The Milky Way [10/12] V6 Pg3

[Boler]

Map Name: The Milky Way
Mapmaker(s): Boler
Number of Territories: 60
Special Features: One Way Attacks, Killer Neutrals, maybe auto deployment?
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: The smallest scale map yet, and the fact that we live here.

Map Image:

Click image to enlarge.

Hello everyone! You might remember me from the last time I tried to make a map, also space themed, but on a smaller scale than this. (viewtopic.php?f=583&t=171261)

This is fairly accurate map of our home galaxy, the Milky Way (we live in that green army circle with a yellowish center directly below the center of the galaxy). Every one of the spiral arms is a bonus region, and in the center is a black hole (which resets to 1 neutral every turn).
The red arrows are one-ways that represent the gravity of the galaxy, as all the arrows move towards the center. Since this creates the problem that it would be very difficult to attack outwards from the center of the galaxy, I decided that maybe the black hole in the center could one-way attack all the habited planets, which are represented with yellow shading (this represents the teleportation or dimension warping properties some people say black holes might have, not very scientific, but it's fine for CC). Maybe the habited planets can have a +1 auto deploy.

I haven't worked on a legend because I wanted some input before I go further. Is this map a good idea? What should the legend look like? etc.

Bonus Regions are as follows, clockwise from the Sagittarius Arm:

Sagittarius Arm - Dark Brown - 10 Terits
Perseus Arm - Tan - 15 Terits
Far Outer Arm - Dark Blue - 5 Terits
Outer Arm - Blue - 5 Terits
Centaurus Arm - Yellowish - 12 Terits

There are also a few arms that are closer to the inside of the galaxy.

Orion Spur - Green - 3 Terits (Home)
Norma Arm - Light Blue - 5 Terits
Far 3KPC Arm - Indigo - 2 Terits
Near 3KPC Arm - Purple - 2 Terits

[greenoaks]

i would like to see a map of the Milky Way

[koontz1973]

i would like to see a map of the Milky Way

Here you go then:


Boler, this might be fun, I cannot really tell till you provide more information. Get the usual things on, legend, names, rules, bonuses and then I can give better feedback.

koontz

[Boler]

Boler, this might be fun, I cannot really tell till you provide more information. Get the usual things on, legend, names, rules, bonuses and then I can give better feedback.
koontz

Fair enough, I'll have it done in a few days.

[Boler]

Version 2:

Click image to enlarge.

Here's version 2. I put together a simple title and legend, moved the galaxy up a bit, and decided on what I think would work as a good bonus structure for this map.

It's basically the same as the Route 66 concept, except there's no longer just one route. Every one of the spiral arms will give you that bonus, and more besides from the habitable planets (not very creative I know, but hey, if it works...)

I haven't named the territories yet, but I'm thinking of the format:

Habitable planets are given names such as Earth, Peraxus, Eyverrat, etc.

Non habitable terits are simply named Pe1, Pe2, Pe3, along the Perseus arm, and Or1, Or2, Or3, along the Orion arm, etc.

[koontz1973]

Going to move this into the drafting room Boler.

I am liking the look of this map, but you know what, circles for planets are not nice. Draw some planets in. Do not copy and paste planets all over the place, draw a different one for each territ, bit make them the same. So blue/green earth type planets for one arm, orange gas giants for another, rings for another. So on and so on.

[Boler]

Nice!

I am liking the look of this map, but you know what, circles for planets are not nice. Draw some planets in. Do not copy and paste planets all over the place, draw a different one for each territ, bit make them the same. So blue/green earth type planets for one arm, orange gas giants for another, rings for another. So on and so on.

This is a really cool idea.

I'll probably leave the non-habitable zones as they are, considering they are zones, not planets, but for the habitable planets, it's a great idea.

Will hopefully get around to updating it in the next few days.

In the mean time, comments are always welcome!

[koontz1973]

In the mean time, comments are always welcome!

Get rid of the arrows. Add a spaceship with a trail or a comet with a tail.

[Domination_44]

Looks really awesome

[Boler]

Looks really awesome

Glad you like it!

[Boler]

Version 3:

Click image to enlarge.

So, this version I added name tags for all the terits, and started making planets. (I finished the ones in the Orion arm and the Norma arm.)

But I'm starting to realize that when I put in the 88s, the planets will shrink between the small version and the large version, but the 88s won't, so the planets will be too small for them. Not sure what to do about this, make the planets slightly larger? Or maybe keep them the same size between large and small?

