New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Starlife]

LIES! Me likey map. Altho I agree with lucky, watermark is generally a bad idea in my interwebz code of laws. NESers, in general, allow their maps to be used for NESes, why keep something good to yourself ? .

Don't read into it that much. When the map is finished, it will be without a watermark. I just don't like to post something that is unfinished and therefore in my opinion useless. When it is completely finished / I know exactly how to present it, it will not have that ugly watermark on it.

Watermarks are always inaccurately associated with Internet piracy or me wanting to keep something mine. That is such an old-school way of thinking, Luckymoose. It is more put on unfinished projects to indicate they are a work-in-progress (and I post/exchange maps and map ideas with other mapmakers on a regular basis... we freely let each other use our ideas and maps in a Creative Commons environment).

Spent a few hours making this map so far, and wouldn't want to show it without a watermark until those hours come to their full fruition. So it is because of its ugliness, or unfinished nature, that the watermark exists - were it just a blank continent, I would still put it on there.

If anyone wants to use the finished map in a NES, they can ask me, and I will give them a blank version without a watermark. I am a fan of CC.

So don't be so quick to judge. Poor form, especially when I am trying to eventually provide something for others here to use.

 

[Freemanuncg]

ok all that nonsence aside. How the hell do you put in that awesome watermark thing?

 

[Starlife]

ok all that nonsence aside. How the hell do you put in that awesome watermark thing?

Just bring down the Opacity of text in a graphics editor. 15-20% opacity should do it!

 

[Northen Wolf]

ok all that nonsence aside. How the hell do you put in that awesome watermark thing?

Most graphics programs have ability to add layers to image. More about Layers.

Many different methods to do that - mess with Opacity, Add granity (spelling?), make new layer on top of other "as bright light or reflection".

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My personal view of Creative Commons - IMHO use it only for awesome work, that you don't want others to modify/change - huge self-made posters/wallart for an example. IMHO Having your pic edited is a compliment (job well done!) to artist, who made that pic. Then again, I generally suck at making pictures and -like and tend to edit pictures I find online.

 

[Starlife]

My personal view of Creative Commons - IMHO use it only for awesome work, that you don't want others to modify/change - huge self-made posters/wallart for an example. IMHO Having your pic edited is a compliment (job well done!) to artist, who made that pic. Then again, I generally suck at making pictures and -like and tend to edit pictures I find online.

There are many different variants of Creative Commons depending on what you want. You can make it so anyone can take anything and use it without permission. Or you can do the complete opposite. I tend to be the person who doesn't care about my stuff being used, as long as I know what it's being used for (I am genuinely interested to see what it is being used for). But I don't require permission to use it or anything like that. My only thing is that I want to present the finished work before it becomes altered. Then anyone can ask for any stage of the work, and I'll provide it.

To each person his own preference when it comes to hours of work. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[Ekolite]

I disagree with the idea that NESers should always freely allow others to use the maps and other materials they have produced to be honest. If I've worked hard on something then it's mine, and I'd be pretty pissed if someone used it without first obtaining my explicit permission.

And personally unless it was specifically made to be shared, ie. blank earth maps, I think it's better to create your own.

 

[Adrogans]

Course you could be like me and have no talent for making maps. Though since I have no time to run a NES anyway its kind of a moot point.

 

[LDiCesare]

I'd definitely ask before using, but as I said, that map could be nice for stuff different from NESes, like dominions (although it would require province borders drawn annd white pixels, so some amount of rework).
More to the point, I like the map but I have an issue with the rivers. I had to zoom in to even see they were there, but they don't look like they follow the relief. Some look like they cross ridges. Maybe it's my interpretation of the colours, but still it seems unnatural. Also, there are far too many small rivers originating in some places, so it looks like a bog, but it might be a mountain, or if there are so many rivers there, why aren't there more small rivers elsewhere?

 

[Starlife]

I'd definitely ask before using, but as I said, that map could be nice for stuff different from NESes, like dominions (although it would require province borders drawn annd white pixels, so some amount of rework).
More to the point, I like the map but I have an issue with the rivers. I had to zoom in to even see they were there, but they don't look like they follow the relief. Some look like they cross ridges. Maybe it's my interpretation of the colours, but still it seems unnatural. Also, there are far too many small rivers originating in some places, so it looks like a bog, but it might be a mountain, or if there are so many rivers there, why aren't there more small rivers elsewhere?

