MAFIA V3 P2

[Minister X]

Map Name: MAFIA
Mapmaker(s): Minister X
Number of Territories: 66
Special Features: Only eleven terts are deployable; special "police station" terts connect to each other remotely and reset; special "boss" terts are hard to access, autodeploy three, and can access the hit man; "Put Out A Hit" tert can bombard any other boss and resets.
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: the vicarious thrill so many get from pretending to be a mobster engaged in immoral criminal behavior.

Current Map Image

Click image to enlarge.

Original Map Image:

Spoiler

Click image to enlarge.

Comment: what special gameplay aspects/tricks fit the image of gangland warfare? Allowing the bosses to bomb each other is designed to simulate "putting out a hit" on a rival. What else? Bosses typically dispense patronage to their close associates. This is simulated by giving them a generous autodeploy of two but forcing those armies to go through the bottleneck of the headquarters tert before they can get into the real action. (Choice of reinforcement type will therefore have a large effect on gameplay!)

Note: I calculated continent bonuses using the approved spreadsheet but reduced each by one since bonus armies are available in several other ways - I don't want the map swimming in armies. Note also that the bonuses assigned to the collection of six brothels, five gambling joints, four drug dealers and three bribes are not calculated using any approved method - they are purely arbitrary. How do they sound?

How many of those mug shots would you have been able to identify? I'd have been able to name six of the eleven. These eleven are all pretty famous mafiosi but if you can find a photo of a more recognizable one (that is a mug shot or looks like one) I can easily substitute it for the least desirable of these eleven.

Deployments
8 players: one each
7 players: one each
6 players: one each
5 players: two each
4 players: two each
3 players: three each
2 players: five each

Question: does the gameplay appear similar to any other game, or would this present unique gameplay dynamics?

[danfrank]

Love the idea,, reminds me of prohibition chicago

[Minister X]

Love the idea,, reminds me of prohibition chicago

Without the beer?

[Victor Sullivan]

I like the concept. I'll have a more thorough response gameplay-wise later.

-Sully

[The Bison King]

This reminds me a lot of prohibition Chicago... but like not in a good way. That's just like my opinion, man.

[isaiah40]

My personal opinion on this is meh. That being said if more people comment and want it then we'll get this stamped and moved into the Main Foundry.

[Flapcake]

Hi Minister

Interesting gameplay and map.

Im not sure about the boss bombard, with a lucky dice roll one can be out of the game b4 ones turn ever started, if that happend to me I would never play that game again (naah sure i would)

Ohterwise Nice map, thumbs up

[Minister X]

No one starts as a boss and bosses can only bombard other bosses (not HQs), so the problem you foresee doesn't exist.

[Flapcake]

No one starts as a boss and bosses can only bombard other bosses (not HQs), so the problem you foresee doesn't exist.

ahh ok sorry, I've just misunderstood it, what I thought, that the fields where troops were placed on a boss's name was from where one can attack the other bosses, but you have to go to the image of the boss and can attack the others that way.

[Industrial Helix]

Giving this map a lgood look through for the first time now.

The gameplay i pretty good imo, but I dont like the idea f the bosses being able to bomb each other. I mean realistically, if one boss wanted to kill the other he would have to go to the other boss's HQ or frequented Italian restaurant and do it. So I'd sggest ditching that aspect but.... something like bosses being able to bomb their own hometerritory would be cool.

[WILLIAMS5232]

with some tweaking, this could become a very good map. like the others i don't really like the boss bombard. but maybe you could throw in a resetting neutral "hitman" that all the bosses can one-way attack, and the hit man can bombard the bosses.

EDIT; also, i kind of think that there are too many of the bonuses, like drug dealers and gambling parlors and similar terts. i think that could be shrunk drastically. or maybe turn some into some auto-deploys.

[Minister X]

I've done a second draft - a major revision. I got rid of the various vice icons. Bosses now autodeploy three instead of two. Instead of bombarding each other, they can access the "Put Out A Hit" tert. Continent bonuses, which had all been reduced by one because of the vice icons, have been returned to normal values.

I think this is much cleaner looking and it comports much better with my desire to design games that are simple and easy to understand. Almost all the new games being worked on are very complex - more complex than the average game out there in normal use.

Spoiler

Click image to enlarge.

[Industrial Helix]

I like the put out a hit feature... but is there any way to get a bonus on this map?

