[Abandoned] -The Chako/K'zari War

[isaiah40]

I'm with GreenOaks on this. There should be a story told on the map, and why is there only on K'Zari spot?? If they are trying to take over, then should there be K'Zari strongholds on the other Islands?? For me, I find no interest in the map for this reason. Scatter some K'zari strongholds around, make them the winning condition to hold all the strongholds. Maybe have another winning condition where you have to unite the tribes to be able to overtake the K'Zaris to win as well.

These are just a couple of ideas taking a quick look. Generalheads ideas are good as well. Give the map a theme to go with your story and I think you will have a good map. Continue the good work you have done thus far!!

Cheers
isaiah40

[Armandolas]

I'm with GreenOaks on this. There should be a story told on the map......
Generalheads ideas are good as well...

[DearCyrus]

I appreciate the thoughts guys, especially Generalhead! That was a great comment with some really good input. I will see to what extent it is reasonable to include those ideas. (I am making a representation of a map, not of the world. I.E.: If anything, they would be icons rather than actual ships flying around...)

To re-address what seems to be a recurring misinterpretation of what I have written, namely:

why is there only on K'Zari spot?? If they are trying to take over, then should there be K'Zari strongholds on the other Islands?? For me, I find no interest in the map for this reason. Scatter some K'zari strongholds around, make them the winning condition to hold all the strongholds. Maybe have another winning condition where you have to unite the tribes to be able to overtake the K'Zaris to win as well.

The K'Zari player will have as many starting positions as any other player. I am hesitant to place icons for permanent K'Zari strongholds on my map however, because I do not want to limit people to play the same Battle over and over. Like a game of RISK, I feel the strategy should be making the best out of whatever drop you get, not dice luck when you are guaranteed to be the main target on the map...
Only 2 will be coded starts, meaning the rest will be distributed randomly. This will increase the re-play value of the map as each experience would be unique to some extent. Some games the K'Zari will drop more favorably, sometimes less... But to reiterate: They will start with more than one location!
I am still looking into the coding for the victory and losing conditions that I will need to use, so I will post more on that at a later time, although I fear it wont matter much at this point anyways, working for the GP stamp seems to change things around a lot.
For now, Back to the grindstone! I will try to have another version out within a few days. (Hopefully at the Latest!)

[cairnswk]

Here's how your story might go...

4500 A.D. - after journeying from earth and settling the planet Chako, the islands tribes were accidentally invaded by a Kazari scout ship that was caught in an electromagnetic pulse nullifying their navigation instruments. The Kzari, with only telepods and genetic replicators attacked the Chako natives to gain resources needed to rebuild their ship.
The day of battle is upon us... Who shall Survive?

....end of story.

This needs to go into a part of the legend to let players know how the maps works.
The Teleportation stations are linked directly to the K'zari ship, making it attack-able from 9 territories. Units from the K'zari ship can attack any of the teleportation stations.
The player who owns the K'zari Ship at the beginning of the game is designated The K'zari, and receives 3 auto-deploy. The Teleportation stations start neutral.

Hope this helps!

[DearCyrus]

Thank you, Cairns. Now my question is do you think I should physically have that text on the map? I had text on the map in previous versions (5 I think) and people said that even though it was clear In text form, the map had to speak for itself without words. In fact I think I even had one of your maps listed as an example of how to do this!
My problem is that anyone can see a map of Jamaica and know what it is, or WWII... Instantly recognizable. But my story is something new. Words might be necessary to some extent, because no one is going to say, "oh, Chako! Our descendants will live there some day!" when they see my map.(though You would think they should care about their survival...)

[cairnswk]

^^^ That's up to you to decide.

[DearCyrus]

I get the feeling it is not.
The community decides all things: The social dice roll of life's game of RISK.

[DearCyrus]

Version 7



Changes:Story text has returned. Period. Increased auto deploy to 5 on The K'Zari ship, (for balance, but this will likely change again at some point) Added a box around the ship and beam fields around the teleports to make them more identifiable. Moved and labeled Species Identifier... lost the border and changed the over-screen effect to pixelate in a RGB style and blurred a signature on the map.

[cairnswk]

...
Changes:Story text has returned, almost exactly as Cairnswk requested...

I did not request this...i left it up to the mapmaker decide.
Please correct that

[DearCyrus]

...
Changes:Story text has returned, almost exactly as Cairnswk requested...

I did not request this...i left it up to the mapmaker decide.
Please correct that

Done.

[cairnswk]

...
Changes:Story text has returned, almost exactly as Cairnswk requested...

I did not request this...i left it up to the mapmaker decide.
Please correct that

Done.

