GB & Ireland remake

I have kept all the game play and two way connections exactly the same, so that nothing will be interrupted with any Live or Long Term games and so that people who like this map can continue to enjoy it as before.
It is still a 7 Regions & 39 Territories map suitable for 3 - 6 players.

There have been some label changes, because this map is too large for cities and the territories were originally formed from Counties & Districts, therefore these are what have been used for the labels.
The land mass has been made so as to incorporate the full features of GB & Ireland including the crucial missing island of Anglesey in Wales (part of the country and it's known shape) and to incorporate many hundreds of square miles of island groups in Scotland, with the exception of the Northernmost Islands, due to the size and scale of the map and also the Channel Isles & Isles of Scilly, which are too far off the map area.
The geographic accuracy of borders has had to change very slightly for a couple of territories in order to keep the same connections.

The map is set up to be easily edited.
This is not a "ready to use" map, it needs the feedback of all those who advise on maps and who enjoy playing this map.
(Edit aeronautic): Old map now overwritten.

it looks ready to use to me

Initial reactions:
Much nicer than the previous version.
I especially like the title.
Not sure about region colours, my least favourite being Northern Ireland.
I dislike the font used for the territory names.
Either extend Lincs, Cambs, and Gloucs to their full names, or abbreviate Lancashire to Lancs to follow suit. I would prefer the full names but I am aware that they may not all fit.
Maybe the texture is a bit too subtle (maybe not, I'm not sure!).
At the moment there's no room for a territory circle in Glamorgan (formerly Gwent).
Not sure about the flags on the small map underneath the title. I like them, but the UK is part of the EU as well as Ireland. Maybe just have the Irish, N. Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English flags, omitting the Union Jack (although this is obviously the coolest and most incredible flag in the world ) and the EU flags. Wait for other opinions on this though.

Overall, nice, these are small suggestions.

If you let me put a complain, agreeing with V98, the label font seems too comic-styled for the map, especially compared with the title one.

Also, N. Ireland, N. Leinster and N. Munster should feature a space between the N. and the name. Same for W. Midlands and E. Anglia. In region names... wouldn't be better Ireland instead of S. Ireland?

I would omit the Union Jacks and the European flag in the inset too.

I'd like to see how the circles fit in some of the smallest territories, like Glamorgan, Clywd or Surrey.

I like that you say how crucial the Anglesey Island is. Is someone here from Wales? Just joking, I like the improved accuracy and the island additions. I always missed the Isle of Man, a pity that can't get its own territory.

What I really liked about the original map is the geographic texture that was used. In my opinion it is still the best geographic texture of all maps, even though that does make some areas a bit empty. I would like to see this feature of the map maintained.

I am not too big a fan of the new font, but it's not too big of a problem either.

Two minimaps? I would consider limiting it to one. I also find the use of two flags a bit odd, so you could consider removing one of the flags and replacing it by the region bonus and have one minimap that way.

I am undecided about reusing the old colours. I like the new colour scheme you chose, though I am not sure if I would like the old arrangement of colours for nostalgia sake.

First and foremost, you removed -NoXoN-'s name from the map, it should stay on there.

Second and still foremost, this is one of the best maps on the site, you'd better do a good job with redoing it. ()

Part of me really likes what you did with the flag in the background, but part of me also misses the sea on the background.
Because really, this is maybe blue, but it's not water, like it used to be on the old map.

Do the french call it the english channel too? I always thought it was just the channel.

If in any way possible, I would like to see the full names on the map as well. It's not that big a map that it needs abbrevs right? (I can live with N. Munser, but Lincs just looks weird). (pun intended)

I liked the sea names to be rotated and all weird, this way it looks like the title and author name(s).

I find the N. Ireland abbrev on the minimap some sort of ok, but W. Country looks reeeeeally weird. Why not use North Ireland and West Country?

Not sure about the second minimap on the right with the double flags everywhere, but it can defenitely be a bit less flat, right now it's just ugly.

Yeah, Ireland can use some different colours (I like the rainbow idea though). Speaking about colours, almost every map seems to have the same colour on the entire region, what happended with the 10 shades of red?

The mountains need work.

The impassable logo is terrible.

Whoops, I didn't put my eye on the mountains! I have to agree with Matty, they don't look very good (yet) but also it's quite weird how they meet the tinyest bit of sea and then become Avon. I hope you understand whatever I wrote there. They don't have either the same colour than the impassable logo.

While I don't agree with a few of the things Matty said, I fully agree on keeping -NoXon- signature on the map.

In French the English Channel it's called La Manche, same than in Spanish.

The 10 shades of red are a pain to nail I tried it once and may try it again in the future but whew.

@Cireon, that solution for the minimap is not possible because regions are different!

I think I agree with Matty. The different shades of colour in every region is something that has always been linked to this map. I understand it's a hassle, but I would like to see it return.

I will of course gladly make changes to suit the suggestions and concerns.

Let me first make some explanations:

The flags were to show association to which Union and to fill a huge gap on the board.

All the circles are in place on the source file and fit fine.

The UK call The Channel the English Channel, originally known as the British Channel by Bretons. If this was a map of France, I would indeed call it La Manche (The Sleeve) or if referenced in a Spanish map I would call it el Canal de la Mancha.

The abbreviated words for the labels are how the postal service refers to them, similar to the 2 letter system for USA states. You are right though, I should either have them all abbreviated (confusing / weird looking) or use the full words for all. It was in a bid to make some labels fit into territories, but I will lengthen them all.

I agree that the labels are a comic looking font, probably due to them being Comic Sans MS. I will change this.

