[Abandoned] - Iron Curtain

[cairnswk]

.44.......this is simply an observation of mine...
i'm looking at this map, and really asking myself...."does this map need to be so dark? It is really gloomy"
I know this is what everyone has probably indicated they wanted, but...can't it be taken to a place where there is some "hope" if you know what i mean.

[AndyDufresne]

There is no hope. Darkness abounds.


--Andy

[sully800]

shouldn't you add Joseph Goebbels feb 1945 to the iron curtain quote ?


And perhaps change title to "Behind the Iron Curtain" (sounds more ominous and actually more correct, because you show ALL the regions from berlin to the urals).

How about Just Behind the Iron Curtain, so we finally get a J map.

[iancanton]

By all means, if you have suggestions for the names, bonus regions, etc. — go ahead. I'm not the one for those, and I'm curious to the misspellings.

Some historical/spelling mistakes that I noted. I presume it is 1946..

TERS
1 Gor'kii, not Nizhnij Novgorod
2 Lipetsk, not Liptesk
3 Bahskiria, not Baskortostan
4 Moldovia, not Basarabia (and it just joined USSR, btw)
5 Kalinin, not Kalanin
CONTINENTS
6 Stalingrad, not Volgorad
7 Sverdlovsk, not Svedlovsk
8 Komi, not Kori
9 Arkhangelsk, not Arkhanegelesk

4 was generally known in english as moldavia, not moldovia. other errors include poznari for poznan, lubin for lublin and miskloc for miskolc - i think rj originally used a map where the text was difficult to read! kaliningrad was not a baltic state, but part of russia, so ought to be part of the pink russian bonus zone. moldavia (basarabia) was part of the soviet union, so belongs either as a stand-alone region or with ukraine.

The colors, yeah I see that. But by "Eastern Front" you surely don't mean qwert's map, do you?

Colors, I'm thinking more reds, browns, and grays (and ones that span that color range) — less to no greens and blues.

i do mean qwert's map! the angrier colours that u're proposing sound good.

Impassables, yes I know. Once again, is there a better way to do it? tbh, I'd rather not draw mountains on here, although rivers wouldn't be a bad thing. There's just something that isn't for the realistic land features in my mind.

impassable forests, rivers and patches of ice, perhaps? or assaults limited to road connections only, with roads drawn a bit like the assault routes in pamoa's austerlitz (in which case the rivers would be only for aesthetic effect)?

Would you like those country lines put back?

i'd certainly like the individual countries of east germany, poland, czechoslovakia, hungary, romania and bulgaria to be restored as bonus zones (national borders are the most significant boundaries that exist on almost any political map), with each of these countries having at least three regions. some obscure regions that can be merged include all of the arkhangelsk bonus zone (new region called arkhangelsk) and all of the komi (kori) bonus zone (new region called komi), with surgut becoming part of khantia-mansia (which, with tyumen and yamalia, will make up the tyumen bonus zone). in the west, new regions for dresden, brno and pecs are possible.

throughout the map, we must decide whether to use english-language names, like moscow, or native names, like l'viv.

rather than 96, i think an 88-region map will suit our purposes better, so that the first-turn advantage for player 1 in 2v2 (24 of 96 regions to start for player 1, but almost certainly 23 or fewer for player 2) is not quite so easily translated into a smaller deployment for player 2. gameplay-wise, it makes sense for moscow to be in a different bonus zone from leningrad, so that there are some smaller bonus zones in the middle of the map.

here are links to the perry-casteneda maps that give a good guide to the soviet union and u'll be able to see where it makes sense to merge regions. an advantage of drawing russia is that, since it has very few natural obstacles in its heartland, u can move some of the major cities to where they fit (as long as the connections to neighbouring regions are correct) without the displacement being too obvious, instead of either trying to crush the names into small spaces or eliminating some major cities completely just because they're close to other major cities.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth.html
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwe ... n_1974.jpg

I feel like Moscow is an important territory, from reading the Quote, so i think that it would be cool if you did something special, like a +1 or something

moscow was certainly the most important place on the map, though whether we give a bonus for it depends on how much we want to veer away from classic gameplay. perhaps some of moscow's satellite towns can be included if there is room, to be combined as a greater moscow bonus (obviously,their distance from moscow - and those of existing regions too - have to be exaggerated for our purposes).

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwe ... a_1978.jpg

ian.

[the.killing.44]

An update guys (no pun intended — it's not a true graphical update):

I've been hell-blown busy lately, but have two versions close to ready (per ian's comment): the first with bold, dark red through black colors; the second more of a pastel but still red through black colors, with some browns in there. Not sure which I like best — I'll probably let a vote decide.

.44

[captainwalrus]

[cough] We were promised an update [/cough]

[the.killing.44]

You were indeed … though you quote when you cough?

REV. 12
July 2nd Updates

• New Color Scheme
• Different Bonus Setup
• Some more impassable placements

Rev. 13 To-Dos

• New Impassables (rivers most likely)
• Minimap Bonus Names
• …

We're at 92 territories. Lotsa small bonuses on the sides and some scattered middle-to-big ones in the middle. Will code 2-tert bonus, or maybe one of them neutral? Discuss

Click image to enlarge.