Thank-you Cyrus

[DearCyrus]

No problem... It's all semantics. Sorry to cause offense.

[Bruceswar]

too much glow on this map. Also a map should not need a story to bee played. Just my 2 cents.

[DearCyrus]

Are you referring to glow effect or brightness?

[Bruceswar]

Are you referring to glow effect or brightness?

Both a bit... But mainly the glow.

[DearCyrus]

Version 8


Changes: I Cut out a substantial amount of Outer glow effect and muted some of the brightness of the colors. Replaced army circles with type specific icons explained in the key. Added a new border I like to think of as an alien tablet... At a Glance, Locations of K'Zari technology have blue icons while Chako (human) territories are either yellow or red icons.
I decided to say humans in the legend to eliminate any confusion, but opted to leave Chako in the title as that is the name of their collective nation.
I left the Gray glow around the Sea route markers as I like the thought of storms in those areas.

[generalhead]

I liked the green route attack lines that you had before, but the yellow doesn't look so bad either.
I like the texture of the new border but it looks messy. I am not saying don't use it but it needs a new layout.
With the hard lines of your islands edges the islands look like they are floating.
I don't like the square shape to represent the ship. I think an pentagon or octagon might be cooler.
If you are going for a tablet look you could try some digital text.
The only way to get a bonus is to hold 3 cities or the auto deploy on the ship?

[DearCyrus]

Yeah, I was on the fence about the lines... I had some complaint about glow, and my lines were definitely a heavy offender, so I tried a few things and I think the yellow is a bit easier on the eyes. Good catch on the bonus. Every one gets the +3 for 2 cities, not just humans... will correct soon.The square worked best for the ship icon as it was easily divided into 2 for ship/lazers, but I'll see if I can work something else out.
please clarify what looks messy about the texture, and id be happy to adjust.
I can definitely try a digital font.

(General Head gets an A+ for constructive criticism! )

[generalhead]

Yeah, I was on the fence about the lines... I had some complaint about glow, and my lines were definitely a heavy offender, so I tried a few things and I think the yellow is a bit easier on the eyes. Good catch on the bonus. Every one gets the +3 for 2 cities, not just humans... will correct soon.The square worked best for the ship icon as it was easily divided into 2 for ship/lazers, but I'll see if I can work something else out.
please clarify what looks messy about the texture, and id be happy to adjust.
I can definitely try a digital font.

(General Head gets an A+ for constructive criticism! )

Just trying to help buddy. This is your map; I just like to give my opinion to jog some of your own ideas. I don't do it to try and change your map.

The new outer border looks a little intrusive to me and the curves seem to be just random.
It might look better scaled back and a little less intrusive and maybe a little more symmetrical.
[BigImg]

Click image to enlarge.

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[koontz1973]

The new outer border looks a little intrusive to me and the curves seem to be just random.

This, but the map itself looks a 100 times better from when I last looked. The brown/gold you have going around the map, use that for the legend box edge with the same backing (purple with hexes).

[DearCyrus]

I have to give it another look, but I think that is do-able. My next draft actually does not include the brass bars, but they may make a nice accent to the interior. Nice suggestion! probably repost tomorrow afternoon.(PST)

[DearCyrus]

Here is the update... Sorry for the delay!



Changes:Modified border and Text, Changed Ship icon, And Removed 888's so I could plug it into the XML wizard(and things look good!). I also set starting positions for 12 players, with each getting 1 city and 1 village; except the K'Zari, who get The ship, genetic identifier and 1 village.(Sha'hur, which does not directly border a city) That makes 25 assigned territories, 9 starting neutrals, and 17 random drops (of which 4 would be cities). But I am pretty sure I need to do some more work on these...

Question: Should the cities all be coded as underlying neutrals?

Should I change the required territories for access to the Lazers from 3 Cities to 5?
also,
What do you think if instead of +3 for 2 cities, I make it a multiplier type bonus for each City held? That way the more Cities you take over the faster your bonus would grow...

[generalhead]

I would look at some other maps like 1982, the realm maps and maps like draknor. Look at the overall color scheme. Also look at how they told their stories on the map. Your red of your border and blue of the sea is clashing in color a little. Once thing you can do is have your map open on half of your computer and scroll through the differing maps on the other half of your computer to compare.

[DearCyrus]

I appreciate the thought, and I will try to balance the colors a bit on my next draft. All of those are great maps, G.H. and they all have their stories included in much the same way as mine. If You look at the Realms (and even Draknor) threads, There is a much more extensive back story then made it onto the maps(same as mine).
I feel that my current iteration is doing the job fine.