Condensed Map Ideas

[fluffybunnykins]

this is wierldly similar to an idea I am working on, on paper (very slowly!) and also a bit like DiMs trading one...
everyone starts with a ship round the edge of the island. The island has territories that contain resources which you need one each of to collect a continent bonus (fresh water, timber, hunting/fishing, fruit & maybe a clearing?). In the middle is the 'treasure', which has a huge bonus, but is attackable from every side and requires you to own a ship, a launch & a beach as well (ie your exit route). The idea being that you need to secure a resource continent to have the capability to find & dig for the treasure.
So, yeah I like it! And the new xml will only make the ideas better!

[johloh]

Also another thing - you will have to make sure everyones path to the cannon is equal - else it will favour some of the ships...

Unless you have 2 cannons... one for 3 ships - one for another 3 ships... of course holding the cannon pointed at your ship is just as important as holding the cannon pointing at everyone else?!

yup yeti...two ideas ive been grappling with. at first i didnt think everything had to be equal, because most games in say classic dont start equal, but ive come around to the even map style...so itll be an equal trek for all.

and ive also been going back and forth about having 6 cannons, 3 (can shoot 2 ships) and 2 (can shoot 3).

and seriously everyone. i dont have a map with territories finished yet...trust me im not holding out. ill try and have a real draft by this weekend sometime.

[yeti_c]

6 cannons could work...

1 pointed at each ship could work

3 can shoot 2... 2 can shoot 3 could also work and would be more strategic...

My main concern with one is that you capture fort it up and then you might become invincible...

Esp with the 2 each turn you could guard the path to the cannon with troops and keep forting your ship crew into the cannon straight... then pulverise the other ships...

Another thought - you could have cannons on the ships that attack fortifications in the fortress - thus making it harder to hold the fortress and therefore the cannon(s) as it weakens your borders?

Oh the ideas - they're a buzzing!!!

C.

[Lanceyboyuk]

any updates?

[johloh]

Another thought - you could have cannons on the ships that attack fortifications in the fortress - thus making it harder to hold the fortress and therefore the cannon(s) as it weakens your borders?

ohhh...i like this. nice. yeah im thinking im leaning towards 6 cannons so you cant hold them all easily or take one spot and wipe out half the players...and this way your ship can attack only the cannon its aimed at...so you can defend yourself...

also remember your ship can easily be loaded up with guys, so someone trying to range attack you has to wipe out your whole ship...so as many guys as he can load up on a cannon with forts, you should be able to keep up with guys on your ship. unless he has earned more bonuses than you...

due to all the whining on here, im going to scan my handdrawn map today and post it later...(i got to use the scanner at work). the graphics are still behind, but you can see territory placement at least.

[yeti_c]

I wrote a big long comment - but then I deleted it... DOH!

Gist was such...

Is that 1 Cannon per Ship - or multiple cannons per ship...

I think having say 3 cannons in the Fortress each with 2 ships would be good... but the Ship's route to the cannons that those cannons can fire up shouldn't intermingle...

So Cannon A can fire at Ship A and B...

Cannon B can fire at Ship C and D

Cannon C can fire at Ship E and F

Ships A and F fight over their shortest route to the fortress.

Ships B and C fight over their shortest route to the fortress.

Ships D and E fight over their shortest route to the fortress.

Do you see what I mean?

Or similar... anyways... can't wait for a map to come up that we can start tinkering with...

C.

PS Yargh!!

[RjBeals]

Great idea! I can't wait to follow this one through. When we use to play the real risk boardgame, we would always "modify" the game with navel ships & different sea routes. We never thought of long range land cannons though !

[johloh]

yeti I think i get what youre thinking about...and i had some similar ideas...

lemme get a map up and we can tinker a ton...there are many many many different options on this...

[yeti_c]

yeti I think i get what youre thinking about...and i had some similar ideas...

lemme get a map up and we can tinker a ton...there are many many many different options on this...

Cool - I'll look forward to it!!!

C.

[fishbonex]

And add Poughkeepsie and Ct...

just because.

[Steel Panzer]

the first draft look great and has a good potential. continue with it lets see what happens? ok.

[Kaplowitz]

I dont know anything about Stargate, but in real life, Earth is a fairly small planet. This makes warth look too large.

[lunchmeat]

I hate maps that are all separated zones with artificial connections. Is there a way to use highways and major roads as connectors while keeping the map together? Also, I love the idea of having territories correspond with different colleges and universities in Ohio (which there are a wealth of).

Whattya think? While the geography of Ohio is really boring, lots of other things arent...

[johloh]

ok heres my scanned rought draft done by hand...I KNOW, im quite the artist...

