Need help improving map for this game!

[Wannabehero]

Your Final map is most excellent, really is. When I look at it, the pervasive orange color of the oceans makes me think of sunset, which is ominous for a large scale strategy game and I think it is an excellent touch.

I miss the meridian lines though, I feel they added some perspective that made the map feel more real.

[jesuisbenjamin]

@hohum, thanks!
@wannabehero, good idea, i'll try to play around with meridians.

other than that i am a bit doubtful as to the overall texture of the map. I'd love to be able to render the map with a paper-like texture like Quabbe's work. In my map the land does not match with the background, and neither of these match with the vector region names...


Thanks for the feedback!

[jesuisbenjamin]

Ok i didn't work on meridians yet, but i managed to improve the overall texture by running an "olify" effect on the land layer and adding a paper texture on top of the map. Here is a new version of the map.

Oh and I can't seem to find out how to insert a thumbnail rather than an attachment...

[Steel General]

The board software is supposed to generate the thumbnails automatically, but the latest update seems to have a bit of a bug in it. So it doesn't always work the way it's supposed to.;

[hohum]

Looking great, I have been using oilify in some non mapping projects and I love it. The parchment background is also really looking nice. As for the attachments, I do all of mine as inline (the button to the right of what you are using).

[jesuisbenjamin]

OK, i had to make size readjustment (which took a lot of time since my computer had a hard time processing it). Now this map will be on A1 format and i will glue it to a six-fold cardboard to create the game board.
Because the original map's proportion did not fit the A standards, there are two margins left which i feel should be filled up with something. The most obvious filling would be an illustration or "logo" of the game. I have none so far. The game is called "Khan" (that's all i could come up with) which means "chief" and is a war/tribal word used widely Eurasia as a title for a tribal chief (there exist alternate forms as "Shan"). Khan is also a famous title of Genghis Khan, who was a mounted Mongol warrior who united the Mongols and held sway over central Asia. In the game the player with horses (from Mongolia in the historical mode) will have the first turn in attacks.
So it seems quite fit to me to have Mongol illustrations as a leitmotiv. I tried playing around with photos from movies which i manipulated in GIMP but i have nothing convincing so far. It's hard to find out what to put on the edges.
If you have any idea or suggestion, please let me know.
Thanks.

[hohum]

Look at the maps by timallen in this section. If it is going to be an actual physical board you may want to have things like game turn sequence or combat results tables for example. Khan sounds perfect, try to keep the logo simple. Perhaps a mounted archer.

[jesuisbenjamin]

Ha i would have do things like sequence and tables, but this game is simple and need not such things. I am working on some mounted archer miniature paintings and try get something decent out of it. I'll check these maps you mentioned. Thanks.

[jesuisbenjamin]

Finally! I finished this map.

Let me introduce you to KAGAN (diplomacy and strategy board game)



And here is the final map (well there might be one or two details to change, please let me know if you see something odd):



Thanks to everyone for your help and good advice!

PS: i am concerned about the texture of the frame against that of the map proper. It should be integrated, now i get the idea it's too contrasted, but i have seen the map too much right now.

[tilt]

looks really good, nice border you made good luck with your game