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[Abandoned] - Hawaii Map

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:13 pm
by esiemer
***I took down the poll because there was good support for another map, but I want to focus on finishing this one and not get ahead of myself. I underestimated how long it would take to finish a map. Mahalo and Aloha****

Map Name: Hawaii
Design team:
Concept and design: esiemer and saberty
XML: stofer71

This map is built around traditional CC type strategy with territory and continental control. We chose Hawaii for love/knowledge of the islands and a lack of any Hawaiian maps. Before we found CC we had painted a version on this map on the back of a Risk game board and played it as a change of pace.

The design team including several other CC friends have been playing on that painted board to help flush out game play issues. We welcome suggestions and feedback, as this is our first crack at quenching a map and we have lots to learn.

Map Details:

Continents: 8
Territories: 42 + 6 outrigger canoes (start Neutral 3)

Continent Bonuses: update coming soon
Kauai: ?
O’ahu: ?
Moloka’i: ?
Maui: ?
Lana’i: ?
Hawaii: ?
Ni’hau: ?
Kaho’olawe: ?
Outrigger Canoes: ?

Islands are interconnected via Rainbows/dotted lines as direct paths. Ports are symbolized by outrigger canoes and all can attack each other.

bigimg: temporarily unavailable

smaller version:
Image

our original gamboard for nostalgia and inspiration reasons:
Click image to enlarge.
image


our original version submitted to CC:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/ezerok/Hawaii_CC_1.jpg

version 2:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/ezerok/HawaiiDraft2.jpg

version 3:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/ezerok/HawaiiDraft3.jpg

version 4:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t173/ezerok/HawaiiDraft4.jpg

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 10:08 pm
by rdsrds2120
A couple things:

1) Can you put a bigimg tag on that? ;)
2) Need to describe the ports on the map, right now there isn't anything on the actual image to say what they are

3) I think some of the troop circles should be moved around to fit on the actual land masses. You'll have to maneuver the names around a bit to do this :)
The places I noticed this in:
  • Ni'ihau (Just move the circle above the name)
  • Kane'Ohe
  • Waimea (troop circle a little to the right?)
  • Haiawa...etc.
4) Good luck! I hope to be able to play on this someday! Excellent first draft!:D

-rd

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 10:39 pm
by esiemer
thanks rdsrds2120 for the feedback.
i added a BIG MAP tag, am moving the troop circles and the key will include something on the outrigger canoes symbolizing ports. Also working on making the top right and very bottom more aesthetically pleasing.

also cross-posted in design brief forum, excited to get this map off the ground!

big Mahalo (thanks) for the feedback, keep it coming.

esiemer
saberty
stofer71

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:22 pm
by Industrial Helix
1. Shrink it down and start work on the small map first. You're going to need to make sure everything fits on that before you make a large map.
2. The rainbows bridges are lame.
3. What about moving it more towards the Hawaiian unification under Kamehameha? You could use war canoes for connections, maybe reward holding battle sites and feature the various groupings of Hawaiians before they were united.

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:29 pm
by greenoaks
why have you included 2 auto-deploys ?

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:04 am
by esiemer
thanks Industrial Helix
in reply:
1: we read somewhere that its better to start with a bigger map. but you are a cartographer and it makes sense so we checked and the small map (630 x 600) looks fine; its easy to read
2: sorry you think the rainbows are lame, but they are on the Hawaii license plates, drivers licences, the university mascot is the Hawaii Rainbows and if you ever go to the Islands look mauka and you will see them. im not trying to get too defensive, we were just looking for something that reflected the islands and was different from all the straight or dotted lines you see on all maps
3: we'd love to do a Hawai'i historical map, but this map began as a painting on the back of an old risk board that we have been playing for years. we wanted to translate our painted board from analog to digital (Conquer Club) for all to enjoy. we wanted to do this one as our first, and then maybe a Kamehameha, ahupua'a or kahuna style map next incorporating historical context.

greenoaks:
the 2 autodeploys are because when we played our hard copy we thought it was a bit too much of a reward so we thought a 1 autodeploy would make them worth a bit less.

thanks for the feedback guys!!

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:47 am
by greenoaks
do those 2 terits start neutral ?

i also think the rainbows look a bit lame but perhaps that is something that can be improved at the graphics stage

i just looked at wikipedia, lonely planet and the Hawaiian Islands website and saw no reference to rainbows. it is possible your inclusion of them will fall flat with just about every non-hawaiian

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - BIG MAP

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:19 am
by Industrial Helix
1) Post the small image please so I can have a gander.
2) That's fine and all, but your rainbows are oversaturated and pixelated and they look bad.

You need to describe what the canoes do as well somewhere in the legend.

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 1:29 pm
by esiemer
I think I finally posted the images the way I should have done when I started, sorry about that Industrial Helix. We are new at this, but figuring things out :)

We agree that the rainbows need to look better. We are working on it today. Any advice on how to make them? If we can't get them to look good we can abandon them for dotted lines or something. We are just trying to portray Hawaii's Aloha spirit, and hope those on the mainland will love it too.

I think we can all agree, though, that our rainbows look better than the ones the football team used to have on their helmets:

Image

Image

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:52 am
by elGrande
Is that a double rainbow? ;)
Looks good guys
The yellow text is a bit odd, but it's the right font for sure!
Maybe have the connection start out as rainbows then fade to a more bland color

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 1:14 am
by saberty
Nice reference elGrande.

We tried many different colors but did not find many that were readable while still preserving the Tiki feel.

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:58 am
by Industrial Helix
My advice on the rainbows is desaturate a lot and see how it looks... what program are you using?

