Awesome post RJ. I have some answers to your suggestions and really like most of them. There was a method to my madness and I can explain some of that in my next post. Its a bit late.. so I am headed to bed..but wanted you to know that I really appreciate that suggestions and will reply ASAP!
I really like this map, I have just two minor suggestions. There are some 4 corner spots, which can make gameplay a little confusing. For example, is it possible to go from the deck to the pad? (in the southern area of the map). You have a similar problem in the north east section, between daemia, anarki, sixth, and YA 2. I would suggest either slightly moving the borders to eliminate this problem, or putting a wall on the corner just to clarify the separation and movement options.
A few comments on the bonus icons: - You have two different bonus values listed for the RA-Mega combination. - Do the shards territories give one bonus or two? It's strange that there are only two hexagons where the bonus values are listed but for in each shards territory. - The portal icon kind of looks like it includes a blue circle bonus. You might want to differentiate them more
Your continents are all highly connected -- they take a lot of territories to defend and they must defend from many places. I ran them through a bonus calculator and these are the estimated results, compared to the bonuses they currently give (including, if applicable, the bonus icon inside them):
Quad: 5 (you give 4) Battle Grounds: 5 (you give 4) Apocalypse Void: 10 (you give 7) Legion: 7 (you give 4) Camping Grounds: 8 (you give 7) Forgotten Place: 4 (you give 4) Alien Nation: 6 (you give 3) Training Grounds: 6 (you give 5) Hells Gate: 7 (you give 4) Temple of Retribution: 9 (you give 5)
You could make the bonuses higher, or make the continents take fewer territories to defend. Or you can leave things the way they are, but from a gameplay perspective, that wouldn't be optimal.
Finally, make sure that 888 army numbers can fit on every territory in the map, even when it's reduced to small size (Maximum 600hx630w; usually about 75% of large size).
Ty so much. I will go over all of that and start work on some tweaks. I am confused about the Bonus thing.. how were you able to find those numbers and how does it calculate values?
There are bonus calculators, which are based on a formula which calculates the bonus value based on territory count, number of borders, number of adjacent bonus areas, etc. They can be found on the foundry discussion subforum.
Anyway, wit has a point, you need to add some impassables to reduce the amount of borders for the bonus areas. Ideal would be to have several easily defendable areas, and a few harder to defend areas that give higher bonus...
Thank you for the information on the Bonus calculator. I will start tweaking some of that now and if you are able to run it through again..that would be great. Or.. I guess I can just do it myself now..lol.
Also.. to address the graphical issues.
The font can and will be cleaned up even more.
I am NOT using Photoshop. Illustrator is my design software of choice. so.. with that being said, I do not have this map set up in Layers.
I stuck with the clean and bright colors to make things a bit easier for myself for my first map. I do like the idea of adding a bit of grunge to the map, but without layers I think it would take me a lot more work then necessary.
I will add some drop shadows to the icons for sure.
As for the Quad area.. in the game of Quake, the quad is a light blue.. so I went with that color.
Let me start on a few of these things and you guys keep on me about other stuff. I want to finish this map and get it to the next level for sure!
I feel much more comfortable in Illustrator and I really do not have plans to grunge up the map. I realize that the game of Quake is more grungy..but I want this to just be a map.. about Quake with some of the Quake ideas in it. Will I not be able to add the xml code to it, if its not in layers? I can change about anything that is needed to it now without the layers. Let me know please.
Trust me: you'll be doing lots of graphical changes on the map, after you move on to the graphics workshop. Everything will be a 100 times easier if you use layers. You should at least have the background, borders, text and icons each in separate layers...
you do not need layers if working in ill. However - I think once you get the map where you like it - you should probably export to Photoshop to do final touches.
I did plan on porting it to PS once it was where I liked it. I just want to see it move forward. I understand there is a lot of 'opinion' on the graphical stuff and I am all about getting input and looking to improve but right now.. my opinion is that this map is more graphically pleasing then about 1/3 of the maps that are out there. How some of the maps passed the test are beyond me. I have to squint to see some of the stuff and colors are so whacked that its annoying to even play the map.
As far as making the regions more similar in size.. I guess that does not make much sense to me. Texas is much bigger then Rhode Island? I do not want the map to look uniform.. I want some depth and realism to it.... as a map.. not as a picture of the actual land mass.
As I continue to work on other maps and such.. I want to be able to do some of those neat tricks and such to really give a map depth.. but my first attempt is to basically make a map that looks like a map..
You're right in saying that this map is one of the most aesthetically pleasing in the foundry right now - I have absolutely no concerns that you'll be able to raise the bar in due course.
In the meantime, the real issue will be to limit some of the connectedness of things - with the England map, I deliberately chose the path of complete openness, and am not too happy with how the end result plays out. In part this may be because I had to compromise on how the bonuses worked; but I would definitely urge you to try and close things up a little more; perhaps with the addition of mountains, walls, craters, burnt out aircraft etc - anything that would fit with the quake environment.
PB: 2661 | He's blue...If he were green he would die | No mod would be stupid enough to do that
Guys.. I just went back and re-read what I last posted.. wow I sounded like a complete DB.. sorry about that. I should have put my words better in trying to explain why I chose to keep things real clean and simple. The oddity about me is that I am a graphic designer/artist and a math guy.. so I always have those 2 things pulling on me. I want the map to be really artistic and whatnot.. but at same time.. I love maps.. just good ol'fashion paper maps.. with legends on them..numbers.. so on. I know.. odd.
Anyway.. I really do appreciate all of the input and I will get to work on most all of it this weekend. Its great to have this kinda of help available on projects like this.
It would be helpful to post an update to the end of the map thread as well; it helps to see what has changed between different versions, and is easier to see if concerns have been considered etc
PB: 2661 | He's blue...If he were green he would die | No mod would be stupid enough to do that
Alas! It would appear that development of this map has stalled. If the mapmaker wants to continue with the map, then one of the Foundry Moderators will be able to help put the thread back into the Foundry system, after an update has been made.
