I've never had issues with superficial things like map colours. The convoy and coastal bugaboos irked me. Thanks for fixing them.

404...

btw i think that as little as possible should be shown on the small map to keep it clean. maybe only show things that were shown in the previous version?

currently i have stars and explosions on a small game map after build phase i think it's already too much :-)

I really think we should have layers, with different commands on different layers. Then you could choose which layers to show, and so have only what you want at that time. So, if you were looking at what happened last phase, you might want everything showing, but if you want to prepare for next phase, then you could turn most/all of them off.

In the GameMaster window can be display on text ALL orders; like before only with owns order, but now with ALL players ones.

I'm running a game with a group of friends online. I've found that by far the best way to display the maps involves drawing two maps per phase. In the 1st, units are shown where they began the turn along with lines and arrows depicting their attempted orders. The 2nd map shows the resolved turn (all units in their new place and no arrows cluttering up the page).

The whole process works surprisingly well and the players can clearly see all of the orders and results. This might also help with the comment in other thread regarding map naming (previous vs present phase). The maps for a particular phase (say fall 1904) would show the starting positions and all movement indicators on the 1st map and the resolved positions on the 2nd map.

As to how orders are displayed there are lots of choices, but the way I do it is this.
An order move is displayed by a solid arrow in the color of the country. If the movement is successful then the arrow extends to the center of the target territory. If the movement fails/bounces then the arrow terminates at the border of the country with a small explosion shown at the tip of the arrow.

A support move is dispayed in a dashed line in the color of the country. The line terminates at the supported unit if it is a support-hold and at the midpoint of the movement arrow if it is a support-move. (The tricky part here is if a support move is issued for a non-existent move order. In this case I also draw a greyed-out/faded movement arrow so that the support move can be clearly indicated). If the support has been cut then I add a double line through the center of it perpendicular to the support line.

Convoys are displayed by a squiggly line from the fleet to the movement arrow of the army. (The army's movement arrow goes directly from the unit to it's ordered landing sport).

Kestas - if you (or anyone else for that matter) wants to see some examples let me know. I'm sure that my methods could be improved, but I think they're still a step ahead of the new map here. Again, I'd say the major issue is splitting out the map into two pieces so you can clearly indicate orders and results.

I'm interested...

I like the map Kestas.

i would just lighten the background colour. if the whole map was say beige/ cream and each countrys' terroritory had each own nations colour tint to it. so russia was a light purple mixed with cream and asutria was a light red mixed with cream. then the move/support hold/ support move/ convoy orders would stand out.
welcome back dangermouse - hadn't seen your name in a while.

i logged in this morning and see lighter colors, which sounded good until i saw what it meant. the map now looks kinda dark and i have a hard time distinguishing between austria and germany. could we go back to the old colors or perhaps bump them back in the direction of the old colors at least?

(btw, i realize this is a work in progress, this is not meant to be hypercritical, just wanted to give some feedback.)

yes i think your right wonder, maybe half way between what it is now and what it was before would look good.

What I'd like to do is make the small map like the old map, and have few orders on, and keep the large map the same with all the orders on, but use this javascript: http://phpdiplomacy.net/tjpzoor/test.html
to let players hover their mouse over the part of the map that they want to see in more detail

I think dangermouse's idea is good, but it would take up too much extra space. I don't think it's impossible to display all of the orders on the large map while keeping it viewable. It's just a matter of getting the right contrast/saturation/brightness of the territories compared to the orders

the current colours are a nightmare for me, being colour blind. I find it really difficult to tell the difference between germany and austria land. Can we make Austria more "red" again please.

Jamed; I just changed the colors again, they're like the old ones except lighter, which gives more of a contrast

The colors of the orders don't fit in with the new territory colors, but I think I find the new colors not as bad as the previous ones. They definitely fit in better with the rest of the site's colors

Their too light, its hard to tell the difference between none taken land, turkey and england, my eye sight is perfect, and although i can tell the difference, its only by a small margin.

would it be possible to make the unit the colour of each country? then you could do away with the little colour box behind each unit.
the new new map looks better, very... serious map like. less cartoonish than the original.

to be honest I agree still with Jamed. The Colours earlier today were too similar, now they seem a little to 'washed out' and Englands Pink looks terrible (to me anyway!)

Personally Whilst I can just make out the difference between Austria and Germany (I am colourblind slightly too) its very hard to tell when they are not next to each other (ie when say Brest is controlled by Germany / Austria its hard to tell on its own if its the Austrian or German colour.

I personally liked the Dark (original) colour but appreciate I may be on my own here. I think the main problem was the 'dark' arrows and if we could somehow make the arrows and lines a bit lighter it may be easier, possibly even looking at making the lines dotted/dashed to indicate supports/failed orders etc instead of different colours.

And also I think the lines are waaaay to thick which is making the maps look cluttered.

Finally I have to agree with other people that the Gamemaster tab certainly made it easier (especially if you are using a small screen/pda etc) to tell what orders worked etc rather than using the map (but I appreciate its also good to have the map showing the lines as well)

Perhaps add a toggle button below the map to turn the orders on and off!!!

Other than that I think its a great job and I don't mean to complain as you have worked wonders so far :)

Mark

Sean whilst the idea of having coloured units is a good one, in practice it doesn't work very well as you have to have 7 VERY defined colours to make it work (I have seen other implementations of PHPDip using different maps with a normal map and coloured units and to be honest it does become a little confusing...plus its whilst its not exactly important its sometimes nicer to see a 'colourful' representation of your overall control, rather than just see the units (well to me anyway - I want to own the World :o) and thus seeing it all Red or Yellow is always good !!!)

M

Oh and if you look at the BIG map it certainly looks a lot nicer and the colours aren't so much of an issue, but I think we definately have to Darken England and make Austria more Red, if only a little bit :)

The map itself is good, and the idea behind the arrows i love, i just dont like this colour sheme, i prefered the dark colours as Mark mentioned above. I ain't complaining, i'm just stating my opinion, the colours are to vague, its hard to tell the difference between the majority of them, and it doesnt stand out, it blends only because of the lighting effect, you could reverse it to *darker* effect and it'd still blend.

It needs saturation...and lots of it xD like +70 or so

Thanks for changing the colours again, but they are still a nightmare for me. The colours really need to be distinctive for us poor colour blind folk..
Sorry to be such a pain.

Jamed stop complaining and answer the quesion...are you coming to kill me mate?

I think Xiang is correct, its not the lightness its the differential between each colour. I admit tho colours are a pain in the a$$ and even tho you have so much scope you generally find that getting a good mix is about a 1% chance.

I am going to mess around with my monitor settings at home later and see if its just a problem with my work monitor, as a bit of definition of the colours would work a treat.

Lol, its not your monitor lol, i could set my screen to a higher saturation..this text wud look odd, as would this board and every website i joined - but at least the map would look half normal, rather then a mass of lightly coloured countries.

Still, i'll keep waiting for an update on the map, i cant really play the game properly whilst its messing with my eye sight xD

Kestas, could you please change the small map back into the old one? The one that is with nicer colors. I'll send you a sample of it.

--I think dangermouse's idea is good, but it would take up too much extra space
Do the maps actually take up so much space? It would double the space requirements I suppose, but no more.

we need the old small map... :-)

Contrast- more more more! I really liked the old map but now in this map I can't really see which colour is which.