Heghruil - RPG map in the making.

[voidgere]

The changed with the trees has to be something to do with the reduction of the hi-res image to lo-res. The only thing I changed was that I changed the color from black to the brown you see. I also removed the drop shadow. I am not sure how that would increase the thickness of the trees.

As for the hills, I thought along a similar line that I should have some "hilly" regions but I just haven't gotten around to "dressing up" the rest of the terrain. I was considering making brushes for plains, swamps and such and seeing what comes of it but I am not so sure I want to clutter up the map.

The darker and more varied hills, I will have to address that and see what happens. They do seem to have lightened considerably with the transition from hi to lo res.

[Juggernaut1981]

One thing I have noticed, don't know if it is deliberate or not, is the "font-noise" interaction. There seems to be a lot of noise or colour variation in the font that can make it vanish into your terrain markers and the like.

Blood Tusk Peak is a good example of that. So is Forges of Dwarf Peak...

Maybe, and this is a maybe, consider moving mountain names "off" the mountain or "rubbing out" the mountain behind the name.

[voidgere]

I added a satin layer to it in the beginning. It helped to pop the text out now it seems to want to blend it together. I guess removing it would be better than leaving it. I was already considering "rubbing out" the underlying mountain. So much to do....

Thanks to every one for their time in helping me with my first map. You guys are awesome.

[voidgere]

Well I had every intention of updating today but I had a major setback that is going to take me a few days to come back from. So I should have a close to finished product by the time I respond (or as close as I am going to come - never satisfied and all that...)

[voidgere]

Ok, finally recovered from my (almost) total loss of picture. Stupid mistake on my part but it has been fixed. I have been playing around with fonts, layer effects, and everything in between and I think I have the fonts pretty much where they need to be.

I also played around with the rivers trying all the different tips offered here and in the end it just seems like the original layout worked best.

I also fooled around with the idea of adding other terrain features but could never get a style or design that really meshed with the overall "tone" of the map and in the end decided that it took away more than it added.

I did add the roads using the dash suggestion and really like the way they came out and I feel it was a good step in the right direction.

There was a suggestion about using something to really divide the land from the sea and I tried several ideas that came to mind but none of them really seemed to work out in a manner that was pleasing.

I also had to move and resize the banner and compass due to printing concerns. I don't feel it altered the map in a bad way but figured I would mention it in case some noticed it.

Overall, I am pleased with this map, but feel more work can be done on it that would really put it over the top. However, I have fallen behind on the actual RPG making aspect so I now need to put this project on hold or consider it "complete" for the time being.

I feel I will be coming back to this map in the future and tweaking it until my eyes bleed, but I cannot ignore the other parts of the RPG any longer. I still have a few months of playtesting to conduct and review and then I need a draft in the hands of my publisher by the beginning of next year.

I also want to play around with the realistic map and try to make it work to my advantage. Maybe release it as a large, full color map.

*I am still taking suggestions on how to improve this map and by no means consider this project at the end. I just need to switch gears for now.*

[Ramah]

Hey there, welcome back.

A few suggestions...

It was me that suggeted changing the sea or land colour to better separate them and I'd still call for that. Doesn't have to be a lot but that's what I would do.
Most of your mountains have drop shadows which I'd get rid of. The big named ones don't for some reason. I'd still darken the mountains too. Not to what they were before but a nice brown instead of that sandy tan colour.
Your rivers don't look bad apart from they're too uniform in size. Before adding your stroke to the outside of them just take the eraser along the edge of the rivers near their start to thin it a little.
Your arrow on your compass now goes over the "N" and shows that you've lowred the opacity on them both. You might like to ctrl+click on the "N" layer, select the arrow layer and then cut the pixels away.
You seem to have placed a really heavy layer of reticulation over the whole map. To me it seems far too much and you might try toning it down somewhat.
I don't particularly like that raised ring thing you've put around your banner. Another thing that looks far too digital for the type of map you seem to be shooting for.

Sorry if this list seems overly long but they are all very small things. I actually do like your map.

Edit: Oh, and your lake looks very odd. Would probably be better if you just filled it in with the river colour.

[Coyotemax]

Thing about that much C&C.. if you didn't like the map you wouldn't care enough to make all the suggestions
I take it as a compliment if people give me that level of detail.

[voidgere]

I am with Coyote on this one. If you are willing to take the time out to give such suggestions I would be a fool to ignore them. I do have some points to bring up.

Sea color variation: I have tinkered with it a little bit and the new contrast is nice although subtle.

Drop Shadow: The drop shadow on the mountains was put there because for some reason there is opacity that allows bits and pieces of the underlying mountains to bleed through. I couldn't find any other way to eliminate that. So I guess I will have to nix the drop shadow and go back in erase the bits that poke out. Ugh.

Rivers: I almost laughed at the simplicity of your suggestion. I yelled, swore and threw my arms up in disgust trying to achieve that effect, and here you go offering such a simple way of doing that I completely did not even consider. You are the MAN!

Compass: The compass gets disfigured during the reduction process when I am trying to decrease the file size in order to upload to CG website. The original hi-res version does not look like this.

Reticulation: I am not quite sure what this means. If you could clarify for me maybe I can address it.

Banner: In the hi-res version the raised ring is not so pronounced and it gives it a nice effect, but when considering the reasons you cite (the style of map) I can see why it might be too much. On a positive note, a side effect of getting rid of it allows me to increase the size a tad and move it further away from the shore!!

All in all, I would not have placed my map up here if I wasn't ready for criticism. I love this input and you guys have taken what at first seemed a real pain in the arse and turned it into a possible new hobby for me. This has been really fun.

[Ramah]

It may not have been called reticulation that you used. Film grain maybe or just noise, the gazillion little dots used to grunge it up a little. I'd lower the opacity on that effect by quite a bit personally.

[voidgere]

Okay. I have finally finished my editing and layout of the actual RPG and I have about two weeks to fine tune this map so I can place it in the book and send it off for publish. I looked back over all the threads and advice that was given to catch myself back up to speed. I have applied some fixes and uploaded the results. Thanks to everyone and their input. Ramah I cleaned up the grainy look and I like the outcome. Thank you for that bit of advice. Anything else?