Bill of Rights (ex. Torn Parchment) [Vacation]

[Samus]

Okay, I really the regions and connections now. I think that's pretty much worked out. This will play similar to the British Isles map, which is one of my favorite maps.

For the bonuses, I still think +4 for Central. Also, I think +3 was good for Upper Right. Even though it's 7 territories, it only has 2 borders, both of which are to just one other region. And despite the number of borders, Upper Central should be +3.

Try to imagine a team game with the bonuses you have where one of the teams gets the 3 top right regions. Assuming they also own the top Lower Right territory, that's +15 for only 19 territories and only 2 defense points! Yikes! I'm okay with making Upper Central slightly undervalued on its own, only if you own one of the bordering regions. Besides, if you own Upper Right, what else are you going to take?


The impassable borders are pretty good. The Upper Central one is great, but perhaps in Central Left make it slightly more clear that the territory with the word "Left" in it connects with the one above it.

[oaktown]

Yeh I agree, your skills have come on a lot. Might it not be good to apply those to one of the ideas in the ideas thread? A recognised theme rather than just a made up map. Those tend to be infinitely more popular.

I agree with this assessment 100%. The design elements you are trying to highlight here could certainly be put to use on any of the many great ideas that designers with less photoshop experience (such as myself) have been intimidated by.

As for this map, it looks fabulous. But there's really nothing unique about the game play that would make somebody want to play it over an existing map of something I recognize.

[DiM]

here are the modifications, Samus:

[DiM]

Yeh I agree, your skills have come on a lot. Might it not be good to apply those to one of the ideas in the ideas thread? A recognised theme rather than just a made up map. Those tend to be infinitely more popular.

I agree with this assessment 100%. The design elements you are trying to highlight here could certainly be put to use on any of the many great ideas that designers with less photoshop experience (such as myself) have been intimidated by.

As for this map, it looks fabulous. But there's really nothing unique about the game play that would make somebody want to play it over an existing map of something I recognize.

point me to an idea and i'll look at it. and you have a lot of xp with image editing, your map looks great, don't be shy.
as i told Guiscard, i plan on doing a brain map and a termitarium map after this one.

the problem is free time. for the next 2-3 days i won't be able to do anything.

[Qwert]

Wauuu, im a creator of new movment, Maps with realistic object on.

[Samus]

Excellent, I can't see anything else that needs to be changed with the regions. But every time I say that, I think of something else, so maybe I'll come up with more suggestions later.


As far as it being "unique," I think the tattered parchment idea is fine. The uniqueness is that there are currently only 2 maps with more than 48 countries, and this map would play very different from either of them. I think this map will get a lot of play just for that reason.

[Guiscard]

Don't worry about time. maps take more than 2-3 days.

I think this map would lend itself to some kind of original idea not in the ideas thread, to be honest.

Perhaps you could keep with the parchment theme and maybe do a document like the Consitution or the Magna Carter? The 10 Amendments could be continents.

I must say I do really like the feel of this map. Visually it is gorgeous do far. QUite some way from the termite thing

[WidowMakers]

What if the "army circles" where blobs of ink. It would be unique. Also, in regards to the context of the paper. What if the paper was a torn treasure map. Different possible "x" marks the spots on each part. Owning all of them is much higher bonus. The map would have water and land, just torn to divide up the map and make the "continents"

Another off-the-wall idea. What if the map was torn but the pieces were not in the correct place. It would be a complete map but scrambled. Game play would require you to assemble the map in your head to make sure you understood the layout before playing. As far as XML goes, the map would look like this. Now change the picture to switch Upper Left and Lower Right and so on. A player would need to use the markings on each piece to understand where he/she could move. Just an idea. Sort of a puzzle map.

[DiM]

Don't worry about time. maps take more than 2-3 days.

I think this map would lend itself to some kind of original idea not in the ideas thread, to be honest.

Perhaps you could keep with the parchment theme and maybe do a document like the Consitution or the Magna Carter? The 10 Amendments could be continents.

I must say I do really like the feel of this map. Visually it is gorgeous do far. QUite some way from the termite thing

yeah i know it takes even months to complete but i'm just a bit upset because i put a lot of updates in a short time and now i have to take a 2-3 day break.

isn't 10 continents a bit too much?? i'll give a try and do it to see what comes up. also i'll do what widow says and see what's better.

