New swamp, woods and forest map art (Full Version)

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TallBlondJohn -> New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 5:34:45 PM)

I've started having a go at re-creating the style of Jison's classic Rainy Day in Russia map mod for WITE2. For the moment I've done single hexes of forest, woods and swamp and just repeated them, so there's not a lot of variety. (Note in this screenshot I've also replaced the towns with the art from Overkill01's WITW mod, so they are more than just a dot.)

Is anybody else working on something similar? If not I'll keep going and welcome any feedback. One feature of Jison's map was the elegant clearing along railway lines and around names. I have no idea if that's possible, so I've made the woods less thick to try and compensate.

I think the fading along coastlines could be done with work on every tile but it would be a long job.

My time and graphic skill is limited, so please let me know if you think I should persist!



melnibonian -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 6:00:50 PM)

This looks absolutely spectacular!

Can't wait to try the final version [:)]



Kel -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 6:04:27 PM)

the forest is beautiful. Keep the good work!



jacktimes2 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 7:09:36 PM)

I definitely agree that you should persist. Looking forward to trying it.



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 8:08:09 PM)

I've figured out how to clear the trees back from the rail lines a bit. Won't affect partisan activity though [;)]. However, to do this beast justice there is a lot to be done.

Seems I cant post any more pictures or links [&:]



VonWulfen -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 10:56:01 PM)

Looks great. Look forward to seeing it evolve :)



budd -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/5/2021 11:06:50 PM)

Looks good, keep on, keeping on.



pensfanvw -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 1:02:27 AM)

I concur. Looks great 👍.

Alan



Rexzapper -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 3:19:41 AM)

Interesting. I especially like the look of the forests



RG11B19D -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 5:45:11 PM)

Looking forward to this mod. Love the creativity of map modders. [:)]



FriedrichII -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 6:20:38 PM)

Your mod looks very good and promising!


quote:

ORIGINAL: TallBlondJohn
Seems I cant post any more pictures or links [&:]


I hope this can be fixed so that we can see the progress whenever you like to share.



stryc -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 6:50:39 PM)

As ugly as the vanilla map trees are, they do a reasonable job of not blending with other map features, i.e., names and roads. I suspect your version would cause such problems. (That's nearly entirely the issue of how dark your adjusted trees are.)

Also, making the sparse woodlands look like individual trees does somewhat draw the attention to them actually being individual trees thus highlighting the conceptual contrast between said tree and the scale of the map. That could feel somewhat jarring for some. As ugly as the vanilla map tress are, not to belabour that point too much, they can at least be interpreted as being small clusters of woodland thus not quite so readily mismatching the map scale.

Do carry on tho, I would like to see something done, because those vanilla trees are very ug[#SIGNAL LOST#]



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/6/2021 9:57:44 PM)

Thanks for the feedback so far. My plan was to post various ideas for tiles and ask for favourites, but it seems I need to get to ten posts - so feel free to ask me things!

I've already lightened up the trees a bit and made them less dense, but I do like the feel of dark glowering northern forests. To help with the rail lines, I have worked out how to lighten a strip around them (see Luga to Novgorod for the start of this effect, I will increase it).

I think the vanilla roads are too difficult to see anyway, I will take a look at them (even more work). Maybe make them brown? Then they will disappear in mud turns (as OKH found out the hard way).

Lightening names isn't possible (AFAIK) as they are not done as art. I know they are difficult to read, but they are just as bad in the original map! Re-setting their colour might help if anybody knows how, so I've posted that question in a new thread.

So before I commit to literally hundreds of tiles, I want to try out a few ideas. I'll try to post new swamp and woods proposals as soon as I can.

Edit - it seems I can get an attachment in here. It shows my revised forest and 3 woods tiles to scatter the trees around more.



Hardradi -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/7/2021 12:18:54 AM)

I really like the swamp art, reminds me of some old AH board games.



MakeeLearn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/7/2021 12:33:09 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: TallBlondJohn



Is anybody else working on something similar? If not I'll keep going and welcome any feedback. One feature of Jison's map was the elegant clearing along railway lines and around names. I have no idea if that's possible, so I've made the woods less thick to try and compensate.



My time and graphic skill is limited, so please let me know if you think I should persist!



I will probably do a map. I will not get serious about it until late summer. My WiTE time will be devoted to playing. And even that will be hard to find. I have land to take care of in the Spring/Summer. Then there is fishing. Plus I just got a STG-44. The German made 22LR version. I plan to have a lot of shooting time :). It's a blast to shoot.

PERSIST. Some will like it and some will hate it. It will give people options.

Just remember... A pretty map is not always a good map to campaign on.



Rodwen67 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/8/2021 5:03:15 PM)

I'm very interested by your swamp art. Please post the zip file. [&o]



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/8/2021 11:53:21 PM)

OK I'll work on swamp art first - the forests and woods sort of work together. Every swamp tile has to be redrawn by hand and there are 18x6 to do to cover each climate level, so it will take a while to do properly. If anybody is really desperate maybe I could make up sets of identical tiles for just the summer scenarios or something - that would just take an hour or so.

Ultimately rather than mega-one mod, we will end up with sets of tiles - swamp, woods v1, woods v2, forest, new towns, fancy rail lines etc, plus the work of other modders, and you can mix and match. For instance I think my new woods make the vanilla swamps work better as there is more contrast.



Hardradi -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/9/2021 5:25:09 AM)

Are you able to show the Swamp tiles on the stock map without any other adjustments?