-starting ships are labeled A,B,C,D,E,F (+2 bonus autodeployed to ship), each ship has a landing site that is part of the matching city.
-cities are labeled A1,A2,A3...B1,B2,B3...etc (+2 bonus for holding a city)
-resources are labeled R...for the resource bonus you need to hold a city, and the two resources on either side...this forces cities to duke it out back and forth for the resources...and if you attack the resource (neutral) you weaken your buffer zone from the nearby player....(ex person who attacks it first gets the resource but is weaker)
-Xs (crossroads) are attacked through the center of cities...and lead to the main fortress.
-main fortress has three entrances, and three cannons...
-top cannon can attack B/C, right cannon can attack D/E and left cannon can attack A/F...graphically ill prob have two cannons on the space pointed in the right directions, but you control both if you have the space.
-resources are labeled on the left, they wont be listed there in the final.
-key is going to be a hand drawn treasure map style, x marks the spot kinda thing
-the little mounds will be hills or something, i dunno.

I count 45 total territories

and i realize the bridge in F is on the wrong side, it should be in F3 for the symmetry to be proper, i will fix that.

btw cities are surrounded by walls if that wasnt obvious, just little gates in them allow access to touching territories.

the idea here is its equally hard to take a city for a bonus or just bomb rush the middle and hold the fortress to try and take out other peoples ships.

havent decided on or if to have a bonus for the fortress....

phew. comment away.

[Telvannia]

when you get your head around it, it looks a great idea. I still think you should put a treasure hoard on the map, but one that moves around. If you missed my original post with this idea on it, it is about 1/2 way down the first page. sorry for any english mistake here im half asleep and typing, i think i better go to bed so i will comment more tomorrow some time.

[johloh]

I still think you should put a treasure hoard on the map, but one that moves around.

yeah this is a good idea. however its not currently or in the near future possible. its not one of the new xml features that lack is implementing. if the ability to have changing maps happens in the future, im down...

[JW_Lenori]

any updates?

yup, see first post.

[Spockers]

good work for not using paint.

its really not hard

Bingo. Take note everyone.

but what are you going to do to make this not like every other map out there
thats all im wondering

I'm not only wondering that, but i'm wondering how it will be as good as other maps out there.

but it's not completely without potential.

[yeti_c]

My only problem is that two ships are attacking their cannon... if they get caught up in a brawl getting to the cannon - another person takes their cannon and kills them both off...

If you could shift the cannons round by a ship I think it might work better?

What do you reckon?

C.

[Telvannia]

one or two more comments:

Could you make the cities more spread out, like moving the city A to the area of land above and left of it. Maybe moving E to the most southern part of the island.
Maybe put a animated jolly roger (the pirate skull and crossbones flag) either on top of the ships or in a corner or something along those lines.
Maybe put some pirate features around, for example:

Crossed palm trees
Compasses
A parrot
barrels of grog.

That is it for now i think, apart from hopefully a computer drawn map might be slightly easier to understand.

[Lanceyboyuk]

only on the first couple of updates give it time and it will work out.

[hulmey]

ur full of shit of course you have finished it.....

Like the title by the way...Graphics on it look really good...

[The Random One]

I thought this would be a lame map, but now I think it's a great idea! But, the way I see it ships should only be attackable from land. The fortification idea is great in theory, but if you start with a single territ someone could rush to the cannons and take you out on turn one. Is that how it works?

Idea: each fort is a multi-territ continent, and you must control it all to attack the ships.

[johloh]

he fortification idea is great in theory, but if you start with a single territ someone could rush to the cannons and take you out on turn one

technically. but they would need to attack through a minimum of 5 neutral territories with 3 neutrals armies each...so it doesnt seem to likely....8 vs 15? then + the 3 on your boat so 8 vs 18...

[rs148004]

I hate maps that are all separated zones with artificial connections. Is there a way to use highways and major roads as connectors while keeping the map together?

The major east-west highways in Ohio are I-80 (from approx Toledo to Erie, PA) in the north, I-70 in central Ohio (through Dayton and Columbus to Pittsburg, PA) and Ohio-32 across the south (from Cincinnati to Marietta). This would just require him to change the red lines from Lorain to Cuyahoga (instead of Medina), there would have to be a connecting line between Champagne to Madison, OH-32 would connect Pike to Jackson county and Athens to Washington county.

North-South highways are a little different, they are I-77 from Cleveland to Marietta, I-71 from Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati and I-75 from Toledo to Cincinnati. This would require changing the connection from Wayne to Holmes TO Stark to Tuscarawas, Wayne would have to connect to Ashland, which would have to connect to Knox... and after that I lose it.

Here's Ohio's official roadmap
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/map1/ohiomap/

I love the idea of having territories correspond with different colleges and universities in Ohio (which there are a wealth of).

Yes, there certainly are a lot of universities in Ohio... in fact I once heard that no matter where you are in Ohio you are no further than 30 miles (in a straight line) from a college or university. Mapping where every university is would be a massive undertaking, and would give the map so many territories that it would be unplayable (think a higher number than World 2.1). There are at least 5 Division I schools in Ohio (Ohio University, OSU, Univ. of Toledo, Univ. of Akron, Univ. of Cincinnati, and a few others I can't seem to remember right now). Now, if the mapmaker feels a need to do this, good for him, but in my opinion it's way over the top.