Conquer Club

Whilst the foundry was down for Xmas i prepared 12 maps in the Mapmakers Guild as part of a 12 pack.
The idea of these is to have them all in the same design, to compliment the new Classic Map for tournaments.

These six are basically ready for release, the other six i have yet to work on gameplay etc.

So here they are. They are all on the Classic Map.

And a little message from the boss...

lackattack wrote:Hi Cairns,
....
I took a look at your 12 pack - what a great idea! I plan to install the new Classic tomorrow but I think cities of the world is a most worthy project to continue developing.
.....
Cheers,

1. Stockholm - Sweden



2. Beijing - China



3. Cairo - Egypt



4. Edmonton - Canada



5. Perth - Australia



6. Moscow - Russia

Spare

I suppose so. I'm not sure if ~8 small, standard maps is the best thing you could do, but keep going. I don't think your use of "city" in all the titles is to my liking, though. And in some cases (城市北京), it's wrong (you're missing a de 的). I'd definitely just use the names themselves. I can't say your project has my full backing, but let's see what they look like.

yay! I'm so glad you were allowed to not do them two at a time.

Tone down the army circles on Moscow and Edmonton. They are really dominant, and could be made more transparent.

Stockholm looks a bit small and the + 1 bonus is a bit concerning.Not a huge bonus but even a small bonus can influence the balance of the game.are you going to make it nuetral at the start
I think a few more tert would be nice but just my opinion

Moscow is not visually appealing at least to me....just to round in nature.The border look a bit
rough.It seems to be the most unpolished of the maps.I think the whole round concet does not work


I love the framing and the way you did the bonus map looks nice.Overall the map is very cohesive and has a nice variety to them.I like them and would play most of them
Nice job so far.

Oh wow... this is so cool.

I would rather have overhead bridges though, the 3/4 look seems too strange and unnatural, especially in Moscow.

The art in the corners, forgive me, looks pretty bad. I would go in favor of straight unfiltered photographs. If its copyright issues you might be worried about I might have Beijing, Moscow and Cairo covered for you. I'm sure others would answer a call for photographs for the other places.

Industrial Helix wrote:Oh wow... this is so cool.

I would rather have overhead bridges though, the 3/4 look seems too strange and unnatural, especially in Moscow.

The art in the corners, forgive me, looks pretty bad. I would go in favor of straight unfiltered photographs. If its copyright issues you might be worried about I might have Beijing, Moscow and Cairo covered for you. I'm sure others would answer a call for photographs for the other places.

I disagree, I think the filters make them look pretty cool.

I'd have to agree that the corner art isn't good, too. What do GG and Xm stand for?

Only thing I really have a problem graphically is the white background. It just doesn't look, well, good.

IIRC I already gave some suggestions about this by PM... so I won't reiterate it here... the gameplay on most of these is solid enough for now. By which I mean, ready to be moved forward...

The photos in the corner: IMO, keep the filters. It gives a nice travel agency mood... Or like something you would see on a postcard, bought from a tourist attraction...

the.killing.44 wrote:I suppose so. I'm not sure if ~8 small, standard maps is the best thing you could do, but keep going. I don't think your use of "city" in all the titles is to my liking, though. And in some cases (城市北京), it's wrong (you're missing a de 的). I'd definitely just use the names themselves. I can't say your project has my full backing, but let's see what they look like.

If you're refering to the Beijing map, this is the latinization that google gave me, so i can correct that, but i don't want to go to inidividual langauge characters where most of the players won't know what the city is. Let's keep in some sort of latin/english background.

And i prefer to keep the City part of the names...the reason for this is that some of these capital/city districts are limited and for gameplay reasons i have to add territories strictly outside their "administriative" or City Counil regions. At least with the word city in there, the map will encompass some adminstrative and some non-adminstrative territories.

the.killing.44 wrote:I'd have to agree that the corner art isn't good, too. What do GG and Xm stand for?

The corner are has a watercolour filter on it for copyright reasons. I am happy to replace the artwork if people find the filters too diffciculut to cope with.

The GG stands for Graphics and Gameplay...and Xm for XML, which i hope to hand to various people at a later stage if they want.

captainwalrus wrote:yay! I'm so glad you were allowed to not do them two at a time.

Tone down the army circles on Moscow and Edmonton. They are really dominant, and could be made more transparent.

