Famine V.19.3 pg1+35 [I] [Reworking]

[bryguy]

Why does your mountain have blur?

lol cause i was stupid and tried that to see if that would make it seem more like it was on the ground. Ill try to fix the mountain/start making a better one

[mibi]

Holy crap fest. I need to reduce the number of my FireFox plugins, I can't even fit this map on my screen.

Seriously though, it looks as if someone snapped a photo of their nephew doodling and pissing in a sand box, then scanned the photo with one of those 6 in one machines that they got at a yard sale for 5 bucks because a gummy bear was wedged in the USB slot, then used a copy of Paint Shop Pro 3 Shareware they got out of a box of Cheerios back in 1999 to draw some basic shapes and test out all the filters, then used a random word generator that had a nordic accent to populate the map is one of the worst rendered fonts I have seen.

If you want me to get a little more specific, I will. The map is brown, very brown. The water is Caribbean blue, and doesn't fit. This reminds me of another map I critiqued a while ago. The castles look like...well.. not castles.. one even looks like Deep Space Nine. Oke the castles look like runic symbols reinterpreted by a child with tinker toys. The borders are blurry, and the border shapes are pure random, no rhyme or reason, just squiggly lines with no variation. It lacks interest, where are the large territories, the long ones, the small ones, the ones with few borders or lots of borders. Right not they are all just blobs with the a 10% variance in the number of borders they have. Why is there bridges over dry river beds, shouldn't we be able to just walk across? And whoever is trying to grow flax during a famine is a dumbass because you can only eat the seeds, flax is usually grown for its fibres, in making fabric, paper, nets etc.

I do like the mountain, although the dark brown needs to be more blended with the rest of the area, it kinda looks burnt. The gameplay may be cool, and its a interesting concept, but you need to address the other parts of the map which suck, about 75% of it.

Good luck!

[bryguy]

Holy crap fest. I need to reduce the number of my FireFox plugins, I can't even fit this map on my screen.

Seriously though, it looks as if someone snapped a photo of their nephew doodling and pissing in a sand box, then scanned the photo with one of those 6 in one machines that they got at a yard sale for 5 bucks because a gummy bear was wedged in the USB slot, then used a copy of Paint Shop Pro 3 Shareware they got out of a box of Cheerios back in 1999 to draw some basic shapes and test out all the filters, then used a random word generator that had a nordic accent to populate the map is one of the worst rendered fonts I have seen.

thats a good way to put it

If you want me to get a little more specific, I will. The map is brown, very brown. The water is Caribbean blue, and doesn't fit.

ok so I should use some different colors also? and what color blue do you think would fit?

This reminds me of another map I critiqued a while ago. The castles look like...well.. not castles.. one even looks like Deep Space Nine. Oke the castles look like runic symbols reinterpreted by a child with tinker toys.

ok Ill try making some new castles

The borders are blurry, and the border shapes are pure random, no rhyme or reason, just squiggly lines with no variation. It lacks interest, where are the large territories, the long ones, the small ones, the ones with few borders or lots of borders. Right not they are all just blobs with the a 10% variance in the number of borders they have

yea everyone hates the blurry borders, even I hate them now. Ill work on modifying them.

Why is there bridges over dry river beds, shouldn't we be able to just walk across? And whoever is trying to grow flax during a famine is a dumbass because you can only eat the seeds, flax is usually grown for its fibres, in making fabric, paper, nets etc.

hmm... good points. If I take out the bridges also then I could add some more mud territories and people can still get across that way. Also, I realized that about flax the other day when i found out that you can only eat the seeds so ill start looking for a better resource to use

I do like the mountain, although the dark brown needs to be more blended with the rest of the area, it kinda looks burnt. The gameplay may be cool, and its a interesting concept, but you need to address the other parts of the map which suck, about 75% of it.

Ok, Ill work on blending it more. And yea, the gameplay is cool, but the graphix mostly... uh... suck

Good luck!

Thanks! And thanks for your oppinnion, Ive been hoping you might drop in

Oh, and sorry about getting so mad at you last time you dropped in

[t-o-m]

i sadly have to say that i prefer >this< version to your current one.
but i find the gameplay extremely similar to another maps or 3.

[bryguy]

i sadly have to say that i prefer >this< version to your current one.
but i find the gameplay extremely similar to another maps or 3.

you should listen to what your mother probably used to tell you when you were younger, either say something nice, or dont say anything at all

ok jk jk, but still, that was when it was empire builder and when i was had barely any graphix skills. Also anyways it looks to much like feudal and is to flat


and what maps does this look like if i may ask?

