped Timur and Selatan. Unless I missed something

At any rate, new South Timur should be +3, new North Timur +3, and Utara +4.

Also, you're missing a border between Padaemangan and Tanjung Priok.

-Sully

Utara is fine as 3, seeing as it's at the edge of the map. South Timur is also fine as 2. North timur can go down to 3 though.

I would probably reduce North Selatan to 2, for the same reason, and because it can easily be combined with South Selatan for a strong bonus. For that matter, South Selatan could go down to 2 as well, as it can be combined with either of it's neighbours.

My comment from page 3:

Anyhow, I think that Pusat probably is a tad undervalued, considering that it is in the center of the map for all intensive purposes. Plus all but one territory borders another bonus. It could probably be increased to +7, maybe +8.

Utara can stay at+3
Barat can be decreased to +4
North Selatan +3
South Selatan +2
North Timur +3
South Timur +3

Slightly off topic. I found an interesting fact here. At first I was shocked Koontz divided East Jakarta and South Jakarta into 2 cities each, and thought wtf. I could accept it's all to improve the game-play.

Then after googling I found, that in Jakarta's Anniversary in June of last year the Jakarta Governor had proposed to split these two cities.

It's just amazing that I'm aware of this from CC. I think I should give more attention to political news starting today

Keep the good work Koontz!

Back to topic :

Because the divisions are only in a form of the proposal, so I can't find names for them. But based on the location we can use the following names:

Selatan (South Jakarta) is divided into Selatan (=South) and Barat Daya (=Southwest)
Timur (East Jakarta) is divided into Timur (=East) and Tenggara (=Southeast)

.

Thanks for all the comments guys. Here are the new bonus values, some differing of opinions from you all so I went with what looked right to me.
[bigimg]http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1689/indonesiau.png[/bigimg]

Yes natty, still using paths for the borders. And until I get a tablet at some point, I will probably keep using them. Will look at ink scape at some point in the future though.

koontz1973 wrote:Yes natty, still using paths for the borders. And until I get a tablet at some point, I will probably keep using them.

You manage to draw the land shape freehand, so I don't see why you wouldn't manage with the borders... if you work at a zoom it should be easy.

natty_dread wrote:

koontz1973 wrote:Yes natty, still using paths for the borders. And until I get a tablet at some point, I will probably keep using them.

You manage to draw the land shape freehand, so I don't see why you wouldn't manage with the borders... if you work at a zoom it should be easy.

I use the selection tool for the land shape. I can always give that a go tonight and turn the selection to a path.

koontz1973 wrote:I use the selection tool for the land shape. I can always give that a go tonight and turn the selection to a path.

Yeah, but you still have to use the selection tool freehand, so why can't you use the ink tool freehand?

Also, selection to path only works for closed selections. You can't create open paths that way.

[bigimg]http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2809/indonesiaq.jpg[/bigimg]
Bonus names changed to suggested names.

natty, I am not comfortable yet doing freehand over a long distance, I tried it on 1982 but my hand is not steady. It will take longer to get something I like for the map.

koontz1973 wrote:natty, I am not comfortable yet doing freehand over a long distance

So do it in small increments.

This what it looks like when I do it freehand. Not very nice.
[bigimg]http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9503/falklandswar.png[/bigimg]