Whoa!
(Just give him the Forum Award already, he totally deserves it! :P)
I read your input at least 10 times, and I think I finally understand. It's not that you worded your post unclearly, or said anything that was too pointed... I guess it's just difficult sometimes to admit/accept certain truths concerning your own work, no matter how it's presented!
Anyway I throroughly appreciate your input, and I agree with everything you said.
Scale. I don't know why my recent couple of maps have been so huge, but you're right, they are leauges too large. I think my current propensity to build large maps has a psychological component of some sort, maybe that I'm too cocky/confident--at least in terms of brushwork, lol.
I tried the chase_active paramater--which is really cool btw!--, and the scale seemed ok to me, which means It may be necessary for me to deflate my ego before I work on size adjustments! Therapy here we come!!1
Planning. You hit that one right on the head--I didn't think it was so obvious!
My mindset with this and other themed maps was that certain things had to be in the map, and I just had to figure a way to link the "mandatory" units together somehow as I got to them. As you astutely observed, I just dove in to brushing out the map, without any planning other than looking at reference pics.
Subsequently, I really need to start
listening to your's and Captain P's advice on preplanning and layouts! (I've already started some concept sketches for my compo 23 map lol
)
Lastly, I agree about the poor vertical relief, and I already have some ideas on how to work on remedying it
Anyhoo, I'm putting
Clarity, and
Hothworld V2 on hold for the time being, and adjusting my focus on preplanning for Compo 23. It will be
really nice to work on something
other than the Star Wars/space theme for awhile.