I like the new paper texture. Along with the worn/burned edges, it really helps the map feel old and used. Opening up the bays helps make it feel more natural. Are the Wickham ships in the western bay not able to engage the Weston ones to the south? Are those bays connected?
Have to echo that the coloring is excellent - your choices for color are just faded enough to have an aged feel while still being colorful on the whole. Are those some of the Weston commanders with the unit parked at the substantial looking estate/other building on the city outskirts (upper right)? Looks like it might be the spot for a field HQ.
I'm also curious about the many circular buildings. Are the larger ones of a religious or civic importance?
I like the changes you made to the title font and the map over all... but I really strongly feel like this is the wrong texture. The edges for me are way too rough for the quality of the lines you've used, for me the new texture causes the line work to just scream computer generated and instead of making the map feel older it just makes the lines float above it. To make this texture work I think you would need to really roughen up you're line work and get it to sink into the parchment and settle out a bit, there needs to be some form of balance between the lines and the background. I do like how the new background effected the color though but then I think you can't go wrong there, you're colour choices are spot on.
Thanks, antillies! The bays do eventually connect but the peninsula stretches about 40 miles southwest, so the Wickham and Weston ships near the city can't directly engage. I was going to do an inset of the wider campaign area but didn't think it worked well with this particular map.Originally Posted by antillies
Thanks, AzureWings! Yes, the Weston unit parked near the upper right have taken over an estate to use as field HQ. I might move them slightly northwest, to the farmhouse with the fence near the main road. I was considering adding some farmland but I'm not sure it's relevant for this particular map (if I were doing a normal city map, I'd definitely show the farms).
The two circular buildings that are close to each other, separated by the wall between the Old City and New City, are the old temple and new temple - definitely of religious importance. The other circular building is an amphitheater, like the Roman Colosseum. I'm trying to decide if I should somehow label those. This is where I'm running into the question of how many notes to include, given that the people using the map are knowledgeable about the city. For instance, I live in Washington, DC and if I were commanding a siege of the city, I wouldn't need to label the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building because everyone here knows those buildings. I might do a test run and see if I like having some labeled buildings. I suppose I could also number them and then use the empty space near the top right to list building names.
Thanks Kacey, I was wondering about how the texture would look with the line work. Part of the issue is that the torn paper background is a lower resolution. I'll play around with it and see what I can do. I like having the rougher edges and creases (and I like the slightly different color that came through); I thought the very smooth edges looked a bit off for a field map. I may need to rough up my own paper and take a high resolution photo of it, to see if that helps.
Okay, I played around with opacity and fill to make the line work sink in a bit.
### Latest WIP ###
Looking good! Did you plan to add some shading?
Thanks, Ilanthar! Shading...I don't know. I'm torn. If I were making a regular city map, I would definitely add some shading. But would a field commander's map have shading? Probably not, unless it was somehow useful for planning maneuvers. And yet, shading would probably look good. So yeah...I'm torn!
This is looking nice Aeshnidae. Some subtle textured shading might work nicely. You could always take it out if you don't like it, or just have it partially there?
It looks good aeshnidae. I agree with the others that some subtle shading would look nice and you never know, maybe the commander got bored at night in his tent.
