Jewel of the Empire coordinates & xml (new xml?)

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:10 pm

Ruben Cassar wrote:In the legend colour the continent names with the appropriate colours and not only the bonuses.

I still like the sound of Jewel of the Empire better.

I'm not opposed: logic is on your side. As CC players our aim is to get one's own empire. Goes perfectly with my map. I'll steal the phrase, thanks. :wink:

Update -

Mountains enlarged and straddle the Himalayan border (a bit). Easterns Ghats added. Legend colourized. Not had the inspiration to fix the desert. Not sure whether I want to borderize the sea routes yet.

mibi · Post by **mibi** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:05 pm

i like your color choices, your good with that. but this india looks like an island

in the sky.

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:23 pm

mibi wrote:i like your color choices, your good with that. but this india looks like an island

in the sky.

Artistic license here. Looks better than tracing out the rest of Asia. It's a very powerful image of India, I think, separated from Asia - like an object in itself.

The themes are India, colonialism, and "Jewel in the Empire."

This India map reflects these themes. Thus the fantasy-like quality of India beneath parting clouds, Delhi the shape of a gem.

The map should reflect the magic of empire - India as a "Jewel," a special place.

I know "magic of empire" is not a very politically correct thing to say but neither is CC a very politically correct game. :wink:

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:27 pm

2 spelling problems BraHmaputra and HimAlayas

<--------- post 666 :twisted:

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:40 pm

DiM wrote:2 spelling problems BraHmaputra and HimAlayas

<--------- post 666

Ouch!

This map is one for the ladies. Because, the more I look at it, the more feminine it appears... not just the colours.

I going to do the desert next. Are the mountains acceptable? I probably would want to refine the graphic quality but I'm thinking the final result would look as it does now.

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:45 pm

the mountains don't quite look like mountains. they look like little wigwams :lol:

maybe make the mountains bulkier and make them connected not in separate pieces

Gozar · Post by **Gozar** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:23 pm

I really like how it is looking so far!
I think you will get a lot of confused people wondering where the desert is though.

Cheers,
Gozar

KEYOGI · Post by **KEYOGI** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:05 am

Contrickster wrote:Artistic license here. Looks better than tracing out the rest of Asia. It's a very powerful image of India, I think, separated from Asia - like an object in itself.

That's not how the foundry works though. You've got quite a few people saying the floating look isn't ideal, you could at least give us an alternative.

Contrickster wrote:Are the mountains acceptable?

I don't think they are. They need to be bigger for a start.

Is it just me or does the whole map have kind of a fuzzy/blurry look about it?

Ruben Cassar · Post by **Ruben Cassar** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:34 am

Yes the mountains need to be bigger and more connected.

I do not mind the idea of India not being connected to the rest of Asia though. It does not seem to be floating although it does have a kind of 'dreamy' look about it, however I think that makes it original.

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:16 am

A lot of good suggestions for my next update, thanks.

KEYOGI wrote: You've got quite a few people saying the floating look isn't ideal, you could at least give us an alternative.

The "Jewel" look is part of what makes the map ‘inherently unique either in gameplay, location, or style.’ Remember my intention is also to distinguish my map stylistically from the excellent Indian Presidencies map also in development. The Indian Presidencies map has a border with Asia. I think it's important for the whole conception of the Jewel in the Empire that it does not. If you'd like me to change the colour, texture etc. that's fine but I think now that no-Asia is an essential part of what makes this map original.

Is it just me or does the whole map have kind of a fuzzy/blurry look about it?

Don't know why that would be, no transparency. I have chosen the kind of soft colours that could be lifted from an Always box. That might explain the feminine look.

Actually, the number circles are transparent. Without numbers in, that might explain the fuzzy/blurry look?

boberz · Post by **boberz** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:02 am

floating = good

mountains = bad

army circles = bad (need to be smaller)

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:47 am

boberz wrote:floating = good

mountains = bad

army circles = bad (need to be smaller)

My plan is to draw the mountain graphics myself (couple of different ones, larger than now) and repeat the graphic all along the border. Himalayas should be grey and snow-capped because they are. Ghats should be green, perhaps more hill-like than craggy, because they are.

Should I do something else?

I could take ready-made mountain/hill images from somewhere but if I can draw something specific for this map it might look better. That was my thought.

Open to suggestions.

boberz · Post by **boberz** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:17 am

sounds good but i mainly just wanted to show support for the floating idea

KEYOGI · Post by **KEYOGI** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:51 pm

I think the blur seems most obvious on the borders. I don't think it's a big issue though with this whole "dreamy" look to the map. I have no problem with you keeping the floating/detached look, seems it's getting more support recently.

Could you add an outline or something to those sea connections though, they're very hard to see.

