On Maps and Things...

Series Work: Let me start by stating I haven't really ever entirely approached work with a series all at once; partly due to when I began working with the graphics, there was not a lot of titles in some of these series, but that is no longer the case.

In this instance I want to be working on titles that are using PNG files, mainly in order to keep things in more of a "working rhythm".  This is basically a personal preference, plus I was used to working with BMP files in the past (which made editing a little easier - like when wanting to apply maybe a bit of a colour filter - you could just do it all to the entire file - which you can't really do, when using a 32bit PNG file. 

Both Sword & Siege, and Musket & Pike engines, are largely the same - so what I have to work with are the titles-

Sword & Siege:  

• Demo
• Crusades I 
• Crusades II
• Longbow I 

 Musket & Pike:

• American Revolutionary War  
• Great Northern War
• The Renaissance
• Seven Years' War
• Thirty Years' War
• Vienna 1683 (series demo)
• War of the Austrian Succession 

First objective is to get an elevation colour scheme model that works; I sort of already have one, so I will use that to start off, however just changing the hexes has a big effect but it is only a start.

One note here, the publisher's user guides speak of best practice, however I have found that when modifying files (and make no mistake this is all about modifying files), my own best practice is to copy the entire game folder and relabel it, like LW_game_title_here  (where LW is my own 'code' for Longespee's Workshop. That way you have a set of the stock standard files, and there should be almost no way possible of getting changed files inadvertently mixed up with those that you don't want to change). With graphics, the usual area that might need a reversion would be with alignment. And sometimes I end up having multiple copies of a title to work on, as sometimes you want to compare a draft to something that you had of your own, that was working, and now it might not. 

And with these, a lot of what is going to be going on initially, is getting my drafts into working game folders, so that means BMP to PNG conversions (and clean ups). I might swing back later on and do a hex install where I have no textures. Plus I never did versions for the various folders  under the Map folder (such as: Autumn, Frozen, Snow - there might be more in other folders).

Eventually my idea is to get a little regional variation to the schemes, and maybe divide up eras into having a distinct look and feel, but that is for another day. I still have a little more work to do with this today. The big challenges will be with armies' colour schemes, and I want to see what I can do with the unit symbols.

I rather like the 'Block" look being used, but think there is a little room for improvement; it is pretty good though, so I will be playing around with those files to see what I can come up with (especially the artillery units --- I think those can probably be a little and not lose any of the original look and feel that was provided). 

At any rate, back to work - I have some hexsides to get into place.