Hawaii Dual

it should be a good map to play. its great there will be another double. the island textures look good ,, but the colors and the ocean are ghastly. if the oceans color were a little more turquoise (paradise water), and had some photo water texture,,? or something rather than a beach photo silhouette , it would work better with the color choices of the island, ( which are a bit garish, no?) the ocean is big in this map, its important to give it a better skin, a better texture. The best color scheme for the ocean would be a gradation, smack from the center and expanding out ( target shaped) from a very light turquoise in the center becoming a rich ultra marine blue in the outer ring. right now the ocean is a somber greyish blue and the photo of palm trees is too,, postcardy ,, otherwise, its should be a good map, looking forward to trying it..

Axo, I'd like to know how did you get that certitude about what's the best option for background. Actually I think that what you suggest will be a) too eye-catching and b) quite cheesy. I think of it as a transition between Caribbean and old South Africa/Realm of Honored Players. Yuck. The current color fits the site's theme because it's not too light nor eye-catching. It could probably be improved but I don't think that yours is the way to follow. Sorry for the harsh post but we progress on suggestions and not impositions. It would only make the creator angry because you're asking him to destroy all the work he did on the background just because of a single opinion. The palms are an interesting addition to the map. The ancient realm map uses something similar too.

When not using a miniature of the whole game map for the mini map, but only using the land as a transparent layer, a little tip for getting an exact miniature of the land we see on the game map, is to switch off all the unwanted Layers (place names, circles, title etc.) including the Background and then select Flatten Image, then use the Magic Wand marquee tool and select the (white) sea area, Invert Selection, so that it selects to all the land outlines, then Copy it (ctrl+C). Now undo the Flatten Image (alternatively don't save it, close it down & reopen it) and paste the copy as a New Layer, then just reduce the scale until it's the size you want as a Mini Map. This way, if your outline is a stroke or another effect that is unselectable, it will be selectable when the image is flattened. It also allows you to use only the land part of the map. Note, if the outer glow is getting in the way of a nice close selection with the magic wand, switch it off until you have a copy of the flattened image, it is not needed for the mini map and even if you want it still, you can make another smaller one for the whole mini map.

It looks good! I do agree that the sea needs a more distinct texture, and maybe the colour could be brightened slightly, but it's not bad at all!

I like the idea of this map for a few reasons, it's Hawaii another place I grew up in as a kid, it's a small map, it's a better alternative to caribbean which I don't mind but dont like to scroll all that much and can be confusing. I'd probably play this a quite a bit as a main choice. I like the color selection based on facts as well as how it looks now. very good work.

Please do not change anything about the background. It is unique, fitting to Hawaii and well balanced in colour and tone. If you feel you have to do anything due to having to balance it with any other changes you do, use a colour screen... that is a layer between the background and the land that is filled with Black or Navy Blue (for instance) and dropped in Opacity, so that it just makes the whole background slightly darker. If it was ugly or cheesy I would not intervene, but it is quite aesthetically pleasing. Obviously, the things that Psymon picks up on will need a bit of touching up, because he is highly skilled at close up detail and discrepancies. For me, the Opacity of the land texture images could be dropped a tiny bit more and the island colours could be lightened ever so slightly. On my example I stated that I should have done the red colour a bit lighter. There will be differences with peoples monitors, so go with small adjustments and repost your map, step by step until you hit the "Sweet Spot". I forgot to mention, coloured topography can mess up your desired colours for the islands, so copy each one into a new image and use Grey Scale (Mono), copy it again and paste it back into your map, it will now be a Black & White image and won't interfere with the vibrancy of your colours. It should be less distinguishable as topography, my example was only to illustrate what I was using.