That i can do.
As for two at a time....we have to see what the BIB have to say...

Fuzzylogic99 wrote:Stockholm looks a bit small and the + 1 bonus is a bit concerning.Not a huge bonus but even a small bonus can influence the balance of the game.are you going to make it nuetral at the start
I think a few more tert would be nice but just my opinion

Yes, i'll have to find those to add, so hang on for later versions.

Moscow is not visually appealing at least to me....just to round in nature.The border look a bit
rough.It seems to be the most unpolished of the maps.I think the whole round concet does not work

Yes these are only rough drafts. I don't understand your "whole round concept does not work" what this means. Are you refering to the oval shape of the disc on which the map sits, or the ring road in the middle. If the later, that can be changed, but as yet, it's only a concept.

I love the framing and the way you did the bonus map looks nice.Overall the map is very cohesive and has a nice variety to them.I like them and would play most of them
Nice job so far.

Thank you

Industrial Helix wrote:Oh wow... this is so cool.

Good

I would rather have overhead bridges though, the 3/4 look seems too strange and unnatural, especially in Moscow.

Can you explain this further please. What do you mean 3/4

The art in the corners, forgive me, looks pretty bad. I would go in favor of straight unfiltered photographs. If its copyright issues you might be worried about I might have Beijing, Moscow and Cairo covered for you. I'm sure others would answer a call for photographs for the other places.

I'd be happy to accept people's photos to cover the...yes, copyrtight...issue. the filter was a watercolour filter applied.

natty_dread wrote:Only thing I really have a problem graphically is the white background. It just doesn't look, well, good.

Those white bvackgrounds will disappear in the final images. But for now because .png files are so much bigger, they have to stay as .jpgs

IIRC I already gave some suggestions about this by PM... so I won't reiterate it here... the gameplay on most of these is solid enough for now. By which I mean, ready to be moved forward...

Yes i'm working through those, thanks

The photos in the corner: IMO, keep the filters. It gives a nice travel agency mood... Or like something you would see on a postcard, bought from a tourist attraction...

I'm feeling that the postcard would give a clearer image than those. As stated, they may be replaced if people dont' like the filters.

cairnswk wrote:

Industrial Helix wrote:Oh wow... this is so cool.

Good

I would rather have overhead bridges though, the 3/4 look seems too strange and unnatural, especially in Moscow.

Can you explain this further please. What do you mean 3/4

The art in the corners, forgive me, looks pretty bad. I would go in favor of straight unfiltered photographs. If its copyright issues you might be worried about I might have Beijing, Moscow and Cairo covered for you. I'm sure others would answer a call for photographs for the other places.

I'd be happy to accept people's photos to cover the...yes, copyrtight...issue. the filter was a watercolour filter applied.

Uh, by 3/4 I mean three quarters view. I think that since the map is from completely overhead that the bridges ought to be from complete over head... Whereas a map like Great Lakes, where the upper half is receded into the distance, hence a three quarters view, would work better with three quarters view of bridges... don't hesitate to tell this doesn't make sense if it doesn't.


As for the photos, I'll link them up on my photobucket account and post a link or something.

The map is completlely rounded- The frame is round , the country outside the center have rounded border and than you have a rounded center.Basically its three circle.I think you need'
something else to contrast with round aspect of the map.

BtW Cant wait to play the China map

Cairns, I'm astounded by your tenacity with mapmaking. This could truly be the biggest undertaking anyone on the site has ever attempted, but I expect no less from you! The maps are off to a great start - I love the consistency of the images (same border and layout) but I also like that you are giving them some different gameplay features.

Do you intend to make maps for all 42 cities? Several already exist in some form (NY, Berlin, Sydney) so they might not be necessary if the ultimate goal is to have a set for tournaments. Of course if the goal is a complete matching set, then that's just 42 more maps to add to your collection

Fuzzylogic99 wrote:The map is completlely rounded- The frame is round , the country outside the center have rounded border and than you have a rounded center.Basically its three circle.I think you need'
something else to contrast with round aspect of the map.

BtW Cant wait to play the China map

The frame i dont' want ot change.
The centre of Moscow is basically round.
The ring road in the middle is kinda round, so i can only go by what these district maps give me and be creative with some gameplay around them.
I will adjust the ring road so it is less rounded.
That's how Moscow is laid out. Sorry if you don't like it.

