Swamp Ruins, Adept (Patreon)

5/17 Update: So sorry about the mixup- I was away from my computer all day yesterday and didn't notice I had uploaded the incorrect files until this morning! Everything is in the correct place now.

Hi folks! I'm back with another swamp map, the Swamp Ruins (30x30)! As I mentioned last week, I was pretty happy with the new color palette I whipped up for future swamps, and I felt that I might as well keep developing it while it was fresh in my mind. I'd like to make a handful more swamp maps while I'm still at it, so if you have any ideas for what I should make next just let me know!

So, your alternate version of this one is a color swap with one of my typical forests, which I'm calling Tropical for lack of a better name. It might look a little strange without sand between the grass and the water, but I think it's a fun change that will be interesting for an unusually wet forest environment. Seems fun!

1. So, for this map I wanted to go back to and make something along the lines of some of my personal favorite maps, like the Winter Ruins and my older ruins maps, which featured just a handful of crumbling walls that had been overcome by nature. I also wanted to make sure to get plenty of land in this one, since last week's swamp map had very little to work with. In hindsight I think it might have been improved with some rock walls, which would have added a nice bit of verticality, but by the time I had had that thought it was a little too late to make any large additions like that.

Anyway, I tried to arrange the walls in such a way as to provide a few easy sightlines and some safer positions, which I tweaked somewhat for the sake of the map's flow later. In the end, I think most of the cover provided by the walls is pretty solid, so I expect somewhat slower, and maybe methodical combat here, which is a small change of pace from my other maps that I think I enjoy.

2. I'm still pretty happy with the new way I've been drawing swamps. The biggest change I've made is removing sand/dirt between the grass line and the water, which helps to express the minor changes in elevation between water and grass that I would expect in a swamp. This change does take away some of the variation in color that I enjoy, but I'm confident that the effect it has on the map's feel is worth it. 

Also, I decided to go ahead and degrade the ruined walls a little more than I usually do, For many of my 'ruins' maps, I tend to place the walls strictly aligning to the grid, which is good for making combat easy to run, but doesn't make much sense. Additionally, I've heard from patrons that they really don't mind dealing with walls and buildings at unusual angles, so I felt it would be fine.

3. So, once again I decided to iterate on the colors a bit. I backed away from the somewhat darker version of my jungle palette that I had used for the Swamp Village, and instead leaned a little more heavily into yellows and browns, as well as more vibrant greens to help differentiate between ground and water. This definitely improved the swampy vibes, though I think the water probably ended up a little too blue near the edges of the map for my taste. You could make the argument that the water is muddier or shallower near the center of the map, so I'm not too concerned. 

Overall, a slight improvement, but I get the feeling I went too hard on many effects here. I have a very good feeling about what I'll do for my next swamp map, which might even be next week if any good ideas come up in the meantime!