Eastern Hemisphere [Quenched]

[Kaplowitz]

I think some of the countries are too big, while others are too small. I think you should do only a geographical map with geographical borders. Maybe for gfx you could try to recreate a satellite image. That would look really cool (and IMO cooler than the actual satellite image!)

[Incandenza]

I don't think the eastern hemisphere is a bad idea, but I voted for the L.A. map, for obvious reasons.

[ZeakCytho]

I love the idea of an eastern hemisphere map, but not the current graphics or the 1914 theme. The satelite idea suggested by Kaplowitz sounds very promising.

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

Still haven't had the time I'd like to attack this map, but I thought I'd at least post what I have before I forget about it.

I hear the comments about going satellite image, but that's not really something I get excited about... I prefer the historical aspect of maps, as some of you may have gathered from my past work. Anyway, I'm going to try to lay out an early 19th century eastern hemisphere with territories and regions, and then we can worry about what it will look like.

[t-o-m]

like it...
the russian terit looks impossible to hold - maybe instead of having sub-conts have a bonus for collecting things inside it -(like the stars on WWII map)??
and there is a lil bit of orange on thailand/burma-that region anyway - its probably just a mistake
but over all the conts really do look hard to hold - but youre going to put immpassables on it right?
also is it too big or ok?

[ZeakCytho]

I think 1910 is a much better year than 1914, simply because you can put Germany, France, and GB in the same continent (Europe) now.

You seem to be using different font/styles for different territories? Turkestan, Siberia, Taymyr, and other territories in that region don't have a glow on them, but others in Russia ( Moscow, Ukraine, Finland) do. Personally, I like the glow better.

I think you need to change the background to something slightly more water-like.

The territory of Afghanistan isn't where Afghanistan is at all, or was at the time. Could that be named something else?

Are Korea and Japan part of the SE Asia bonus? You might want to consider making them a continent of their own. I'm not a big fan of split continents.

So far, so good, though.

[t-o-m]

is kinda all over the place, but as you said youve not had the time to do it,

and there is a lil bit of orange on thailand/burma-that region anyway - its probably just a mistake

also on persia and the ottoman empire (but thats red)
and some red on the right hand side of persia
and soem brown on S. Afirca (the 1st yellow terit at the top left of that cont)
and blue in russia
lack of red colour in amur
green in Tumerikstan
the territ boarders arnt complete
basically you need to just spend some time on this when youve got some

[oaktown]

I'm not even worried about the fonts, color over-lapping, etc. The map isn't at the point where I'm at all worried about how it looks.

Gameplay wise everything region is going to a bitch to hold as it stands right now. I'll throw in some impassables at some point - alps, himalayas, etc. Perhaps auto-deploys on major cities or key natural resources? Partial bonuses for holding part of a region?

[t-o-m]

I'm not even worried about the fonts, color over-lapping, etc. The map isn't at the point where I'm at all worried about how it looks.

Gameplay wise everything region is going to a bitch to hold as it stands right now. I'll throw in some impassables at some point - alps, himalayas, etc. Perhaps auto-deploys on major cities or key natural resources? Partial bonuses for holding part of a region?

yea sub-conts and things (but make the bonuses small so it makes the people go for the whole cont),
you dont want it to be like 2.1 but just chopped off at the side

[sam_levi_11]

looks great! i like the idea of it, but i bet becuase america isnt on here some people wont play it

[Ruben Cassar]

You've got the Russian Empire in there and the Chinese Empire (which I am not sure existed at that time) but what happened to the French and British Empires? Most of Africa as well as parts of Asia like India and even Burma were part of those empires. Most of the Balkans region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as far as I know, which is also the origin of World War I.

Note as well the spelling mistakes in these regions: Sevastopol and Afghanistan.

[ZeakCytho]

You've got the Russian Empire in there and the Chinese Empire (which I am not sure existed at that time) but what happened to the French and British Empires? Most of Africa as well as parts of Asia like India and even Burma were part of those empires. Most of the Balkans region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as far as I know, which is also the origin of World War I.

Note as well the spelling mistakes in these regions: Sevastopol and Afghanistan.

A fair amount of the Balkans was ruled by the Ottoman Empire until the First Balkan War (1912-13).

I think having the colonial empires present would create an interesting map, however, I strongly advise against having the bonuses done on political divisions. Since many colonies were non-contiguous, this would splinter so many continents that it would be an absolute mess to sort things out.

I'd much prefer to see a map not set in a particular time, or, at least one that has geographic boundaries for bonuses instead of political ones.

On an unrelated note, I don't like the idea of having auto-deploys on major cities or of having natural resources. I could live with partial bonuses for regions of continents, but would prefer purely classic gameplay.

[AndyDufresne]

I like the look of this map...look forward to seeing it progress.


--Andy

[Emperor_Metalman]

Some of the larger countries should be split up

[jasnostj]

Technically, the Eastern Hemisphere starts east of Greenwich, cutting of large chunks of Europe (Spain!) and Africa. But the term sounds odd to me: I have never heard a European (I happen to be one) use it to refer to the place they live, as opposed to Americans frequently describing their part of the world as the Western Hemisphere. We generally consider ourselves on the western side too.

Besides, I think this map is pretty useless, like the New Europe map. I think cartographers of your talent better occupy themselves in making more interesting detail maps. Lots has been suggested in the Map Ideas forum, also by me.

