Anchor Bay

Ultras, I can't read the part of how perfect you see the map. The other part, yes, I definitely can read that :P [spoiler=new page reference repost][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5141667.jpg[/img][/spoiler]

Darker mountains actually kind of make it all come together somehow - was thinking of going the other way, lighter in the south, but went darker in the north playing with the shadows, and compare this to the reference above from Psymon's post (thank you for doing that by the way) [spoiler=darker northern mountains][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5141834.jpg[/img][/spoiler]

I think it's a good habit :)

Loads of updates since I last checked! I like all changes, especially the bridge graphics. I think a ferry icon would be good if you could get one to work.

Thank you virtue! I was wondering if anyone was going to notice those, I drew them in solidworks (3D Cad program), then rendered them, and painted in shadows. Lots of fun. Ok I just drew 1, and then rotated it a bit for each placement. I might move Yellow to red bridge north one territory of red, same territory of yellow. And then move Gray Purple bridge one territory north of Purple, same territory of gray. This way you can never capture two regions without defending at least 3 points. Right now you can capture Gray + orange and hold it with 2 borders. You can also capture Red + light blue and hold it with 2 borders. Just sucks because I'll have to remap all the caps from scratch. Oh well.

I'm not sure why but to me the land still looks like its hovering above the mountains..and the same goes for when looking at the land where it meets the ocean, so basically, it looks like three different paintings combined into one, mountains, land and ocean...

Is that a bad thing? Melee definitely floats above the water, even moreso than this one and the water, but it never seemed to be an issue. I'm out of blending tricks. When I get home, I'm going to gray our the bottom of the mountains so the only black is the border on the playable land. As for the water, I got nothing. Thought it went well with the land.

But melee doesnt have paintings of mountains. Try making it one thing, might look alot better (maybe use ripples for the water instead of shadow).

So which one thing? Everyone seems to love the water, so new mountains to match the land? I think I'll blur the painting look out of the mountains and put a cross hatch stroke effect on it like the land. I'll nerf the inner shadow, and just on the shore line try some outer shadow / glows and see how it makes it not float I guess. Alternatively, I can make that darker water effect inverted, so it's lighter, which is more intuitive for shallower water leading up to land. I just liked the look of the darker border to the land. It looks really pretty haha.

Matty is right, Melee has a different style than this, that's why it never bothered me. About the water, if you look at any ocean you can see that its colour gets lighter the closer you get to the land and darker the further away it is, maybe you could apply that to the map and see how it turns out? I played around with the map just real quick to show you what I had in mind regarding the mountains, ocean and the level of brightness. http://s30.postimg.org/7xrg231fl/test_ocean_map.jpg

I have one layer for lighter to shore and one for darker to shore, so I can just turn the dark one off and the light one back on

[spoiler=Anchor Bay Rev B][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5142907.jpg[/img][/spoiler] Completely revamped mountains to look like land, replaced shadow highlight on land with glow, (this also helps it contrast in style from Aero's Melee - don't want two new maps with similar styles on the playing area) This also helps get rid of the dark to dark merging of mountain to playable land. Added slight shadow off mountain to blend it with land better. hid dark water highlight, replaced with light water highlight to look like shallow water. Moved Bridges for perfectly = gameplay. Added draft of minimap, I like the border, which is tricky - not actually a border, but a LACK of border, kind of looks cool. Added signature to southern mountain. Added graphic to Title of an anchor. Lightened purple, made blue more blue, and gray less yellow, mountains completely gray now. "Smuggler's Run" added to eastern attack line.

I don't know maps. Liked the mountains before better. Graphics all look amazing!! (the anchor in the title!!! and the font!!) I want to play this already!!

I think they looked better on their own before, but look much better overall with the whole map now. and thank! Spent way too long on that title haha. Started with just this https://img1.etsystatic.com/007/0/7062858/il_fullxfull.366206157_j4bg.jpg

[spoiler=Ignoramus's idea. so don't work on it unless someone knowledgeable thinks it can work]Crazy idea to improve the look of land with the water. - maybe SPLASH the beaches with some water! Splash the territories bordering the water with water to create a seamless look - like they are side by side. And it would be really cool![/spoiler]