USA 2.1 [10 Mar 2013] Beta Baby!!

[koontz1973]

Interstates are so much better as they are very easy to see and understand. Looks a lot less cluttered this way, even though they look bigger. Just a tweak in colours to separate the ones that are close together and look similar (10,40).
As for the capitals auto, it would seem to me that in adjacent and chained reinforcements, these extra troops are going to be ignored. I cannot imagine this map taking less than 15/20 rounds to play, so a lot of troops are going to build up and become road blocks. This would stagnate the game for even more rounds. Why not a bonus of +1 for every 3 while keeping them starting neutral.
Background is better still.

[Dukasaur]

I know that I'm just a lone voice in the wilderness and nobody really cares what I think, but I'll tell you anyway.

I'm totally against any and all supersize maps.

I want to play a game, not spend my time scrolling up and down. If demonstrating my dexterity with the wheel mouse was my goal, I would go to scrollupanddown dot com, not conquerclub dot com.

CC does not need more nightmares like the Hive, Antarctica, and First Nations Americas. We need more nice, neat, compact maps like Europe 1914 that fit on one screen and are fun to play.

Thank you.

[isaiah40]

I know that I'm just a lone voice in the wilderness and nobody really cares what I think, but I'll tell you anyway.

I'm totally against any and all supersize maps.

I want to play a game, not spend my time scrolling up and down. If demonstrating my dexterity with the wheel mouse was my goal, I would go to scrollupanddown dot com, not conquerclub dot com.

CC does not need more nightmares like the Hive, Antarctica, and First Nations Americas. We need more nice, neat, compact maps like Europe 1914 that fit on one screen and are fun to play.

Thank you.

Well you could get a larger monitor Seriously, I'm sorry you feel that way, hope that you will at least give this one a try at least once.

Interstates are so much better as they are very easy to see and understand. Looks a lot less cluttered this way, even though they look bigger. Just a tweak in colours to separate the ones that are close together and look similar (10,40).
As for the capitals auto, it would seem to me that in adjacent and chained reinforcements, these extra troops are going to be ignored. I cannot imagine this map taking less than 15/20 rounds to play, so a lot of troops are going to build up and become road blocks. This would stagnate the game for even more rounds. Why not a bonus of +1 for every 3 while keeping them starting neutral.
Background is better still.

Yea the colors need tweaking, but for the capitals I'm not married to the +1 auto on them, so the +1 for every 3 could be done.

[Gilligan]

isaiah - mini-bonus map is much better

[AndyDufresne]

With the transition to a more uniform background, the darkness of it compared to the states might be a little much, but I can probably live with it.


--Andy

[panamayne]

awesome map

[natty dread]

I think you may have missed my latest post

[lostatlimbo]

Highways look great now. Everything is very crisp and clear. Nice.

The only reason I dislike Mega USA is because it isn't really mega - its just a map of the full United States. Relative to the other map, yes it is larger, but on its own, this map is just the Unites States of America. So MEGA seems out of place to me. But that's just my opinion.

I'm not sure about flag in background and in the title. Seems redundant.

The rest looks awesome!

[Victor Sullivan]

I like the subtle flag in the background. As far as the name goes, I agree with lostatlimbo. I rather liked the "50 States" title myself. Alternatively, you could go with the classy spelled-out "United States of America", which I think would also work quite well, since while the current USA map on CC also depicts our country, yours is a more "spelled-out"/detailed map, if that makes sense.

One thing that has been bothering me for a while is the colors of the states in the New England bonus. They have no central color. Western is yellow, Rocky Mountains is blue, New England is...what? A conglomeration of pinks, greys, browns and greens? In WidowMaker's map, New England was light blue. I think you should strive for that.

And what of the capital bonus? I'd guess it to be a blanket +X per Y capitals. If you have the capitals starting neutral, there is no worry of people dropping a capital bonus, so you could theoretically make Y as high or low as you want. I think something like +3 per 4 or +4 per 5 would work well. And don't forget, D.C. is auto-deploy 1.

-Sully

[isaiah40]

One thing that has been bothering me for a while is the colors of the states in the New England bonus. They have no central color. Western is yellow, Rocky Mountains is blue, New England is...what? A conglomeration of pinks, greys, browns and greens? In WidowMaker's map, New England was light blue. I think you should strive for that.

-Sully

Yes at one time I was going for more of the regional colors. The colors will be changed later.

[Gillipig]

The interstate lines look better now. These I like: Road 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 40, 75, 80, 90, 95. These needs a little tweaking because they hurt the eye a bit: Road 20, 55, 70, 94.
I like the flag in the background but can you make it a bit more prominent? I guess you've already tried that though .
Keep the name Mega USA! Not only does it fit the map very well, it also gives you a pretty good name to build on in case you'd like to make a follow up. Say for example Mega China, or Mega India. I'd love to play Mega India!! We don't have enough maps of India!

