Here's what I think about the map as it is;
In normal maps the land is separated from the rest of the map, be it sea or neutral territory, and we normally have a different colour & different texture for the sea and we normally grey-out the neutrals.
This map uses the same texture for the land map / playing area as the background, which in this case is all neutral land, not sea.
I think the game area needs complete distinction from the neutral land.
This could be in the way of a dark outline all around the play area and a different texture, or a more subdued background and possibly featureless, but still with a dark outline around the game area. There are many things you can do to differentiate it more.
The regions colours could have an inward fade instead of a solid line & a pale colour spray across the rest, this would make the colours pop out a bit more and distinguish them more from the outlines. Right now they look like coloured outlines that are hard for the eye to easily identify.
I understand why you went for a mid grey for the region borders, because you needed distinction for the rail tracks, but because this map is P2P, we don't use intuitive territory dividers for connection and so you could darken all the outlines and borders and cut them out at a set size where track passes over them (like the border beneath the Schwyz circle). I think all the outlines and borders are too thick as well.
Personally, I would get rid of the lakes, geographically accurate or not, they play havoc with the borders and are more confusing than anything.
In a nut shell, I think it requires a different texture for the game area or the background, a wider inward spread of the region colours, darker & thinner outlines and region borders, cut outs where the tracks cross borders and no lakes.
I know it is a lot of things to work on, but I don't think as it stands it has enough distinction and being the first full P2P map we will have live, we need to help the players as much as we can by at least making things less busy on the eyes.
Here's what I think about the map as it is;
In normal maps the land is separated from the rest of the map, be it sea or neutral territory, and we normally have a different colour & different texture for the sea and we normally grey-out the neutrals.
This map uses the same texture for the land map / playing area as the background, which in this case is all neutral land, not sea.
I think the game area needs complete distinction from the neutral land.
This could be in the way of a dark outline all around the play area and a different texture, or a more subdued background and possibly featureless, but still with a dark outline around the game area. There are many things you can do to differentiate it more.
The regions colours could have an inward fade instead of a solid line & a pale colour spray across the rest, this would make the colours pop out a bit more and distinguish them more from the outlines. Right now they look like coloured outlines that are hard for the eye to easily identify.
I understand why you went for a mid grey for the region borders, because you needed distinction for the rail tracks, but because this map is P2P, we don't use intuitive territory dividers for connection and so you could darken all the outlines and borders and cut them out at a set size where track passes over them (like the border beneath the Schwyz circle). I think all the outlines and borders are too thick as well.
Personally, I would get rid of the lakes, geographically accurate or not, they play havoc with the borders and are more confusing than anything.
In a nut shell, I think it requires a different texture for the game area or the background, a wider inward spread of the region colours, darker & thinner outlines and region borders, cut outs where the tracks cross borders and no lakes.
I know it is a lot of things to work on, but I don't think as it stands it has enough distinction and being the first full P2P map we will have live, we need to help the players as much as we can by at least making things less busy on the eyes.
Hyd yn oed er fy mod Cymraeg , dim ond yn siarad Saesneg, felly yr wyf yn gobeithio y bydd y cyfieithu yn gywir.