Conquer Club

AWESOME JOB!
from chicago and think you have done a very good job. I would play it today if i could.
joliet doesnt bother me, but i do think that the food sign in englewood is quite funny, since 99% of chicagoans would not go there for food, ......................................drugs perhaps,but not food.

you could add Midway airport and make it a bonus for holding both airports,
comiskey park, wrigley field, and soldiers field could also be added, but I think its fine as is.

yeah scott this is a tight map already. You definitely have some design skills. You have some readability issues with the light text on light background, and I would like to see the lake texture or color switchuped up to something better as well.

I think I covered all the posts---

Edited.....

- Changed standard play somewhat by adding L train.
- Fireworks/Bushes / Trees.
- Territories / Bonuses ( Removed Sign bonus ) and colors
- Removed border on Lake Calumet..... kept it for the river borders. Don't like the look w/out. Remove Chicago River entirely.
- Changed L Mich

Uncompleted...
- Minimap
- 2 Bridges
- Airports ?

I like your airport idea Azzezo but the map is pretty busy as is and to add the ballparks-- I don't have the room. And Chicago has way too many...... United Center, Soldier Field, Wrigley, US Cellular Field, and the Blackhawks ( not sure where they play... not a hockey fan).

The orange line appears incomplete. Midway to Chinatown but it hides behind the trees for have the route, not sure how I feel about it but what is the line heading north out of Chinatown that doesn't go anywhere?

Shouldn't there be a slight white line between O'Hare and Norwood Park.

The grey of Logan Sq/West Loop/Wicker Park/Near Westside and the light brown of Belmont Heights/Garfield Park/Lawndale/Austin/Little Village are a little too close in color still I think. (maybe switching the grey with the rose color from the south)

I think that your bonuses are a little high here, most of the bonus regions have some sort of bottlenecks. The Purple region down by Gary In for instance (sorry I don't know the regions as well) can be held with 3 terts and has 8 terts. +7 seems too high for that IMO. I'm not as sure why its different than the gret tert in the Northeast (7 terts with 3 to hold). I was going to make a similar comment on O'Hare before realizing that the rail lines are in play (should have read your comments first).

hey there, this looks really good already, although i do have some things to say.

-some of the rivers look a little pixely, so you could work on that.
-i didn't really take a look at the bonuses, but they seem even enough. i'll take a look again later and add another comment.
-the main concern i have, although it shouldn't really be that big of a concern is the number of territories. they are actually pretty good, but just wanted to interject as a heavy 1v1 player that starting w/ 18 is tough b/c you drop down to 5 men by taking 1 territory. this doesn't have to be changed, because everything else works out really well, but it was just a thought.

barterer2002 wrote:The orange line appears incomplete. Midway to Chinatown but it hides behind the trees for have the route, not sure how I feel about it but what is the line heading north out of Chinatown that doesn't go anywhere?

Shouldn't there be a slight white line between O'Hare and Norwood Park.

The grey of Logan Sq/West Loop/Wicker Park/Near Westside and the light brown of Belmont Heights/Garfield Park/Lawndale/Austin/Little Village are a little too close in color still I think. (maybe switching the grey with the rose color from the south)

I think that your bonuses are a little high here, most of the bonus regions have some sort of bottlenecks. The Purple region down by Gary In for instance (sorry I don't know the regions as well) can be held with 3 terts and has 8 terts. +7 seems too high for that IMO. I'm not as sure why its different than the gret tert in the Northeast (7 terts with 3 to hold). I was going to make a similar comment on O'Hare before realizing that the rail lines are in play (should have read your comments first).

Hmm I think it's clearly different color for the bonuses....

All the lines of the L ( 8 in total ) run through downtown to a station -- the Loop. It's a big rectangle.... but yeah the Orange Line bothers me as well.

As far as the bonuses go, I had to add 2/3 more terrs to the total because of the rails. It's 8 and 9 terr per bonuss. The thing is, I could put it to 10 or 11 and players wouldn't or shouldn't go after them. They're not meant to be held. Strategically it's the 2 and 3 bonuses that should be fought over and now with the insertion of the rails-- they are prime as well.

whitestazn88 wrote:hey there, this looks really good already, although i do have some things to say.