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:38 pm
by saberty
We are using PhotoShop5

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:55 pm
by rdsrds2120
You need a space between "each" and "other" in the legend. The troop circles do look a lot better :)
If you're going with a warming aloha hawaiian theme, why is the background so dark?

-rd

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 1:03 pm
by saberty
We went with an actual sat image of the Pacific around the islands. We think it gives a very Hawaiian feel just like the rich dark blue you see when you are there.

Working on the image edits now.

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 2:23 pm
by Industrial Helix
saberty wrote:We are using PhotoShop5


Thank God... Yeah, just desaturate them and they should look much better in terms of color. They're pixelated, so you might have to find figures something else out as well.

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:27 pm
by esiemer
greenoaks: sorry i didn't reply to your questions earlier, i was too busy voting yes to your awesome ideas of zombies and parachutes (great names, fun ideas).
anyway, when we play the boardgame version of this map, we usually decide beforehand if the two single territory islands will be auto-deploy and/or neutral. autodeploy +1 and a neutral value of 2-3 (depending on # of players) are our most common and favored decisions, but since we can't change settings before each CC game, i am curious to hear what other gamers think... what would you suggest?

i love lonely planet and wikipedia, and i don't want to fight over rainbows :lol: or beat this subject to death, but here is an interesting article about how Hawaii is the Rainbow state and the colors symbolize the island's diversity http://www.guidebookamerica.com/news/hawaii_rainbow/index.htm

all that being said, if we can't make them look better we will drop them. saberty just desaturated them and i changed the image in the first post so check it out and we welcome honest feedback.

Industrial Helix:
They're pixelated, so you might have to find figures something else out as well.

could you clarify this? i think a word might have gotten lost somewhere :)

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 1:02 am
by rdsrds2120
esiemer wrote:
Industrial Helix:
They're pixelated, so you might have to find figures something else out as well.

could you clarify this? i think a word might have gotten lost somewhere :)


They have a higher resolution?

-rd

Re: Hawaii Map Ready for Feedback - edited

PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2011 1:29 am
by greenoaks
esiemer wrote:greenoaks: sorry i didn't reply to your questions earlier, i was too busy voting yes to your awesome ideas of zombies and parachutes (great names, fun ideas).
anyway, when we play the boardgame version of this map, we usually decide beforehand if the two single territory islands will be auto-deploy and/or neutral. autodeploy +1 and a neutral value of 2-3 (depending on # of players) are our most common and favored decisions, but since we can't change settings before each CC game, i am curious to hear what other gamers think... what would you suggest?

i love lonely planet and wikipedia, and i don't want to fight over rainbows :lol: or beat this subject to death, but here is an interesting article about how Hawaii is the Rainbow state and the colors symbolize the island's diversity http://www.guidebookamerica.com/news/hawaii_rainbow/index.htm

all that being said, if we can't make them look better we will drop them. saberty just desaturated them and i changed the image in the first post so check it out and we welcome honest feedback.

Industrial Helix:
They're pixelated, so you might have to find figures something else out as well.

could you clarify this? i think a word might have gotten lost somewhere :)

i'm glad you voted. much like you, i want to add something to this site

(i suppose i could look this up but i'm a bit lazy today, the 1st) is there something significant about those two islands ie.are those 2 islands active volcanoes ? is there something historical that would lend itself to a +1 auto-deploy ?

+ is that a typo 'outriggers can attact each other' - attack

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated 12/31 (happy new ye

PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:05 am
by rdsrds2120
Any word on this? Also, Haniei, the troop circle, and the canoe are all really crammed up there near the top. Is there a way to space it out a bit? Or am I just being too nitpicky?

Also, your smaller version doesn't have the rainbows desaturated yet. Speaking of, they have white streaks where they bend and are still a bit resolution unfriendly. You might have to drop them and go with the conventional dotted line, or maybe something else just as unique that could work. Good luck!

-rd

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated 12/31 (happy new ye

PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:15 pm
by Industrial Helix
The rainbow connections... they look pixelated. To be honest, I'd prefer it if you found another way to integrate the rainbows into the map instead of using them like Asgardian bridges.

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated 12/31 (happy new ye

PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:20 pm
by saberty
I will make a version without and post it. It will take me a few days now that the holiday break is over :(

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated 12/31 (happy new ye

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:40 am
by Fuzzylogic99
I like it .though i think you should get rid of the pink and use different colors.I think with the rainbow the pink might be a bit too much.

Cant wait to play this map

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated 12/31 (happy new ye

PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:17 pm
by Ron Burgandy
Awesome map guys...keep fighting for those rainbows! Invite me to first game!!!!

Re: Hawaii map seeking Feedback -updated Jan 7

PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:25 pm
by esiemer
without quoting everybody individually:

i finally posted the small version to match the big version with new rainbows and the "attact" typo fixed

saberty and i will work on a new version soon with dotted lines, or maybe lei bridges?

i really dont want to change any of the island colors (from pink or anything) because they are all based on each islands official color -- yes, each hawaiian island has an official color http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Hawaii/Island_colors.html

i agree about Hanalei being a bit crowded... I will redraw the territory lines and probably move the Kapa'a label south... this will help also because Hanalei Bay (what the territory is named after, where Andy Irons had his ashes spread, and where Puff the Magic Dragon comes from) should be more visible anyway.

And did I mention that 2 autodeploys does sound excessive? There isn't any historical significance I want to add to those islands (will save that for my next Hawaii map)... so i'm now thinking the two single territory islands start with neutral 3... mostly because we dislike maps where some lucky player starts the game with an extra bonus

Aloha all! sorry we slowed down in the new year, but we are committed to finishing this!