PS: the termite thing will look good one day. i like that idea and i'll transform it.

[DiM]

What if the "army circles" where blobs of ink. It would be unique. Also, in regards to the context of the paper. What if the paper was a torn treasure map. Different possible "x" marks the spots on each part. Owning all of them is much higher bonus. The map would have water and land, just torn to divide up the map and make the "continents"

Another off-the-wall idea. What if the map was torn but the pieces were not in the correct place. It would be a complete map but scrambled. Game play would require you to assemble the map in your head to make sure you understood the layout before playing. As far as XML goes, the map would look like this. Now change the picture to switch Upper Left and Lower Right and so on. A player would need to use the markings on each piece to understand where he/she could move. Just an idea. Sort of a puzzle map.

i tried making connections as traces of ink but they did not look too good. i could not find a satisfactory texture maybe the blobs will look good though.

i like the idea with the map and that the pieces are scramble but i did not know it could be possible.
thinking how it should look and where you could attack is really nice and puts your imagination to work but without tracing the actual connections many people will complain that thay were sure this goes here and that goes there and in fact is not and this would spoil the gameplay. and if i do trace the conections on the map then there's no fun because it's just a mixed up image with lots of conenctions going everywhere that just clutter the map.
i'll try it though.

[DiM]

Excellent, I can't see anything else that needs to be changed with the regions. But every time I say that, I think of something else, so maybe I'll come up with more suggestions later.


As far as it being "unique," I think the tattered parchment idea is fine. The uniqueness is that there are currently only 2 maps with more than 48 countries, and this map would play very different from either of them. I think this map will get a lot of play just for that reason.

any suggestion is welcomed. thanks for everything you've done so far.

[DiM]

as i said before i have 2-3 full days and i won't be able to do anything at all so i just added a poll and after those 2-3 days i think enough people will share their opinion on the map. please vote.

@widowmakers here is something i did in 5 minutes with your idea of a treasure map. i just took the first googled image and explored the possibilities.

here it is unscrambled and scrambled. just a basic map.
in the scrambled one it's really hard to tell the attack routes and as i said drawing each one around the map really clutters the image.

unscrambled:


scrambled:



ofcourse they suck they were doner in 5 minutes with the first google image i found. with better search and more time it has potential but at the moment i too prefer the parchemt map. that's why i put the poll. in

[Wisse]

nah.. keep the old one, this one sucks

[DiM]

nah.. keep the old one, this one sucks

lol i edited the previous post instead of replying.

ofcourse they suck they were done in 5 minutes with the first google image i found. with better search and more time spent on it has potential but at the moment i too prefer the parchement map. that's why i put the poll in.

man am i tired. after an 9 hour training today now i have to go to work (i work nights only). i'm beat.

[Captain Crash]

Beautiful graphics DiM!

BelJoDoe (of the CC Magic map) could learn a thing or two!

What a map looks like is what gets me to play again and again. So keep up the good work!

[fluffybunnykins]

I like the idea of dripped wax somewhere on the map. I was thinking it myself as I caught up with the comments, and noticed that someone mentioned it... candle wax or spilt sealing wax...
To me, the army placement thingies just look out of place. It's like the bloke is also a contact lens dealer and dropped some on the map.
As for conectors, maybe the map could be resting on a blotting pad, rather than a wooden surface, then you could add scratchy, inky conection lines, as if they'd been done with that there quill he left lying there! (big blob of ink under the quill as well??? just for decoration???) Bonuses and continent names could then just be written on the blotter in a hand-written style, which might enhance the feel of the story and remove the need for the incongruous floating scroll.
The continents could be different paper types, or words for paper in different languages. Vellum, Bond, Papyrus, Parchment, Amatl, Bast, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper for where I got those last two!) Wove, Papel, Papier, Carta, etc, etc...

I like the rips!

[boberz]

need to make everything more readable

[Samus]

Predictably, I've got a few more tweaks.

After conferring with my "strategy lab," we think you should find some way to connect the tips of lower right and upper right. Obviously this will be tough to do with the quill where it is.

Upper Left needs another territory to bring it in line with Upper Right. Just split the top left territory into two.

Central should have 1 country removed, bringing it down to 4 countries, and the right connection to Upper Central removed. Given that you can take the Lower Right territory to merge 2 points into one, we can basically treat this like a region with 5 territories and 2 borders. Now it's the same as lower left and also worth +2. This also makes Upper Central slightly easier to hold for the +3 bonus.


