Lunar War [GP, G, X] files on p.1

[isaiah40]

I see what you mean RB0. I was thinking of maybe we can trace it out and just get rid of the image. Then we wouldn't have to worry about it, and go from there. I'm sure we can use shades of grey (gray) for the bonuses.

Here's what I started a few months ago myself.

Click image to enlarge.

I had in mind that the US, USSR and Japan were fighting for control of the moon sometime in the distant future. This is as far as I took it before I started working on my current Fractured America map.

It is a very, very rough draft. I was thinking on having a couple of the Apollo landing sites, and adding in landing sites for the USSR and Japan. With bonuses for holding the oceans, craters etc. along with bonuses for holding everything within the equatorial and polar zones. Maybe adding in some sort of minerals, precious metals etc.

Anyways, these are just some of the ideas I had way back when. I think it is doable, we just have to get it down on 'paper' so to speak.

[natty dread]

It is a very, very rough draft. I was thinking on having a couple of the Apollo landing sites, and adding in landing sites for the USSR and Japan. With bonuses for holding the oceans, craters etc. along with bonuses for holding everything within the equatorial and polar zones. Maybe adding in some sort of minerals, precious metals etc.

Heh, amazing how similarly we've thought about this project... that's about exactly how I have envisioned the gameplay

Apollo landing sites are something I definitely would like to include in the map. Maybe as starting points?

Anyway, Rb0:s moon image looks really cool, I'm thinking maybe we should use that...? If it's ok with Rb0.

[isaiah40]

Heh, amazing how similarly we've thought about this project... that's about exactly how I have envisioned the gameplay

Apollo landing sites are something I definitely would like to include in the map. Maybe as starting points?

Anyway, Rb0:s moon image looks really cool, I'm thinking maybe we should use that...? If it's ok with Rb0.

I don't think he'll mind as it is probably a free pic from the government anyways. What do you think of outlining the moon, then drawing in the bonus regions? I'm not a big fan of having everything done over top the original with it poking though.

I was thinking of the landing sites as starting points, but for an 8 player game we may need to throw in another country fighting for the moon, like maybe China? Then we can have 2 landing sites for each as starting points. For the bonuses, since some of the territories will overlap the "zones", that might make it for some interesting play.

So who does the graphics for this one? You or me? What colors should we use? I'm was thinking grays and browns. The font something like I have on my very rough draft, but diffidently futuristic. Yes, no?

[natty dread]

I was thinking of the landing sites as starting points, but for an 8 player game we may need to throw in another country fighting for the moon, like maybe China? Then we can have 2 landing sites for each as starting points. For the bonuses, since some of the territories will overlap the "zones", that might make it for some interesting play.

Let's see... There was 17 apollo missions, 1-10 were just for practice, so 11-17 were real missions, except 13 which never got there... But I guess we could include the planned landing site for the apollo 13 flight... that would give us 7 landing sites. Then we just need one more... maybe russia or china would do. Do you have a source where you could find the approximate locations of the landing sites?

So who does the graphics for this one? You or me? What colors should we use? I'm was thinking grays and browns. The font something like I have on my very rough draft, but diffidently futuristic. Yes, no?

Well... we could both work on the graphics more or less, but then there could be some problems since we probably use different software...

To me it seems you have good ideas on the gameplay. So how about if you do all the gameplay design, like territories, continents and such, and I work on the graphics? Of course these don't need to be set in stone, we can each help each other on our jobs...

As for the graphical style... let me work out a quick draft where I'll put in some fonts and army circles... we can then decide if any of them are good.

Color scheme... I was actually thinking of using army circles with coloured outlines indicating different bonus regions. If we do decide to use bonus regions that is... we could also just use collectable territories, and then it's a different thing... we should decide on this first I think. As for the grays and browns... this could prove problematic for colorblind people. The moon is so monochromatic anyway, so adding a bit more colour could be a good thing... Personally I often like to use cold colours, I find them easier on the eyes than reds & yellows...

Also, the shape of the army circle can also be used to differentiate different territories and/or bonus regions.

[natty dread]

This is just a rough draft, but...

Click image to enlarge.

Ok, here's 10 different fonts for the territory names etc. Then there's 4 different army circles with 4 different colours, each shown with 3 different blend modes...

Any of these look good?

[AndyDufresne]

I can't really say I'm a fan of any of the text samples or army shadows samples...though maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...if I felt it went with the rest of the graphics style...

Though this Mars Map is vacationed/scrapped, I really liked the sci-fi theme it had going.
Mars.


--Andy

[natty dread]

maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...

Actually they're the same font, one is just in bold...

[AndyDufresne]

maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...

Actually they're the same font, one is just in bold...

Right, I realized that. That text, and one of the styles, of the ones your presented, looked the best...or at least, the most tolerable.


--Andy

[natty dread]

Personally, I'd rather go with #5 or #9...

[RedBaron0]

Research the Apollo missions a bit more thoroughly.

Pre-Apollo missions with the Saturn V rocket were unmanned tests
Apollo 1 never launched due to a fire on the ground during a routine test where 3 astronauts died.
Apollo 2-6 were to retest the systems of the Saturn V rocket, and again were unmanned
Apollo 7 manned test flight, Earth orbit
Apollo 8 manned test flight, Lunar orbit
Apollo 9 manned test flight, Earth orbit with Lunar lander for testing
Apollo 10 manned test flight, Lunar orbit with Lunar lander for testing
Apollo 11 manned landing, Sea of Tranquility
Apollo 12 manned landing, Ocean of Storms
Apollo 13 manned mission, aborted landing
Apollo 14 manned landing, Fra Mauro highlands
Apollo 15 manned landing, Sea of Rains/Hadley rille
Apollo 16 manned landing, Descartes Highlands
Apollo 17 manned landing, Sea of Serenity/Taurus-Littrow region
Apollo 18 manned flight in Earth orbit USA/Soviet joint mission
Other remaining Apollo mission scraped or reused to launch SkyLab missions.



