Dear Drops - v10 update pg2 (changable vote)

[crosseout]

Dear Drops - Resource Conflict


Overview statistics:
Map Title: Dear Drops
Mapmaker: crosseout
6 Regions
79 Territories
Bonuses: +38 and -26
Gameplay: No region bonuses, bonuses are based on elected territories, other than that: standard.
Size: Large: 800px × 762; Small 630px × 600px (12% difference)

Territory/Region statistics:
Mnapketi - 10
Max possible bonus: +7
Uarenge - 16
Max possible bonus: +11
Ketenga - 10
Max possible bonus: +5
Ghisulu - 16
Max possible bonus: +11
Whasina - 9
Max possible bonus: +4
Badlands - 26
Max possible bonus: -26

The badlands that are placed wherever there is no possible source of water have negative impacts on the bonus to level out the large possible bonuses of the other regions.


Setting
A fictious country somewhere near Africa where local warlords are engaging in civil war to obtain the most valuable resource left on earth, water, in order to control the country.

Objective
Seize all resources

Region bonuses
There will be no bonuses for holding regions because the resources are whats important. Since the resources are found concentrated around the lakes, bonusregions will form naturally.

Neutrals
I dont know how neutrals affects the game. Can people start in territories where there are neutrals, or do I have to leave some territories without neutrals?
I have decided to have 5 neutrals in territories with 2 water drops, and 3 neutrals in territories with 1 water drop. The badlands (blood drops) will have no neutrals at all. The deltas and lake territories will have 1-2 neutrals pending on strategic positioning.

Features
- 1 Bonus point for every territory with clean water in order to simulate the gathering around the water.

- Water diminishes in quality as it passes territories and in deltas (gets muddied up).

- Every territory without water-resources will have a negative impact (-1 bonus) on the territory to simulate starvation/dehydration.

- Badlands - If you want to move to a territory that lacks water, you must do so from a territory that has water. Once you are on the territory without water, you may not move your armies further into the badlands, if you are going to move them, they must be moved to another territory with water (or where they came from)

Salty lakes - Lakes are not water resources, they are too salty.

- Deltas - The water in the deltas are of poor quality, a bit too salty and a bit too muddy, but still drinkable. This means that territories with deltas (unless with source of the river) don't loose any bonus nor get any bonus.

Poison - Owners of rivers may poison the river (bombardment), but obviously only the territory(ies) the river runs down through.


work done
- setting
- Objective
- Terrain
- Region and territory labels
- ROE (rules of engagement)
- Legend
- Resource placement
- Boarder divisions


work left
- Altering map from feedback
- Altering regions/territories from feedback
- Balancing resources/strategic territories from feedback
- Altering bonuses/bonus system from feedback
- Altering legibility based on feedback
- writing the xml

Please give feedback on specifics
- Graphics
- Legibility
- Colorblindnessfriendly
- Resourcesystem
- Territory layout
- Strategic advantages/disadvantages
- Aesthetics
- Level of fun(;
(Thanks)

Suggestions
- Too many bonuses on single territories will loose the effect of having regions. Max bonus per territory is being changed to 2, and 1 will be the most common. There are no region bonuses because the territories with resources makes up regions.
- Distinguish between regions. Please explain, with color or something? I'm not going to use the classical regions though...
- Rivers and boarders look too similar. Changed
- The grid based boarders are problematic. Grid aborted
- clearer boarders coming right up

Click image to enlarge.

Boarder layout, would like feedback on it(;

Click image to enlarge.

versions
v1: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... exture.JPG
v2: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... rgeMap.jpg
v3: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v3.jpg
v4: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v4.jpg
v5: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v5.jpg
v6:
- s01 grid: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... /v6s01.jpg
- s02: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... /v6s02.jpg
v7: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v7.jpg
v8: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v8.jpg
v9: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v9.jpg
v10 : http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/v10.jpg

[the.killing.44]

[samuelc812]

Looks strange and way too big, a Large is 840 x 800 px at the maximum, but on a smaller scale with some more thought put into what the heck it is going to be, then it could become good

[the.killing.44]

I think he meant just as a bit of the terrain he was going to use, not necessarily the continent shapes, to which I applaud

[crosseout]

thanks.
I make the terrains big and then scale it down later so that it looks better. obviously there would be boarders and stuff like that, I was just wondering if the graphics are good, or if you guys like the "paper-map" style better?

[the.killing.44]

I was just wondering if the graphics are good, or if you guys like the "paper-map" style better?

IMO depends on the map.

[crosseout]

v2: http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... drops1.jpg


I'm not sure whats missing in terms of xml stuff that goes on the map, but Im sure you guys can help with that.

I am now writing the XML, and will be posting it soon.

Basically the map is a struggle in a fictious country somewhere around africa. There are several warlords who tries to gain control over the resources. The victory conditions are to take every territory with a resource. Since the water quality diminishes as it is used, there will be less water resources for every territory the rivers run through. Hence there will also be less neutrals guarding their water resources. The oil resources are not guarded at all since the neutral locals really just want the water... The territories that only have the delta (not the source) will only be granted 1 water resource, not necessarily because of the amount of earlier usage, but because the delta muds it up and lowers the quality.

any feedback?

[captainwalrus]

You should get a more solid idea of the game play going. I love the Idea of a battle for resources. If you get a good gameplay then you can work on the graphics later

[crosseout]

I see.
Could you point out what you like/dislike about this gameplay?

