Mystical Era [1vs1 map] [9th April]

[koontz1973]

Also not liking the sea snake idea. But that general direction is something maybe worth exploring. ManB, do me a favour and update the thread title please.

[mr. CD]

Looking very good, I think naval routes will be clearer and less distracting than mystical things.
Gameplay sounds quite fun, I see no harm in this map primarily being meant for 1v1 but also usable in other ways. Is it possible for xml to make it that one team starts at one side and the other at the other? That would make it great for team games too.

The kerning is a little off in both any's, they kind of look like two words (a ny) now.

Is the castle a different territory from the region it is in?

[ManBungalow]

Looking very good, I think naval routes will be clearer and less distracting than mystical things.
Gameplay sounds quite fun, I see no harm in this map primarily being meant for 1v1 but also usable in other ways. Is it possible for xml to make it that one team starts at one side and the other at the other? That would make it great for team games too.

The kerning is a little off in both any's, they kind of look like two words (a ny) now.

Is the castle a different territory from the region it is in?

Thank you for your feedback.

To the best of my knowledge, it is not possible to code starting positions by team. Only for the individual, or not at all.

You are right about the kerning. And the sea routes. I'll see what I can do on both counts.

The castle symbol is just a symbol, not a different region.

[ManBungalow]

Click image to enlarge.

Some region names for the kingdom regions.

Naming convention is as follows:
[on image] -- [in log/xml]
Kyanite -- Kyanite Castle
Ky 1 -- Kyanite 1
Ky 2 -- Kyanite 2
Ky 3 -- Kyanite 3

Also, I uploaded this image in the .png format with minimum compression; do you think the quality is worth the increased file size?

show

[ManBungalow]

Click image to enlarge.

And to demonstrate the start positions:

show

[ManBungalow]

What do you make of these slightly different trees?

Click image to enlarge.

I still feel that they can look better.

And also I think I'll up some of the neutral values from the previous post.

[thenobodies80]

I like very much the map and the graphics...but more time I spend looking at it more I don't get why you want it as 1vs1 only.
Not saying I won't allow it....just why you want it only limited to 2 players?

Nobodies

[ManBungalow]

I'm considering more and more the potential for having more than 2 players on this map.

However, I have 26 start positions here. In a game of 8 players, that gives 3 regions each. Which may be on the same side of the map. But really I think there would be a limited degree of strategy involved because it's just a case of getting good dice against the adjacent castle/tower -- this is fundamentally because the bonuses are close together. Compare start positions Howlite and Melonite. I don't want to be encumbered by trying to make the start positions equal for big group games.

With 2 players, player A might start with Melonite and player B might start with Howlite, but each has several other kingdoms to work with and can connect them up for reinforcement chains/leave one to stack up against an enemy attack/but basically they have more options available, and that justifies the varied kingdom strengths for me. The factor of getting good dice still applies, but there are more regions to get good dice on.

[Teflon Kris]

Maybe you could go for 4 starting position sets, but it has its problems:

In 5+ players there could be advantages for some players.

In 4-player, there are 2 each side, equal for all players.

In 3-player, chaos as 2 on one side, 1 on the other.

In 1 v 1, sometimes players are on both sides, sometimes not, equal for both players.

Maybe 6 starting position sets works better? Maybe not for 4-player & dubs. Hmmm

We need an xml feature to allow different starting positions for different game types

(Surely this must be getting towards the top of the list of new features soon?)

[ManBungalow]

Granted, one option is to not bother with having both players (in 1vs1) exclusively start on one side each.


Mods, please don't move this to main foundry without asking me first, as I'm not 100% sure about this. If the gameplay is so shaky at this point, I don't want to progress further to have it completely stall, especially given the punishment for abandoned projects.

[ManBungalow]

And also what do y'all think of the graphical theme?

I'm starting to think that the crispness of the mountains is quite off-putting on an otherwise fairly murky map, although that makes them obvious as impassables.

[Teflon Kris]

The mountains and woods may look a lot different if their edging wasn't as bold?

[Dukasaur]

Looks like a pretty decent multiplayer map. Why on earth would you restrict this to 1v1? As a 1v1 map it's terrible. Nobody enjoys 1v1 games on large maps. As a general rule, people enjoy games where there are about 7 to 15 terts per player. Less than that and there's not enough options. More than that and it becomes more work than play, keeping your empire organised.

I'm not trying to be negative here. I actually like the look and feel of this map. However, I wouldn't want to play with less than 6 players.

[ManBungalow]

I think I might scrap the 1vs1 idea and totally reinvent the map for multiple players.

Watch this space.

[koontz1973]

I think I might scrap the 1vs1 idea and totally reinvent the map for multiple players.

Watch this space.

I believe this is a good move. It is a nice map with a different look to it than normal.

[Teflon Kris]

I think I might scrap the 1vs1 idea and totally reinvent the map for multiple players.

Watch this space.

I'm sure a total reinvention isn't needed - just a few tweaks

[greenoaks]

this reminds me of Arms Race!. you could get all or most of your troops on one side or you could be split evenly. too large to be a decent 1v1 map but would be suitable for 12 player games.

i don't get the Mystical bit. the theme is Feudal.

[ViperOverLord]

I like the name Mystical Era more than Trent Reznor. However, Mystical Era refers to a time more than a place, no?

[thenobodies80]

[Moved] per mapmaker request into map ideas.

ManB, about the possibility to swap to 8 players....honestly if you're going to leave the current gameplay I have to admit that it would be better with more than just 2 players.

Personally I would like to see this idea become a final draft and then move to gameplay and graphics soon, but this it's up to you.
But this map, i think it's worth....

Nobodies