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or an alternate look for the map(revised3)...



and a small version(revised) with a simpler sea plus army circles:



please let me know which you prefer.

To see the historical progression of these maps please visit the 'Italy Map History' thread.

Title: Conquest Italia

The Italia map contains 31 countries distributed among 6 continents. In addition to the traditional countries the map includes 3 special territories: 2 sea lanes and one mountain pass. These territories
count as countries when assigning armies based on the number of countries held but do not belong
to any continent (this means, for example, that a player can collect the armies for Italia Settentoriale even without controlling the mountain pass). The sea lanes will determine how the islands and various sea bordering countries are in communication with each other. The idea for the mountain pass is for it to be attackable from only one country while being able to attack any other country in Italia Settentoriale with the exception of Valle D'Aosta and Liguria.

I hope this collaborative process will lead to a map that is innovative, fun to play, and aesthetically pleasing. I look forward to everyone's constructive criticism and would particularly like to ask for
help on the awarding of bonuses, the management of the special territories, and any way to make this map a unique experience.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:

The only other attempt to develop an Italian map I am aware of was undertaken by Happysadfun. I commend him/her for the effort. Reading his/her thread helped me immensely in the early stages of my planning. I would like also to thank Mr. K, from whose Alexander Map my idea for sea lanes was born.
And finally, a very warm thanks to all those who run Conquer Club and make this high quality free entertainment possible.

--matteo11

LINKS TO VISUAL RESOURCES:
1) The basic outline for the map comes from: http://www.governo.it/Istituzioni/index.html
2) The flag of the Marina Militare Italiana comes from: http://www.marina.difesa.it/storia/Trad ... ndiera.htm
3) The snippet of mountain for the mountain pass comes from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_Mountains
4) The snippet of water for the sea lanes comes from from: http://www.ra.ethz.ch/sabbatical2002/20 ... index.html

I would like also to thank Mr. K, from whose Alexander Map my idea for sea lanes was born.

Best of luck on this map!

second draft

I have elaborated the workings of the sea lanes and added a graphical aid for the mountain pass. Solid bars are two way and those with an arrow are one way.

The countries are comprised mostly of Italy's regions, but I have broken up Toscana, Lazio, Puglia, Sicilia, and Sardegna in order to generate more countries. The addition of Corsica, which belongs to France not Italy, is also for the same reason. These divisions, while loosely based on actual provinces, do not necessarily correspond to any real administrative borders.

Other licenses taken include the horizontal stretching of the map (in order to increase the size of the countries) and my "hand" drawings of Corsica, Elba, and the Aeolian Islands. I would also note that the sea lanes are pure fantasy and do not reflect, to my knowledge, any actual currents.



looking forward to your comments,

--matteo11

Better than mine, maybe add in elba if you need more. I'll work on mine as "alps area." Why is Corsica part gone, tho?

Corsica is on the map Sadhappyfun. It is located between Sardegna and Liguria. Elba is already there too, it is just to the left of Pisa.

Best of luck with the Alps map,

--matteo11

I would Change the text color, it blends in too well with the water.

Thanks for your feedback thejackofhearts. The old text was rather unattractive. I hope you find this new version an acceptable solution. I have also improved the graphics for the directional markers, changed the route from Corsica to Liguria to one way, and added Molise's name (which I have placed in Southern Italy even though it is usually assigned to central Italy).

--matteo11

italy sucks hate italiens no offence

Consider adding a path from Siracusa to Calabria. This will aid in being able to move around. Currently the only way to get from both territories is by going around the whole map.

i dont know. if u do make the map, plz bring out the color of the sea and mountain lanes. i could barely see them

Thanks for the input Bad Speler and P Gizzle. I have added a bridge between Calabria and Siricusa to make their connection more apparent.
The sea and mountain lanes show up very well on my monitor (were you looking at the latest version of the map or one of the first two?), but I suppose I could change them to web safe colors if P Gizzle's problem is something many others have.

--matteo11

thanks for considering my input!

I have edited the first post to show the latest version of the draft. From now on I will edit the first post to show new versions to make sure everyone is refering to the same map. Do you still have trouble seeing the lanes P Gizzle? Is the small bridge enough to make the connection between Calabria and Siricusa apparent Bad Speler?

