Map Dabble

labels upped +15 opacity
inset shadow reduced
white labels changed to a pale grey

next step will try to figure out how to do the inner effect glow. I did brighten davao region in this edit.

Yes I see which adjustments you have made and they are much better.

I think tackling what I suggested with the inner glow of brighter / more vibrant colour dissolving into the colours you have, is going to be difficult if you have all your land on one layer.
A simple way is to marquee around each separate island & region and then copy & paste them into new layers, keeping the ones of the same region near each other in the layers and naming them so that they are easily identified.
For regions that are on the larger islands and that connect to other regions, you will have to marquee exactly beneath where the centre of border lines are, so as not to have overlaps/bleeds.
On maps that I have to edit, I usually leave the Outlines and Borders switched on as a guide for this.
I don't know if the program you are using has a selective marquee tool, known as a Polygonal Lasso tool.

You should really give some time to organising your layers and layer groups, with names that you can reference easily, because the layers really mount up with maps. Use a group to contain all of one part of the map, such as all the land, all the background/sea, all the labels, all the outlines & borders etc.

Yeah, it looks a little faded now. TOO MUCH BROWN! lol Let the colors of the regions shine a bit.

The mismatching fonts between background and labels/title idk if I like that

The motto and the stars do help fill up the space, but it's just more grey, brown blah for me. Maybe brighten up the sun/stars a bit?

But it all does look good together, has an excellent, old almost nautical/pirate map theme.

EEEE I know this is a little late. But I'm thinking the bonuses for Mindanao, Bangsamoro, and Davao seem off? Mindanao should be a +2, shouldn't it? And maybe Bangsamoro should be upped by one? I'm getting 3.6 for the formula for Bangsamoro. But if you get the whole island set down there, you've got three borders, so I suppose I could see leaving it at 3. But if you just have the territory, I think 4 would be more fair. Either way I think Mindanao should be a +2.

the fonts are the same on all labels..inset (just capitals)..title text

the long lat & ocean text are different and hadn't touched those, but will use the same font in the next version.

changing bonuses is easily done.

I planned on organzing layers next too so that I can tackle the region colours. i think I have the idea how to go bout it.

I layered everything.

I tried something with the colours, a bit of a gradient if that is the right word, within each region. dunno if i achieved any improvement with colour

Font changed with the sea text to the same font as the labels. added baybayin (ancient filipino script) within the sun. script = same as motto.

changed bonus for Mindanao..

I meant this sort of thing:
This effect is Inner Glow with added noise.

Some colours of your choice that would best suit using this method would make the whole territory look a different and more vibrant colour whilst still keeping the existing colours throughout the majority of the territory.

It is difficult to show exactly how nice it could look without layers.

While I was zoomed in, I also noticed that your territory colours are not completely covered by the Outlines. You will need to expand the territories a pixel or two until they go to the centre of the outline and won't show any background coming through (where ever they are cut short).

Game-play is fantastic. I like regions with few territories and fair bonuses.
 Outline and borders are very thick and blured too much, compass you used is definitely not for this map style, color of background paper can be much better, try something brighter. Title font is modern but map looks old try something else until you find something that you like.

However it looks OK

Your maps look awesome Hoodlum. I'm glad someone finally decided to reattempt the Philippians. Why doesn't this map have it's own topic?

cool, thanks for the feedback noxon i'll work with it, and thanks for the compliment Pntbttr..much appreciated.
Like my other projects I like to start off with the practice and if there's interest, then sweet, it might get it's own topic, but either way I'll plod away at it for my own pleasure. If the gameplay is fantastic then that's a hopeful thing and the groundwork is done

Things I've changed..

Title font changed.
increased / decreased opacity on compass, sun/stars to blend with other things

Borders thinned. Found a tool to do this without having to redraw. aa assistant.
less blurry border.

Yet to do, find an alternative compass with a transparent background. looked for ages!!
      try the inner glow effect on the land. next step. wanted to fix the borders first.
      try a different background

New borders look quite nice to me. I like that style.

I think you should experiment with your text. Try to find some fitting outer glow that makes it clearer, because in some places is hard to see and associate. In some territories you should be able to put it partly inland to make it clear (e.g. Sultan Kudarat or Lanao, but many more).

You should think of giving the small stripe of land in south Cotabato to Davao del Sur. Right now it looks so weird specially with the Davao label that far, but maybe with a overlapping label this can be solved.

Also, I don't know if it's done but W.Visayas and E.Visayas should be W. Visayas and E. Visayas. A question of spacing. And please get rid of Calibri (or Calibri-like font) you used for the latitude and longitude. Not in love with the label font either.

I think the mottos are too close to the title, leave a bit more of space. I'm usually not a fan of extra additions, but have to recognise that both sun and stars look pretty good.

For the compass, I think you can make it fit (not sure though) if you change the font of the NSEW letters.

Looks really nice, I'd rate it as one of the nicer looker maps! The compass and direction lines are a great touch. Will definitely give it a try when it's released.

Is there a reason why the islands have a box around them if they're part of Bangsamoro? It gives the impression that the two are separate, which if I understand correctly, they're not.

However, I think you need to change some of the colours. The regions of Davao and Bangsamoro are too similar in colour to each other and the background. Especially by the bottom corner as the texture gets heavier, Davao (and it's territory names) can get lost.

The colours aren't bad, but I think it would work better if East Visayas or Bikol switched colours with Davao. Spread some of the colourful love.

(Sorry if these have been covered, I'm too lazy to read the last 10 pages)

The box is there because the island are rotated to fit on the map - to acknowledge that we know that they are further down in reality.

I do think however that it will make things a lot clearer if they are in a seperate region, giving 1 and 2 as bonus respectively - together they form a 'super region' with exactly the same bonus, so nothing lost there.

yup matty is correct, it was to fit the map better, I thought about making the islands a +1 bonus. wondering if i would need to add another name region and make them different colours then. to me, it is intuitive enough as is, but then again, im close to the project

Changes:

colours popped ..didn't want to change the colours around tho. too much effort lol, but less blending in the background (aero / aaronfever)
background lightened. (Noxon)
title & logo spaced, e.w visayas (psymon)
Compass lettering changed to same font as title (psymon/noxon)
Long lat/lat numbers changed to text of the rest of the map.(psymon)

territory adjustment and renamed Sarangani (Davao region) (psymon)
text in some areas with a background effect.(psymon)
inline shading effect between borders to make the inner glow effect (aero)