Oceania [Quenched]

[thenobodies80]

The map looks intentionally classic style with no particular features. An easy playing CC map!

7 continets and 44 territories

- AUSTRALIA (Light Green - 10 territories)
- MELANESIA ( Violet - 5 territories)
- MICRONESIA ( Red - 6 territories)
- NEW ZEALAND ( Orange - 5 territories )
- POLYNESIA ( Pink - 9 territories)
- EAST INDIES ( Sand - 5 territories)
- KIRIBATI ( Dark Green - 4 territories)

- Last update: http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=70624&start=330#p1958599

Final
Big Map

Click image to enlarge.

Small Map

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XML

Oceania.xml

CONTINENTS BONUSES:

Formula and adjustments here

Australia +6
New Zealand +2
Melanesia +4
East Indies +3
Micronesia +4
Kiribati +2
Polynesia +6

FIRST VERSION

Old Versions:
Version 1.1
Version 1.2
Version 1.3a
Version 1.3b
Version 2.0
Version 2.2
Version 2.4 - ADVANCED DRAFT STAMP
Version 2.5
Version 3.0 - DRAFT STAMP
Version 4.0
Version 5.0
Version 5.1
Version 5.2
Version 5.3
Version 6.0
Version 6.1 - GAMEPLAY STAMP
Version 6.2
Version 6.3
Version 6.4 - GRAPHIC STAMP
Version 6.5
Version 6.6 - FINAL FORGE STAMP
Version 6.7 - XML STAMP
Final Version - QUENCHED


Developers :
Idea, Gameplay & XML :thenobodies80
Graphic : pikkio

[gimil]

If you take a look at the current australia map it will give you the actual names for the regions taht you have:

Click image to enlarge.

[e_i_pi]

Just some quick feedback on this. Looking great by the way, good first draft:

West Australia should be Western Australia
North Australia should be Northern Territory
North-East Australia should be Queensland
South Australia is correct
South-East Australia should be NSW and Victoria

I believe Chartham Islands should be Chatham Islands

Kiribati (the territory) should probably be Kiribas, but that is just my opinion. It would help differentiate the two.

Northern Marian Islands should be North Mariana Islands
South Marian Islands might be better as Guam

Marquises Islands should be Marquesas Islands

Also, there is an island called Norfolk Island which is kind of east of Lord Howe Island, and Northwest of New Zealand. It might be nice to put that in, and have Lord Howe Island -> Norfolk Island -> New Zealand North Island. Norfolk Island is technically part of Australia, but it is under New Zealand jurisdiction and law, so it might be best (if you do put it in) to make it part of NZ.

There is also an island west of Ashmore Islands called Christmas Island, which is part of Australia

[zdrakias]

Looking nice, but I miss something special about this map.
In my opinion we got enough map as Classic etc.
Maybe you can add Embassies or Capitals that give a bonus.
Or big airports that connect Autralia with Melanesia, Polynesia and New Zealand and
small airports that Connect Melanesia to Micronesia and Polynesia to Kiribati

Something to the Graphic:
I would take whole Papua New Guinea and not just half of it.
Maybe connect this new part in a triangle with Paulau and Ashmore Islands.
Melanesia + 4 then

[RjBeals]

Nice start.

But I feel like I can't focus on it. Sort of like a glowing group of dots. I think the dark colors, with the blck font and all the glow might not mesh too well. I do like the ocean color though. A nice shade of blue. And I like all the detail you have on the borders.

[Incandenza]

I concur with others in being impressed with the quality of the first draft.

One thing that jumps out at me, tho, is the inclusion of pitcairn island, seemingly at the expense of indonesia. Seems like you could lop off pitcairn, reorient the whole thing west, add indonesia, and get your terit count up from the 36ish you have currently to a more robust 40-48, plus adding a whole new continent. More to the point, the map itself may seems more substantial with more large island terits, rather than the spray of wee atolls that currently make up much of the terits.

You might want to have a look at cairnswk's WWII Australia map, as it covers some of the same area, though with obviously a different focus.

Also, I know you're working on the colors, but a brighter, more tropical palette may be in order. As it stands the glow around the terits is bright, but the terits themselves are pretty drab colors.

[pikkio]

sorry for the errors.. there are really a lot of islands and my eyes gone crazy...

I will fix all that errors about names and regions. i will also add the Norfolk Island, but i didn't found the Christmas island and i think that it's not very rilevant for the strategy of the map, so for now i will not add it..

The same for the Airports.. there are a lot of tecnical problems around that idea (graphical problems, i mean), so for now i will not add they..

I think that include Indonesia and exclude Pitcairn will give many benefits for the map, graphical and strategy benefits.

but i wait the opinion of my friend thenobodies80.

and i also try some alternative colours combinations.

p.s. Thanx a lot for your review about the graphics! it was an hard work but i'm happy for the results.

[pikkio]

ok!

version 1.1 relased.

Click image to enlarge.

coming soon the 1.2, with the other changes!

