What makes a good map?
Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 1:52 am
I've got a little late night insomnia and taking off from MrBenn's post, what makes a map good or bad?
Which of CC's maps are your favorite and why are they good maps? Are the gameplay experiences you get on those maps any different than a gameplay experience you could get on any other map?
I guess my favorite maps would be:
Feudal War, easy to read and lots of analysis on whether your opponents are going to be able to break through the stack of men and eliminate you or not. Even better with teams. The strategy is easy to understand and its fun to speculate and guess what you're opponent is thinking.
Pelopennesian WarSee above.
Battle for Iraq: Lots of ways to win and plenty of speculation as to what you're opponents are doing, once you understand the general strategy. Has lots of room for innovative strategies.
Eastern Hemisphere: Makes me feel like I'm running an Empire in the 19th Century, which is mostly successful graphics because you could make a non-imperial themed geographic map with the same connections but it wouldn't be the same.
Luxembourg Lots of careful thinking and big chance of making a misstep because of the size of the map. Requires different strategy thinking than with big maps and its nice to have the change.
Rail USABest map of my homeland, imo. It conveys the cities and the size of the USA very well and with cool rail names makes it feel like you've got a good sampling of culture in there as well... too bad our real rail system is nowhere near as cool.
Europe 1914: I just like playing the Empires of pre-wwi and the map conveys Europe of the period very well. I like how Germany's dilemma is replicated.
Charleston Choke points, great for battle of attrition style war.
8 Thoughts The Symmetry works real well and the general strategy needed to win is easy to grasp.
Conclusions: It all depends on whether or not a player can come to a logical conclusion on what the best strategy is for the map. Once that basic strategy is grasped, the map becomes much more fun because you can start to read your opponents and follow their intentions.
Graphics are also key in that they need to make you feel like you're set in a situation that the map purports to represent.
This all seems kind of basic I guess, but I figure its worth talking about.
Which of CC's maps are your favorite and why are they good maps? Are the gameplay experiences you get on those maps any different than a gameplay experience you could get on any other map?
I guess my favorite maps would be:
Feudal War, easy to read and lots of analysis on whether your opponents are going to be able to break through the stack of men and eliminate you or not. Even better with teams. The strategy is easy to understand and its fun to speculate and guess what you're opponent is thinking.
Pelopennesian WarSee above.
Battle for Iraq: Lots of ways to win and plenty of speculation as to what you're opponents are doing, once you understand the general strategy. Has lots of room for innovative strategies.
Eastern Hemisphere: Makes me feel like I'm running an Empire in the 19th Century, which is mostly successful graphics because you could make a non-imperial themed geographic map with the same connections but it wouldn't be the same.
Luxembourg Lots of careful thinking and big chance of making a misstep because of the size of the map. Requires different strategy thinking than with big maps and its nice to have the change.
Rail USABest map of my homeland, imo. It conveys the cities and the size of the USA very well and with cool rail names makes it feel like you've got a good sampling of culture in there as well... too bad our real rail system is nowhere near as cool.
Europe 1914: I just like playing the Empires of pre-wwi and the map conveys Europe of the period very well. I like how Germany's dilemma is replicated.
Charleston Choke points, great for battle of attrition style war.
8 Thoughts The Symmetry works real well and the general strategy needed to win is easy to grasp.
Conclusions: It all depends on whether or not a player can come to a logical conclusion on what the best strategy is for the map. Once that basic strategy is grasped, the map becomes much more fun because you can start to read your opponents and follow their intentions.
Graphics are also key in that they need to make you feel like you're set in a situation that the map purports to represent.
This all seems kind of basic I guess, but I figure its worth talking about.