[Minister X]

There are normal continental bonuses - the values are printed under the names of the bosses.

[Industrial Helix]

Ok... but that is not readily apparent looking at the map. You might try expanding the names of each block... for example
RB -> Red Light District 02

Also... the fact that the numbers over the mug shots is not clear that it is a bonus given for holding a district. You might amend the block of white text to indicate that a bonus is awarded for holding each district.

[Industrial Helix]

Ok... but that is not readily apparent looking at the map. You might try expanding the names of each block... for example
RB -> Red Light District 02

Also... the fact that the numbers over the mug shots is not clear that it is a bonus given for holding a district. You might amend the block of white text to indicate that a bonus is awarded for holding each district.

[WILLIAMS5232]

maybe alos some contrasting grays to define the zones better too. just a few shades lighter or darker for each region will help quite a bit i think. also, i was never against a few scattered autodeploys. like for the casino,s and drug's etc.

[Minister X]

Draft #3

Trying to make the continent bonuses clearer: 1) enhanced solid borders with selective dark glow (only inside continents), 2) lightened dotted borders, 3) put white circles around continent bonus numbers and explained them in legend.

Click image to enlarge.

[Industrial Helix]

You should provide an example on the left side of the rules explaining the bonus rules. You can do this by cloning an area or you can do thus by just reusing the circle and a number.

Once again, I would like to see the names of the territories written out instead of abbreviated, so SB -> South Side 2. I think it would go far to increase the clarity of the map, and you have the room to do it.

And my last major concern is the faded map that you've used for texture. I like the technique, and I think it works very well... but where did you get the image from? I hope its not copyrighted.

[Minister X]

Before I worry about anything else...

And my last major concern is the faded map that you've used for texture. I like the technique, and I think it works very well... but where did you get the image from? I hope its not copyrighted.

The map is from a 1905 Rand McNally pamphlet for the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon. (Fourth bullet on THIS page.) I see no copyright info anywhere and common sense tells me that if a 1905 pamphlet isn't usable nothing is, but I'm not an expert in intellectual property law so I can't guarantee that CC won't be sued if this image is used. I'm also unsure what protections might be applicable to all the mug shots/photographs and to the tommy gun clipart.

To be on the safe side, I guess no map here should include any art/maps/pics that are not absolutely made from scratch. Therefore, I'm going to assume this project is a no-go unless/until given the go-ahead by ??? (someone authorized to accept the legal risk for CC) ???.

[natty dread]

You can use images, but it's your responsibility to ensure that there's no copyright on those images, or that you have the permission to use them for this purpose. If you're not sure whether you can use them, then you can't.

For the record, you need to look for images that are either in the public domain, or have some kind of license (some gnu licenses, for example) that allows free use for commercial purposes.

[Industrial Helix]

Well... from what I understand about Public Domain in the U.S., anything published before 1923 is in the public domain, so that map is ok... but the mug shots, I'm not so sure about. Where did you get them from? I think Capone himself is in the public domain or nobody owns the rights to his likeness ( which I think may be the case for most the gangsters).

Speaking of the law and CC maps... I believe in the US that it is illegal to turn a legitimate profit from crime, such as publishing books and whatnot about true stories of crime... I wonder if having crime maps as we do on CC falls under that law.. .I don't honestly know myself and it doesn't affect your map right now. I'm just wondering outloud. So yeah... where did the mugshots come from and try to find out if anyone owns the copyright to them.

[Teflon Kris]

Speaking of the law and CC maps... I believe in the US that it is illegal to turn a legitimate profit from crime, such as publishing books and whatnot about true stories of crime... I wonder if having crime maps as we do on CC falls under that law.. .I don't honestly know myself and it doesn't affect your map right now. I'm just wondering outloud. So yeah... where did the mugshots come from and try to find out if anyone owns the copyright to them.

Surely its just the criminals that cant make a profit from crime, I would be heartbroken to think all those US private investigator programmes I used to watch as a kid had no bearing on reality

[Minister X]

I can't prove that all this stuff is usable. Forget this map.

[AndyDufresne]

I can't prove that all this stuff is usable. Forget this map.

Minister X, I think your Ancient Rome and Gettysburg maps are more interesting than this one, so perhaps focusing your effort on those is a good idea.

Best of luck, and look forward to any new projects you have.


--Andy