[asl80]

good start mate, keep it up!
i may as well get in quick and say lose the fluro colors! always degrade a map i reakon.

also, i've also always wanted to see this area done with local indigenous names and territory distinctions ... do you know the area well, or much about these things?
Maybe you me and eipi could do a bit of a correlating job on this?

[pikkio]

version 1.2 with new colors!
thanx for the good suggests!

Click image to enlarge.

@ asl80: in fact i don't know very well the zones.. i'm italian.. the other side of the world..
i will really appreciate your help!!

[Incandenza]

How married to the glow are you? 'Cause with such an intense glow, the small islands look less like islands than they do bacteria in a petri dish...

One thing you might also want to look at are the number of dead-end terits (i.e. only accessible from one other terit)... there's already quite a few even if you do end up losing pitcain, and the guam-north marianas dead end is particularly brutal.

[The Neon Peon]

The lighter colors are/were better.

[RjBeals]

A little glow is fine - but this is overkill. And I liked the original ocean color better.

[samuelc812]

I don't know why Australia is different colours if it is one bonus, mite get a little confusing, and perhaps instead of the glow just make the land the colour of the bonus instead of having the land and the glow different colours makes it look strange. For example the Micronesia Bonus has pink land with lime green glow it just looks a little strange?? Maybe make the land the same colour as the glow and not have the spread of the glow so big. and i am not sure about the territory titles being fluro light blue, maybe white would be better on that dark background For the lighter background, black territory titles look better...

[edbeard]

A little glow is fine - but this is overkill. And I liked the original ocean color better.

totally agree. the map is very eewwwww right now.

I'd prefer if all the islands/land were all the same colour (as the rest of the land/island which are part of that continent). Otherwise it's somewhat confusing. Sure they have the same glow but different land colours only add questions.

The old ocean colour was good in that it hid the glow a bit. Now it totally domineers everything else on the map.

Your map title has ample space to be place in the top right side of the map.




Don't go making big changes yet. I'll come back with a gameplay analysis later.

[samuelc812]

Is it just me or is this map too wide?? 841px

[RjBeals]

Is it just me or is this map too wide?? 841px

LOL - damn that 1 pixel - this map is ruined !!

. LARGE MAP: WIDTH up to 840 px ; HEIGHT 800 px.

[samuelc812]

[pikkio]

ok guys, i will post a version with no glows and same territories colors each continent.

the problem is that if the islands have the same colour, it's quite impossible to understand which are in a territory and which in the adjacent.. for this reason i thought to use a different method to signal which territories are in the same country bonus. but we will see how it's better.

p.s. oh damn!! that f***in' pixel!!

[gho]

The eastern part of indonesia is a part of oceania, see the wallace line:

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

Thus i think you should add another continent, indonesia, with the western part of papua new guinea (known as irian jaya), Celebes, Flores (home to the amazing prehistoric midget men), Timor and all the other islands. You wouldnt need to widen your map because all the territories you would be adding would be above australia.

[RjBeals]

I'm worried that with the small island dots spread all over the place, that this will be a very confusing map. There needs to be some way to draw the islands in together, so you can see what islands/territories below to what bonus regions. Looking at google earth, some of these islands are no bigger than parking lot, so to be true to scale, your dots are fine. But I think for this map, you need to toss out scale. My suggestion is to group the islands closer, maybe separate with lighter/darker coast water. Maybe adjust the glow? I would also really work on the ocean. The ocean color/texture should really be badass.

Click image to enlarge.

[pikkio]

i eliminated the glow effect and made the same colour for the territories in the same country.

i realized a dark version and a light version. in the dark i may improve the coast light sea effect, but this is an example.

please, tell me if you prefer the dark or the light map, cause then i can go on with one on those and make the other changes. in my opinion the dark map it's looking better..
also tell me if the no-glow maps are better or no.

version 1.3a

Click image to enlarge.

______________________________________________________

version 1.3b

Click image to enlarge.

[RjBeals]

The dark blue is easier on the eyes. and without the glow - i'm just looking at army circles and names. I can barely even notice the dots (islands) in the background.

[edbeard]

I prefer the light version but I also preferred the glow. And, you can't really make the determination that the light or dark is better without seeing how the rest of the map looks so the glow will potentially matter in making that determination.

the red for Melanesia feels too strong (in both versions). no idea how a glow would look.

about the glow, I liked how the glow was a slightly different colour or a contrasting colour than the island colours. It was unique. the glow was just too big. make them smaller and possibly with less opacity.



in a gameplay sense, I had zero problems with the previous version.

I don't particularly like the addition of the new island to New Zealand because I liked you having a +2 region in there. It definitely is balanced but I'd prefer if there was a +2 and if there was a +4 or two in there as well. I'll look it over again later after you progress to the foundry or if changes are made but your current gameplay seems fine. Not to say I didn't miss anything.

[Incandenza]

So, then, that's a no to lopping off pitcairn and adding more of indonesia?