Industrial Helix wrote:...
Uh, by 3/4 I mean three quarters view. I think that since the map is from completely overhead that the bridges ought to be from complete over head... Whereas a map like Great Lakes, where the upper half is receded into the distance, hence a three quarters view, would work better with three quarters view of bridges... don't hesitate to tell this doesn't make sense if it doesn't.

Oh OK. you mean a perspective view.
Yeh well. that's the same as having 3D mountains on a flat map also.
I think the different kind of bidges will add some character to each map, as i have tried to re-create the different styles of some of the bridges in each city.
So let's see what the rest of the mob think on this one.

As for the photos, I'll link them up on my photobucket account and post a link or something.

That would be cool. thank-you.

its all good man.....just bc I dont like the map does not mean you have to change it

I think GP is the most important part of a map and your maps look pretty good in that
aspect

Terrific opus here, cairnswk. I would say that "Edmonton City" sounds very wrong to me. "City of Edmonton" has the right ring to these Canadian ears, and matches usage on the city's website http://www.edmonton.ca/.

sully800 wrote:Cairns, I'm astounded by your tenacity with mapmaking. This could truly be the biggest undertaking anyone on the site has ever attempted, but I expect no less from you! The maps are off to a great start - I love the consistency of the images (same border and layout) but I also like that you are giving them some different gameplay features.

Do you intend to make maps for all 42 cities? Several already exist in some form (NY, Berlin, Sydney) so they might not be necessary if the ultimate goal is to have a set for tournaments. Of course if the goal is a complete matching set, then that's just 42 more maps to add to your collection

Sully, this is all a present for you of course....LOL.
No i don't want to do 42 cities, but i have 12 conjured up....here are the other six which are not yet finished so i can't release them into this arena yet, and i have to sort gameplay and bonuses and bridges and like things as you know.
London
http://gs160.photobucket.com/groups/t17 ... _V01aS.jpg
Sao Paulo
http://gs172.photobucket.com/groups/w16 ... _V01aS.jpg
Buenos Aires
http://gs169.photobucket.com/groups/u21 ... _V01aS.jpg
Mexico city
http://gs163.photobucket.com/groups/t28 ... _V01aS.jpg
Tokyo
http://gs172.photobucket.com/groups/w32 ... _V01aS.jpg
Lagos
http://gs166.photobucket.com/groups/u93 ... _V01aS.jpg

And i mistakenly did one for Paris
http://gi154.photobucket.com/groups/s26 ... _V01aS.jpg
that can't be used
coz Paris is not on your Classic map.

I also had a look at Delhi. Mumbai, Bangkok, Hong Kong (already mapped), Manilla and Madrid (too hard) but there wasn't too much info on districts for those and much more effort would be required to complete those which i didn't want to work on right now.

I deliberately chose not to do anything USA, but Edmonton, Canada came up as a good simply play option, so that's in the first Pack.

These last 6 will be in Pack 2 later.

So that's the 12 pack (eventually)...project for this year if the BIB accept it.

I think it's important that they have some different gameplay otherwise they might not be seen as being quite unique.
so I am working on those, but thoughts would be appreciated for the first 6 anyways.

Cheers, and glad you like them for the start, i was worried about that from you since you have the Classic on your name.

ender516 wrote:Terrific opus here, cairnswk. I would say that "Edmonton City" sounds very wrong to me. "City of Edmonton" has the right ring to these Canadian ears, and matches usage on the city's website http://www.edmonton.ca/.

No worries. that i can change.

For the mexico city map... You can eliminate 25% of the southern part of the map since that area doesn't contain the city. You're showing all the territory occupied by the county/state called "Distrito Federal", but the city starts almost in the middle.
Check this quick guide for car drivers: http://www.mexicocity.gob.mx/mapas/index.html

fumandomuerte wrote:For the mexico city map... You can eliminate 25% of the southern part of the map since that area doesn't contain the city. You're showing all the territory occupied by the county/state called "Distrito Federal", but the city starts almost in the middle.
Check this quick guide for car drivers: http://www.mexicocity.gob.mx/mapas/index.html

Thanks for that fumandomuerte.
Have you got any other maps that divide up the Distrito Federal into some small regions?