Good question. The river-y areas represent swamps/bogs.

 

[Starlife]

Oh, and I tried to make rivers as realistic as possible (i.e. - originating in elevated areas), but there is still lots of work to be done on them. They are by no means finished.

EDIT: What will likely happen is I will put mountains at all of the river origins before the map is finished.

 

[Luckymoose]

Don't read into it that much. When the map is finished, it will be without a watermark. I just don't like to post something that is unfinished and therefore in my opinion useless. When it is completely finished / I know exactly how to present it, it will not have that ugly watermark on it.

Watermarks are always inaccurately associated with Internet piracy or me wanting to keep something mine. That is such an old-school way of thinking, Luckymoose. It is more put on unfinished projects to indicate they are a work-in-progress (and I post/exchange maps and map ideas with other mapmakers on a regular basis... we freely let each other use our ideas and maps in a Creative Commons environment).

Spent a few hours making this map so far, and wouldn't want to show it without a watermark until those hours come to their full fruition. So it is because of its ugliness, or unfinished nature, that the watermark exists - were it just a blank continent, I would still put it on there.

If anyone wants to use the finished map in a NES, they can ask me, and I will give them a blank version without a watermark. I am a fan of CC.

So don't be so quick to judge. Poor form, especially when I am trying to eventually provide something for others here to use.

I was actually just saying it's an ugly map. I would be willing to offer you epic tips for cartography.

 

[SKILORD]

Real classy.

I like the map, I am interested in seeing it as you finish it Starlife.

 

[Starlife]

Thanks, SKILORD. I'll post the updated one soon here. Minor update. Just made some more rivers / deleted others that didn't make sense, and so on. Still a ways to go!

@Luckymoose: I asked for comments and suggestions. Saying the map is ugly is neither. It is a spam comment if I've ever seen one.

 

[Seon]

Well, the texture's really nice. I love those little bitty mountains with nice fluffy white snow on the top. If there was anything to suggest, I would recommend having less water...because the current shape that your world has looks somewhat impossible to form by conventional plate tectonics and erosion...

Butthen again this IS fantasy. Consider it just my pet peeve.

 

[Luckymoose]

Since when is "ugly map" not criticism? Gosh I'm being nice about it.

 

[Starlife]

Here's the updated map (so far). I made some rivers start at mountains or elevated areas (but I might add more rivers / alter existing before it is finished). Still work to go. Any advice on realistic river patterns would be useful, if anyone has it. Other useful comments/suggestions much appreciated, as usual. Once it is finished, I'll post it in the map thread. There are some more details I want to add.

@Seon: I know what you mean, but yes I feel you are looking at it more scientifically. If anything, this is a single continent on a world - the rest outside of it is unknown. But I haven't gotten to those specifics of setting, yet. I did draw the map keeping in mind separation of pangea, and I feel the separations are at least a little bit realistic. However, I'm not very knowledgeable about that stuff, so it's most-likely extremely inaccurate.

 

[Seon]

It's just that there is a large inland sea, which bothers me somewhat...

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Nice work Starlife! I like it. And to be constructive Lucky, what do you find unpleasant about it? I like the look quite a bit, and would be very interested to see how it would look in an NES.

 

[Freemanuncg]

It's just that there is a large inland sea, which bothers me somewhat...

however it provides an easy early means of trade across the inland sea as well as along the coasts, without having to venture out into ocean water to early on / in terms of development of transportation technology and sea faring vessels.

 

[Ekolite]

Since when is "ugly map" not criticism? Gosh I'm being nice about it.

You're not being critical, you're being insulting. He's obviously worked hard on it and to say outright that it's ugly is insulting. If there is a particular part of the map that looks strange to you then you could suggest how it could be improved, but just to saying the whole thing is ugly is not at all useful and quite unpleasant really.

To me, I agree with Seon in that there's slightly too much water for my tastes, but not to the extent that its a big deal and would put me off playing in the NES that its used for.