-some of the rivers look a little pixely, so you could work on that.
-i didn't really take a look at the bonuses, but they seem even enough. i'll take a look again later and add another comment.
-the main concern i have, although it shouldn't really be that big of a concern is the number of territories. they are actually pretty good, but just wanted to interject as a heavy 1v1 player that starting w/ 18 is tough b/c you drop down to 5 men by taking 1 territory. this doesn't have to be changed, because everything else works out really well, but it was just a thought.

The new version only has 1 river -- Calumet at the bottom.

I've taken in acccount 1 vs 1s and 4 man / dubs.... it's hard to satisfy all game types without drastically reducing the terr count. I'm open for suggestions... as to where it should be.

Have you thought about adding a main station right there with all the colors on it?
I loved the other trees so much more.. they could have used a little messing around with, so I couldn't tell they had bee repeated in pattern... but that was it.
I like the raised metro lines a lot too.

I liked the other trees as well but guess they had to go.

I don't have the room to make the station without covering up the existing borders or expanding the entire seaboard further east.

yeah, the river on the bottom was the one i was referring to, its very pixely, but i'm sure that can be fixed relatively easily. as for the territs, you can keep it like it is, and there shouldn't be a problem, and you're right that its hard to make it balanced for every game type. now that i've looked at the bonuses some more, they seem to be a little skewed, for example, the bottom most region is worth +7, although there are only 8 territories and 3 borders, the +2 region next to it has 4 territories and 3 borders... i'd probably change them to +6 and +3 respectively, but then again, the whole bonus thing isn't my forte, so its ultimately up to you,

whitestazn88 wrote:yeah, the river on the bottom was the one i was referring to, its very pixely, but i'm sure that can be fixed relatively easily. as for the territs, you can keep it like it is, and there shouldn't be a problem, and you're right that its hard to make it balanced for every game type. now that i've looked at the bonuses some more, they seem to be a little skewed, for example, the bottom most region is worth +7, although there are only 8 territories and 3 borders, the +2 region next to it has 4 territories and 3 borders... i'd probably change them to +6 and +3 respectively, but then again, the whole bonus thing isn't my forte, so its ultimately up to you,

The bottom Purple bonus I think you're referring to. It has 4 total borders ( counting rail ) but 5 joining terrs , and 9 total terrs. I have no problem adjusting down on the bonuses because I don't think it's going to affect the strategy all that much. The rail will be a stacking terr which will make that bonus all the harder to go after/keep.

Pink bonus I had at 3 terrs but Oaktown was afraid that someone would drop the entire bonus so I added 1 terr and kept the bonus the same. It could possibly goto 3 but I wanted somewhat of a deterrent. Although most players will go after it, they may stray at 2 but at 3 it would be automatic like SA with 2 borders.

lookin better each time blackhawks play in united center with bulls by the way but thats moot point since stadiums will not be a part of map anyways.

Downtown station adjusted...

Guess there's no way to shrink the mini map without getting distorted? Can't imagine everyone drawing it over again but I guess that's the only way?

lake Mich is still flat and ugly. Throw a nice soothing gradient in there. The rest of the map is a texture bonanza, let the eye rest somewhere.

mibi wrote:lake Mich is still flat and ugly. Throw a nice soothing gradient in there. The rest of the map is a texture bonanza, let the eye rest somewhere.

can you give an example? because there isn't much difference between flat and soothing and restful to me..

Looks really great Scott

Just a quick thought — a broader one really, I'll post specifics sometime — the entire left side seems to be waste space. If you'd move the train up a bit, the title to fit that little nook the train is in now, and the information at the bottom to the right, it would chop a lot off the left and make the whole map much more…together.

Also, the background, while really nice and I love the image, brings one's attention too much to it and away from the map. You should either lower the opacity or do something to cover it up more or make the map itself stand out from the background more — or even both . Some drop shadow, a dark outer glow, or an image of the surrounding area outside Chicago would look really sweet.

