The new map Dawn

[Endoperez]

Michaelangelo said:
Hi guys, I'm new to both the game and the forums. Is there a good location or link that details how to go about making maps that will work with the game?

Thanks, and congratulations to Jason for what appears to be outstanding work.

Making the graphics is pretty easy. You can use any picture, with very very slight editing (adding the tiniest bit of hue so that there are no pure white pixels, and then adding one white pixel into every area that you want to be a province). Making the .map file that defines the neighbours, terrains, non-good starting sites, etc is quite a bit more complicated.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ragnarok-X said:
Great map. I have a suggestion though. The borderlines between territories are sometimes very hard to see. Would you mind releasing a version with "black"-borders ?

You could bring up the tga in any paint program and change the borders. It wouldnt affect any game play (as long as you dont use pure white when making changes)

[WraithLord]

I join the chorus chanting what a great map this is.
It does leave one with a taste for more

[Recruit]

Jason_Lutes said:
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.

The end result is great. I'm a graphic designer by trade and am interested in making some maps for this game to support it, but it's hard to find the time..

If you could get your hands on a graphics tablet I'd say you could produce some pretty awesome stuff.

[Dedas]

More, more, more!

[Agrajag]

Gandalf Parker said:

You could bring up the tga in any paint program and change the borders. It wouldnt affect any game play (as long as you dont use pure white when making changes)

Well, it would be 200 times easier for Jason Lutes to change it, because he probably has the original map saved with different layers, so all he has to do is click on one layer and do a quick brush-over or many other similar easy things, and come up with an improved version.
Editing the .tga would mean hand-coloring each an every border piece and trying not to go out of lines.

Though I like the map the way it is

[Wauthan]

Damn that's a sweet map. I promtly made two new scenarios (for middle and late age versions of the nations) and it remains nifty and balanced. Great work!

[AStott]

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

I assume from this comment that you don't have a higher resolution version of the map on your harddrive somewhere that we could convince someone to host for those of us who want to take the time to download it...

Bummer. That really is the ONLY negative to this map. Very well done. I've been enjoying a game on this map as Kailasa, and there are some very interesting features to the layout of this map that are not immediately apparent (and I'm not just talking about the province connections that aren't noticeable at first glance).

[PhilD]

AStott said:(and I'm not just talking about the province connections that aren't noticeable at first glance).

Am I the only one who systematically turns on the "Show neighbours" option? There are so many maps with non-obvious connections (or non-obvious non-connections) that I find it necessary most of the time...

[PDF]

PhilD we are two with neighbors arrows always visible !
I also love this map, I've started a solo game (with Helheim hehe) and the map beauty plus the setup are very enthralling.
I'm about to take Vanheim's fortress, chaaaarge !!!