.44

[Optimus Prime]

Not a fan of the color scheme used in the map posted above. It's too much in my opinion. Looked far better previously.

[captainwalrus]

Not a fan of the color scheme used in the map posted above. It's too much in my opinion. Looked far better previously.

I dissagree. Mabey this is a little too much, but the old version seems not enough. This is more agressive and hard which is what I think of they soviet union as.

[Tisha]

the dark looked a bit better then pinkish..

[iancanton]

the most obvious change is the colour scheme: much more reminiscent of the harshness of the soviet regime than the soft pastels we had previously. not everyone likes the result, so some more experimentation is needed.

i'd like the grey and brown bonus zones on the extreme right (excluding berezniki) to merge. we have a lot of tiny bonus zones at the edges of the map (which forces players to hide in the outer areas in multi-player games - already a tendency in such games) and, while the western ones are necessary because of international political borders, these two zones have in common the fact that they are east of the ural mountains and are therefore part of asian russia. berezniki doesn't fit there and can go in the dark brown bonus zone.

http://www.russiasregions.com/Urals_Fed ... trict.html

hungary needs miskolc (not miskloc) to be coded as an underlying neutral when start positions are done (this disappears for 2-player games). i prefer to put a fixed starting neutral on miskolc for all games, so that we can use start positions for 4-player games, but i recognise that many players and mapmakers alike avoid fixed neutrals like the plague.

moldavia was one of the 15 union republics of the ussr, not part of romania. politically, it ought to be a single-region bonus that starts neutral. if u're strongly opposed to this, then lump it in with ukraine, not romania: at least u didn't have to cross an international border to reach ukraine.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/ency ... ldova.html

the elongated moskva region looks very strange. i suggest splitting it into moskva in the east and smolensk in the west. smolensk is a well-known city that saw more than it's fair share of action during world war 2.

http://www.theeasternfront.co.uk/Battle ... olensk.htm

after miskolc is coded as neutral and smolensk region is added, there will be 92 regions that are not coded neutral in games of 3 or more players, the same as at present.

the big red moskva bonus zone in the middle will be virtually impossible to hold, so i suspect that it will be largely ignored in favour of the small bonuses. try splitting it into a northern bonus (leningrad) and a southern bonus (moskva).

the bit about kaliningrad being part of the moskva bonus looks as if it fits into the gap in the minimap, where there's maybe less chance of it being overlooked than in its current position.

ian.

[the.killing.44]

Click image to enlarge.

July 9th Updates

• New Bonus Set-up
• Some starting neutrals

Rev. 14 To-Do List

• Bonus Names
• ?

.44

[RjBeals]

are you going to put the bonus region names back in the mini-map?

Also - the colors look hideous to me.

[WidowMakers]

are you going to put the bonus region names back in the mini-map?

The names are in the TO DO list

[iancanton]

the bonus zones are now looking more playable! the grey one, byelorussia, can be adjusted so that vitebsk adjoins gomel, so that the loss of minsk isn't disastrous for the holder of that bonus. swap moskva with smolensk: smolensk is supposed to be west of moskva. make kaliningrad redder on both the main map and minimap to match moskva.

ian.

[The Neon Peon]

Please change the title font, or at least stop using backwards letters.

[iancanton]

good point: pepperonibread used a backward N in his soviet union map, so a backward N here isn't very original!

ian.

[danfrank]

The caption by winston churchill is kind of irrelevant to the map. I thought that in order to make it relevant, moscow should be added along with capitals in each bonus region.. Then you can collect a bonus for holding moscow and a certain number of other capitals .. Other than that i look forward to seeing this map in action

[MrBenn]

the.killing.44 has requested that this map be put on vacation.

[recycled]

[Fireside Poet]

Greatest ... vapormap ... ever.

[desau13]

Hi all,

This is the creator of LandGrab. Recently this map has shown up on LandGrab. I suspect this was done without the author's (the.killing.44?) approval. Can someone here confirm or deny? I'll take the map down ASAP once I hear.

Thanks,
-d

[the.killing.44]

Hi all,

This is the creator of LandGrab. Recently this map has shown up on LandGrab. I suspect this was done without the author's (the.killing.44?) approval. Can someone here confirm or deny? I'll take the map down ASAP once I hear.

Thanks,
-d

No approval from me, and I can guarantee none from the older maker, RjBeals.

Thanks for posting and making sure that there was no approval. Good to know you're on top of your maps, and thanks in advance for taking it down.

[desau13]

Thanks for the reply - I'll take it down now.

[natty dread]

Oh boy... so they're ripping off unfinished maps now too?

Just in case anyone ever clones my Nordic map: no I didn't give permission...

[captainwalrus]

Just in case anyone ever clones my Nordic map: no I didn't give permission...

I don't think you have much worry about that yet.