Hawaii Dual

Indeed, yellow is a hard colour to get right.
And indeed, when your map was lighter, it was also cartoonish, which is not that good.

However, if you look at other maps, you can get them to be light without being cartoonish.
Compare Korea-Japan with Baltic Sea.
The first one has a really dark feeling, and the latter has a really bright and sunny feeling - but it's not cartoonish or cheesy.
Apart from that, Baltic Sea also has a yellow region that looks quite pretty.

Right now I like C the best, but mainly because it brightens the map so much. I think B looks good, but is very much over the top.

I prefer A and C, just because B is too much. And Maybe C if I had to choose between A and C but am not sure yet.

The thing is, the map is still dark, greyish and does not have that "tropical" feeling to it despite the increased brightness in example C. And some of the colours you have chosen for the regions do not help at all, for instance the grey on Kahoolawe, the weird white on Niihau, etc. The only good colour I think is the one on Maui and maybe Hawaii but those are still on the edge and will need some work.
I think the map that you should follow as your inspiration is the Caribbean since both are in the "tropical" genre.

The texture that you've added to the background is a good touch but maybe find one that covers both the top and the bottom of the map because it does feel a bit cheesy and simple when it is like this, especially when it's visible like in example B and C.

Overall nice improvement.

I always imagined your nice background image to be a subtle feature of the background and its texture.

To give you an idea of the sort of things I envisage, I made a really basic 2 colour background silhouette on the theme of your background image and then used ultra zoomed images of real gold in its different forms, as a texture and a colour & light enhancer.
I also placed my original example Island on top of the background to show the contrast of foreground and background.

Here is the latest update. The following changes have been made:

1) I changed the background base color from a steely gray blue to a tropical blue.

2) I changed the opacity of the islands a little bit to allow more color to come through and less of the black and white texture to bleed through. This gives it more color which everyone has been asking for.

3) I lightened the blackish brown title logo and made it more of a plain brown.

Another note: When I added the texture (see versions A B & C above) to the background around the islands, I did cover the entire canvas with the same texture. It turns out that on the bottom of the screen where the beach exists in the background photo, an optical illusion is created. The texture of the water seems to disappear over the sand but trust me, it is there. Just thought I would mention it. I think it is kind of cool that where the beach appears, the water is less noticeable.

Here is the latest update.


PS: Yes, on one of my layers there was a rogue white dot which appeared just before the period in the "Territories can attack" sentence. I eradicated the menace.

To whom it may concern: You cannot comment on this map because the creator is on your avoid list.

For comparison, here is VERSION C from previous post. Just making it easier for everyone to compare them side by side.

I'm liking the more tropical feel the background gives it

I personally liked the black versus the brown hawaii title background. Is there a way to remove the background to it altogether? Leave the green circle, but take out single color backing to it. It's just not fitting in at the moment. There's gotta be something to do to make it gel better.

Or conversely, you could try and make the rest of the map fit the title. Go to a more brown/green/orange kind of theme.

OOOOOH. Maybe elongate the circle, turn it into a surfboard and brighten it up a bit?

Your latest update is very nice! A huge improvement (in my opinion)! Maybe brighten up the yellow region a little, as it now seems dull compared to the brighter background.

frikken excellent cohesion now,
- the lighter colors and feel of the water make the islands pop, but not too much, it takes care of the island color issues via the contrast.
- the texture is excellent and unique in its triple exposure feel while tying it together at the same time.
- Gone is the cartoonishness element, which partly comes from the "globby"/rounded island shapes (and came from previous color schemes and lack of texture),, for some reason the more i look at it the less problem i have with their quirky shapes , i think because there is more contrast now.
- One thing that is very nice about it now is the 3 different blue tones , which add to the illusion of tropical reef water colors and give a life to the texture
- There is almost a pleasant zoom in and out experience when looking at the islands and water
- The 'postcard' background now adds to that effect, but honestly, i would see how it looks with the palm trees toned down a wee bit, like 5-10%( but just the palm tree area)
- Even tho its more visible now, i still think the text "Territories can attack their twin..." should be bolder
- i hate to say it but, i wonder how it will look when the troop circles are placed? It looks like some of the islands might be a bit small,,?,, if they need to be a little bigger, i would make them all a touch bigger except the big red one .
- nice logo, nice job, impressive improvements

Good improvements, I wonder how it'd look if you gave the yellow, orange and dark green islands a bit more colour.

With all due respect, Naathim, I love the title design. I didn't mind lightening it but that is as far as I go with that. Not going to remove the oval. Nobody has mentioned any issue with that and even Vexer gave it some praise as is.

Will tweak the yellow, orange, and green for you Matty.

You all know that at some point we just have to agree it is done. I can not make every change everybody wants or else we risk our horse becoming a camel. I think we are at the point where we have to say to ourselves, "can I live with the map as it stands?" and only comment if there is a flaw that is something you can not live with.

But I do appreciate everything all of you have done to contribute and I admit it is nicer now then when I thought I was finished several versions ago.

Expect an update in about 12 hours. TTFN

Personally I don't really like the icon, even though I like the idea (I just don't comment on everything right away, currently the map is more important imho).
Right now for example the icon looks very flat, as a sticker pasted on a rough wall. Maybe add a texture the the icon as well?

Don't make a camel out of a horse - turn it into a thoroughbred one. And that requires more tweaks and changes than you might think.

Here is the update I promised with the slight increase in color for yellow, green, and orange. Admittedly this looks better to me as well. So can we all agree that this map is ready for beta testing?

I started laying out the caps and I think there will be some AWESOME cap games on this map. I think DM games will also be fun.

- note, personally i dont have a problem with the islands, once the troops circles are placed they will cover much of the textures and island colors , especially on the small ones.. but, if you wanted the islands to have a highlighting effect, you would slightly lighten the island colors, but slightly darken the island textures you added.

i am actually more concerned the 'troop circles' will feel a bit crowded due to the size of some of the islands. But they will end up dominating the space and perception of most of the islands anyways.

- and i am still concerned about the "Territories can,," text not being bold enough, especially on smaller devices (it could stand to be maybe 10% bigger also)

Axo is right on the text. I am still not 100% happy about the map either but find it hard to say right now what it could be, I'm not sure.
Defenitely, with territory circles this map will look different, but it won't be much of a problem I think.

I'll wait for the cartographer to have his say

I agree with Clarke; I feel we're getting a little too picky, and I'm sure Clarke is thinking: "Will they ever be satisfied?" but he's writing it in a much nicer way than that. The map is very nice now. The text at the bottom isn't too small... is it? Because it's way bigger than the territory names! I think the map is ready, or at least very very nearly ready.

Now what about those capitals suggestions? We might as well start reviewing those, as the gameplay certainly isn't going to change.