I added a new poll to determine interest in the game play options the map has available to it, the details of both can be found below.
If option 3 is chosen, I will make both XML files, for the 2 types of game that could be fought on this map.
Ultimately, it is my intention for this map to create a fun, interesting game environment for Conquer Club members to play and enjoy.
Please leave comments, as you vote and please read the details of the game play types, described below, before making your vote. Thank you.
UPDATED on the 18th of September
Map Name: Pixel World
Territories: 323... In order to increase the playable area, I increased the size of the continents, reducing the oceans. Because I increased the continents, they now sit much more tightly together. The larger sizes made available the possibility of adding more countries and some of the populated island chains that are missing on many CC maps, these include the Maldives and the Azores which, with their inclusion, allowed me to make 'bridges', increasing the number of connections between the continents. These things came at the cost of the map looking a little abstract but I think the 300+ territories more than makes up for that.
The map above is the 'small' size. I order to prove that the map can be practical, it must hold 3-digit armies in each territory on the 'small' version. This 600 pixel wide map supports 3-digit armies, therefor the larger vesrion certainly will also.
Acknowledgements: Many of the CC maps already made went into helping me with this map. World 2.0 (my favourite *love to 2.0*) was particularly helpful. Also, I was able to draw much insight and useful suggestion from some of the proponents of map-size increases.
Special Rules: Everything borders its neighbours unless there is a black border demarkation. These demarkations have been drawn from the Collins Illustrated Atlas as well as from various existing maps in CC.
Bonuses and Borders: Using Wikipedia and a book borrowed from my local library (which lists GDP figures, average earning statistics and such like for all the countries of the world), I created 2 'regions' for each continent (actually, 4 for Asia). These regions represent the areas of 'wealth' and 'prosperity' in their continents. These hold the only bonuses on the map and as such, will be the most sought after areas for players.
Each region is made up of 10 territories (there is a thin black line around the whole region) and I decided that, 6 armies for a single region and 18 for a region-pair would be appropriate to 'push' the game-play forward.
As some of you that have been following the map idea, I would like to create a map where the players begin only in those 'rich' areas, with the rest of the map being grey-neutral, size 3 armies that can be conquered but which do not provide anything other than a bridge to another part of the world and also a territory bonus (which on a 300+ map, could prove significant).
If people would like me too though, I might create 2 versions of this map. One with the 'sea of grey' on and the other being a normal map.
There are benefits to both possibilities:
1) Using a sea of grey will reduce the starting deployment, for a 6-player game, to 3 armies, as per usual. Players will fight normally in their regions and, with 14 regions, each the same size, each player should have similar chances to obtain and hold a region. After that, players will have to wade through the grey territories to reach and attack their neighbours. The neurtal territories will act as a wall or buffer zone, protecting the different regions and helping to isolate them during the crucial build-up stage of any RISK game. Some players may choose to simply carve out mini kingdoms and soak up that often over-looked territory bonus, which, if you conquered every territory, would produce a deployment of 107 armies (not including the bonuses).
... personally, the above game play possibilities turn me on.
2) If every territory is 'playable' from turn one, in a 6-player game, each player will have 17 armies to deploy on turn one. This will create a bloodbath right from the start and continuing until the game ends, where even escalating cards will be unlikely to out-do the large territory bonus possibilities.
The first game possibility would create a more 'epic' game, I think, while the second might be much more fast, furious and bloody. As mentioned then, if there is interest in the map, I would like to turn it into two, differently playable versions, using the XML.
>>> May I have your opinions, please?
Note, Two threads have been merged together here so some of the original posts refer to different map. I'm afraid confusion is unavoidable. I had wanted to delete the original thread and so save having that confusion but it wouldn't let me :-/
