February/March Lite Challenge Entry: His Majesty's Huntsgrounds

[Jaxilon]

Aw man...you still have a lot of time if you can come up with something you like better.

[ravells]

What a pity (but I know what you mean about not feeling good about something), I thought it was coming together quite nicely ... ah well.

[Jaxilon]

Good point Ravells. I seem to remember you bagging on one of your entries saying it looked like a Dog's dinner and then didn't you go on to win something with that? I felt the same sort of thing at one point during my 'Trek to Ravenkhor'. It was only after some friendly nudging that I kept at it.

[Diamond]

Dude! This was coming along pretty nicely - don't drop out! At least sleep on it; maybe your subconscious will give you some help...

[jtougas]

His most Royal Majesty King Erik the fifth hurled his coffee cup across his office. "Invaded?!,he bellowed at his Minister of War, Duke Franklin Monson. "Invaded?, those gutless bastards have violated the treaty and deployed troops onto my lands?" Minister Monson nodded,"Yes sire, the Springfield Concordiat has invaded Wales they have taken the southern area of your huntsgrounds. We have no word of casualties at this point." The king sat heavily in his chair. Wales was of course more than just his game preserve it was a vital town in the Kingdom of Hampden and he was not about to let the Springfield bastards take it without a fight...

Now this is most likely just awful, but the idea came to me in the middle of the night. Everyone has been so encouraging that I felt like I had to try something. Feedback is requested and appreciated

[Jaxilon]

Not sure about this one bro. I think I liked the way it was before. At least you are doing something though. Sometimes if we beat on it long enough something pops out. All I did today was doodle a mountain with a skull entrance at the top....brainstorming I guess.

[Ascension]

Interesting. The first thing I noticed was that the tanks look different than the others since the others are all 1 color - some have a stroke and others don't. You need a consistent style for your icons. The red and blue colors look good 'cuz they pop well, black, too, but not sure about the gray. The other thing I noticed was that the small text was hard to read. Don't use a stroke that's just as wide as a letter is thick - a stroke should always be thinner, especially when small. Also, a stroke should not have the same emphasis as the letter when small - a bright white stroke on a solid black letter is harsh so try a gray stroke or a faded glow. Usually, if you have to resort to a stroke it's because the terrain is too dominant or the text is too small. See how easy it is to read "Kingdom of Hampden" but how hard it is to read "Barony of Brimfield"? That's because the brown is too dark so the black letters get lost. This isn't totally lost, though it sounds like I'm making it so - I'm not trying to be a jerk. You just need some color tweaks. I always need color tweaks, too, and fixing colors is the easiest fix. The small text needs to be a tad larger. Two relatively easy things and you have a nice roadmap atlas style.

[jtougas]

The more I look at this the more I dislike it as much as I disliked my first entry. I guess I just don't have anything for this challenge. Ascension I appreciate your feedback but I just don't have anything left for this map. I actually feel kind of embarrassed considering the caliber of the other entries.

[Ascension]

No worries, mate. I've laid quite a few eggs in my time as well.

[Jaxilon]

You know, sometimes you just have to go with your heart. You still have like 15 days or so and well, maybe something will trigger inside you and you will work like mad for hour on end requiring no sleep at all.

That hasn't happened to me lately though either. I've been sleeping a lot. I try storing it up in my hump for when I get that full sail of wind And then I just go nuts and map deep into the night hours.