Once again...thanks for the help,

--matteo11

it's better. thanks for considering my issues

yes, the bridge is more apparent now.

You should add more texture to the yellow continent. It seems all other continents have texture, but yelloww doesnt. It might be because yellow is a bright colour. Also, a very very minor correction, the "l" in l'italia settentoriale is in green, whereas the rest of the word is in brown.

One thing i would revise is the placement of most of the country names. A large majority of the names are hanging loosely in the sea. granted, this works usually very well, but only if there isnt enough room in the country itself to fit the text. for some of the larger countries right in the middle green/earty color "continent" a lot of the country names would easily fit.

A new draft map is up which attempts to address Bad Speler's concern with the Southern continent's (Il Mezzogiorno) texture. I have also fixed the color discrepancy noted by the same in the bonus legend.

Tomotaman raises an issue with the placement of the country names. I too debated whether to place them within the countries or adjacent to them. I decided on the latter for the following reasons:

1)Playability: I would rather obstruct the background than the field of play.
2)Aesthetics: All but one name (Umbria) can be placed next to the countries and this gives the map greater visual unity than placing some inside and some outside.
3)Ease of Design: By placing them outside I do not have to worry about finding a text color that is compatible with all the different country colors but only the background color.

Obviously if the general consensus is that following Tomotaman's advice would either improve the look or playability of the map, then I will change it accordingly.

Thanks for the continuing assistance in developing this map,

--matteo11

I don't believe that anyone's mentioned it yet, but the texture for the water isn't that great, it's kind of distracting. Also, imho, the land shouldn't have a shadow, then it looks like it's floating somewhere above the surface of the water, which is akward.

Otherwise, I like where this is going much more than the other Italy map.

Thank you for your critique DublinDoogey. I have added an alternate version of the map with a different background and no shadow. The alternate map would still include the other ideas of the original map.
I will hold off on incorporating the other elements into the alternate map until I get an idea to what the consensus is to which is better.

Very much obliged for the assistance given so far,

--matteo11

the land on the first map is better, it's too hard to tell what's what with the mountains. with that said, i would look into creating your own water (i'm thinking you're using an existing texture type paint?) the second water is better, in my opinion, because it's less distracting.

oh, and this could very well be me, but i'd think about posting your post current map as a reply, instead of editing the original post, it'll make it easier for others to follow along and see the changes.

keep up the good work

-doogey

Thanks for the continuing assistance DublinDoogie. I was initially very proud of my first water image, but on deeper reflection now agree with you and prefer the second one. The first is a 'cork' texture, and the second is a zoomed out 'small stones' texture. I am leaning towards the second map from a graphical stand point, but agree with you that the borders are difficult to make out.

My concern with posting multiple drafts of the same map is that different members will start commenting on different maps, and it will become difficult to understand which map a given user is talking about or if he/she has seen the latest draft. I am thinking that starting a new thread devoted only to progressive images of the map while continuously updating the first post of this thread with the latest version might be a good way of addressing both our concerns.

again..thanks for the much appreciated help,

--matteo11

matteo11 wrote:Thanks for the continuing assistance DublinDoogie. I was initially very proud of my first water image, but on deeper reflection now agree with you and prefer the second one. The first is a 'cork' texture, and the second is a zoomed out 'small stones' texture. I am leaning towards the second map from a graphical stand point, but agree with you that the borders are difficult to make out.

--matteo11

something that's been done, that would combine both the graphics of the second map, and the readablity of the first would be to have them both, but as seperate layers. if you put the 'flat' version over the mountainous version, then play with the opaque-ness of the 'flat' version you may be able to find common ground between the two, similar to the europe map.

If some one holds Sardinia and Corsica, he has 1 border and +3 bonus. Maybe change attack route towards Sardinia?

matteo11 wrote:Corsica is on the map Sadhappyfun. It is located between Sardegna and Liguria. Elba is already there too, it is just to the left of Pisa.

Best of luck with the Alps map,

--matteo11

I meant, it seems as if the upper half is cut off.