Indian Empire [Quenched]

[MrBenn]

Nice one with the railways Oak.
Just a couple of quick things I picked up.

-You'll need to do some hand editing still on the railways where they join. At the moment they look a bit strange.
-I assume connecting cities via rail means holding every territory the railway goes through. That may need to be better worded as at the moment as I can see confusion with people who think they only need to hold the cities.

I recently discovered you can add a layer mask to a text layer, so you should be able to use that to to tidy up the joins without rasterising...

[oaktown]

Nice one with the railways Oak.
Just a couple of quick things I picked up.

-You'll need to do some hand editing still on the railways where they join. At the moment they look a bit strange.
-I assume connecting cities via rail means holding every territory the railway goes through. That may need to be better worded as at the moment as I can see confusion with people who think they only need to hold the cities.

I recently discovered you can add a layer mask to a text layer, so you should be able to use that to to tidy up the joins without rasterising...

I could do that, or I could smooth out the curves enough that they don't break. I fixed a lot of gaps before I posted this, but it was clear that there were more than I wanted to tackle at the moment.

And Balseifen is right with the wording - perhaps something simple like "hold all rail territories to connect two cities" - except I think we're moving away from the word "territory." Would "provinces" be appropriate on an old India map?

[cairnswk]

oaktown
if you're using PS3, there is railway line brush available at
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/i ... id=1044414

[oaktown]

if you're using PS3, there is railway line brush available...

Shit, yeah, that's a lot easier.

Click image to enlarge.

Made some stuff easier to follow, moved things around, added some images, and changed the territory layout around Calcutta - the old system made no sense.

[cairnswk]

oaktown, i imagine that link was a great help.
can i offer that the text in between tert names and region names is looking quite cluttered
since you already have the regions in the legend, is there any need for them to be on the map if you colour them in the legend.
This would surely remove a lot of clutter with names crossing one another in many instances.

[oaktown]

oaktown, i imagine that link was a great help.
can i offer that the text in between tert names and region names is looking quite cluttered
since you already have the regions in the legend, is there any need for them to be on the map if you colour them in the legend.
This would surely remove a lot of clutter with names crossing one another in many instances.

yep, there's a lot going on. I was thinking I'd either find some kind of alternative for the region names, or rework it using a mini-map in the bottom left corner. It's a work in progress.

Gameplay thoughts, anyone?

[cairnswk]

...
Gameplay thoughts, anyone?

Since the Andaman Islands are part of the Indian Union and featured in the British occupation of India, perhaps a sea route from either Calcutta or Madras to the Andamans? Would that be relevant?

[MrBenn]

1. I just wanted to clarify the railway bonus - do you need just the start and end points, or do you need all the territories along the route?
2. The Calcutta-Delhi route increases the total for Bombay Presidency to +11 for 11 terrs... That has some sort of epic appeal
3. The Bay of Bengal and the rivers going through Bengal are very distracting... it took me a while to work out which area Bengal was... the position of the terr name helps a bit, but is still confusing...
4. The crease of the book feels a little bit too pink... is it possible to change the colour balance of the book layer to make it slightly browner?
5. the mountains could do with a little bit more variation - they look good, but I can see the recurring 'M' shape too easily
6. You mentioned the railway graphic - I've worked out why it looks out of place; there should be two tracks between the sleepers {=|=|=|=} instead of {-|-|-|-|-}
7. Have I mentioned that I like it? Keep up the good work

1. The legend could still be interpreted either way
3. This is a million times clearer now - issue resolved.
4. I still think the crease would be better being brownie-orange rather than pink... and the the glow around the region names should be paper-coloured (ie where the text goes over the crease, the glow should be the same colour...)
7. Can I say it again?

My biggest concern at the moment is #1 above, as it has a big impact

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

Tweaks in this update...
• Region names in the legend now stroked the color of the region.
• Region names on the map are now lighter, and they are the bottom layer. I still like them being there for colorblind help, and I hope that by hiding them a bit they don't interfere with other elements.
• Played with some mountains to reduce the number of "M" mountains.
• Rail description changed... any better?
• Made Bengal a +7, from +8... MrBenn pointed out that with the rail bonus its +11, which may be a bit too "epic."
• All territories have army counts, just for purposes of getting everything in the right place... since there will be no army circles, I hope.

Since the Andaman Islands are part of the Indian Union and featured in the British occupation of India, perhaps a sea route from either Calcutta or Madras to the Andamans? Would that be relevant?