I updated narenge with another link, 1 was a bit too little.

some more points about gameplay:
- all water resources will be inhabited by neutrals. Always 1 more neutral than number of drops. This helps explain why the water quality diminishes, now someone is using it(;
- All of Narenge will be inhabited by neutrals so that it won't be too easy to get hold of the resourcerich island.

bonuses:
- as said, 1 for each drop
- Narenge: 2
- Western Ghisulu: 6
- Eastern Ghisulu: 8
- Southern Ghisulu: 8
- Gitenga: 3

You guys got any ideas?
Thanks for the feedback:D

XML:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16/385447/map.xml
Jpeg Large:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... rgeMap.jpg

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... rgeMap.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/16 ... review.JPG

[captainwalrus]

I think there should be a negative bonus for not having water. also You shouldn't have two territories with high amounts of water or oil next to each other. Finaly, I like the resource bonuses but you should make it +1 for every 2 drops held not every 1. This defeats the purpose of having region bonuses.

Mabey you move this to the new projects forum since you have a good map.

Oh and also, some of the bigger territories could be split in half. This would make it harder to hold things because of more boarders and also make it better for 8 player games.

[captainwalrus]

What type of Photoshop did you use for this?

[InkL0sed]

Is this supposed to be Deer Drops?

[The Neon Peon]

The transition from land to see needs some work. Both of them look very realistic, but the transition seems rather strange. Kind of a different style from other maps, more like a satellite photograph.

As for gameplay... The bonuses are too large for that number of neutrals. The way you have it, something with a bonus 1 would have a neutral 2, but it should really be 3 or 4.

I would say the map needs more territories, especially with that many bonuses, you can just divide up some of the larger ones.

I really think that you should not concentrate a bonus of 5 all for 1 territory. It seems rather a lot.

Also, why do you have water and oil if they give the same bonus?

[oaktown]

Hi crosseout. For starters, this is a really nice map for a first effort. Original theme and look... two thumbs up.

My first piece of advice would be to stop writing the XML... you are weeks and weeks away from being finished, and I can almost guarantee that there will be dozens of changes to the XML between now and completion. Do it once and get it right the first time, because going in and changing the code constantly is a recipe for frustration and errors. And you can save yourself some effort by just presenting one map - large or small - at a time.

Could you please post basic info in the first post? Number of territories, potential starting neutrals, etc. It would also be nice if you would replace the image in the first post with the newest working image - most users will go right to the first post and never look any further.

Gameplay: "1 additional bonus willbe given for every drop held." Does that mean that if you hold E4, which has 5 drops, you get +5 armies? If so then who would ever bother with the big, hard to hold regions?

You'll need to figure out how to distinguish between the regions before we can comment on those bonuses/connections. And as you work watch that your rivers and borders don't look too similar - you may want to come up with an entirely different effect for the rivers.

Oh,and I'm moving this to Drafts, where it belongs... since you have a draft.

Carry on!

[crosseout]

Alright
Thanks for all the feedback:D

Based on the suggestions offered I decided to make the map different, but to keep the basic gameplay features like water resources guarded by neutrals.

[oaktown]

straight grids are problematic... do the territories border via touching corners? For this reason, most grid games you see use hexagons.

[MrBenn]

There are two or three different maps in this thread... which one are you working on?

[crosseout]

What type of Photoshop did you use for this?

Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2

Is this supposed to be Deer Drops?

No.
Main Entry: dear
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: very expensive
Synonyms: an arm and a leg, at a premium, cher, costly, fancy, high, high-priced, out of sight, overpriced, pretty penny, pricey, prized, steep, stiff*, valuable
Antonyms: cheap, inexpensive, low-priced, valueless, worthless

straight grids are problematic... do the territories border via touching corners? For this reason, most grid games you see use hexagons.

Changed

There are two or three different maps in this thread... which one are you working on?

v8
Its in the first post.
Here:

Click image to enlarge.

[captainwalrus]

There should be a little more 2 drop territories so there are certain areas to fight for more than others.

[ZeakCytho]

I love the background, but I feel that the territory lines really mar it. Maybe you could redraw the lines to be less jagged and pixely? Also, it's impossible to tell where one continent/zone ends and another begins.

[crosseout]

There should be a little more 2 drop territories so there are certain areas to fight for more than others.

is 2 more doubledrop territories enough?

I love the background, but I feel that the territory lines really mar it. Maybe you could redraw the lines to be less jagged and pixely? Also, it's impossible to tell where one continent/zone ends and another begins.

yeah, i'll soften the boarders. The regions are just for being able to name territories, since there are no region bonuses, distinguishing between regions is not really needed. What gives bonuses are water drops, and since they are in the regions they serve as region bonuses, but you don't have to control the whole region to get any bonuses, which makes more sense to me.


Thanks(;

update 9:

Click image to enlarge.

[Prmurty]

hey, the new version of the map looks good. I like the idea behind the resources too, should add an interesting twist to the game

[sam_levi_11]

Wow this is really unique, but i have some questions.
Will the poisening take a Bombard style effect or some other effect?
Also the outline of the teritories is not strong enough against the background.
Also can you explain exactly what is a "Badland"

[crosseout]

Wow this is really unique, but i have some questions.
Will the poisening take a Bombard style effect or some other effect?
Also the outline of the teritories is not strong enough against the background.
Also can you explain exactly what is a "Badland"

Thanks, I'll make the boarders clearer. I was thinking it should have a bombard effect, but it could possibly set it to 1 neutral or something like that if I can figure out how to do that...

Badlands are the territories without water; armies there will suffer from famine and dehydration, hence the -1 bonus.

A badlands (also badland) is a type of arid terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rocks. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often difficult to navigate by foot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlands

thanks a lot for the feedback:D

[crosseout]

version 10

Click image to enlarge.