I'll be back for another look but I gotta say, well done on this, looks really great!
.44

Tisha wrote:

mibi wrote:lake Mich is still flat and ugly. Throw a nice soothing gradient in there. The rest of the map is a texture bonanza, let the eye rest somewhere.

can you give an example? because there isn't much difference between flat and soothing and restful to me..

Here you are. When the entire map, while looking cool, but is entirely filled with art, textures, filters, etc, the eye needs some space to rest and to give the image some balance. Something like this does that for me.

mibi wrote:

Tisha wrote:

mibi wrote:lake Mich is still flat and ugly. Throw a nice soothing gradient in there. The rest of the map is a texture bonanza, let the eye rest somewhere.

can you give an example? because there isn't much difference between flat and soothing and restful to me..

Here you are. When the entire map, while looking cool, but is entirely filled with art, textures, filters, etc, the eye needs some space to rest and to give the image some balance. Something like this does that for me.

Click image to enlarge.

word

those train lines are not Metra lines, rather they belong to the CTA.
the Metra is a different entity and runs on different tracks, goes to different locations, pretty much a suburban train line that does come into chicago. The "el" is the elevated tracks for the cta

oh, and i liked the old trees, but realize you cant make every one happy.

azezzo wrote:those train lines are not Metra lines, rather they belong to the CTA.
the Metra is a different entity and runs on different tracks, goes to different locations, pretty much a suburban train line that does come into chicago. The "el" is the elevated tracks for the cta

oh, and i liked the old trees, but realize you cant make every one happy.

CTA runs the rail lines in Chicago...... it's just elevated in the downtown area- no ? Called "L, El" as slang because it runs above the streets .?

Industrial Helix wrote:
The hole between norwood and dunning... what is that? Inconsequential, but just curious.

It's Norridge and Harwood Heights --- inside Chicago but technically not Chicago nor part of city limits.

*Mini- map still needs to be cleaned up. I just threw in the bonus colors for reference.
Changed texture of Lake Michigan and rail legend. Also Bonus colors.

NIcely done Scott!

But where's Michael?

Risky_Stud wrote:NIcely done Scott!

But where's Michael?

Hehee-- prolly should've kept him.

Scott-Land wrote:CTA runs the rail lines in Chicago...... it's just elevated in the downtown area- no ? Called "L, El" as slang because it runs above the streets .?

Uh, I don't think the Chicago Transit Authority runs Metra, and maybe if they do at some administrative level, most Chicagoans (myself included) consider the two to be separate systems.

Game Play comments:

I am having a hard time initially seeing what borders what near the loop with the El tracks above the borders. Chance to make the Orange loop more realistic and a little wider so as to view the borders in the middle there?

Same goes for the south side. What territory does the little area to east of lake calumet belong to? if it's south deering can you put the white circle right on the river there?

Could there be a bonus for holding both airports? I'm not even sure if this is good advice. Probably not since each is already part of the El bonus. I answered my own question.

Is norridge a territory?, there's no white circle. I don't even think it should be labeled. Screw all those who don't know its not part of chicago. The city label makes it more confusing than if it were simply unlabeled.

Glad you took joliet out.

Can Indiana be a territory that gives -1 troop? Just kidding, but not really, Indiana smells like shit.

Foundry Comments:

Yea, that Metra train looks awesome, but, you don't have any metra lines on this map. Keep the el lines, they're much better, and I need the blue one to get to the loop.

I assume back of the yards doesn't border near west side (my home) so you may want to cover the upper corner of back of the yards with more trees.

You need to take that white line out to the east of norwood park above the river, that will help avoid confusion as to whether or not there is a territory up there.

Can I play this soon?

Wolffy

Scott-Land wrote:

Risky_Stud wrote:NIcely done Scott!

But where's Michael?

Hehee-- prolly should've kept him.

I was thinkin a shaded outine of him jumpin the train to the left.