First of all, thanks for your long post. I'll try to answer in detail...
Industrial Helix wrote:Alright, like everyone, I want a Scandanavia map to conquer on ect. So I really hope this map turns out well.
Most of crits are graphics but there is a gameplay in there as well.
First off... If you've read my post on Hijrah, I hate cities with lines connecting. I want to conquer large swaths of land and establish my cold, arctic empire. Cities are unrealistic, what about the partisans in the mountains? Is this a light occupation or a full occupation!?! But jokes aside, I prefer the visual recognition of captured territories with continuous borders rather the three lines in. It's just too hard for me to play and recognize what it is I'm doing. Quite simply, I probably wouldn't play this map if the territories were cities.
So, you won't be playing the new classic map either?
Plus, the title is Nordic countries and not Nordic cities, so if you insist on pursuing the ball and stick approach, change the name at least.
Have to disagree here. Nordic countries describes the area that the map represents precisely. Nordic cities, what does that even mean? It just sounds bad.
The name also implies that there are nation-states involved here but, for the sake of bonuses, I count eight instead of five. I understand the need for smaller bonus regions and agree, it needs to be broken up. But the graphics could go a long way to make it seem as if South Finland and North Finland are actually part of the same country. Make Finland two shades of white with blue writing. Make Sweden two shades of light blue with gold writing, ect. Add some theme into this map and it will go a long way.
Lastly, what's with the Nintendo Graphics? Blocky pixel letters and harsh connection lines? Go Viking or something, most especially in font.
Viking? I see only three viking countries here. There is a theme on the map, the theme is nordic countries. And quite frankly, IMO that's all the theme a basic geographical map needs... Does Netherlands have a theme? Does Luxembourg have a theme? To mention two quite popular maps, which don't seem to have any theme whatsoever.
As for the "Nintendo graphics", Andy said a couple updates back that the graphical style reminded him of Wargames (the movie). And suggested that I pursue that graphical style, as he thought it could work for the map. Now you say you don't like the style. Can't please everyone I guess...
As for the Viking theme, it wouldn't be accurate to the area of the map. There's Sweden and Finland, two major countries of this map, which have nothing to do with Vikings. Well, maybe Sweden, but not to the extent that Norway, Iceland and Denmark do. I want this map to represent all of the Nordic countries, not just half of them.
And the one thing I don't liek about this map's gameplay is the lack of mountains. For whatever reason, I think of Nordic as cold, snowy and mountains. Whereas everything's kind of cool disco colors and at best, the connection lines could be interpreted as snow footprints or something.
There's only one mountain range, between Norway and Sweden. This is already represented in the map in a way, by the lack of connections between the cities of Northern Norway & Sweden. However I do intend to put those mountains in there at some point. As soon as I manage to draw a mountain range that I like, and that fits the map's style.
But I want the gameplay of the map to reflect the terrain of the Nordic Countries and I think this would be appropriate for a map like this.
Anyway, I think you've got the skills to pull this off. Good luck, we need a Scandinavia/Nordic map.
Thanks, I'm doing my best.
EDIT... you made some change while I posted
Finland looks good, though losing the green would be best. Norway looks good too, except lose the yellow and go with either blue or white. I think my comments ont he font still stands and the sea lanes are a little blocky as well. You changed the city connections, but again, please go for territories.
I have been considering going with territories instead of cities. There are a few problems though...
First of all, how would I divide the countries into territories? Would the territories still be cities, or regions of the countries? Or both? There would have to be some consistency into the naming of the territories.
If I was to use cities, how would I decide the borders of the territories? Would I use borders of regions where the cities are? What if there's 2 or more cities in the same region?
If I was to use the regions themselves, well, there's still problems. For example, Finland doesn't have enough regions, particularly in northern finland. All of Northern Finland which is now 4 cities would become 1 huge territory...
When I started designing this map, I took a long look at the regions of each country. Then I took a long look at the cities of each country and decided that going with the cities would be easier.
I have no objections about using territories, if it comes to that, but these issues need to be resolved somehow, first.
Anyway, thanks for your feedback. I will make a note of all the issues you have raised, and try to figure a way to address these issues in the next update.