It would be nice to have a blue ocean.
Color is already used on the map for other elements (forests, being the prime example), and I think showing the ocean as a nice blue would help spruce up the map a little.
As it is, the cloth map has kind of a dull atmosphere to it.
Behold my primitive mock-up below:
(and if you do change it, please do a better job than me )
[Original screenshot]
[Crudely colored but less dreary ocean. Ignore that river.]
Ha this would be a nice addition and simple to implement
I agree, but more of a grey-blue so it doesn't overwhelm the drab color style they're going with on the cloth map.
A way to diferentiate between wasteland, life endowed land, and death endowed land would be handy.
Definately agree with this.
agree with this! it would make the map cloth more comprehensible!
There are actually different colours being used on the map for different terrain types, but the colour is very subtle. I guess they are going to add a texture over that, to make the grass look like grass etc.
Yes! Definetely this should be done at some point. I'm no fan of the super drab look right now personally, even just as a strategic zoom map
I think that grey toned colors would be an interesting add to the cloth map. But i'm sure that as stormseed said the cloth map will see a revision with some texture added in.
If they want to make it look like a real cloth map, that would be too bright a colour. Perhaps a dark blue tint, but it would be stupid to sacrifice the look of the cloth map with something that doesn't fit in at all.
the artist behind the project know well what they do so i think if some sort of colour will be implemented it would be done with the right taste.
I'm all for making it realistic but this cloth map is not just to look at it but to play over it. It's important for us to be able to distinguish between forsaken lands, green pastures... Forests in graphic engine change depending of where they are so I suppose that it would be nice if the map actually reflected that too. About actually giving some color to the ocean, I have no problems identifying it well (with those waves) so I don't mind as long as it fits well.
I agree that attention would have to be paid to make it fit the map style as best as possible, but my basic point is that the ocean should be a little more colorful to get a more ejoyable game 'feel'.
[Edit] A quick example of the feel of the map -- if you blur your eyes slightly, the original map isn't as easy to pick out where the ocean is compared to the colorized one (which yeah, may be a little *too* blue). Also, in terms of gameplay experience, say you're exploring a new area and you just reveal a corner of the ocean. If it's the same color as every thing else, it doesn't really stick out at you, even if you notice it. But if it's colorized, you get more of a fundamental feel of 'hey, there's a new part of the map'. (Sorry if I'm explaining that poorly.)[/Edit]
I also kind of think of it as a map updated by magic.. how else would the blank, unexplored areas be darker than the explored areas, which are darker than the area currently in line-of-sight (which changes as you move around)? In that regard, perhaps there is a little more leeway about how the ocean sytle could be handled.
While I'm thinking about it.. it would be interesting to eventually see some subtle magic 'special effects' as the cloth draws more of itself as something new is being revealed. (Assuming the map actually is updated with magic.)
I'm not gunna lie, I came into the thread thinking I was going to post something along the lines of "this is a dumb idea! It's fine as is!" but the blue ocean on the map like that is pretty nice looking! Like others have said, maybe a darker blue or something, but I do enjoy the contrast.
Also going to chime in with effects for different terrain types. I didn't even KNOW there were different terrain types other than "land" and "mountains" until I came into this thread, that's how not obvious they are on the cloth map <.< lol.
I think it would be more in keeping with the feel of the map to keep the brown background and just turn the waves blue. All the other colored features (that I've seen) are drawn as colored line art, after all.
Yeah, I was also thinking about how that would look (could be good). Alternately, perhaps a water-color wash style could be used on the map in cases like this, since something is making the area between the wave lines darker anyway.
That would be nice looking to turn waves blue and coastline white to look reasemble waves on beach.
I like how it makes the landmasses "pop". If the same contrast effect could be achieved with colored line art, that would be preferable though, just for the sake of consistency.
I think a good idea is to have something similar to the oblivion mod with the elven map activated, where the map gets some color when you explore it.
Of course, colours must fit with the art style, but they will add some "life" to the map, which, in my opinion, is quite dull and does not help to distinguish between different kinds of land.
People do need to remember that we are playing on what is effectively the zoomed out map. The 3-D map will most definitely have blue oceans
The look they are going for is probably more like this:
Just look at the mountains and forests, nearly identical. The oceans pop out in this map by the layered darker outline, which I imagine is what they will add.
Yeah, I dont want to use color everywhere, since it's really supposed to be a raw (but somewhat fancy) display of the necessary data. If anyone really wants their oceans blue, theres a pretty easy-to-edit png file that should get the job done
It could be our first official mod
That was my first thought also, and it doesn't seem like it would be using "color everywhere" any more than green forests do that. I'm no opponent of the uber-moddability thing, but I do sometimes worry that the devs too often think, "Well, we'll leave that for modders."
I think the ongoing issue is "why would maps have color" but its kinda voided by the map itself since it already has color for trees and rivers. So why not have more color? We'll see. I think color with a filter to make the coloring look uneven and on knitted cloth would work just find. If done right, it should still look like a cloth map, even though its a colored cloth map.
Yes exactly, that's what I was thinking with the watercolor wash style.
I also think it would be important for usability. If you are zoomed out for a strategic view on a large map with lots of coastal features and islands, I think it would be a lot easier to get a quick feel for the layout with some (toned-down) coloring of the ocean.
If I get some time, I'll play around with making some better possible mockups (and take a look at that .png BoogieBac mentioned).
The crux of the issue is that the cloth map is solely for displaying the necessary info. If you start throwing too many colors into the mix you mar this intention.
For example, when I see blue, I can quickly determine following...
- If it's a blue icon, then it's somethign that belongs to a certain race- If it's a blue line, it's a river- If it's a faded patch of blue, then I know it's arctic landThe more things blue is used for, the slower that information can be mentally digested, and the less useful the feature becomes. I'm actually thinking we should remove the green forests, but I'm hoping they won't result in too much visual clutter when green-tinted races are present.
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