South Africa 1885

[the.killing.44]

You need to figure out the direction you want the map to head in, African or European.

So, which is it?

[ender516]

Are we talking about the map, or the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[isaiah40]

Are we talking about the map, or the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

[Industrial Helix]

To be honest, I'm leaning towards European styling in terms of the map but I want to keep elements of African as well... Does one necessarily have to choose?

[natty dread]

IMO, no. The subject is south africa... which is a kind of a clash of cultures, there's the original african population and the imperialistic british/european one... I think it would only be good for your map to reflect this dualistic nature of the area.

[The Bison King]

I'm aware that this is totally stupid and cheesy but I wouldn't mind seeing a lion or giraffe in that upper left corner.

[Industrial Helix]

IMO, no. The subject is south africa... which is a kind of a clash of cultures, there's the original african population and the imperialistic british/european one... I think it would only be good for your map to reflect this dualistic nature of the area.

That's kind of what I'm thinking as well... a sort of African/British/Dutch combination.

I was thinking about using the forts and ships to help illustrate this as well, like giant steamers for the ships and the forts would vary between the homeland they occupied. I mean, Zululand ought to have a wildly different fort than, say, transvaal.

[the.killing.44]

IMO, no. The subject is south africa... which is a kind of a clash of cultures, there's the original african population and the imperialistic british/european one... I think it would only be good for your map to reflect this dualistic nature of the area.

That's kind of what I'm thinking as well... a sort of African/British/Dutch combination.

It's a nice idea and it embodies South Africa and all that corny shit, but it doesn't look very good.

[Industrial Helix]

As in the current version doesn't look good or as in such combination will never look good... I'm presuming you mean the former as I think the latter could work out quite nicely.

[RedBaron0]

Well, try one you think will look best, and we'll go from there.

[Industrial Helix]

Actually, I'm thinking I might do the map in water colors... definitely a page out of Bison King's book, but I think its a good idea and might work the theme quite well.

[porkenbeans]

I'm aware that this is totally stupid and cheesy but I wouldn't mind seeing a lion or giraffe in that upper left corner.

That's not cheesy at all. Any icons that are unique to an area, are perfectly appropriate when making a map/game-board.

[Industrial Helix]

I think I have an idea to work in some lions but not so much the giraffe. Stay tuned on that.

In the meantime, it seemed the the first order of business would be to address colorblindness.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[The Bison King]

Actually, I'm thinking I might do the map in water colors... definitely a page out of Bison King's book, but I think its a good idea and might work the theme quite well.

Looking forward to seeing it!

[ender516]

The issue I have right now, which becomes more obvious when looking at the colourblind test, is that the order of the legend does not correspond well to any ordering of the zones on the map. I understand that the order in the legend is driven somewhat by the length of the names, but some room for juggling might be freed up by moving the "Ports connect to supply ships" note down to the open ocean south of Port Elizabeth or E. London.

[Industrial Helix]

I think Evil Dimwit organized it but I'm not entirely sure how. I'll have to look it up. To be honest, I don't see any point in organizing the list by geographical place. When I play the map, I'm going to look at the color and and then find the corresponding color.

[ender516]

Well, I found that the colour looked somewhat different on the legend icon than it did on the map, so I found your approach a little time-consuming. (This may be due to the difference in the background colour: the map seems to be a fairly pure white, while the legend area seems a bit off-white.) And, as I said, I think the colour blind are going to be at an even bigger disadvantage.

[natty dread]

I think the "ports connect to supply ships" text is redundant. You already have lines going from the territories to the ships, and if people can't discern from that that they are connected then they should go play tic tac toe against a trained monkey or assemble a 2-piece jigsaw puzzle rather than be on CC.

[Industrial Helix]

Well... the reason the legend and the map don't correlate in places is because I changed the map colors to accommodate colorblindness and didn't change the legend. So Basutoland, Stellaland and Griqualand West are all off. But the other colors seem to match, don't they?

And Natty, you are spot on. That text is going to go, as are the ports likely.

[natty dread]

Hm, I would keep the port icons in some form at least. They add a nice touch and they aren't really in the way of anything - unless you have trouble fitting army numbers, in which case you can just move the port icons further to sea.

Maybe just make them thinner. I think the port icons would look real nice if they were drawn in really thin lines.

[ender516]

I think the colours are mostly right, but not knowing the geography, I keep getting confused trying to figure out which is what (I am trying to identify zones based on their size and bonus), plus the colours look different here at work this morning than they did at home last night. I think I will let it go until you have updated both the legend and the map, then I can be specific in any criticism or suggestion.

I like the port icons too, and natty may be right about drawing them with thin lines.

[Victor Sullivan]

I like the 2x bonus idea with the ports and ships, but the map seems kinda busy and a little hard to read. Possibly a font change will help? And I thought Swaziland was one word, but maybe that's just me being weird again.

[Industrial Helix]

Still working on this!

Hmm... yeah, maybe swaziland is one word. Typically, I just copied the style written on the base map, so that must have been two words. I'm down either way...

As for the font... well... I'm going to go two ways on this. 1) On the original map I've got on the easel next to me, I'm going to put it calligraphy style. But I doubt that will fly for CC so 2) I'm open to different fonts. I'll take a look around and would appreciate it if anyone knows of any good fonts to use as well.

[theBastard]

I like the small map, last posted by you. maybe colours could be more different...

btw, Helix when I´m looking at your new avatar, are you thinking about any historical european map?

[ender516]

I like the small map, last posted by you. maybe colours could be more different...

btw, Helix when I´m looking at your new avatar, are you thinking about any historical european map?

I was curious about your avatar, too. A young Queen Victoria?