The great Nile River gives life to countless settlements; south of Egypt most are heathen or follow the teachings of sects so dubious and obscure that they are little better. However, rumours persist of a glorious Christian kingdom somewhere upriver and that is the place which Julianus the Monk is searching for. He will not find it today, but he will find a wealthy trading city that sits in the bend where yet another tributary flows into the principal river.
This is an entry to the second round of the map design contest hosted by ZeroEmpires.
"Somewhere on the Nile" is Julius' first attempt to create a definitive edition map in the style of the popular PTC series. The result is extremely convincing. Although the designer did not spend as much time on this map as he does for the regular contests, the overall composition is of excellent quality. The largest part of the map is filled by a wonderfully designed African settlement, which is surrounded by a lovingly designed landscape. The shore design is particularly well done. It is not easy to design a river course through a desert-like region, but Julius has succeeded very well thanks to the skillful use of shallows and a few, but carefully placed GAIA objects. The waterfall, which is located in the north of the city, should also be emphasized as a particularly clever design delicacy, especially the integrated cliff trick, which is based on the use of a hidden building from the African architecture set. The watermill to the right also needs to be mentioned: Here too the author has created a clever, novel composition.
Conclusion: Of course "Somewhere on the Nile" is not the most ambitious work by the author, but the map captivates with its simple elegance, which only a very experienced designer can achieve.
Possidon Official Reviewer
Posted on 07/31/20 @ 09:49 AM
Rating
4.5
Somewhere on the Nile is a small showcase scenario which was designed for ZeroEmpires’s design contest.
Rating: 4.5
Julius999 is one of the kings of Showcase Scenarios having won a number of Pretty Town Contests and come second in theirs he hasn’t. Therefore you’d expect this map to be exquisitely designed and beautiful, and you aren’t wrong. The map is excellent and a beautifully crafted creation of a small Egyptian villager on the shores of the mighty River Nile. The scenario very pretty and filled with many of Julius’ trademark design tricks. There’s exceptional use of tricks like the off-grid placement tool, artistically drawn terrain mixing and uniquely placed buildings and layout. The scenario has an authentic Egyptian feel to it as well, with camels, trade caravans and pyramids to be found. As Julius’ first piece of published work using the Definitive Edition’s editor is a unique piece of work by the author and he has used new assets from this version of the game well. Overal I found this map to be a wonderful piece of map design yet I also feel that it is somewhat lacking is most areas in comparison to that of the authors other works. This is probably due to is much smaller scale, and there being a much lesser emphasis on atmosphere.
Additional Comments:
Overall this is an incredible showcase scenario and achingly recommend to those who wish to see what can be achieved with the new features of the Definitive Edition’s editor.
Posted on 01/14/20 @ 05:04 PM