[isaiah40]

I think you may have missed my latest post

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

The interstate lines look better now. These I like: Road 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 40, 75, 80, 90, 95. These needs a little tweaking because they hurt the eye a bit: Road 20, 55, 70, 94.
I like the flag in the background but can you make it a bit more prominent? I guess you've already tried that though .
Keep the name Mega USA! Not only does it fit the map very well, it also gives you a pretty good name to build on in case you'd like to make a follow up. Say for example Mega China, or Mega India. I'd love to play Mega India!! We don't have enough maps of India!

I am working on these as we speak.

[Gillipig]

I think you may have missed my latest post

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

The interstate lines look better now. These I like: Road 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 40, 75, 80, 90, 95. These needs a little tweaking because they hurt the eye a bit: Road 20, 55, 70, 94.
I like the flag in the background but can you make it a bit more prominent? I guess you've already tried that though .
Keep the name Mega USA! Not only does it fit the map very well, it also gives you a pretty good name to build on in case you'd like to make a follow up. Say for example Mega China, or Mega India. I'd love to play Mega India!! We don't have enough maps of India!

I am working on these as we speak.

Mega India and Mega China ?

[isaiah40]

Sorry, I should be a little more specific. The interstates!

[Gillipig]

Sorry, I should be a little more specific. The interstates!

I understood that, just joking a bit I guess. I just saw that the colour of the interstates on the map doesn't match the colour they have in the legend.

[isaiah40]

Sorry, I should be a little more specific. The interstates!

I understood that, just joking a bit I guess. I just saw that the colour of the interstates on the map doesn't match the colour they have in the legend.

Yes, I am doing the interstates first to make sure the colors will work before I update the legend.

[HLLYHWH]

Keep the name Mega USA! Not only does it fit the map very well, it also gives you a pretty good name to build on in case you'd like to make a follow up. Say for example Mega China, or Mega India. I'd love to play Mega India!! We don't have enough maps of India!

I agree. I like the name for it truly is a mega map.

I still don't think you should put a limit on territory bonuses. 1 for every 5. Seems like every other map I have played, small and large, works well with a similar set up. If you put a limit on bonus troops you will just be prolonging the inevitable. Also, many times I have won or got a fair chance to win while having less troops but able to take allot of territories while another player has there big stacks stranded in a sea of their on troops. This is a mistake. With a limit on territory bonus this kind of mistake would not hurt as much.

[natty dread]

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

Others? Who are these others, because I haven't seen anyone expressly wishing that the gaps stay in the map...?

Sorry I'm bugging you with this, but I just get the feeling that most other commenters in this thread are just so psyched to get a new USA map, probably because they live in the USA, and thus are ignoring many aspects of the map... so it falls on my shoulders to be the bad guy, play the devil's advocate, w/e...

I still think more can be done to improve the readability of the map. There's lots of information crammed to a relatively tight space in this map. I think, to make a map like this work, gameplay clarity, ergonomics, visual cues, etc. should be the first priority. If you can improve those aspects by distorting the geography, or compromising the "style" somewhat, it would be a good trade.

[The Bison King]

I have pretty much agreed with every point Natty's been making. I think the gaps make the map nightmarishly convoluted to look at. Yeah you've got the the whole New England Issue but there are other solutions to that problem that are worth exploring. Namely an inset, I don't remember the specific reason you dismissed that before but I'm pretty sure that you could use a simple inset to your benefit here.. Also the states just need to look better. period. There's no good justification for having them look like bizarre ill=proportioned blobs instead of what they actually look like.

[Victor Sullivan]

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

Others? Who are these others, because I haven't seen anyone expressly wishing that the gaps stay in the map...?

Me

-Sully

[isaiah40]

I have pretty much agreed with every point Natty's been making. I think the gaps make the map nightmarishly convoluted to look at. Yeah you've got the the whole New England Issue but there are other solutions to that problem that are worth exploring. Namely an inset, I don't remember the specific reason you dismissed that before but I'm pretty sure that you could use a simple inset to your benefit here.. Also the states just need to look better. period. There's no good justification for having them look like bizarre ill=proportioned blobs instead of what they actually look like.

An inset won't work because where would I put it? With the mini-map there is no room. Yea I could remove Alaska and Hawaii, but that will not be done because others have asked for them and I made room for them. And as I have mentioned earlier, I will work on the outlines of the states while in graphics because that issue is NOT gameplay related.

I am working on an update to resolve the interstate colors first. Then I will work on the other items mentioned.

[The Bison King]

An inset won't work because where would I put it? With the mini-map there is no room.

By closing the gaps you would actually create more room.

[natty dread]

Or you could just do like I suggested -

Don't move the states to close the gaps, just keep the states where they are now & simply fill the gaps. It will distort the geography somewhat, but it doesn't really matter because it will be clearer and you don't have to do any insets.

[Gillipig]

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

Others? Who are these others, because I haven't seen anyone expressly wishing that the gaps stay in the map...?

Me

-Sully

It's a good way to clarify where bonuses are.

[koontz1973]

If you're talking about taking the gaps out, then so far others want it to remain as it is.

Others? Who are these others, because I haven't seen anyone expressly wishing that the gaps stay in the map...?

Me

-Sully

It's a good way to clarify where bonuses are.

And I would like the gaps to stay as well, just become more uniform.