RAIL USA [Quenched]

[richardgarr]

I am playing the new railroad map and am having a hell of a hard time knowing what is what......maybe I am missing the obvious, but so far I am just guessing at what and where my armies get deployed and attack...please help with this...I am not the only one to have this problem so far!!!!

[Coleman]

We know. This was the most talked about thing. There wasn't really a great way to do it that made things clear for everyone.

There are rules to movement that you could maybe learn, but it's not clear quick enough without experience in freestyle.

Color Rails can only attack adjacent along their own color. Interecting rails are a little different, but it is still adjacent.

Stations Each portion of a station can only be attacked by rails of its color and other station portions in the same station.

Actually, I'm not sure there is more then that... Oh wait one more.

Names The first part is always the name of the specific place. It also includes which line it is on, which is a 3 letter code most often made up of the first 3 letters of the bonus name. City of New Orleans is most confusing, that's a line, not the city.

[edbeard]

this is a map where having BOB is a great help

[oaktown]

I'm only on round two of a game on this map, and so far I can tell that it's smart in its gameplay and beautiful to look at. But while the territory names are well thought out and somewhat helpful, the map is still very dependent on subtle colors. As one of the site's colorblind users, I'm constantly going back to the XML to see which territories make up which bonuses. Chicago is especially tough, as I'm just guessing which station I'm placing on and attacking.

I know, my bad for going away all summer and entirely missing this map go through the Foundry process.

[DiM]

I'm only on round two of a game on this map, and so far I can tell that it's smart in its gameplay and beautiful to look at. But while the territory names are well thought out and somewhat helpful, the map is still very dependent on subtle colors. As one of the site's colorblind users, I'm constantly going back to the XML to see which territories make up which bonuses. Chicago is especially tough, as I'm just guessing which station I'm placing on and attacking.

I know, my bad for going away all summer and entirely missing this map go through the Foundry process.

why don't you use the greasemonkey? it shows all the armies with colorblind indicators plus it has a text map feature that shows what borders what and what are the bonuses made of. i think it would be much easier than to look at the xml.

[Seinfreak]

Honestly, how this map made it into production really boggles my mind. Look at the map and tell me how to distinguish:

NOL New Orleans SUN
NOL New Orleans CIT
NOL New Orleans CRE

Without using BOB. What the hell do SUN, CIT and CRE stand for? And how do I know that using the map legend?

Such a shame that a map like this with such obvious gameplay issues makes it into production when other maps are bogged down in the foundry process over arguments over 1 px vs 2 px borders.

[Coleman]

I quote from the bottom right of the map.



Station names are: 3 letter station name, 3 first letters of the service line.

NOL New Orleans - This is the Station Name, both the 3 letter code used on the map and full name of the station.

SUN - This is the Sunset Limited line
CIT - This is the City of New Orleans line
CRE - This is the Crescent line

So, if you take the full thing of one of them together.

NOL New Orleans SUN, you should know that it is the New Orleans station of the Sunset Limited service line.

[Seinfreak]

Wow, so that information IS there!

I swear, I read and re-read that legend 3 or 4 times and overlooked that.

[cairnswk]

I'm only on round two of a game on this map, and so far I can tell that it's smart in its gameplay and beautiful to look at. But while the territory names are well thought out and somewhat helpful, the map is still very dependent on subtle colors. As one of the site's colorblind users, I'm constantly going back to the XML to see which territories make up which bonuses. Chicago is especially tough, as I'm just guessing which station I'm placing on and attacking.

I know, my bad for going away all summer and entirely missing this map go through the Foundry process.

oaktown...thanks for bringing that to my attention. I am constantly trying to ensure that colours used are from the colourblind palettes only.
there are modifications that can be done to the map which will make the chicago station easier for use, and i will discuss them at length with WM this weekend. unfortunately, WM is on leave this weekend so nothing will probably happen until next week should we decide on modification.

[cairnswk]

Wow, so that information IS there!

I swear, I read and re-read that legend 3 or 4 times and overlooked that.

That's OK Seinfreak....no probs, and thanks to Coleman for his understanding of the xml....kind of helps when you work for a railroad i guess.

Pleased, Seinfreak, that you could drop by...don't be a stranger to the Foundry, there is always lots going on, and your input in future maps may alleviate small challenges like this.

[oaktown]

why don't you use the greasemonkey? it shows all the armies with colorblind indicators plus it has a text map feature that shows what borders what and what are the bonuses made of. i think it would be much easier than to look at the xml.

I've been using the colorblind greasemonkey script since probably January... I'm finally upgrading to BOB because of this map.

[Night Strike]

It seems to me that the teal army color is harder to distinguish compared to neutral because of the grayish army boxes.

[sfhbballnut]

Such a cool map, great job

[casper]

Can I suggest a color change for the lines? Something I noticed while playing that bothers me. Some rail lines have colors in their names but are not colored appropriately. e.g. The Silver Meteor line is not colored silver but the Texas Eagle is. And the Cardinal line is not colored red but the Silver Meteor is. My suggestion:

Silver Meteor: Red -> Silver
Cardinal: Pink -> Red
Texas Eagle: Silver -> Pink

If it is a pain to change then obviously don't worry about it. It might be too confusing to switch it now that the map has gone live.

Otherwise..I'm having fun on this map so far. Great job guys.

[cairnswk]

It's "SacrAmento", not "Sacremento". I noticed that in the attack menu.

Thanks xzmattzx....this fix file

http://h1.ripway.com/cairnswk/Rail_USA_ ... to_fix.xml

has been PMed to lackattack...sorry it took so long.