13 Colonies Quenched!

[jefjef]

Looks pretty good. Maybe slide up the R.I. circle or swap spots with the R.I. Kinda floating out in the water.

Do you like the choke that Guildford gives in the Carolinas?

The French flag. Could sub orange for the yellow.

[RedBaron0]

Yeah, big to small is a pain to be sure, and you are going to run into other problems too. Your are going to have to worry about placement of army circles, boundaries and territory names. When the armies numbers go onto the map they will be on top of everything and will cover stuff up if they get to be over 3 characters long. So areas in NJ the numbers will overlap the territory names and in the area of Philadelphia those circles are all in a pretty close line and could overlap each other. I think for the most part you ok everywhere else... Cape Cod, Bemis Heights and Raleigh are the only other spot that I can see, but the congestedness in and around Philadelphia and New Jersey is where the issue is most prevalent.

[jefjef]

Well ok. Here's one more idea.

In your early version your ships graphics were different (kinda a white hue). How about you use that style for the French. Diff navy = diff ships.

Shawnee territory link at Fort Pitt. May want to drop it a smidgen. Kinda close to the border of Allegheny.

Baron has a good point. That Philly dot needs to be moved up away from those Jersey dots. Looks like you have the room.

Well any way. Hope to play on it soon. Fantastic work!

[Industrial Helix]

Jefjef - about the guilford courthouse... well, I intended it to be a choke point to give the south some tactical advantage but with the ship bonus I think it might be redundant. I'll let it stew and then decide whether or not to change it.

Def. going to clarify the indian terr. dots so their connections are more clear.

The idea with the white ships and black ships is a good one... I'm going to play with it and see how it works out graphically.

RedBaron - Yeah, i see what you mean. I moved the Philly dot up like you suggested and on the small map nudged the words out into the sea some. I'm playing with the small map some still, thanks for the suggestions!

[jefjef]

Helix,

I like a choke point in that region but I think Halifax would be more Ideal. Like to see ya work on that RI circle too. I'm done. You have a great looking map here. Hope to play it soon.

5 stars to ya!
Jefjef

[Industrial Helix]

I dunno actually, if its at Halifax then you've essentially given a southern player the chance to get three colonies, plus the ship bonus and only 3 points to defend at.

I'm thinking more that no choke point ought to be there.

And I'm going to switch the circle and the RI text around so its more in line with the res of the map layout.

Thanks again for the great suggestions.

[jefjef]

I dunno actually, if its at Halifax then you've essentially given a southern player the chance to get three colonies, plus the ship bonus and only 3 points to defend at.

Thanks again for the great suggestions.

Perhaps it's the balance you are looking for to offset the strength of the north. As it's drawn the real only interest I would have in the south is the ship bonuses & Georgia.

If anything consider redrawing Guildford to share the Camden border with willmington.

[iancanton]

Does this map need 1 more tert? Brought up to 40 deploy instead of 39. (considering 5 & 8 player games)

there aren't many good places to put a 40th region without making things hard for the south (georgia makes the easiest ship bonus more difficult, while an extra south carolina region increases the number of enemy interlopers - or possibly random neutrals for 1v1 - in the middle that need to be killed). a 5th region in any colony will make that colony strategically redundant. since 2-player and 3-player together will form the majority of games, i think 39 regions is fine.

Maybe slide up the R.I. circle or swap spots with the R.I. Kinda floating out in the water.

And I'm going to switch the circle and the RI text around so its more in line with the res of the map layout.

good change. that also lets us show the full name of rhode island, which is the only abbreviation on the map and therefore sticks out a bit.

So areas in NJ the numbers will overlap the territory names and in the area of Philadelphia those circles are all in a pretty close line and could overlap each other. I think for the most part you ok everywhere else... Cape Cod, Bemis Heights and Raleigh are the only other spot that I can see, but the congestedness in and around Philadelphia and New Jersey is where the issue is most prevalent.

on the small map, the circle for burlington can be moved to where the B currently is, with the name being shifted out to sea.

Jefjef - about the guilford courthouse... well, I intended it to be a choke point to give the south some tactical advantage but with the ship bonus I think it might be redundant.

I like a choke point in that region but I think Halifax would be more Ideal.

I dunno actually, if its at Halifax then you've essentially given a southern player the chance to get three colonies, plus the ship bonus and only 3 points to defend at.

I'm thinking more that no choke point ought to be there.

If anything consider redrawing Guildford to share the Camden border with willmington.

would having a choke point at halifax be letting the south bite off more than it can chew? the north will be on its way to bigger bonuses by the time that whole area is secured. on the other hand, if it is secured and survives the first northern attack, it will be hard to break through the southern defence. i'm undecided myself at the moment because both have their advantages. in a 3-player game, where should we put the choke point to give a chance to the poor guy in the middle, or do we ignore that possibility and assume that two of the players will share the small northern colonies in a race for bonuses?

is willmington a historic spelling of wilmington?

ian.