Here is the latest update. I did the following today: 1) Cleaned up the pixilation on the minimap. 2) Changed the textures to gray scale instead of color. Then lowered the opacity of the textured from 255 to 225. 3) Changed the opacity of the colors of the islands from 150 to 120. This had the effect of lightening the colors a little but also allowing the gray of the texture to bleed through a little more. 4) I added some texture from elsewhere to the small gray island to give it some character. Previously the texture was a bit flat and made the territory like a plain. 5) I cleaned up the texture on the white island a little as well. [spoiler][IMG]http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/Richard_B_Clarke/D12%20Maps/Hawaii%204.4_zpsikus5dct.jpg[/IMG][/spoiler]

Your development skills have improved so much in the last couple of days, I have to say you are impressing me. There are still a couple of little things that will be picked up by other staff... The land texture (on my monitor) is too strong. This would actually be my preference, I love it as it is, except that it makes the territory names over the land hard to read. You could either lower the opacity of the topographic texture or add a white glow / outline to the text, but I think that would spoil your map, so my suggestion would be to lower the strength of the texture. The mini map will need the land outline on it also, I think you'll agree that it looks like an after thought without it. (See my tips on how to easily achieve it above, somewhere).

It is getting close to the final finesse stage now, where you will be asked to retouch tiny bits of the map, so as not to spoil your masterpiece. I know that eagle eyed Psymon will spot things like the slightly lifted outline on the 2 main Hawaii islands at Kohala & Kohala 2, where the outline curves around the peninsula, it is pulling away from the land slightly toward the sea. Most noticeable on Kohala 2. Possibly a size increase after flattening, has caused your red information "Territories can attack..." to become blurred, it will be worth retyping that in the size you require, so that it is sharper. If you accidentally merged it with the background, send me the background image and I will rubber stamp it out for you and then you can simply type it in again as a new layer. Also, so as not to have to rework the colours of your islands, when you have a bit of time, use the links below and place the D12 colour circles that are similar in colour on your islands and make sure you have no colour clash problems. http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/1.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/2.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/3.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/4.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/5.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/6.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/7.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/8.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/9.png http://www.dominating12.com//image/site/large_circles/10.png

Oooh. Looks so much better! I absolutely love the unique texture for the islands. Some of the islands do look a bit... blobby? Too smooth borders I guess. I would flip the curvature of the connection lines between Ka Lae and Koloa so that it matches Halaii and Puna, make them both bend outwards towards the map edge. Love the found, especially the numbers for the mini--map.

I agree with Naat with the connection curvature. It would give a more circular impression. I also like very much the textures as they are now. Being a special case where only four labels are inside the land, why not trying to move them outside while keeping the texture this intense? I have a couple of extra things to say but I'll wait to be in front of my computer.

Here is my latest update (second of the day...lol) On this one: 1) The mini-map has been traced with a 1point thin black line. Also dropped the opacity of the mini-map colors a little to match the main map. 2) The texture opacity has been dropped from 225 to 200. 3) The color has been raised from 120 to 125 because of the effect of dropping the opacity of the textured made all of the islands too gray. Just a tiny bump. My next update tomorrow I will flip those 2 connecting lines Naathim mentioned. I have no idea what is meant by the "slightly lifted outline" on the Kohala territories. If you are talking about the dark red line directly inside the black outline, that is texture, not anything I drew. If that is not what you are referring to, I have no idea what you mean. All of the text on the map including the red "Territories can attack" is on a single layer called TEXT. Nothing has been done with this layer except moving the words a little after I got rid of the 3D effect. Next update tomorrow will also include the troop circles. @Psymon> The only reason those 4 territories have the words on the lad is just to make sure nobody misreads the map. If I put them off the islands, they might be too close to other territories and cause a little confusion. But I will also do that tomorrow and we can look at it and decide if there is a problem. Here is the update: [spoiler][IMG]http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/Richard_B_Clarke/D12%20Maps/Hawaii%204.5_zps322t0dzl.jpg[/IMG][/spoiler] PS: I just noticed that after adding the thin black lines around the mini-map islands, that now a few of the region labels can be moved just a pixel or 2 so as not to blend too closely into the island. I will also do that tomorrow.

