Eddygp wrote:Seamus76 wrote:Welcome Eddygp, nice work. I like the potential for this, you do need to work some things out, but stick with it and you'll have a nice addition to the site.
- You are going to have to use the path tool for the borders. I know you mentioned you like the roughness, but it does not look good at all, and will never pass.
- Personally I think you need to incorporate the river more into the gameplay of the map. The name of the map is Samarium River, but contains no playable elements on said river. You could break each branch up into terts, or place some kind of boat in the middle of each sea route to create more terts, and incorporate the river more. Etc., etc., I guess my main thought is to use the river more in some way.
- If by float the bonus values you mean just have them listed, yes, you will need to do that, and you also need to keep in mind there needs to be some consideration to a storyline, a description of the region, something interesting, etc. I know nothing of the area and would like it to be spiced up in the local flavor, if you know what I mean. For this you'll need space, and it looks tight already (keeping in mind you'll need a small map version as well). You only have 6 bonus regions, so that won't take up too much space, you might even be able to creatively put them into each bonus region itself, in the background or something. Or with only six you'd have room in the lower left river area for a legend, etc.
Anyway, my first suggestion would be to redo all of the borders as paths, and make sure save, save, save. And then save a copy. This will take a while, but will be completely worth it in the long run.
Good luck.
Firstly, thank you for your constructive reply. I have some questions though, as I am quite inexperienced in this area... is it possible to make path borders to "adapt" to the already drawn borders? This would save me quite a lot of work.
Secondly, I find the idea to modify the river interesting, but I would prefer to keep it rather simple in terms of structure (but not gameplay). If I added any ships, a lot could be done, like bombardments, a seventh bonus area (the river), etc. but this might be too complex (and too tight) to develop. Just saying.
When I spoke about creating floating bonuses, I meant that the numbers (+6, +8...) could be floating on top of the river adjacent to the bonus area, with the same colour as this area but a translucent texture.
Thank you!
+EDIT+ Maybe something like this better at the moment? (made without using paths)
- Click image to enlarge.
The texture is still very rough compared to paths, but at least... I don't know.
Nah bud, that's just not going to work in the long run, and to be more brutal, there's not much you can do except go back over with the path tool, which will make the outlines nice and smooth. If you don't like that, which I get the feeling you don't you can always jag it up in other ways, still using the paths you've created. I'm sure koontz, or some others, have a better way to do that, but my way would be to just add more points along the path, and then use the squared edge setting when stroking them.
For the main map, the way I would do it is, to basically start with a path for each large area, then a path around each of the two included areas, so basically 9 paths to make up your foundation for the map, possibly 10 if you want to make your life even easier down the road and do the river. This will allow you to easily fill each area in with color or texture by using the Path to Selection, then just drop your color in, making sure to use a different layer for each one. Then I go back in and create a path around each individual tert or a line, etc. to create the lines/borders for each tert. This will allow you to easily move them around as needed later on, which will invariably happen. This is not fun, but just put on some Floyd, zone in and I'm sure you can knock it out in a couple of days.
As for the river, I just think you should make it into more playable area. Also, what time period are you looking to set the map in, that will determine the type of boat you use, the tower, etc. Also, think about adding more explanatory text to set the tone for the map. Personally I'm a quote man, you'll see one on every map I do. "There is no death, only a change of worlds", Chief Seattle. "All these are the twelve tribes of Israel", the Old Testament. "Do the unexpected, attack the unprepared", Zhuge Liang. "Not all those who wander are lost", Tolkien.
I'm not sure of your situation, but nobody should be fooled here, this is a long process, and I really hope you and every other new map maker sticks with it. You will learn so many things that will help make the next project quicker, easier, and more enjoyable. Right now it sucks though, for me the initial paths are the worst part, but once you get those and the tert lines it gets more fun.
