The new map Dawn

[Jason_Lutes]

Recruit said:Definately professional quality work. Curious to know what software you use? Do you work digitally or by hand?

Professional quality except for the resolution issue. Still haven't got that part worked out (too chunky). But thanks!

I draw a bunch of terrain by hand, scan it in, clean it up in Photoshop and just copy-paste to build the map. For the older maps the terrain brushes were colored and then applied, but for this one I colored most of it afterwards, so it has more of a custom look.

Usually for the most basic continent/sea outlines I start with a something out of a fractal world generator, but in this case I asked the beta and mapping forums what Early Ages nations poeple would most like to see a scenario for, made a list of the top picks, and came up with this sketch:



Then I solicited feedback from Kristoffer and the beta forum regulars about how to improve it, rearranged some of the nations, and tweaked the layout somewhat.

I intended from the beginning to create a scenario that had more flavor than balance, and knew full well that some nations would have a much rougher go of it than others, which is how I like my strategy games in general. But I did make some .map file changes to Arco, Caelum, and C'tis to help them out a little.

In our current MP test game, Ulm and Marverni seem particularly crunched. I'd be curious to hear how other games go, and if people think the difficulty ratings need to be adjusted at all.