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/9/2021 9:46:46 PM)

OK, moving into production now and battling to understand the software (GIMP). I've done a swamp v0.1 with the stock woods and forest. Its intended to suggest pooled water and reeds. At the moment its all one tile repeated - maybe the full set will throw in a few larger ponds and pools?

The full set can also have weather effects, thanks to the ingenious developers. I'm thinking spring will have light green reeds, autumn brown ones with dark pools (and lots of mud), winter just dark streaks in the snow?

And now the battle to get a picture to post begins...




overkill01 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 6:23:34 AM)

To help you out,
swamp hexes often have a "coast" side on them to expand the swamp into the next hex to make them blend in.
To get rid of this you may want to replace the .art-file with a file with nothing on it.

In the coast map coast0... is for E, coast1... , is for SE, coast2... is for SW, etc.

If you need info or help, feel free to ask.




Kel -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 9:06:19 AM)

Cheer up, TBJ, I thought I could never understand the Gimp and after a few hours, I started well.. to understand the very basics to draw a few counters.
Anyway, your map art is desired.



RedLancer -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 9:39:15 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: TallBlondJohn

I think the vanilla roads are too difficult to see anyway, I will take a look at them (even more work). Maybe make them brown? Then they will disappear in mud turns (as OKH found out the hard way).

Lightening names isn't possible (AFAIK) as they are not done as art. I know they are difficult to read, but they are just as bad in the original map! Re-setting their colour might help if anybody knows how, so I've posted that question in a new thread.




- You can darken the roads by increasing the alpha channel and text has the same ability.
- You can change the order the map draws using the tileDrawOrder.txt files.
- Terrain tiles inc Swamp vary by Ground Weather (not Water/Custom).
- Rail tiles vary by Congestion.
- Woods/Forest tiles vary by season/snow.



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 10:51:01 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: overkill01

swamp hexes often have a "coast" side on them to expand the swamp into the next hex to make them blend in.
To get rid of this you may want to replace the .art-file with a file with nothing on it.

In the coast map coast0... is for E, coast1... , is for SE, coast2... is for SW, etc.


Aha, yes I was wondering about that and where to find it. Even more tiles to do!

Thanks




overkill01 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 11:33:53 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: TallBlondJohn

Aha, yes I was wondering about that and where to find it. Even more tiles to do!

Thanks




It's just making 6 coast-files blank to make them invisible.
I did it for you real quick.
I've put them in an archive.
To be able to upload to attachments I had to change the extension.
Rename "blank coast.jpg" to "blank coast.rar" and unpack it.

Are you using gimp for you're mod ? If you're serious about you're mod I would suggest using Corel Paintshop Pro, you'll have to pay for it though.



MakeeLearn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 11:42:22 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: overkill01

To help you out,
swamp hexes often have a "coast" side on them to expand the swamp into the next hex to make them blend in.
To get rid of this you may want to replace the .art-file with a file with nothing on it.

In the coast map coast0... is for E, coast1... , is for SE, coast2... is for SW, etc.

If you need info or help, feel free to ask.




The blending on the WiTE2 map is nice. It breaks up the hex look and gives the terrain a natural flow.



TallBlondJohn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 7:14:13 PM)

quote:



ORIGINAL:overkill01

It's just making 6 coast-files blank to make them invisible.
I did it for you real quick.
I've put them in an archive.
To be able to upload to attachments I had to change the extension.
Rename "blank coast.jpg" to "blank coast.rar" and unpack it.

Are you using gimp for you're mod ? If you're serious about you're mod I would suggest using Corel Paintshop Pro, you'll have to pay for it though.


Sorry I cant get the attachment, just a broken link. I've already cleaned up and used tiles COAST0_201, COAST1_201, COAST2_201, COAST3_201, COAST0_401, COAST0_501

[edit] I was still getting 'lakes' (the old blue shapes) around the edge of swamps despite loading the new tile sand restarting the game. Then the map editor was crashing whenever I went to Tiles (I restored all the original art and restarted the PC, still crashed). I gave up, restarted WITE2 to take a screenshot of the new tiles that did work - and suddenly all the edges were fixed and the editor didn't crash! Some sort of caching thing going on I suspect.

So now I can see the edge tiles - a few adjustments to make. Then I will set up the mud and snow versions.

Here is a screenshot.



[image]local://upfiles/79654/26A6BE24B13B46028AB1B7AB2C9606BD.jpg[/image]



Kryger68 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/10/2021 9:20:40 PM)

I really like your forest and woods.[:)]

Please post a zip file.[8D][&o]



MakeeLearn -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/11/2021 1:26:26 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: overkill01


Are you using gimp for you're mod ? If you're serious about you're mod I would suggest using Corel Paintshop Pro, you'll have to pay for it though.



I have a older version of Photoshop, on a older computer, and I've used it for somethings. My 2 maps for WiTP:AE I used Gimp. Why do you suggest Corel Paintshop Pro?



overkill01 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/11/2021 10:49:31 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: TallBlondJohn

Then the map editor was crashing whenever I went to Tiles (I restored all the original art and restarted the PC, still crashed).


Ive noticed problems with the editor too, crashes and art not loading in the bar etc.


PS. I'm working on a tree-mod myself, but it's quite different then your's.



overkill01 -> RE: New swamp, woods and forest map art (4/11/2021 10:56:01 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
I have a older version of Photoshop, on a older computer, and I've used it for somethings. My 2 maps for WiTP:AE I used Gimp. Why do you suggest Corel Paintshop Pro?



Pretty much every original art has been made in PSP and IMO it's a good program.
Using PSP I could, if a modder wishes, share knowlege and anything from the original art (layers, masks, .... ).



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