I should also tell you that you'll probably want to move Lower Left a little bit to the left, just because you'll have problems when you start to put territory names in there.


I'm not sure the army shadows are needed given the parchment color, you should see what the numbers look like without them.


I'm still a fan of the parchment theme, I think it's good. Just need to figure out what it's a parchment of.

[Enigma]

i really like the design but im not sure i would want to play it many times. there isnt really much to capture interest. the graphics are so nice- is there anything that could be added to make it take the jump from pretty to playable?

[DiM]

i'm at work now and i have some spare time. i downloaded fireworks 8 trial version to do some more editing but i don't have admin rights on the computer and i can't install it. how can i bypass this problem. it would be a shame to just sit around for 2-3 hours without doing some editing.
i really like the ideas posted and i'm in an artistic mood

[DiM]

I like the idea of dripped wax somewhere on the map. I was thinking it myself as I caught up with the comments, and noticed that someone mentioned it... candle wax or spilt sealing wax...
To me, the army placement thingies just look out of place. It's like the bloke is also a contact lens dealer and dropped some on the map.
As for conectors, maybe the map could be resting on a blotting pad, rather than a wooden surface, then you could add scratchy, inky conection lines, as if they'd been done with that there quill he left lying there! (big blob of ink under the quill as well??? just for decoration???) Bonuses and continent names could then just be written on the blotter in a hand-written style, which might enhance the feel of the story and remove the need for the incongruous floating scroll.
The continents could be different paper types, or words for paper in different languages. Vellum, Bond, Papyrus, Parchment, Amatl, Bast, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper for where I got those last two!) Wove, Papel, Papier, Carta, etc, etc...

I like the rips!

i agree with the army blobs. somehow i thought they were needed but i see there are other maps that don't have blobs. i'll remove them.
the wax will be added for decorative reasons.
really good idea with the blotting pad. don't know if they existed in those ages but it would definetly help this map. connectors and names written with the quill are perfect.
putting these modifications is top priority. thanks

[DiM]

Beautiful graphics DiM!

BelJoDoe (of the CC Magic map) could learn a thing or two!

What a map looks like is what gets me to play again and again. So keep up the good work!

10x for the appreciation. hopefully it will look much better in the end and you'll play it again and again and again and again ....

[DiM]

need to make everything more readable

exactly what's hard to read? the legend and continent names will be gone after i implement fluffybunnykins' idea with the blotting pad so i guess this will solve your problem.

if you're talking about the parchment text then i'll have to dissappoint you, that's supposedto be hard to read as it is just for decorative reasons.

[DiM]

i really like the design but im not sure i would want to play it many times. there isnt really much to capture interest. the graphics are so nice- is there anything that could be added to make it take the jump from pretty to playable?

i constantly get this thing with people not playing it cause it has no theme. why is that??

this has a theme. it's a torn parchment. why do people play the other maps? the basic principle of the gameplay is the same. why would a USA map be played more then a fictional map??

if the fictional map offered better gameplay i would definitely chose it.

as far as the graphics go i want the map to look nice but i don't reall need a theme or a certain real location to rely to. but that's probably just me

[DiM]

Predictably, I've got a few more tweaks.

After conferring with my "strategy lab," we think you should find some way to connect the tips of lower right and upper right. Obviously this will be tough to do with the quill where it is.

Upper Left needs another territory to bring it in line with Upper Right. Just split the top left territory into two.

Central should have 1 country removed, bringing it down to 4 countries, and the right connection to Upper Central removed. Given that you can take the Lower Right territory to merge 2 points into one, we can basically treat this like a region with 5 territories and 2 borders. Now it's the same as lower left and also worth +2. This also makes Upper Central slightly easier to hold for the +3 bonus.


I should also tell you that you'll probably want to move Lower Left a little bit to the left, just because you'll have problems when you start to put territory names in there.


I'm not sure the army shadows are needed given the parchment color, you should see what the numbers look like without them.


I'm still a fan of the parchment theme, I think it's good. Just need to figure out what it's a parchment of.

i can make these modifications but not right now since i don't have admin rights to instal firewoks at work

oh, and the parchment is from Caesar's De Bello Gallico. read the text on the parchment