[Industrial Helix]

ok, don't have time atm to address all the spcific changes, but this should cover it. The only thing that I didn't do is change the ships graphics, which seems like it might take some more time if I decide to go through with it.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[jefjef]

Industrial H,

Willmington is the historic IOWAN back woods spelling of Wilmington.

Is it possible to reduce the size of the graphics I.E. The legend, graphics, etc. And enlarge & reposition the map itself at this poin?. That would relieve some of the tert congestion. (you have map room below Georgia that would allow a stretching of it too.)

My only real complaint at this point is we can't play it yet! Great work.

[Industrial Helix]

Hmm... maybe I'll switch it back to Willmington.

Stretching the map in the north might be a good solution to reduce the congestion in the north... I'll have to play with it some and see what I get. If it's a large improvement I'll go with it for sure. Thanks for the idea!

[RedBaron0]

Be careful with the "888" it fits centered in your dots for the most part, but the XML coordinates you use to make 3 digits look this way will off center any regular 2 pair, or single digit. The 2 digit 88 must center over the army circle with the 3rd, if necessary, digit overlaps the army circle behind it.

Get your stretching done, you have a LOT of space to work with in your width, you can distort the map a bit to gain space. That will help you with available space and allow for you to better place army circles and territory names.

[Industrial Helix]

Thanks red, good to know. I believe the third digit goes on to the right, correct?

[RedBaron0]

you are correct sir!

[Industrial Helix]

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Ok, that was tedious but its done. I stretched the small map some to the right, seems to have helped a little. I also got rid of the army circles and it seems to have given the whole map a little more clarity, especially on the small one. I understand this to be a bit unusual for a CC map, but I did a color test on the red white and blue and they all show up just fine without the circles (See below):



So yeah, I think things are graphically solid at this point... which is an open invite to you guys to point something out that could use a little work. It's funny how when you think its just right another pair of eyes can definitely help out a ton.

[jefjef]

Ind. H,

This would be the time that we would throw applause your way, toss our panties on the stage and hold our lighters up in the air.

BUT....

The Shawnee to Fort Pitt connect is still off.

NOTE: Too bad you can't/won't use those early style ships for the French. Or the British as far as that goes. (Better flag contrast with the Union Jack I spose)

Well anyway. We sit here in anticipation not so patiently waiting. Nice job!

[RedBaron0]

looking good kiddo, I'd give it a check with vischeck http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php and see what the map looks like under color blindness filters. You should be good though, since you are alternating red, white, and blue.

[Industrial Helix]

Jefjef, Yeah, I forgot about altering the connection. Just did it on my version.

As for the alternate ships... I tried it out on a working draft and couldn't come up with anything I liked. The problem was that in the rules area I couldn't explain the different ships and was still using the flag to show the difference. So it seemed like it was just making the change for no apparent reason.

Red, Yeah, i ran it through the vischeck once I'd settled on the colors back in the drafting room. Everything seemed to have settled good. The only problem that might need investigating is the lack of army dots.... Ok, ran it. The dots arent going to make a difference because even with them all the same problems are there. I figure the color letter things in game ought to solve the problem with that.

[Industrial Helix]

Right right... minor cosmetic changes. Soldiers is Armies, the invisible gold on the French flag is orange to afford them at least some dignity, after all, they helped us out. The Brit ships have been changed to the former ships. Enjoy!

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[RedBaron0]

The flag is probably good enough, you're not going to be able to make out the fleur-de-lee's anyways. Don't forget to change the color of the fleur-de-lee's on the French flag on the legend.

I think you're just about good to go, a couple days or so of nitpicks should weed out any last dissenting opinions.

The only nitpicks I have is on the border between Valley Forge and Philly. Could you draw the line so it goes around Valley Forge's 888? Oh, and you could also go 1 or 2 pts. bigger on the font where you explain the abbreviation for Connecticut.

If I was you I'd start thinking about XML, make sure you know how to code your special territories and bonuses, or know someone who does.

[Industrial Helix]

Yeah, I have no idea how to code XML, I read through the Guide to XML in the how to make a map handbook once just to make sure it looked like something I could do. Basically, it looks like a boatload of rules, follow the rules and you should be fine, right?

Made the adjustments you suggested, red. I also tried changing the French ships... which are a white and dark pattern, the British dark and white. It might be too subtle... or just too much like crap. Not sure if I like it just yet.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[jefjef]

I also tried changing the French ships... which are a white and dark pattern, the British dark and white. It might be too subtle... or just too much like crap. Not sure if I like it just yet.

Try switching these two around. The French flag would surely look better with the contrasted sails. I think you found it!

[RedBaron0]

I dunno, the current French ships look... off. Maybe too bright?

[jefjef]

I dunno, the current French ships look... off. Maybe too bright?

If he swaps the ships then he has the right contrast. IMO.

[RedBaron0]

Always worth a shot.