Middengeard

What a difference a day makes! What I see is ...what was I thinking?...Too much glow, shine or what ever you say, and now those colors!

Shakes head as I rip the page out of my computer and start drawing. My head is bent over as the mouse seems like it is gloating me to begin another try.

I feel as if this map has a curse...mmm. Who could do that to this map and why? I bring my hand over the mouse button, to begin the task I had set before me..."Middengeard...The Cursed Map", my eyes get a haze over them...

I pop open my eyes a now I know who cursed this map! What could be the reason, had one of the spells gone bad, or was there a deeper reason?

Those questions will get answered! I knew what I had to do, I will go and ask this person face to face.

The problem is find them...Sweden is a big country...I will have to just follow the cats to the castle...

Whatever happened to the old map? it seemed pretty close to completion

almost done

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1265/1t79.jpg

It's a little bit gloomier again. I likey...

Better, but still looks like its radiating light to me.

its not too, but i do think its still glowey.... which i personally dont like

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/2859/gl1k.jpg

Ok i'm going to give my opinion of this map even though it is in it's final stages. Please, take my words with a grain of salt, and don't feel the need to change any of it. I understand that you've already put a ton of work into this and I hate to undo everything.

That being said, there are a few major things I don't like here. One is the glowiness like everyone is saying. I think it may have to do with the shading around line edges or the background texture, but I don't like it. It feels a little artificial and doesn't blend well with the old-parchment-type-map look it seems you're going for. Compare it to the Brazil map that you recently finished... I think that is an excellent example of a good map texture wise. Crisp, clean lines would really improve this map. But again that is very subjective to my preferences.

Overall, I think the map is too busy which would be distracting in gameplay. There are a couple things which contribute to this besides the glow: the mountains and the region names. I think the mountains, while they look nice, are too big for a risk game. I'm not a graphic expert so I couldn't say how to improve them, and I understand that mountains can be a pain. But as they are, I don't like them. Additionally, the region names give the map an overall unfinished feel to it, almost as if it's an stock image with the watermark still present. Again, i'm not sure how to change it. But I think adding troop numbers to this map, along with these things, will make gameplay confusing.

So, Thorpe, sorry I have so many comment so late in the game here. I figured you would probably rather hear them now than not at all. And please don't feel obligated to change because of this; you've already put a ton of time into this map already. I won't be offended.

Look forward to meeting you in battle on Middengeard!

Life I always love input from players. The glowiness is still there? As for the mountains...they are mountains and not hills...as in bigger than just hllls. The reason I put the regions names ...first time they have been on a maps large land mass and not on the mini map...so if other do not like them ,I can do away with them.

The sharpness is from Vexer and his skills on Photoshop...he takes my map and fine tunes them to the sharpness that is needed...I can not buy photoshop yet.

Is the map too shiny? I did tone that down alot. I would like to know if it is not enough.

Maybe if you dull the black a bit as well as the brightness it would take the edge off all around and give it that murky look you are trying to pull off. I think the crispness of the black makes the glow stand out a little more than you are trying for. Maybe a cloudy haze or something over the mountains.

Got it, thanks elysium5

Ok, mountain or hills... either way I think they will distract from the gameplay. They are a bit too busy for my tastes, and though I see what you may have been thinking, I don't like the varying shading levels either. Could you make them smaller maybe but still jagged so players would know they are mountains?

I think the glow and sharpness are the same issue. I'm not sure what's possible in your editing program but could you make the background texture(s) have more of a matte feel like in your Brazil map? I think if you could replicate that, as well as make the lines thinner and crisp (without any shading on their edges) it would look 10x better.

And I would still prefer no region names, but maybe the majority should decide that one, not just me.

I personally like the mountains taking so much space - they were a huge stand in the way for frodo and companions.

I think you have a good point on the other things, thanks for posting.

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/7341/aq5n.jpg

I think lifeinpixels brought up the region names at the right time and I believe he is right ...but the mountains.

It took his and elyslums post for me to see what the problem was...I hope I fixed it ...



NOPE
I took it down to much and now it has a haze that I do not like.