A little googling filled in the gaps in my mind, but most of it was in there.

[natty dread]

Wow, thanks mr. baron! That's very helpful. You don't by any chance know where 13 would have landed if it had landed?

[AndyDufresne]

I have a feeling almost all the information you need about Nasa missions can be found at nasa.gov (It's a good website)


--Andy

[sully800]

One of the most notable features of the moon is craters, which happen to be the perfect shape and a good size for army shadows...

[natty dread]

One of the most notable features of the moon is craters, which happen to be the perfect shape and a good size for army shadows...

Not a bad idea...

[isaiah40]

I just went through NASA's site and couldn't find anything on Apollo 13. I guess it is back to Googling! As for the font, I'm not crazy about any of them. I'll post something this weekend with some of the fonts I have. In the meantime natty, if you want to get a rough draft up that would be great. I wouldn't make the moon any bigger just make the canvas area the 840x800 so that we can put the legend and game play instructions in. Use the first pic you have as a guide for the territories.

I'll continue to find out where Apollo 13 was supposed to have landed. I'll get back with you on which army circle/oval/rectangle/square I like better. I will also see if I can find a moon map that has a few more names on it.

Edit: I like the top right Army rectangle since it seems to fit the theme we're going after. I say let's roll with that one!

[natty dread]

OK, gotcha... It's 6 am and I've been working on my Nordic Countries map all night, so I think I'll sleep a bit and then start working on drawing the moon, with fresh brains...

[RedBaron0]

Apollo 13 was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro highlands, same as where Apollo 14 eventually landed. 14 basically took over 13's mission.

Bit of trivia I know(no google, scouts honor) Apollo 13 launched on April 11th, 1970 at 1:13 local time(13:13 military time) If you write the date in number form (4-11-70) the numbers when added together equal 13. (4+1+1+7+0=13) No mission in NASA's history had ever held the designation "13" the previous program, Gemini only got to 12. On 13th, the day before the the mission was due to land on the moon a explosion rocked the spacecraft. Ironically the attempt at a reverse black cat the mission by laughing in the face of the unlucky #13, backfired... It is unknown the exact cause of the explosion during trans-lunar insertion, but most attribute the explosion to a shorted wire that sparked near the oxygen tanks causing an explosion when Jack Swigert flipped the switch to "stir" the oxygen tanks.

[natty dread]

Thanks for the info baron! So, I guess we'll only have 6 apollo landing sites then. I guess we'll add Russia and China there somewhere...

[isaiah40]

Thank you RB0 for that good info!!

6 Apollo landing sites is okay, besides we'll have to have room for the other 3 countries. Maybe we should only show the last two Apollo sites? Then we would have room for the other 6 landing sites. 2 each for Russia, China and Japan. That would give us the 8 starting positions we need.

[natty dread]

Hm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't there be more than 8 starting points? If you had for example 16 starting points coded, then in 8 player game each would get 2 starting points, and in 3 player games each would get 5....

If I'm right about that, then I see no reason to limit the number of starting points to 8 just because 8 is the maximum number of players...

I'd say, 6 apollo sites + china, japan & russia = 9 starting points, if that's possible with the XML.

Or, 6 apollo sites + 2 each for others = 15 starting points. Why not?

ps. I haven't got much done on the moon image today. I was going to, but I got so busy with the nordic countries again... I guess you could say that map is in a critical phase at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll only work on the moon map, until I get a draft done. I promise.

[isaiah40]

Hm. Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't there be more than 8 starting points? If you had for example 16 starting points coded, then in 8 player game each would get 2 starting points, and in 3 player games each would get 5....

If I'm right about that, then I see no reason to limit the number of starting points to 8 just because 8 is the maximum number of players...

I'd say, 6 apollo sites + china, japan & russia = 9 starting points, if that's possible with the XML.

Or, 6 apollo sites + 2 each for others = 15 starting points. Why not?

ps. I haven't got much done on the moon image today. I was going to, but I got so busy with the nordic countries again... I guess you could say that map is in a critical phase at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll only work on the moon map, until I get a draft done. I promise.

Well duh! You're right, I don't know what I was thinking!! Yes 2 staring points would be a good idea. I'd say go with the 16 starting points. If I can only find a good image of the dark side with names of craters and such, we could do the WHOLE moon! I'll keep looking. That way we can spread the starting points out.

[natty dread]

Hmm... All dark side territories could have a -1 decay because astronauts will stumble in the darkness... but there would also be some real good bonuses on the dark side

[Evil DIMwit]

Hmm... All dark side territories could have a -1 decay because astronauts will stumble in the darkness... but there would also be some real good bonuses on the dark side

Y'know, the 'Dark Side' isn't much darker than the Light Side. It's just the hemisphere facing away from Earth -- each point still spends about half of its time exposed the sun and half of its time not. The far side only corresponds to the actual dark hemisphere once a month, during a full moon.

[isaiah40]

Here's a link that has some landing sites on, not just the Apollo landings. We could use a couple of these. Hmmm ... not what I just read. Follow the link.

[natty dread]

Yeah, those landing sites would definitely be useful.