AOS: Orient Express 1883 [quench'd]

[theBastard]

why so long name - "Orient Expres 1883: Paris - Constantinople"? if you will made maps pack of old famous railways what about name - "Steam Age - Orient Expres", "Steam Age - Transiberian Railway" and so on...?

[natty dread]

Firstly, I want the year to be specified in the title. It goes a long way creating mood for the map - it gives a point of reference and tells the players they are not playing in the present, but in the past.

The second part, about the route of the railway, could probably be omitted.

[natty dread]

Ok so I changed Moravia -> Slovakia. Also changed the font of land territories, I think this looks better...

Click image to enlarge.

[theBastard]

I think font should be another. maybe something like on this picture?

[natty dread]

I think font should be another. maybe something like on this picture?

I'm already using a similar font for the title. I doubt it would work for territory names - the font for territory names needs to be compact yet easily legible and the current one is both while somewhat fitting the visual style.

Also look at the small red text at the very top edge of that picture - it looks quite similar to the territory font I have now, I think.

[theBastard]

I can not find something better and yes they are fine.

[natty dread]

f*ck, I just noticed I misspelled Rhone as Thone...

[MarshalNey]

Map pack names will make it easier for people to find them on the browser, though. When the list is upwards of 150 maps, it's easy to miss some. Players might never know a sequel existed to Orient Express otherwise, until maybe months later. Who knows? Maybe, if they'd known there was another "Orient Express" map out there, they might have stayed on CC, but instead they got bored and left...

Anyway, I think "Age of..." is overdone and "The Steam Age:" would work, while taking out the route subtitles.

"The Steam Age: Orient Express 1888". Not that long at all. Perfect, in fact.

[natty dread]

"The Steam Age: Orient Express 1888". Not that long at all. Perfect, in fact.

Hm. Not bad...

[Evil DIMwit]

1. It'd be nice if you clarified somewhere on the map what Belgrade belongs to and where it connects to.

2. It looks really strange the Germany and Austria-Hungary's colored borders continue along their internal rivers rather than sticking to the actual national border. Ditto for the mountains between Macedonia and Bulagria.

That's really all for now. Some of the bonuses I'm not quite sure about -- like the Low Countries' 4/4/4 and Servia & Monte Negro's 3/3/3 -- but if it looks fair to you then I'm not complaining.

[The Bison King]

When are we going to get a look at the Pacific Railway?

[natty dread]

1. It'd be nice if you clarified somewhere on the map what Belgrade belongs to and where it connects to.

I agree, and I'm planning to.

2. It looks really strange the Germany and Austria-Hungary's colored borders continue along their internal rivers rather than sticking to the actual national border. Ditto for the mountains between Macedonia and Bulagria.

Ditto.

That's really all for now. Some of the bonuses I'm not quite sure about -- like the Low Countries' 4/4/4 and Servia & Monte Negro's 3/3/3 -- but if it looks fair to you then I'm not complaining.

What would you suggest instead? I've found the average between territory count & border count to be a fairly good quick formula, but often they will require some tweaking... (yes I know bonus sheets and yes I'm lazy)

When are we going to get a look at the Pacific Railway?

Soon... It's been tough since - being an European - I know next to zero about US geography & history. Fortunately Marshal has been kind enough to assist on that front. I still have some territory borders to figure out, and some tweaking to do, but I'll try to get some work done on it tomorrow. At the very least I'm hoping to have the first draft posted in the next few days.

[natty dread]

v7

Click image to enlarge.

fixed the colour borders, and added text about belgrade. Also title

for the record I haven't had the chance to work on the pacific rail, I've been too busy with the maps that are actually in production. But I'll get it posted eventually...

[theBastard]

maybe you could write notice in legend about Belgrade with the same font (strong) as others. at the firts look I can not find it...

[natty dread]

I can try but I'm not sure if I can fit the text in the actual legend. However I can make the text bolded so it stands out better.

[porkenbeans]

I have not been able to look in on this map in a while, and It looks like some positive advances have been made. I am honestly shocked.

This map is on the verge of beauty. Natty, this is the best thing that I have seen from you graphically. It is in a whole different league than moon map, and even the NC map for that matter.

I do not know where to start, with the positives of this map.

The first thing I will mention is the train station circles. I would lobby to have all the maps with train stations circles, to be upgraded to this standard.

I will be the first person to tell you how much I hate maps, with more than one territory name within the same border. Maps like Iraq drive me nuts. And since I do not have map inspector anymore, I rarely play games of that type.

Games that have rail lines or roads are the exception, as they are not to difficult to visualize.

These "neon" circles that you have incorporated only on the train stations is "brilliant". (pun intended).

I will save the rest of the nice things going on, for future comment, and get to the suggestion portion, of my feedback.

Like on Nordic, my advise is the same. Look at the contrast between the foreground (land), and the background (water). This is the first, really critical step, as you begin to lay out the graphics. You need to create some kind of contrast, by using one or more techniques, such as texture, color, brightness etc...

Nordic went with the light, dark back. I suggest that you go the opposite on this one. You will loose the drop shadow from the foreground if you make the background dark. So just lighten it way up to an off blu/wht. This will also do wonders for that blue text over the water.

One last thing , Do not under any circumstances, start throwing any bevel on this map. If you want to experiment with something, try playing around with some gradients. (on the back ground).

So basically, make the water have the same contrast, that the train circles have, with the land.

[natty dread]

Thanks for your kind words, pork. I'm glad you like it, I'm also very fond of this map.

As for the water contrast... I'm using 2 types of contrast: opposite colour contrast (blue water - yellow/brown land, opposite colours in the RGB scheme) and sharpness contrast (land sharper than water, more in focus). I could lighten the water somewhat, but not much... the water text doesn't worry me too much, it is in no way relevant to the gameplay and is strictly decorative.

Don't worry, I do not intend to add any bevel to this map...

[porkenbeans]

Thanks for your kind words, pork. I'm glad you like it, I'm also very fond of this map.

As for the water contrast... I'm using 2 types of contrast: opposite colour contrast (blue water - yellow/brown land, opposite colours in the RGB scheme) and sharpness contrast (land sharper than water, more in focus). I could lighten the water somewhat, but not much... the water text doesn't worry me too much, it is in no way relevant to the gameplay and is strictly decorative.

Don't worry, I do not intend to add any bevel to this map...

Yes, you can play with the lightness of the water it needs to be either lighter or darker than the land. right now it is too close in brightness. the color saturation is also very close to each other. I would hue it out and make it more of a very light grey/blue. this will Give the land the richest saturation on the map. The blue against yellow is in fact one of the good things that I failed to mention. There are also some other things that I want to talk about. But that will wait for another time.

[natty dread]

Well...

Click image to enlarge.

[porkenbeans]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[natty dread]

No and no.

Forgive me for being blunt, but both look horrible.

[ender516]

Well, I'm not big on the white sea, but the blue is okay. That being said, I still don't like it better than yours, natty.

[natty dread]

Ok then...

Original

Click image to enlarge.

Lightened

Click image to enlarge.

Is it an improvement?

[theBastard]

for me lightened looks better. natty, why you can not do notice about Belgrad with the same font as others (M.N. = Monte Negro, Mac. = Macedonia...)? it should looks better I think...

[natty dread]

The belgrade thing is information about the map so I'm using the legend font for that.