Thanks for pointing that out. I would have completely missed it otherwise. The towns have been softened up and the brush marks fixes. Not sure how to fix the valley vs peaks problem. It looks OK to me but I know what you mean. I have the same problem with bevels in photoshop- sometimes I cant figure out if I'm what I am looking at is concave or convex.

The designer sent me more changes. A "trade route" is now in the center of the map (a road connecting some of the cities), one new city, names for most of the rivers, and shields/banners for the cities that start allied to certain factions. The shields are a nice addition; they add more period theme and flavor, IMO.

Drat! I forgot my files at home. I'll have to post an image update later tonight or tomorrow.