Texas

Thanks Matty.

The islands on the reef have been coloured the same as the neutral land as suggested by Psymon.
Do you think I should just delete the whole reef?
I think it might look better that way!

The signatures & date are not different colours, the sea has a gradient colour, dark in the Bottom Right corner and light in the Top Left corner, the classic old optical illusion. I can make it look the same by using an outline, but fear that will make it stand out too much, so I will perhaps move it to the top of the map.

The Alamo plays no part in game-play, it's just there to show the actual location of the battle. I can just remove it and leave the real image of the fort in the Bexar territory background (also already there)?

I agree with the ugly borders in the USA maps, they just have no character. There is no way around that though, so I will just have to make the best of it and hope it is not too off-putting to players, one thing to bare in mind is that all the USA maps are very popular even with their straight line borders.

The main reason why it (the Alamo thing - didn't know it was some important-ish battle) confuses me is that sherrif posts have a function and this one looks like an icon, but has no function (I guess because it's not on the key).

So instead of removing the 'Alamo' text, I suggest to make the for half transparant (like the flags, but a bit better visible).

Just so that ppl realise it's a decoration, and not an icon.


I suggest either to remove the reef, or make it bolder so that you can give it some of that neutral colour. This way it's just a line, which looks weird. Which one you try* is up to you (unless you try both?).

*Unnescessary to say that the third option to leave it as it is is already tried

Love the brighter version Aero.

I think the key relocation was a good choice also.

It's not really a 'reef' it's a long stretch of coastal islands. It really should stay.

I think they can and should be widened a bit though. Especially the ones up near Galveston. Galveston is actually ON the island to the south west of that bay. I hope that can be worked out. But if not, it probably won't hurt anything too much if the smaller, thinner ones to the south are dropped.

I didn't notice the Texas flag until virt brought it up. Maybe make it LIIItle more obvious?

I like the title, but at the same time, idk a border maybe? something to set it off?

All in all though, this newest version is much improved!

I made the suggested amendments and also started making the refinements.
The one suggestion that didn't work was the swapping of Lamar label position with its circle, the territory was mostly too empty, it looked strange.

I think that Lamar would look better with its bottom part empty, and both circle and label in the top part. Mostly because it's a bit wider, and thus it would look less cluttered.

The yellow island below Jefferson looks weird. It's very colourful compared with the region, and that's probably because of the different border thickness. Generally all coloured islands look more vivacious than their regions.

Also I don't think the Texas flag should be on the minimap. It makes the red region look like it has a rectangle on top.

Thanks Psymon,

It's good to have your input again, I'll make the changes tonight mate.

Just so that everyone is aware, I don't get to just make a map and make it live, there is still an approval process, which when I am the creator or artist of the map, requires the community to either keep me developing the map if they are not yet happy with it or to give some sort of indication that they approve to it going to Beta.
Please be frank!

I have other WWII map projects I wish to start and will be quite happy to scrap Texas, if it is not fitting to the site.

I don't believe that we should scrap the map. I think that it is in the basket of very large maps, of which we don't have many, and we would get an idea of how to design 100+ terries maps for the future. Think of this one as a "test" one. I haven't been very involved on this map, because of my lack of free time and my scarce interest in this setup, but in any case we'd give it a chance, at least for testing grounds.

At the moment, I think that the dead zone is not as dead as it should be. It's quite colourful taking into account the darkish colours used for the territories. They even look dirty sometimes. The sea looks a bit dull for me in these greyish colours which is ok, but it doesn't fit well with the one used for the rivers. The transition seems too hard too.

Another thing that bugs me a little is the absence of noisy shading on the coastline. And I'm a bit worried on how will we be able to fit the cap circles on some terries. I didn't take a chance on caps because I haven't taken a proper look to it, and again, no time.

I think it's good.

Thanks guys, seem as Psymon has some aesthetic suggestions, I will work on these until he is happy and providing it is going in the right direction for everyone, we should be in a position to make it Beta and use it as an XL test map, as Psymon rightly pointed out.
It would be good to at least have one of these type of maps for the next D12 contest, although I have plans of more before then.

Agree with psymon about the river/ocean colors not matching up well.

Just really don't care for the title. I like the bullet hole idea, but overall, it just doesn't look right to me. Too fat looking? lol That sounds wrong, but... If the Indians in the background weren't perfect already, I'd suggest moving the texan flag up behind the title, just to give it a bit of a pop of color and then using the black outline with the bright inside color for the title. Maybe just try that instead, put an outline around it? I know and agree that the title shouldn't stick out too much, but it needs SOMETHING still.

I like the longhorn skull, but it just doesn't look good. Go ahead and throw 'er out!

The font on the minimap just doesn't look quite right to me. Too bright and glowy? Maybe just tone it down a little bit?

I'd go ahead and just take the name labels out of the minimap and see how that looks? It might have a small impact on gameplay (A will you leave me alone in Dalhart? vs. A will you leave me alone in that northern green region), but it should make the minimap look cleaner, and they're not absolutely vital to know, even if they're important for behind the scene gameplay.

Weird shadow between lamb/Borden territories? Like a little shadowy pixel sticking out?

I think the colors look nice, I really do, balanced well and attractive. But I've never been a fan of that, idk I call it the primary color scheme. Where there's a lot of regions that are derivative shades of RBY. I'm not quite saying that right or sure how to say it. But I think maybe just adding more variation in colors or just increasing the contrast between the colors up there would improve it. Maybe a more uneven background might help break it up and provide a a better differentiation.

Here are some changes, all made from suggestions above by Psymon & naathim.
I just noticed that the islands are below the adjustment layers and so have a richer colour, I will change this on the next update.

Just one bullet ? cmon 3 gunshots is much better,just like i say earlier ,map is great anyway for me! but this gray background is not nice look ,and fat texas whit 3 lucky gunshots is cool ,but maybe you guys think different,colors is ok ,this last update is much colder and i like cold way of colors , its just me ,I'm not so important.respect for aero!

I liked the previous version (texas 9) better. If I read psymons and naathims comments I'd say they ment you to change the land colours more than the background colour.

The background was never really a problem. The only problem I agree with is the 'primary-ness' of the region colours (almost everything is green, blue, red or yellow. And pure green (or blue or...), not green-ish.