[bryguy]

I like the look, but it could use alot of work


1) The white territory lines bug me, maybe put them on overlay?
2) The thing that bugs me the most is the yellow lettering behind the white lines, i think u should either get rid of them or put them OVER the white lines and more transparent
3) Also, the territory lines look.... bad
4) The colors for africa/middle east bug me, but fit the areas
5) The colors for areas that i cant stand are the colors for

Europe, S.E. Asia, Chinese Empire, Oceania

hopefully more when this gets further along

p.s., i like the "A World on the Brink of War", its a nice touch

[TaCktiX]

Major bone I've got with the map as you (incompletely, I know) posted it: the territory lines do not look convincing at all. On Fukien, for example, you've got this double arc ending in a single point. That looks contrived instead of accurate. In general, the lines are too perfectly straight for me to think "hey, cool, power influences in 1910!" Before you get too far along, could you make them more believable?

[rocky mountain]

pardon my laziness to read the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned that turkestan is not a country? or was it in 1910... sry if i'm wrong, but i thought it was worth mentioning...

[pepperonibread]

pardon my laziness to read the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned that turkestan is not a country? or was it in 1910... sry if i'm wrong, but i thought it was worth mentioning...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkestan

A region, not a country... though it could have been in 1910.

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

No, this map isn't entirely dead... I just tend to get distracted.

What's new/where I would like feedback:
• I've totaled up the regions and territories and discovered that I have 61 territories... this isn't good, as it means four player games start with 15 terits each and 5 player games start with 12 each, meaning whoever goes first gets more armies in their first drop than somebody who goes later. The remedy will either be dropping two territories to get us under 60, or adding four to bring the map to 65. Suggestions??
• Plugged the regions into my excel spreadsheet and came up with the bonuses shown... they seem a bit low considering how hard everything will be to hold, but I always prefer to err low rather than high. Feedback appreciated.
• I made mountains, because it was important to determine which region borders would be protected, and I didn't want to do it half-ass. I kinda like these mountains, and hope that they reflect the look I'd like to achieve for the overall map. (I also made them because mountains always present a challenge!) Question: should the Caucasus range be made impassable? I don't know the region or how much they would have effected warfare in the early 20th century. For that matter, is there any other range or river that would be a barrier to 1910 technology? And I will not be adding the Great Wall of China, so don't even ask.
• Added some attack routes so we can get a handle on how this might play.

What I would NOT like feedback on yet:
• just about anything visual... colors, borders, fonts, etc. all have yet to be worked on. I'm still trying to think out whether or not this map will be playable before I knock myself out trying to make it pretty.

As for Turkestan, no it wasn't a country. Nor was anything else that is in the "Russian Empire" - they are all regions of the larger political body.

[Hatchman]

Nice idea. Visually appealing. Historically interesting. Go for it.

[Joodoo]

looks pretty good, but I think an extra continent is possible for the game on this map to be more interesting, how about adding Taiwan as a territory? And then make Taiwan, Korea, and Japan belong to the continent of "Japanese Empire". Also, Taiwan is called "Formosa" in the early 20th century (I think), so maybe you should include that instead to be historically accurate.

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

looks pretty good, but I think an extra continent is possible for the game on this map to be more interesting, how about adding Taiwan as a territory? And then make Taiwan, Korea, and Japan belong to the continent of "Japanese Empire".

Done - excellent suggestion. Points for Joodoo.

I have also added territories to both African regions and to Europe (Portugal).

My biggest gameplay concern is this: players are used to having easy bonuses they can wrap up fairly quickly. This map has three small regions - Japan, SE Asia, and the Middle East - which would put all of the early action in the Eastern half of the world. In addition, the nest two easiest to hold regions will be Southern Africa and Oceania, which means Europe will be a wasteland to begin the game.

Possible solution #1: split Europe into two regions, perhaps by making Scandinavia (Norway, Iceland, Sweden) its own +1 continent a la Japanese Empire.

Possible solution #2: give direct-deployment bonuses to regions with what would have been major cities in 1900. In terms of population, he largest cities on this map will be London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, and St. Petersburg. This would make the European part of the map significantly more interesting, especially in the early going; by making them auto-deployed they would be less beneficial later in the game once everybody has carved out their corners of the world. The cities could be made neutral to start, or not - I wouldn't have a problem with handing out a few auto-deployed bonuses on a map that is this large.

[iancanton]

looks pretty good, but I think an extra continent is possible for the game on this map to be more interesting, how about adding Taiwan as a territory? And then make Taiwan, Korea, and Japan belong to the continent of "Japanese Empire".

Done - excellent suggestion. Points for Joodoo.

My biggest gameplay concern is this: players are used to having easy bonuses they can wrap up fairly quickly. This map has three small regions - Japan, SE Asia, and the Middle East - which would put all of the early action in the Eastern half of the world.

to make the japanese empire bonus more difficult to gain, u can add karafuto (the southern half of sakhalin island). this was japanese until 1945.



ian.

[iancanton]

Possible solution #2: give direct-deployment bonuses to regions with what would have been major cities in 1900. In terms of population, he largest cities on this map will be London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, and St. Petersburg. This would make the European part of the map significantly more interesting, especially in the early going; by making them auto-deployed they would be less beneficial later in the game once everybody has carved out their corners of the world. The cities could be made neutral to start, or not - I wouldn't have a problem with handing out a few auto-deployed bonuses on a map that is this large.

i'm supportive of this, with initially-neutral cities. this represents an advantage for holding industrially-developed areas that are capable of producing armaments, which is entirely logical.

to better reflect the historical balance of power, are u receptive to a more radical idea, that is to keep the current continental connections largely unchanged, but detach each continent visually, as on the usa map? i'd like the most powerful continent of the time, europe, to be twice as big so that it can have more territories (for example in the austrian empire), while africa can be shrunk significantly into one continent with fewer territories, since most of the warriors were armed only with spears. i also propose that the bonus key is moved to siberia and that russia's eastern territories are all merged into one called siberia (freeing up some space to stretch europe and southern asia vertically). it seems that every single map we have that has russia on it gives too much power to someone who holds all of russia, whereas russia was an extremely backward feudal society at the time.

ian.