The Orion arm planets are Earth-like
The Norma arm planets are mostly water
Outer Arm - ?
Far Outer Arm - Dark, sort of evil looking cold planets
Centaurus Arm - Desert worlds
Sagittarius Arm - Rocky, maybe volcanic planets
Perseus Arm - ? with rings

[koontz1973]

Make sure you make the planets similar enough so the bonuses are easy to spot. Also, have the ones at the bottom of the screen twice the size of the ones at the back. So top ones can stay this size, and the bottom ones doubled. Have the ones in between scaling down in size. You should be able to fit the planets into the small map without having to scale them down later on.

[generalhead]

Cool concept
The planets are definitely making the map look better

[Boler]

Sorry the next version's taking a while.

I wasn't very happy with the planets I was making (it was difficult to tell what arm they belonged to) so I deleted a lot of them and am re-starting.

Should hopefully get another version up in a week or so.

[Boler]

Version 4:

Click image to enlarge.

Didn't take as long as I expected.

Anyway, here is the next version! I made all the planets, and I think it's easy enough to tell which arm they belong to now. I didn't get around to changing the one-ways into something else, but I'll probably get around to it next version.

Leave feedback!

[koontz1973]

OK, what are the territs that have no planet?

Have you thought about adding a couple of suns in as killer neutrals? Black holes as passages from one side of the board to the other?

Vekoqu looks bigger than Balkana. Remember to size each planet according to where they are on the map.

[Boler]

OK, what are the territs that have no planet?

Terits that have no planet are "sectors" rather than planets.
e.g. They are large uninhabited areas.

Have you thought about adding a couple of suns in as killer neutrals? Black holes as passages from one side of the board to the other?

Suns doesn't really make sense, considering every single pixel probably contains thousands of "suns"

The black terit in the very center of the galaxy is a black hole. It one way attacks all habited planets and reverts to 1 neutral.

Vekoqu looks bigger than Balkana. Remember to size each planet according to where they are on the map.

Balkana is actually bigger than Vekoqx. Vekoqx just looks bigger because it has a massive ring system (which I will definatly scale down next update).

[koontz1973]

Yes, just trying to figure out a why to give you an extra layer of game play with the suns. So if not suns, how about a nebula for the killers?

[Boler]

Yes, just trying to figure out a why to give you an extra layer of game play with the suns. So if not suns, how about a nebula for the killers?

Maybe...

A problem with killer neutrals is that you can't incorporate them as bonus zones. Therefore, they would have to be between arms or something to use them with the current "Route 66" bonus structure.

I can maybe see room for one or two more layers of special gameplay, but I'd like to keep this map reasonably simple, as it is a generic map with the generic title of "The Milky Way" rather than say, "The Milky Way, the War of 3046" which would have lots of special game play aspects.

However, if more people agree with you, koontz, I can still make the map more interesting with things of that sort (supernovas, bonuses that come with certain planets, etc.).

[greenoaks]

i am in favour of keeping it simple, along the lines of Route 66

[generalhead]

Get rid of the arrows. Add a spaceship with a trail or a comet with a tail.

I agree with this.

[Boler]

Version 5:

Click image to enlarge.

Smallish update.

I removed all the arrows and replaced them with spaceships with trails behind them. I also updated the legend to show the new planets and one-ways.

[greenoaks]

why are you using Habited instead of Inhabited ?

[koontz1973]

Some things.
The map text seems to be two different fonts or styles of font, please make the same.
Go to Dafont and see if you can find a better text for the legend. The one you have is very plain and boring. A better title font needs to be found.

Blue text on black is hard to see. Can you put a glow around the text. Lastly, like the planets, give the text a slight degree of size difference. So again, top smaller, bottom bigger. Same effect can be done for the legend. Think star wars opening.

[Boler]

why are you using Habited instead of Inhabited ?

A mistake.

Will fix next update.

Some things.
The map text seems to be two different fonts or styles of font, please make the same.
Go to Dafont and see if you can find a better text for the legend. The one you have is very plain and boring. A better title font needs to be found.

Blue text on black is hard to see. Can you put a glow around the text. Lastly, like the planets, give the text a slight degree of size difference. So again, top smaller, bottom bigger. Same effect can be done for the legend. Think star wars opening.

Everything you said sounds good. I'll work on them for the next update.