Oceanside Ruins, Adept (Patreon)

I'm back this time with the Oceanside Ruins (30x30), a dramatic location that is probably located just a little ways away from the Cliffside Ruins map I made two years ago- though I can't say you could seamlessly transition from one to the other.

Your alternate version this week is another Autumn recoloring, which was prompted by a recent request! I'm not complaining though, I really like this palette, it makes for a very different vibe than the original. And, of course, it comes with a night version as well!

1. So, the original plan for this map was for a bunch of ruins half-covered in sand on the beach, which was kinda fun but a little boring. I don't think that sand makes for particularly interesting terrain, and the end result for that idea would be almost entirely beach, maybe with a few palms for color. Instead, I liked the thought of a small cove among the crumbled remains of some old structures, which would provide plenty of cover and multiple levels of terrain. 

2. I'll tell you what, I've made a lot of use out of that 5' tile floor texture in the couple weeks since I've made it. This time I tried something I've been a little hesitant about, a shrunken tile pattern with 4 tiles per grid square. The major issue with this is how the tile lines hide the grid, and I thought I could negate that by lowering the line opacity and doubling up on the grids that overlap them. Looking back, I think that no matter how transparent I make the 1/4 grid tiles, they will still confuse the eye and make you think twice about any movements made on them. I don't think I'll be doing this again.

3. This time around I tried to take another stab at revising my old palette- I last tried this for the Forest Pond map with mixed results. I changed much less for this attempt, tweaking the grass, rock, and tree colors slightly to (hopefully) mesh together better. I've put much more time into coloring this map than I typically do, with 3 other ~slightly~ different palettes, and I'm still not completely happy with it yet. Not that I think it looks bad, but it certainly could be better. If I had more time I'd delay its release for a few more days so I could really dive deep into it, but here we are.