[Abandoned] - De Bello Gallico

[natty dread]

Like this:

mountain sample

Click image to enlarge.

This is just a sample and the final product would be much more refined, but this techinque can be used for pretty much any terrain - hills, forests, coasts, water...

[Evil DIMwit]

I think I'll see what I can come up with on my own for a bit, and if I don't like it, I'll look for help. Thanks for the offer, though.

[natty dread]

Ok well, while you posted that I was making this, so I'll just post it anyway... it's a better example (still very crude) on how to use the technique for various terrain types. I just made this for fun so if you don't think the style suits your map it's fine...

Click image to enlarge.

[Evil DIMwit]

Well, this should be a rough idea of the direction I've taken it so far:

Click image to enlarge.

I'm not really sure what to do with the mini-map, or the title.

[danryan]

That corner looks like the legend for Asterix! Nice map idea, I think it looks pretty cool already.

[natty dread]

Haha, that's great! I love it!

[MarshalNey]

The look is nice. Have you thought of what you're going to do about the starting positions vs. victory conditions? I have to admit I've got nothing right now.

[Industrial Helix]

I love where you're going with this. I'd say you're got a little room in the magnifying glass to work your legend. Also, is the minimap really necessary? Why have regional bonuses at all, cause I think something cool could be worked out in a village/client tribe plus territories scheme.

[Evil DIMwit]

I don't want the bonus structure to be too complicated. Regional bonuses are based on Caesar's divisions of Gaul and eventual Roman provinces, which in turn are largely based on geo-ethnic divisions, so thematically they make sense. Still, maybe I'll think of a fun alternative.

[Industrial Helix]

I know but it's not indicated on the actual map where the bonus regions are. I mean I think I see them, but there's room for doubt on whether or not a territory is part of one region or the other. Perhaps autodeploys like Pelopennesian war or no bonus regions at all?

[Evil DIMwit]

The regions can be clarified. Right now they're differentiated by font color, as well as thicker green borders between regions.

As for Peloponnesian-style auto-deploys, I really don't want to do another conquest map if it comes to it. Hmm...

[Industrial Helix]

The regions can be clarified. Right now they're differentiated by font color, as well as thicker green borders between regions.

As for Peloponnesian-style auto-deploys, I really don't want to do another conquest map if it comes to it. Hmm...

Well i was thinking something along the lines of Third Crusade, with starting points and the rest open to random deployment. Except the starting positions would autodeploy as well.

[TaCktiX]

And this is all fine and dandy discussion for the Gameplay Workshop. Now get to work! *cracks whip*

[Evil DIMwit]

I don't quite feel like drawing this out at the moment, but how about this:

1. Add another couple of coalition tribes in Aquitania (the little area northwest of the pyranees), and maybe one more in Germania. Increase the tribal victory condition to 14 accordingly. Grant 2 troops for holding 6 coalition tribes and 2 more troops for every 2 coalition tribes after that.
2. The Roman provinces in Italia, Narbonensis, and Hispania -- basically the bottom 3 continents -- stay as they are. I might tweak the bonus a bit, and change the victory condition so that you can win with any 2 Roman provinces and 5 client tribes.

[Evil DIMwit]

So. I went ahead and drew that out:

Click image to enlarge.

Also:

Well i was thinking something along the lines of Third Crusade, with starting points and the rest open to random deployment. Except the starting positions would autodeploy as well.

I think I'll save auto-deploys to a last resort measure. I don't like sprinkling them around to much, if you know what I mean.

[natty dread]

To me both of the objectives seem largeish... One is 17 and the other 12 territories. Are you sure they will be feasible to achieve? Remember pelo war...

[Evil DIMwit]

To me both of the objectives seem largeish... One is 17 and the other 12 territories. Are you sure they will be feasible to achieve? Remember pelo war...

The Roman victory doesn't seem so bad, since all of the Roman cities and 3 of the clients are so close together.

The tribal victory is 14; chieftains are included in the tribal territories. I do suspect it might be a little large, though, so I don't know.

What do you think of this: Chieftains are separate territories which start neutral, connect to the territory they're in, and you can win with 3 chieftains and let's say 8 tribes. I don't think they need to give any particular bonus, but I might be persuaded to let each of them boost the coalition bonus by 1, or something.

[natty dread]

What do you think of this: Chieftains are separate territories which start neutral, connect to the territory they're in, and you can win with 3 chieftains and let's say 8 tribes. I don't think they need to give any particular bonus, but I might be persuaded to let each of them boost the coalition bonus by 1, or something.

I like the idea. Let's see where this goes...

[fumandomuerte]

Are you DiM's heir? Your graphics are über fancy!

About the game objectives I think they are OK (like the objective on peloponnesian war ).
Gameplay:
I would fix with 2 starting neutrals the territories containing both Tribes & Chieftains/Clients (5 territories with chieftains & 2 with clients). That will left 13 available Tribes for the drop. To avoid big drop advantages in 1vs1 games I'll suggest to change the +2 troops for the first 6 tribes held for +2 troops for 8 tribes.

fm

[Evil DIMwit]

Are you DiM's heir? Your graphics are über fancy!

A high compliment, but I can't say it was too difficult. I just took a topographic map off the internet, changed the colors a bit, and applied some concoction of frosted glass and blur effects.

The icons I drew up myself but they're pretty tightly based on images from Asterix comics.

I would fix with 2 starting neutrals the territories containing both Tribes & Chieftains/Clients (5 territories with chieftains & 2 with clients). That will left 13 available Tribes for the drop.

For that to work I'd have to also come up with 2 new regular territories to ensure a balanced deploy. Which is probably not so bad but I'm not really hot for territory proliferation.

To avoid big drop advantages in 1vs1 games I'll suggest to change the +2 troops for the first 6 tribes held for +2 troops for 8 tribes.

On the other hand, I don't want to leave the north with no reasonably small bonuses...

At any rate, I'm not married to the funky bonus structure at all. I think the map was balanced fairly well as it was with continent-based bonuses.

[eigenvector]

Hey!

This looks really great!

One pickle for now: You have the Pyranees instead of the Pyrenees..

Keep up the good work!

F.

[Evil DIMwit]

One pickle for now: You have the Pyranees instead of the Pyrenees..

Good catch. My bad. Will fix.

[eigenvector]

Any news?

[Evil DIMwit]

Any news?

Oh, crap, I forgot I was working on one. Well, um...

...I really am not sure what to do with the gameplay. I tried to configure the map so that it would play well with a simple classic bonus structure, but I've got all these pretty icons and do I really want them to go to waste? Then again I so far have not thought up of a way to use them in a way that improves the gameplay; even the victory conditions feel like they'd be awkward, both for initial drop and in actual gameplay practice. Hmm...

[eigenvector]

To me, the conditions look ok for a start (there's beta for tweaks). If others think so too, maybe we could move forward with this one?

There's just one thing I couldn't figure out on the map: what are the borders of Gallia Narbonensis? Did I miss something?

F.