Formerly the Map Ideas Thread, now CLOSED

[WidowMakers]

WidowMakers and I are already in correspondence via PM over him possibly taking over for the art after I get a good sketch done. I may very well do what you are suggesting.

i think you should try and give it a shot coleman before you outsource the art...

Fine with me. I don't want anyone to feel I am taking over your maps Coleman.

Give it a shot. Let see what you can do.

I think the idea is great and could definitely have some interesting game play.

[riggable]

sounds like medieval total war 2

[Herakilla]

that sounds awesome! go for it!

the comment about cutting off unnessesary stuff on your map was a good one though. i dont know if your gonna use those parts but if you dont, cut them

[nagerous]

QUENCH! I kid this looks like a really good idea and I look forward to seeing how this map develops, especially if a strong bonus system is produced. It could almost be like games like civilisation where you have to build up resources in order to collaberate greater bonuses

[hulmey]

How are you able to decide where people's starting position's are going to be ....I thought that was completely random???

[The Random One]

I like that idea. It's something different. Hooray for new XML features!

Y'know, I've seen some map ideas that start with several neutral territs and the goal is to conquer them. Maybe one day they could be considered a different mode of play, like, "Conquest".

[Coleman]

How are you able to decide where people's starting position's are going to be ....I thought that was completely random???

Things will be clearer when I get my decent sketch done. Which will hopefully be by sometime later tonight.

Update: I completely suck at drawing. It's extreme sadness. Tonight isn't looking very likely now. I can't decide on a layout and for some reason I can't make the territories big enough even when I only have 25 or so.

[tenio]

If you want an extra country, try russia. I think they had a few settle meants in the West part of the country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... th_America

[Coleman]

If you want an extra country, try russia. I think they had a few settle meants in the West part of the country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... th_America

I think I'm going with an earlier suggestion to cut out most of the frigid north and the southern area of South America.

This allows me to make the map wider instead of taller, which Andy tends to favor, and to focus on the more important areas of the colonial period.

[Wisse]

is this a map in history or right now?
because if it is a history map i donno if you must keep new york to england or the netherlands because the netehrlands owned it first (called nieuw amsterdam)

[Suicufnoc]

concept picture for you

[unriggable]

You forgot the yucatan belonged to the spanish.

[Ban]

wheres yucutan

[unriggable]

wheres yucutan

Nice first post: it's the thing on mexico that looks like an erection.

[The Random One]

In before penis jokes - OH CRAP

I'm fairly certain that the Maya were from South America, more exactly the Amazonic rainforest, and that they were extinguished long before the European made it to the Americas. (Or am I confusing them with the Incas?)

[Coleman]

In before penis jokes - OH CRAP

I'm fairly certain that the Maya were from South America, more exactly the Amazonic rainforest, and that they were extinguished long before the European made it to the Americas. (Or am I confusing them with the Incas?)

You're confusing them. Both the Aztecs and Maya were previlent durring Spain's initial expansion into the new world. The maya were the first to go and the Aztecs quickly followed. Maya is about where he showed however. Spain origionally landed in Cuba and then expanded West into Maya territory.

At this point I think I'm going to make one of the two a neutral force, I don't like the potential for two players to start so close to eachother. Probably Maya will be Neutral.

[Suicufnoc]

Unriggable: That was me, I didn't realize my brother was logged in.

I like the idea of making the natives nuetral.

[Coleman]

Well I finally have something barely worthy of posting.

Initial Draft



Major Issues

Holland vs Netherlands
While I agree that Netherlands is the technically correct term, Holland is often used interchangeably with it by both people that live there and several places in the outside world, especially frequently in the time period this map is shooting for. So I decided I liked Holland better. I wouldn’t be against changing it to Netherlands though if people really think that would be better.

Great Lakes looks like crap, or at least more so then the rest of the ‘map’

Portugal looks like crap also.

Caribbean area is not very well defined.

Territory count, names, configuration, size all need work.
For instance, some territories are outrageously small, others are more like continents that I would want to break up. Some that I want to be continents aren't very big. Several have dumb placeholder names that should change. ALl the starter locations (except the british and the dutch colonies) are going to be broken up a bit so they aren't touching so much. France/Spain/Lakota is definitely a situation I am not liking proximity wise.

An example of a few break ups I probably will do, Western, Central, & Eastern Cuba. West Indies & Dominica instead of just saying everything that isn't Cuba is West Indies. I definitely favor a lot more territories then I have now, if I can figure a way to get the numbers and names to fit.

Spain's colony might present some balancing issues due to it's closeness with so many starting areas. I could probably work in some things to help with that or eliminate routes but I'll probably develop everything more before I worry about it too much.

I don't know very much about South America, or at least not as much as I'd like, and I still don't like how big it is compared to what I would consider the more important American area, but I'm biased.

Oh yeah, I stole and poorly colorized WidowMaker's unused anchors from Great Lakes, I hope he doesn't mind. They may not be staying on this map either. And if they are I'll color them better soon.

Stuff I wouldn't mind

I'd really like cool flag background textures for the Europe territories like in Great Lakes, WidowMakers has agreed to do graphics later, so that may happen.

I also like the way bonuses are presented in Great Lakes with the mini map.

I kind of want a single territory to be significantly valuable (+4?) but with 10 or 12 starting neutrals in it. This territory would be Oregon. This may be a horrible idea, but I like it for some reason.

[mibi]

SA looks really big, almost like NA is on the curve of a globe.

[gimil]

teh legends would look better under europe with a picture of compass of some description next to SA

[RobinJ]

This is a great concept but damn it is going to take a lot of work! However, I do believe you've found all the main problems already

[Coleman]

I won't be back from work for a few hours so I need to keep this brief, but there is a small update, I just changed the way I was doing the europe to americas connections. I think I like this better.



EDIT: uh ignore the random white square below the carribean, it'll be gone soon.

[Evil Pope]

I don't think The European nations should be separated like that.. they look like islands. Maybe show dead territory there.. But to connect them, you'll also need to note somewhere that they cannot attack each other.

Also, its definately too big(even if it is just a representation of the map. I think some things will be a bit difficult to fit if you change it to a more reasonable size(such as North Chile and Pennsylvania(which barely fits as it is).

Can't say anything about playability right now, because there are no continents at this point.

I do think that maybe instead of one of the two tribes you have now, include one from south america. This might add a bit more balance to the map, as there seems to be alot less focus in south america(But then again, its contries are particularly large in comparison the the rest of the map.

Edit: Actually, it looks like every european landing spot(or Native territory) is no more than two countries away from another one. So it may promote a strategy of quickly eliminating others rather than expanding slowly.

[Coleman]

A lot of what you commented on is just negative side effects of me shooting this idea out months before I normally would because I wanted to claim the idea first. I definately plan on all landing spots being seperated by at least 3 countries in the final product. If they are not they will have some other advantage to make up for it, maybe a higher bonus or easier to obtain starting continent if they choose to go for the continent their landing country is in first. A lot is still up in the air.

My general plan is studing world 2.1 a bit and seeing how they get their smaller countries to work. Then I'll probably turn most of the current named areas into continents.

Maybe I could put some sort of border treaties markers between the Europe Countries and have a no attacking across border treaties note or something. I guess that is kind of what you said already, it would be dead space instead of water. Or just a really thick border with a unique color and a symbol on it.

[wrightfan123]

MY EYES! jk, looks okay, but you really need to make it smaller and as good looking as... me!