[Abandoned] War of Wizards

[isaiah40]

That may work. Tamar and Heim are the only ones that are grossly unbalanced right now. All the rest are a few neutrals off from each other, so they are fine IMO.

[iancanton]

i agree that heim has a big advantage, not only in the arrangement of the bonus icons, but also because every other tower apart from tamar (whose position is probably inferior, as isaiah has already postulated) and oloch is so far away that heim tower cannot be attacked easily. to remedy heim being hard to reach, is it possible to widen the heim river, move the s06 shrine to s04 and move the s04 boat to s06? also, all towers are 2 steps away from the nearest bonus, except heim, who is only one away. swapping he07 with mana6 is an easy fix.

the other change i'd like to see is for the n04 shrine to move to me06 to provide some protection for merin tower (especially from aris tower, but also from forces coming via the n05 boat) if desired or an alternative bonus to mana2 if combined with deyr village. merin is fairly easily reached from most towers except heim.

ian.

[natty dread]

is it possible to widen the heim river, move the s06 shrine to s04 and move the s04 boat to s06?

It's doable... a bit of a pain in the ass, but doable...

also, all towers are 2 steps away from the nearest bonus, except heim, who is only one away. swapping he07 with mana6 is an easy fix.

Actually, that'd bring the shrine even closer to Heim, and that won't do... I'll just redraw some regions to make the distance 2.

the other change i'd like to see is for the n04 shrine to move to me06 to provide some protection for merin tower (especially from aris tower, but also from forces coming via the n05 boat) if desired or an alternative bonus to mana2 if combined with deyr village. merin is fairly easily reached from most towers except heim.

Sure, that can be done.

[Victor Sullivan]

*yawns and stretches* Oh, shit! I forgot to follow-up on this

I'll be back after your next update, I'm sure. Feel free to bother me via PM. That's generally the best way to get me to post, ha.

-Sully

[iancanton]

also, all towers are 2 steps away from the nearest bonus, except heim, who is only one away. swapping he07 with mana6 is an easy fix.

Actually, that'd bring the shrine even closer to Heim, and that won't do... I'll just redraw some regions to make the distance 2.

trees between mana6 and he02 will do it.

azael is the only other tower that has only one step to the nearest bonus. taking just three regions secures an additional bonus of +3. trees between az02 and mana8 will help to reduce this quick advantage.

ian.

[natty dread]

Sorry I've been lagging on updates with this one... I've been thinking about some possible graphical changes, but haven't been able to just get to work on them...

I'll try to have an update posted as soon as.

[Victor Sullivan]

'Look forward to it

-Sully

[natty dread]

Ok, finally got an update done. There was so much stuff to do, if I forgot anything that I've promised to do, just let me know...

You may also notice the borders were completely redrawn. I tried to go for a bit more organic feel for them, to make them look less artificial, which IMO is often a problem on fictional maps...

Click image to enlarge.

[natty dread]

Made a bit more touch-up to borders, and moved the gold from Az7 to Az9.

Click image to enlarge.

[natty dread]

For the fans, here's some original artwork done for the map. You can find all of these on the map in a smaller size...

[natty dread]

So hey what's next for the gameplay?

[natty dread]

Ian, Isaiah, anyone...?

I'm waiting for more gameplay feedback. What's next to change? I'm open to all suggestions here.

[isaiah40]

Sorry natty, I sort of forgot about this. I have put a call out to Ian for another look see. I'm still not convinced about Tamar Tower as I believe it is still the weakest tower on the map. That being said I'll discuss it more with Ian.

[Victor Sullivan]

Frankly, in this kind of situation, it's going to be difficult to get everything right this time through. I fully expect changes aplenty in beta. At any rate, we should still have a good foundational gameplay structure, of course, and I don't think we're too far.

I think something as simple as moving Mana5 to Ta06 would give Tamar a well enough bump. IMO, Merin is the one that's screwed. It doesn't have any real accessible resource pairs (even the Mana Fount is a bit more than a hop and a skip away), plus it has to deal with Aris, since Aris can only go toward Merin. I still think Aris needs an alternate route.

-Sully

[natty dread]

moving Mana5 to Ta06 would give Tamar a well enough bump

All the mana founts are at distance 3 from their tower... well except for Aris which is 4. Anyway I'm not convinced that moving the mana fount closer would give a sufficient "bump", it just means 2 less neutrals to go through to get the same bonus...

IMO, Merin is the one that's screwed. It doesn't have any real accessible resource pairs (even the Mana Fount is a bit more than a hop and a skip away), plus it has to deal with Aris, since Aris can only go toward Merin. I still think Aris needs an alternate route.

There is an alternate route for Aris, the ferry at N05. And Merin has a mana fount in an easily defensible place, along with a shrine nearby... to me it seems Merin's got nothing to worry about.