[bryguy]

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!


After DAYS of googling, I have FINALLY!!! found a LEGAL trial version of photoshop. Best I could find that I could get to work. First I tried to get a trial of Photoshop 6 and 7 to work, but FINALLY I found a 30 trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS2, which is good for me cause it works almost exactly like CS3, so I am going to push all the time I have for working on my map in those 30 days

[oaktown]

gameplay note: you'll need to explain what you mean by a "resources effect area."

oh, wait, I bet you mean "resource's effect area" - this makes more sense, but it still isn't clear what it applies to.

[t-o-m]

gameplay note: you'll need to explain what you mean by a "resources effect area."

oh, wait, I bet you mean "resource's effect area" - this makes more sense, but it still isn't clear what it applies to.

i THINK this is it:

you get a decay on all of your terits in your castle area, however holding your RP for the area takes that away

which im not sure what that would do as no1 would really leave more than 1 army on a terit anyway.

[oaktown]

gameplay note: you'll need to explain what you mean by a "resources effect area."

oh, wait, I bet you mean "resource's effect area" - this makes more sense, but it still isn't clear what it applies to.

i THINK this is it:

you get a decay on all of your terits in your castle area, however holding your RP for the area takes that away

OK, but how do you tell what your castle area is?

[lanyards]

I don't like the blurry territory borders. And the mud kinda blurs into the water, which I don't like either.

--lanyards

[bryguy]

I don't like the blurry territory borders. And the mud kinda blurs into the water, which I don't like either.

--lanyards

yea im gonna change that

gameplay note: you'll need to explain what you mean by a "resources effect area."

oh, wait, I bet you mean "resource's effect area" - this makes more sense, but it still isn't clear what it applies to.

i THINK this is it:

you get a decay on all of your terits in your castle area, however holding your RP for the area takes that away

OK, but how do you tell what your castle area is?

theres a little picture showing each resource's effect area (thanks for telling me about the spelling). And tom you are close, its not decay, but a negative bonus, so say you start with 7 armies to deploy when you only have a castle. Your stupid and ignore the villages and resources in your area and just take like 5 regular territories. Next turn you get 2 armies to deploy.

[lanyards]

Also, the Ryos, Tayers, and Kift Castles are hanging off the cliff.

And I don't like the little strips of land underneath the Title.

--lanyards

[t-o-m]

theres a little picture showing each resource's effect area (thanks for telling me about the spelling). And tom you are close, its not decay, but a negative bonus, so say you start with 7 armies to deploy when you only have a castle. Your stupid and ignore the villages and resources in your area and just take like 5 regular territories. Next turn you get 2 armies to deploy.

is it me or does that sound really unfair on people who are new?
(or new to the map)

[seamusk]

theres a little picture showing each resource's effect area (thanks for telling me about the spelling). And tom you are close, its not decay, but a negative bonus, so say you start with 7 armies to deploy when you only have a castle. Your stupid and ignore the villages and resources in your area and just take like 5 regular territories. Next turn you get 2 armies to deploy.

is it me or does that sound really unfair on people who are new?
(or new to the map)

I don't think so. It could be clearer but the legend explains it. If you don't read the legend, well, you deserve what you get.

[ZeakCytho]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The graphics style needs a major overhaul. It is just not visually pleasing. There's way too much dodge and burn used, the hills look like they're trying to be realistic but miss the mark, the mountain is awful, the borders are blurry, the castles are wacky, the river is too blue - there are just too many problems with this graphically to take it seriously.

You probably won't like this, but my suggestion is to scrap what you have now graphically (keep the gameplay and concept) and begin again. Start with a blank slate and draw it as Famine, not as Empire-Builder-turned-Famine. It will be very time consuming, but will look much better in the long run. And use less dodge and burn

[bryguy]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The graphics style needs a major overhaul. It is just not visually pleasing. There's way too much dodge and burn used, the hills look like they're trying to be realistic but miss the mark, the mountain is awful, the borders are blurry, the castles are wacky, the river is too blue - there are just too many problems with this graphically to take it seriously.

