Keeva Island

I think we could all agree Marcoxa has some talent. If he sticks with it, I'm sure in the future his work will match D-12's expectations and he'll be putting out some "wow" maps based on his style... takes some time.

Example: Marcoxa, when you do player's avatars, everyone seems pleased and love the work. I would think, your map would be 10X better than any avatar you did. I'm not seeing the attention to detail in the maps compared to the avatars.

Text on Crystal's avatar = Cool!
Title text on Keeva map = Not Cool!

Keep in mind NYC map was redone 16 times... =)

@Thorpe, I like -NoXon-'s "watercolor" looks. I think it looks great, is unique and kind of has a "renaissance" feel to it. Think it fits in perfectly with the War maps.

Though, I do agree with you that the oceans on your maps Thorpe, should have your style and look to them. I personally felt they (oceans) looked fine and didn't need update (my opinion).

I would hope we could keep the great styles of the map makers a little separated.

Big Map Update:
just spent the last 4 hours working on a totally new look and feel. this will be my one an only objective for this map till the L&F is 100% done.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x2/123william123_2007/KeevaIsland10_zps13c87f2f.png

Wow, This is one big turnaround in style

The first idea that comes in my head though is that it always rains.
I had that a bit with Pntbttrs Europe map - I have it way stronger with this one.
Apart from that the background attracks alot of attention.

I think you have some sort of transparancy on your land territories, giving the land a soaked wet feel as well.
Maybe im wrong here, but that transparancy part makes me thing of this: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Church_Windows.jpg but then papery instead of glassy.

So I'd say this is a huge improvement, but there's still plenty of work to do

It's certainly prettier and easier on the eyes. the background is a bit distracting, maybe tone it down a bit.

Also, for when you get to the point of redoing the mini map, It's too big. At first you think it's another island.

Map Update:
removed yellow/green tint
darkened background
brightened foreground
changed title

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x2/123william123_2007/KeevaIsland11_zps57a5f7ac.png

The land is a bit dull in color compared to the sea.

 Much better now. Looks like you have wrong font for title and here is what i would do with some more textures but im sure you can find better textures and make it better. I like when land looks somehow brighter and sharper.

The whole map is dark again, mainly because the background takes over 50% of the map.
I think either the background should be a little bit lighter, or the land should have more colour, like Vexer said.

The amount of texture on the sea is good this way.

I'm by no means a graphic expert, but in my opinion the territory name text is too big and hard to read. I'd like to see it in a slightly more readable font and smaller, less distracting size. At a quick glance, the text seems to take up a lot of the image and I would imagine with troop numbers it would be even more distracting.

I really like this map though and I hope I can play it someday!

I agree with lifeinpixels.

is the text better now? or do i need to make it smaller? just weighing my options before i have to redo the entire text layer.

In webdesign, its perfectly allowed to take weird fonts for titles and stuff, but important text should usually get a 'boring' font, like Arial for example (but there are alot more).
Its just so much better readable, and takes so much less space.
I guess something like that holds for maps as well.

Your text is better readable as white, than as transparant greyish.
It does look less stuffed.

Your background colours still have a bit a washed out feeling, and make me thing a bit of these church-windows, but then alot darker.

Cope (purple) and Ferel (Blue) almost look like they are in the same region, as the colour is almost the same.

I like your title font.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x2/123william123_2007/KeevaIsland13_zps6f5369bf.png

The overall look is much better. I like the text now.

But the numbers on the mini map are way too big (and too bright). Nothing should be bigger than it needs to be. The numbers would be perfectly readable the same size as the words so thats the size they should be. On the same note, the river is way too wide. I doubt that there is exists a river that is that wide in comparison to its length. A narrower river with a thinner outline would look better. The river on the oregon cities map is similar to this one but looks much better. I'd like to see this river look more like that one. For more about the river I posted in depth about it in march: http://www.dominating12.com/forum/?cmd=topic&act=view&id=722&page=4#post-12040

The title and credits are just a bit too big.

Fixed the size of title and mini-map numbers.

i'd like someone elses opinion on the river before i touch it.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x2/123william123_2007/KeevaIsland14_zpsa3e52276.png