[Abandoned] - Vietnam

[kengyin]

Current Version

v7.1
-made the borders clearer
-got rid of 3 pixel column to make the left and right symmetrical


i didnt so much in this update, just made the lines clearer really. let me know if theres anything major i need to change

[kengyin]

any other gameplay suggestions? do people agree with the killer neutral and auto-decay placements and values for example?

[00iCon]

this map has changed positively since i last saw it!

ack! i remember there was a thread with instructions on how to soften borders, but it's not in my bookmarks!

[kengyin]

i will be overhauling this thing, i will make a new image with suggestions from natty's tutorial. there havent been too many comments since i redid the borders so my new image will largely be set out the same, while that may seem like a waste of time, i will be making the layers more organised and colours and stuff not so messed up and borders better and adding gradients and textures and stuff. it will make future changes much easier to make for me, eg. currently i have impassables merged with background and in fact i took ages to redo the borders as you may know

[whitestazn88]

the colors could be a bit more differentiated in my opinion. as for gameplay, i think it's all good, although it's not something i really looked at closely.

[Riskismy]

that would be overpowered, because you only need to hold 5 territories only 3 and 4 are needed to defend northwest and south central coast respectively, while northeast has 7 territories and 4 are needed to defend and central highlands has 6 territories and 5 needed to defend, both of which have bonus of 5, so northeast and south central coast should be lower i think.

hm. Perhaps a case study is in place here. Let's take Northeast and Northwest.

Northwest / Northeast
Territories: 5 / 7
Attacked by territories: 6 / 6
Defend territories to hold bonus: 3 / 4
Bonus for holding: 1 / 5

Does this really seem fair to you?

[kengyin]

that would be overpowered, because you only need to hold 5 territories only 3 and 4 are needed to defend northwest and south central coast respectively, while northeast has 7 territories and 4 are needed to defend and central highlands has 6 territories and 5 needed to defend, both of which have bonus of 5, so northeast and south central coast should be lower i think.

hm. Perhaps a case study is in place here. Let's take Northeast and Northwest.

Northwest / Northeast
Territories: 5 / 7
Attacked by territories: 6 / 6
Defend territories to hold bonus: 3 / 4
Bonus for holding: 4 / 5

Does this really seem fair to you?

corrected your typo for you yes that does seem fair to me

[natty dread]

They seem fair to me too...

The biggest problem I see is there are no small bonuses, something that would be easy to grab in the beginning...

[kengyin]

well if you get 4 of the ho chi minh trail territories say 1-4 then thats almost the same as holding south america for 2 troops

[kengyin]

heres just a sample of the new graphics, i havent put on the text yet.


so basically i improved the territory background, not so noticeable is that they are all on different layers. some time i will try and make better mountains and eventually make the legends more realistic

[kengyin]

some random factoids

-i drew the landing crafts by hand, its not copy and pasted
-the ho chi minh trail is direct copy and paste but i scaled and rotated and shifted until it went to the right territories
-the planes are actually f4 phantoms which arent bombers but they are so recognisable and much more realistic than pixelated bombers
-the territory borders are drawn with 9 pixel fuzzy brush at 0.30 using stroke
-there are the same number of territories in both north and south vietnam
-5+5+4+4+4+5+5+3=35 which is also the number of layers, 3+5=8 which is the number of bonus regions
-i think red river delta is the hardest region to hold

[natty dread]

Really nice! It's a huge improvement.

At this point, though... it would be better to work on the large image. It will be much easier to create the small image from the large than the other way around.

Fortunately, at this point you can still scale up pretty easily... first scale the image to the large map size, then all you need to do is re-stroke the borders.

[League]

wow that looks really good! Nice touch with the F4's. Historically correct.

[kengyin]

you know, i dont think it even looks like it needs restroking, the borders are quite smooth. its mainly just the copy and pasted stuff thats blurry, which i can sharpen.

[murdocho]

Looks good. Personally I'd write new text for the objective this time

[kengyin]

Current Version

v8.0
-added texture to the land area
-added gradient overlay to the image
-changed the ho chi minh trail back to flowing red lines
-changed the bomber and landing craft and arrows and lines graphics
-changed the mountains graphics
-changed the text font to sans
-changed bonus names and numbers font to capture it
-rearranged the impassables display and included note about bridges
-took out one way attacks from carrier to landing craft
-bombers now all attack each other and carrier
-changed position of one HCMT area to between ha tinh and the meeting point of the 2 lines to north vietnam
-uss enterprise now has decay of 2
-added subtle colour differences between the 3 bombardments to help differentiate


thats all i can think of for now i think

[natty dread]

You should re-stroke those borders... at least the ones around the bonus areas. Perhaps make them slightly thinner...

[kengyin]

Current Version

v8.1
-made the bonus borders thinner
-gave the rivers and sea some texture
-gave the computer screens some texture also but a lot less depth


well that previous version lasted just over half a day with only one comment between versions too. i gave the sea and computer screens some texture because they looked a bit too flat

[natty dread]

The HCMT looks blurry.. I think you need to redraw it.

[Riskismy]

corrected your typo for you yes that does seem fair to me

No typo. I read that as a +1 bonus.
Glad I was wrong. Simply couldn't get why you didn't see my point.

[kengyin]

v8.2
-made the HCMT one single colour
-put borders around HCMT
-added signature

[kengyin]

Current Version

v8.3
-made the rivers part of the sea layer rather than own layer
-added drop shadow for the playable land areas


man, i am seriously getting thinner and thinner on my updates, its quite hard to have major changes when only 2 people comment on your map. i know you said it is the journey not the destination that matters, however it does give good encouragement knowing that you have moved on because right now it feels as if only a few people care about this and thus it is very stagnant. i understand your point that it doesnt matter where you are you can still develop the map but i should tell you that i often feel ignored in real life too so i am often low on morale, something as simple as being moved (not that you have that power, but just so you understand why i wish to be moved) to gameplay would really help quite a bit

[natty dread]

Don't feel bad about it. Lots of times there's very scarce feedback to be had... people have jobs & other RL commitments, and also not so many people visit the foundry... you're doing good, just keep at it. You'll get used to the workflow.

Have you submitted a design brief? I think your map is starting to be in a state where a review for a draft stamp might be a possibility.

Your latest changes are good ones. I would consider maybe extending the drop shadow to all land area. Perhaps also increasing the distance of the shadow from the land just slightly.

Also, the fighter jets and the landing crafts look slightly blurry. Perhaps you can try enhancing those somewhat.

For the gameplay side... I have some concern over the southern part. It seems really choked, there's not many options for movement from the southern end... I would advise adding some sea routes. Perhaps one that connects Quang Nam, Ninh Thuan and Ca Mau?

[kengyin]

good suggestions, thanks

[Riskismy]

For the gameplay side... I have some concern over the southern part. It seems really choked, there's not many options for movement from the southern end... I would advise adding some sea routes. Perhaps one that connects Quang Nam, Ninh Thuan and Ca Mau?

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I agree. Perhaps a few planes/airports could open up the map a bit between north and south.