The mountains are not really mountains but tall green hills (not very good looking mountains), which is true to the topography of this area. I can however make mountains to go there.

The region colours were specifically chosen to give a circular rainbow type transition as Matty noticed. The reason was for a small jump in colour difference between adjacent regions to eliminate the usual striking colour differences that I and many others are guilty of creating and still keep region distinction.

Some are calling for the same individual territory colours, the same land topography texture & the same sea as the old map.

Here's where I would like to state reservations.
When I originally raised a couple of concerns about this map with a view to retouching it, I was asked to remake it completely.
This meant making every single pixel afresh and not copying it, otherwise there would be no point in remaking it.

I understand that people grow accustomed to some maps and don't really want to change anything. I also understand that the game-play of this map is favoured, therefore I did not want to alter this and so understand that I must give co-authorship to -NoXoN- in order to keep the game-play from his map to suit the players needs. I would have preferred to changed the game-play too and have a completely new D12 GB map.

I don't think we should keep the look of the old map otherwise I might as well have retouched the old one as I first suggested and saved many hours of wasted work.

I am at a junction where I need acceptance from the advisers that this is a different map of the UK done in a style similar to other current maps at D12 and that they wish for me to continue developing it or if they prefer, I should save any more wasted work time and revert back to the original map and retouch it?

(Edit) I could if I wished call exclusivity on this map apart from the connection lines and amount of territories utilised, as all the territory & nation borders have been altered to their real locations and the names are all real names of the UK, none of which is copyrighted. However, I am happy to keep co-authorship.

Didn't read all but scrolled the most...
The look is WOW! Congrats Aero I personally like so much.

As for the flags, the European Union is particularly irritating for me, I would be glad if you may remove it please. Not only Ireland, also the United Kingdom is part of the European Union even if you don't use the Euro currency. I would put the Ireland flag and the GB flag in big and then the 4 "British Nations" in smaller, as single flags, without repeating Union Jack many times, just once.

As for the mountains, I am not sure but I think there are no great mountains in that area. In the old version they looked like a Christmas tree, in the new version they seem more like horse hair.
My question is: it is not easier to slightly cheat the district dividers, or the coast line, or both, and remove those mountains forever? Still saving the gameplay as it is.

If it's possible to change the territory border to maintain the same gameplay but remove the "mountains" that would be best since there aren't actually any real mountains there.

I do think it's worth continuing with this new outline. It will be hard to satisfy everyone but it's important that one of our most popular maps be one of our best. There should be as much effort put into this as there was with the world classic redo.

I never was a huge fan of the old color scheme. I tried to get noxon to not duplicate colors but we couldn't come up with anything that looked better. I think the problem was that not much looked good with a background that saturated.

If Cireon is the only one who liked the topography texture then lets leave it out. I just added that because it was a quick and easy texture. Actually I think it looks pretty weird in spots and there is no topography in some territories.

We can do slightly different color shades per territory but not every territory in the region has to be different. I'd rather the style be closer to the world classic map where I gave every territory a custom shading layer to help differentiate the territories. The way I did it was to generate a black and white cloud layer for every territory and move the layer around until I found the right shading for that territory. It was a lot of work but I made such a difference.

I think the color scheme can be better. I'd have to play with it myself to make a good suggestion.

I think the background should have less red and more green.

It really looks awful aero.

AWFULLY BEAUTIFUL!

I don't particularly like the two flags in the little map to the side. I know what you're going for, but it just doesn't look good. Especially since they're all different sizes trying to fit. I'd say just use the individual national flags, all of one size. I think people will like that better. Plus you have the union jack in the background, which I think looks very nice.

I really like the rainbow colors. It flows quite well I think. Although the yellow looks a bit washed out I think? But that's very minor.

For the labels I think Psymon's right that there should be a space between a directional and the follower. It doesn't quite look right having them mashed together. As for shortening the names, I'll stay out of that debate lol

I'd bring the background out a teensy bit so you can tell the flag's there. I wouldn't have noticed it if someone else hadn't mentioned it.

The islands really look wonderful. I'm sure that was some painstaking work trying to outline all of those. The outline in general is just far and away much better.

You have put on to yourself a hard job, as this map is one of the best on the site (for gameplay, not looks), and it's also been around for a long time. So yeah, it'll be hard - impossible - to satisfy everyone.

I personally like the complete remake idea for as far as looks, topography, graphics and stuff are concerned, but I would really really want the gameplay to be exactly the same. Just because it's so extremely good.

And yes, I too will miss the old ugly map, but don't let that stop you from making it a lot better. Don't try to improve it a tiny bit, it deserves more.

It's the Union Flag, not the Union Jack. It's only Jack on a ship.

Much improved looking map Aero.

I would probably just go for individual flags and alter the territory names to full names. I'm also happy to call it the English Channel. If we're going for authentic names, should we change The Falkland Islands map to Las Malvinas

I'd also ditch the EU flag. The elections in a few weeks. If we end up with the numptys Cameron & Farage we wont be in it much longer anyway!

The general feedback is, it will be a shame to say goodbye to the old GB map, but is has to come up to the new standards. The game-play must stay, therefore everything I do from here on, is with this in mind.

I made some of the changes suggested in this thread.

There are still one or two things to sort out just to be up to speed with the feedback, but will have to be done at home with Photshop CS3 and the tools I need.

I also put some temporary mountains on to test the look and hopefully help with decisions to utilise them or alter the map to get rid of them (I would rather not alter the map, because the map is geographically accurate).

Vexer is going to play with the colours on the source file to show his suggestion.

@naathim Yes, it was painstaking work on island outlines! Worth it though I think.