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:04 pm

KEYOGI wrote:I think the blur seems most obvious on the borders. I don't think it's a big issue though with this whole "dreamy" look to the map. I have no problem with you keeping the floating/detached look, seems it's getting more support recently.

Could you add an outline or something to those sea connections though, they're very hard to see.

I'll do something to the sea connections to make them visible. Not sure what yet...

The internal borders all have a pure white line between them. Did this by putting a white layer below and erasing the territory in the layer above.

The blue background borders are the fuzziest because I did not do this on those borders. However that was deliberate.

It is impossible to entirely remove blur from internal borders unless you use a glaringly hard line which I don't rate aesthecially-wise. However I've reduced the blur as much as I can there with the technique above.

fluffybunnykins · Post by **fluffybunnykins** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:09 pm

The sea routes might suit the map better with white, rather than black, outlines??? or just as a slightly darker shade of that pink???
I like the way the mountains aren't on top of the border. Makes it a bit different from most other maps round here.
The desert might work in orange if the continent it was in was a more contrasting colour... but then, there may well be a good, historical/cultural/geographical reason for that region to be that colour, so...

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 4:16 pm

fluffybunnykins wrote:The sea routes might suit the map better with white, rather than black, outlines??? or just as a slightly darker shade of that pink???
I like the way the mountains aren't on top of the border. Makes it a bit different from most other maps round here.
The desert might work in orange if the continent it was in was a more contrasting colour... but then, there may well be a good, historical/cultural/geographical reason for that region to be that colour, so...

What should desert look like? The one really good-looking desert I've seen is on the Indian Presidencies map. That uses layers of colours. However that desert is yellow and the pictures I've seen of the Thar desert show it, at least in places, as a reddish/orange colour.

Maybe if I could draw a hilly landscape... something approaching rolling sand dunes.

Nukora · Post by **Nukora** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:47 pm

Would you mind putting what a desert looks like in the key? I don't get what it looks like.

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:10 pm

Nukora wrote:Would you mind putting what a desert looks like in the key? I don't get what it looks like.

Got a new graphic below which may make spotting the desert easier. Not opposed to trying out a "barrier" key if it can be kept short and sweet.

Draft 6:

I think I addressed all the comments. The desert/mountain graphics are of the abstract style I think is suited to the map but not yet of the quality I'd like. Just to let you know how I'm doing there and if you have any comments I'd love to hear them.

BTW I don't know if it's just me but there seems to be some blurryness of names.

Skittles! · Post by **Skittles!** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:25 am

The orange impassable reminds me of fortune cookies.
The mountains reminds me of... I have no idea what they remind me of.
What are those green things?

The pink in the legend hurts my eyes. As does the colour for the Himalayas.

I really have no idea what to say about what the colours reminds me of..

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:30 am

Skittles! wrote:The orange impassable reminds me of fortune cookies.
The mountains reminds me of... I have no idea what they remind me of.
What are those green things?

The pink in the legend hurts my eyes. As does the colour for the Himalayas.

I really have no idea what to say about what the colours reminds me of..

Ladies sanitary towel box? There needs to be one map for the girls. :wink:

I could make the legend in a larger font. Compared to some maps it's already very readable. The legend in World 2.1 is tiny.

However there are things I could try to make it easier to read.

Mountains aren't meant to be realistic mountains. The coloured cones are a representation of a mountain. The flat mounds a representation of a desert.

I'll adjust the colours and refine the shape of the mountains and desert.

unriggable · Post by **unriggable** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:41 am

Skittles! wrote:The orange impassable reminds me of fortune cookies.
The mountains reminds me of... I have no idea what they remind me of.

Monochrome candy corn for me.

Change the mountains and espceially the desert wall.
Get rid of the cloud background.

Contrickster · Post by **Contrickster** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:54 am

unriggable wrote:
Skittles! wrote:The orange impassable reminds me of fortune cookies.
The mountains reminds me of... I have no idea what they remind me of.

Monochrome candy corn for me.

Change the mountains and espceially the desert wall.
Get rid of the cloud background.

I'll work on the desert and mountain graphics within the style I've suggested. Open to other suggestions - although line mountain/ black/brown triangle mountain would look horrible on this map.

The cloud background is important to the character of the map. The theme of India as a dream Empire. Removing the cloud would make it less "magical" and fantasy-like. The cloud background is like background images on other maps. Going to keep the cloud for now.

Speaking of images was thinking about merging an image of the taj mahal into the background.

DiM · Post by **DiM** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:58 am

keep the clouds.

also modify the title. put jewel in the crown not in the empire.

Ruben Cassar · Post by **Ruben Cassar** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:47 am

DiM wrote:keep the clouds.

also modify the title. put jewel in the crown not in the empire.

Nope as I said before I prefer the jewel of the Empire so keep it as it is.

Jewel of the Empire coordinates & xml (new xml?)

Would you like me to continue with this map?