You probably won't like this, but my suggestion is to scrap what you have now graphically (keep the gameplay and concept) and begin again. Start with a blank slate and draw it as Famine, not as Empire-Builder-turned-Famine. It will be very time consuming, but will look much better in the long run. And use less dodge and burn

actually I dont mind. Thats what Im doing right this moment


currently instead of dodge and burn im trying to see if bevel and emboss effect would work better



also, im trying to find mibi's tutorial on mountains again so I can redo it

[bryguy]

theres a little picture showing each resource's effect area (thanks for telling me about the spelling). And tom you are close, its not decay, but a negative bonus, so say you start with 7 armies to deploy when you only have a castle. Your stupid and ignore the villages and resources in your area and just take like 5 regular territories. Next turn you get 2 armies to deploy.

is it me or does that sound really unfair on people who are new?
(or new to the map)

I don't think so. It could be clearer but the legend explains it. If you don't read the legend, well, you deserve what you get.

i agree seamush


and also, thats just if your really dumb that you wouldnt grab a resource. And also, I believe there is a way to set it so that you always get at least a certain amount of armies, but im not 100% certain, only 80% certain.

[Telvannia]

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!


After DAYS of googling, I have FINALLY!!! found a LEGAL trial version of photoshop. Best I could find that I could get to work. First I tried to get a trial of Photoshop 6 and 7 to work, but FINALLY I found a 30 trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS2, which is good for me cause it works almost exactly like CS3, so I am going to push all the time I have for working on my map in those 30 days

Unless you have some good amount of photoshop experience i would advice you against changing, because at the end of the day seeing as you only have 30 days with photoshop it makes more sense to use those 30 days improving your gimp skills so at the end of the trial period you have a program you are skilled with instead of being back at the start without photoshop and gimp which you cant use as well...

Because i hate to point this out, but it is not the program that makes the art, but the artist, for example with only gimp i managed to do this to the bottom left hand corner in a short space of time:

[bigimg]http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3042/famine2dz6.png[/bigimg]


Ps. if you want to know how i did anything on the map then drop me a pm and i will try to explain my technique.

[t-o-m]

wow bry make it all like the south
edit:
oops that wasnt bryguy doign that

[wcaclimbing]

currently instead of dodge and burn im trying to see if bevel and emboss effect would work better

Have you tried to just color it all by hand?
There are better ways to do it all than using effects, you know.
Paint the lights and darks in by hand (using the actual brush tool, painting with colors, not dodge/burn). it will look a lot better in the end, cause you get much more control over the final product.

[bryguy]

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!


After DAYS of googling, I have FINALLY!!! found a LEGAL trial version of photoshop. Best I could find that I could get to work. First I tried to get a trial of Photoshop 6 and 7 to work, but FINALLY I found a 30 trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS2, which is good for me cause it works almost exactly like CS3, so I am going to push all the time I have for working on my map in those 30 days

Unless you have some good amount of photoshop experience i would advice you against changing, because at the end of the day seeing as you only have 30 days with photoshop it makes more sense to use those 30 days improving your gimp skills so at the end of the trial period you have a program you are skilled with instead of being back at the start without photoshop and gimp which you cant use as well...

Because i hate to point this out, but it is not the program that makes the art, but the artist, for example with only gimp i managed to do this to the bottom left hand corner in a short space of time:

[bigimg]http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3042/famine2dz6.png[/bigimg]


Ps. if you want to know how i did anything on the map then drop me a pm and i will try to explain my technique.

actually 70% of what I know how to do in GIMP I learned from using the Photoshop CS3 30 day free trial

and that does look cool, expect a pm in like 10 minutes

[bryguy]

currently instead of dodge and burn im trying to see if bevel and emboss effect would work better

Have you tried to just color it all by hand?
There are better ways to do it all than using effects, you know.
Paint the lights and darks in by hand (using the actual brush tool, painting with colors, not dodge/burn). it will look a lot better in the end, cause you get much more control over the final product.

huh? i dont get what your saying.... i just use dodge and burn for areas that are supposed to look more upraised/elevated

[InkL0sed]

currently instead of dodge and burn im trying to see if bevel and emboss effect would work better

Have you tried to just color it all by hand?
There are better ways to do it all than using effects, you know.
Paint the lights and darks in by hand (using the actual brush tool, painting with colors, not dodge/burn). it will look a lot better in the end, cause you get much more control over the final product.

huh? i dont get what your saying.... i just use dodge and burn for areas that are supposed to look more upraised/elevated

He means literally drawing the shadows with a brush... which I think is insane...

[fireedud]

and also, thats just if your really dumb that you wouldnt grab a resource. And also, I believe there is a way to set it so that you always get at least a certain amount of armies, but im not 100% certain, only 80% certain.

yes that is possible with the XML.

[seamusk]

He means literally drawing the shadows with a brush... which I think is insane...

so is doing 1500 redrafts. I think drawing by hand is preferable in certain instances. Personally I like it better than dodge and burn. Gives you a lot more control.