Question: would a sea link from the Andaman Islands to either Calcutta or Madras (Coromandel Coast territory) be beneficial to play? It would make the Farther India region singificantly harder to hold, but add connectivity across the map. Going to Madras would certainly open the map up more, but add a border territory to the Madras region as well. Hmm?

[InkL0sed]

No, to your question. Those continents have plenty of borders as it is.

[Kaplowitz]

Oak, you REALLY need to post a tutorial on how you made those mountains.....

also: i can barely tell apart those 2 orange/yellow continents.

[gimil]

In my humble opinion oaktown, Bengal and Madras are far to similarly coloured. It took a good close look for me to realise they were two different continents. On the map as well central and farthar india look very similar as well. I had a hard time differentiating these continents from their bonuses.

[iancanton]

just to let u know that i'll be stamping the gameplay on this map.

farther india looks distinctly magenta in the legend but violet on the map iteslf. unrelated to gameplay, below is a link to a map published by john bartholomew of edinburgh where farther india refers to what is today known as indochina plus the malay peninsula.

http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps5279.html

another one, showing farther india as upper and lower burmah plus indochina.

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet ... r-India,-C

since farther india consistently includes indochina, i suggest burmah as the continent name.

for the title of the map, i like indian empire: british raj or something similar, so that it fits alphabetically in the gamefinder list. british east indies includes singapore, british malaya and british sumatra, which are not part of our subject matter.

ian.

[captainwalrus]

The graphics are the pretty similar to the Eastern Hemisphere map and the War of Tripple Alliance maps (not so much the second one). I like them but if all three get Quenched your going to have to make them pore different.

[captainwalrus]

Also. The bonus fot the bombay-calcatta line shoucld be 3 not 4.

[oaktown]

Also. The bonus fot the bombay-calcatta line shoucld be 3 not 4.

Really? Six territories, all of which are borders... if I was going to change it I'd say make it even higher, but I think it's in line with the others.

Thanks for stopping in, Ian... I'll get back on this map after (if) I've come up with a plan for the revamp competition.

[captainwalrus]

My mistake, I was looking at the wrong rail.

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

Alright, so nobody likes the island connection idea. That was the most recent gameplay suggestion - anything else?

Changes to this version are mostly visual, though I did increase the overall size of the playing area so that the small map will work.

"Indian Empire" we will now call this map, so the map will be alphabetized under "I" as pointed out on the last page.

Mountains are very heavy looking all of a sudden... I'll see to that.

[The Neon Peon]

Why did you include Bangladesh as part of India? I thought it broke away by that time... or I might need to revisit my history notes.

[oaktown]

Why did you include Bangladesh as part of India? I thought it broke away by that time... or I might need to revisit my history notes.

I believe bangladesh was a part of british india right up until the brits split up the whole lot in 1947.

[The Neon Peon]

Just wondering... could you make a series of maps in this style? like the Japan and Brazil maps. Just old maps of the world in that book of yours.

[oaktown]

Just wondering... could you make a series of maps in this style? like the Japan and Brazil maps. Just old maps of the world in that book of yours.

I certainly could - and between my Brazil revamp entry, a short-lived attempt at Japan, and this, you could say I already have made a series! But in the end, it would be a bit boring both for me and for the site. I think it's a nice look, but I'm not sure it's that nice.

[InkL0sed]

If you hold the Madras Presidency + the Madras to Bombay rail line, you get a +9. That seems excessive to me, considering you'd only have 4 borders.

[oaktown]

If you hold the Madras Presidency + the Madras to Bombay rail line, you get a +9. That seems excessive to me, considering you'd only have 4 borders.

Yes, I'd agree... the trouble is which to knock down, the rail line or the region bonus? I think I'd lean toward the making the rail line a +2, because Presidency will be a bitch to hold if somebody else holds the Bombay Presidency and is dug in.

If we drop the Madras-Bombay line, it may be appropriate to also drop the Delhi-Calcutta line to +2, and possibly up the Bangal Pres bonus to +8 to preserve the big take for holding both.

Another solution would be opening up another border for Madras Presidency somewhere... I'll look into that.

[oaktown]

Click image to enlarge.

What's new: changed bonuses as noted above; added a mountain range in Farther India which makes that region a bit easier to hold with just two border territories; changed a territory name; added some decorative elements.