Texas

Have at it el capitan

It's your show. If you want what I've got on file, just ask.

Stage 1 Graphics
Game-play already done.
No bridges, no labels etc.

interesting...the theme is 1844, are these territories relative to that era? looks like a fun map to try

@Hood, no, it is a modern map with modern territories, just placing some of its history up there.

My thoughts are to have a Sepia look on the territories... They are coloured for distinction at the moment.
What are your thoughts?

Nice one like always aero do amazing job !

Is Sepia the one to work on and enhance?
I've gone with the year of the Alamo in this version.
Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello

both look good. I quite like the style of Texas 2

Maybe a little too faded out looking? I don't necessarily care for the Sepia effect. It always detracts from maps for me. Too bland and uninteresting and looks jarring with the brighter playing colors.

Really like the border effect!

Having title and mini map in same area makes it look a little crowded, especially with the wide open Oklahoma territory up there lol. I'd move it up top.

The title font is pretty cool, idk how much it meshes with an alamo theme though. looks a little too wild west.

Got Indians and Mexicans, but no Texans on your background images (which are super cool btw!!)

Texas 1 looks like a game of Tetris.

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

@naathim, the Texians are fighting the Mexicans bottom image, during the Mexican - American War.

We have a slight problem in that the map was made with modern borders and territories, so if we want a war theme, we have to have an old map made from a modern map.

What are your suggestions on the port connections? Perhaps Wagons?

(Edit): @naathim, don't forget, you are the creator and are in charge of this map, I am just the painter, please direct me as much as you can to achieve a map that is not just aesthetically pleasing, but suitable to the new criteria of battle planning / location and also its intended requirements (D12 contest map & 9-12 player game (XL) map).
Info, suggestions, examples, more info, more suggestions, more examples!!!!!!
I spend too much time looking for suitable images & reading historical events and the map time is jeopardised.
If you have an image/s of the finished map in your head, try your best to describe it/them, we'll be able to come up with something that looks great between us.

Made some changes to get rid of the sepia (washed out) look.

lol it's too much pressure aero, too much

I think the theme you've got up is pretty good. Not exactly wild west, more just plain Western, with a touch of the historical. If you can fit in a picture of a longhorn cow, I'm sure a lot of Texans will weep with joy lol.

For the look? IDK you're better at that than I would ever be. I think what you've got now is on the right track. This looks like it has a bit of grit to it, but it's not overly dark and still has a good balance of color too it.

Train stations/depots instead of airports? That's the only thing I can think of as opposed to the wagons you suggested.

I'm not a fan of "1836" font, maybe something a bit more freestyle can stand better. The cow skull of the first version wasn't bad I think.

Would be bad to add the black outline along the rivers as it is for the region bounderies? Just question.

As for the elimitation of airports, I think the map can also stay without, but the bridges should be placed accurately to avoid easy super-regions or some areas too much apart or any kind of disequilibrium. With maps of this size I think it's more easy to sort out a good gameplay using (air)ports but not mandatory though.

Train stations would be cool but I don't know if it can be done graphically because they would need to be connected by rails and there's the risk to make things really confusing, or not?

Train stations could be an option, I can join each by a track then cut out all the track outside the territory which has the station on it and let the brain fill in the gap of the track, this should work okay and it will also be part of the Key to say that stations are all connected/linked.

I am going to add the long horn skull to the map, but it would be handy if naathim can place the image here as a transparent GIF or PNG?
If not, I will search the Net for it.

The "1836" is the same font as the "Gulf of Mexico", but of course numbers look different to letters. I will try a few though.

This map needs a lot of building still, so it will be best to settle on a general colour & tone scheme for main map land, neutral map land & sea. I can't add any bridges until the colours are right.
naathim seems happy with the balance of colours, texture and tones, plus the overall colour scheme.
Apart from the river outlines, there has been no negative feedback for Texas 3, so perhaps we can start to build it using this as our general colour & tone scheme?
There are some slight region colour changes I need to make, so as to make them all slightly different, but not in their brightness/contrast nor in their saturation/luminosity.

texas 3 resting eyes