Map: 2 New maps: Otherland and Spheres

[JimMorrison]

My apologies, Endo.

I wander in and out of here, and this was when I saw this (no blame on you innerpattern, these things happen).

I was shocked by the first post in this thread, so I read the other threads, and was more shocked. The OP really got under my skin, and I admit, I was overly profuse in my reaction, and probably should have resisted the urge to post.

Unfortunately, this falls under the category of "reasons we wanted to keep our editing privileges". That is to say, I am confident that I've not broken any forum rules, however I was rather harsh, and if I could, I'd atone for lashing out, by reducing the volume of my voice.

Unfortunately, it gets to stay there. I meant it, but I should have gathered more self control. (And I appreciate the irony Endo, but I am full well aware that I can be quite the prick when something hits me wrong, and I knew I wasn't exactly being cordial here. I just haven't mastered the art of being lovably prickly, like Aezeal - I'm generally likable when I'm nice, but not at all when I'm mean. Doesn't stop me from being mean now and then, I guess I am just crazy like that.)

[okiN]

Okay, I gave them a quick spin, here are some thoughts:

As llama said, the satellite one looks nice, but the standardized look of the land mass makes it hard to make out the provinces' terrain features at a glance. The image also suffers from some minor pixelization, and IMO the province divisions could use some work. It looks to me like you've mostly divided them by visual borders, and that's fine, but in some places it doesn't really mesh with gameplay - first of all, the irregular shapes mean that sometimes you have to do a bit of searching before you get the game to register a click in the right province, unless, again, you have neighbors on and click on the defined province centres. Also, the tiny micro-provinces are a bit annoying, and especially the cluster in the west is a pain to work through. Furthermore, a few of the provinces have an unreasonable amount of neighbors, at least for me - this tends to result in annoying gameplay patterns because the area becomes very hard to defend.

The sphere map is very pretty, but a little too concept-heavy for my tastes. The idea of having each star as a little province is cute and all, but again, working through that massive patchwork of tiny provinces is not particularly fun, especially when their connections are so hard to make out.

Also, as a general tip, it's a good idea to state the number of land and sea provinces for the map in the description, along with a recommendation for player numbers.

[lch]

Not having read any of the text in this thread and thus skipping over any drama stuff I'll have to say that this would be the first maps that I could see finding actual use by a larger amount of the player base. I always liked the first image, which is from a woodcut again I believe. Does the thing in the top left look familiar to you? The second map is a tad too dark, but the province borders look interesting. Can you maybe brighten up the image a little, at least for the landmass?

[Edratman]

Okay Ich, you've got me. I've looked at the top left 4 times. What am I not seeing?

[lch]

Originally Posted by Edratman

Okay Ich, you've got me. I've looked at the top left 4 times. What am I not seeing?

Does this look familiar to you? I'm not sure if it's really related, but it looks very similar.

[Edratman]

Sorry Ich, I just don't see that.

[llamabeast]

Aha, it's an ophanim (ophan?) in the top left!

[Aezeal]

Well I still totally don't like the tone or the conclusions from the OP, I think his posts till now are somewhat insulting and for me personally there is 0 difference by just being insulting and being insulting by calling names (which could lead to me reponding to insults with bad language when I can't be bothered to post a decent reply.. which again get's me loads of whining on the net.. but enough about that). The fact the OP seems to regard his idea about adding dots to an existing picture as a stroke of genius is a somewhat strange view on mapmaking IMHO. (I can tell you I made a few maps that way and some with even a lil more effort and I will admit I copied this way of map making from others so it's not like you invented something new here.) Also there are a VERY large number of maps on the forum ranging from casual to strange and empty to fully scripted so I must say his remark that there are hardly any (original) maps is also somewhat of an insult to the mapmakers of the community.

I also think this community isn't very hostile (well, I am but the community on general isn't). New members which don't start out with a bad attitude (like me.. or you) usually get answers to their questions (though questions that are in the faq might get a short and sharp referal too the FAQ), hell I even try to reply to most post asking help and I'm probably one of the least helpfull pplz around here. (the ones complaining are usually pplz like you or pplz starting out with flat out demands for our beloved KO and JK to change this and this yesterday)

You keeping to referring to Sombre (probably) as being the meanest person around here (which can't be so since that is me) and that just won't do you much good since everyone here knows Sombre is a very helpfull member of this community, and has added so much very nice nations to dominions 3 and helped so much pplz with a lot of things and especially nation modding that it's just a strange thing to say. (Though Sombre seems to have a strange aversion to my dominions 3000 mod which does indicate something isn't quite alright behind the eyes and between his ears.)

To conclude my reply on your continued whining about abuse when IMHO you clearly started it yourself I want to say the following: please keep posting all maps you can make: I didn't like your first ones I do like one of these, but others might like them all so, (again) please keep posting them BUT LEAVE THE WHINING (complaints about abuse you deserve and how good what you do is) OUT (it will significantly shorten the long string of abuse you seem to be encountering). Thanks.

onto the maps:

I do like the 2nd map it seems actually playable and looks nice. Might be very nice for some small MP games.

I wonder though why every one likes the woodcut but not the map I made from an old london map but whatever. The woodcut doesn't seem that nice to play on but they are better then the last two.

[VALIS]

Originally Posted by Aezeal

I wonder though why every one likes the woodcut but not the map I made from an old london map but whatever. The woodcut doesn't seem that nice to play on but they are better then the last two.

I like the old London map - it's one of my favorites.
-Campbell

[Aezeal]

Well thank you, if you have tips to improve it I'll be happy to do so.

Once you have enough of just adding dots to pictures (and if you know my map you know it's not a new idea ) you should try modding maps with creatures etc too. Generally about 1-2 pplz download them (well mine anyway) but it's pretty fun to think up of things to mod. My multi layer map is out there too (but when I didn't get much feedback I stopped updating it rather quickly so there are some errors in it I think) and it's might be fun to try to if you like different and chokepoints.

OF course the best of the best () in map modding and general modding and probably one of the largest mods currently out there is my dominions 3000 mod (with thanks to several others for their contributions of course) and it's solar system map.

Anyway enough advertizing, and don't think that complimenting me will make me any nicer.

PS I'd personally think that more of those satelite maps would be greatly appreciated by a relative large part of the community, your one is basicly a pretty standard map (I mean it features land and sea etc) but looks incredibly nice