[spoiler=To clarify the outline lifting][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/resources/New_Kohala.png[/img] Current Kohala 2 [img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/resources/Kohala_yellow.png[/img] Outline should follow the terrain of the coast, shown closer in, with yellow here. [img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/resources/Old_Kohala.png[/img] Your old version shows the same shape as the topography. I hope my terminology is clearer now?[/spoiler] [spoiler=Land Colours] I still think your island colours are too intense. You'll see in my example that, I made a Main Island example and stated that my example could have been a bit lighter. The topography was still nice and clear (more so) and not too overwhelming in contrast (it could have been much less and still been a good texture). Just so that you can see the difference in colour saturation, I will put the same clip of my example next to one from yours, which will help with ideas for your adjustments.[spoiler=Colour saturation][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/resources/New_Kohala.png[/img][img]http://www.the-inkstore.co.uk/resources/Kohala_tone_example.png[/img] Yours Mine[/spoiler][/spoiler] [spoiler=Mini Map]Your mini map would have definitely looked better if you had just scaled down your actual land with its outlines and effects. I know it was time consuming to draw an outline on it, but it could be better and more aesthetic.[/spoiler] [spoiler=Text]The red text could be deleted from your text layer and retyped in a new layer, it is definitely not crisp, so something has caused that. My best guess knowing that you have opted to merge all your text layers into one, is that it makes them into an image file and the anti-aliasing of Photoshop & other packages usually blurs bold text. I don't know what package you are using to do this, but I suspect it limits how many layers you can have? For all future maps, you should keep all text as text file layers and just put them all inside a text folder to save scrolling through layers, but don't merge them, mainly because you will at some time have to move some and you don't want to turn them into an image until you finally flatten a copy of the whole map into a JPG for uploading to the site. Flattening an image doesn't have the same effect as turning text into an image file, it maintains the exact conditions of all that is visible.[/spoiler] [spoiler=Opacity]When you post the values that you adjusted on the Opacity you have numbers like 255 etc. Opacity is always a slider or typed value, between 0 & 100, with 0 being completely Transparent and 100 being completely Opaque (solid). It seems to me that you are adjusting the R G B settings. This will explain why the colours are causing problems with the textures and vise versa. With the benefit of the layer opacity controls you will have the ability to quickly alter the Land colour layer & its texture layer to find your perfect combination of clarity & tone. In Photoshop the slider is on each layer in the Layers Window and in other programs it can be an option or sub menu on the Layers drop down menu.[/spoiler]

[quote=aeronautic - Feb 17, 02:10 PM][spoiler=Opacity]When you post the values that you adjusted on the Opacity you have numbers like 255 etc. Opacity is always a slider or typed value, between 0 & 100, with zero being completely Transparent and 100 being completely Opaque (solid). It seems to me that you are adjusting the R G B settings. This will explain why the colours are causing problems with the textures and vise versa. With the benefit of the layer opacity controls you will have the ability to quick alter the Land colour layer & its texture layer to find you perfect combination of clarity & tone. In Photoshop the slider is on each layer in the Layers Window and in other programs it can be an option or sub menu on the Layers drop down menu.[/spoiler][/quote] Careful! Clarke is using paint.net if I'm not wrong, where opacity goes from 0-255. Edit: Here I marked the inconsistencies border-texture I could find. They are marked only in world 1 but they are present in both, at least some of them. https://www.dropbox.com/s/kfzj5191quj791z/hawaiired.jpg?dl=0

I didn't know about paint.net and so apologise if you are adjusting the correct controls, however they still need some more adjusting. (Edit): Psymon is so quick responding to posts that I hadn't had time to proof read my text and edit typo's, before he's copied it and posted it as a quote. ;) I forgot to mention also that the outlines are still a tiny bit too dark and contrasting.