by mibi on Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:48 pm
Here is a more in depth comment. After looking over this map for several minutes I have more questions than answers.
1. I wondered just what commanders are, then I looked at the legend way down at the bottom. Perhaps the icon for commander can be put inline with the commander bonus to save the brain a step or two.
2. I get the impassables, but what is the road for? And why is there a fence and hedges along one part of it.
3. The villages dont look like villages. The one thing that does look like a villages is the H1, H2, H3 area because it looks like it has buildings, but its not a village. I dont even know what it is.
4. He is a big issuse, as it might be for anyone looking at the map for the first time. There are these plaque like things on the left and right. What are they? Are they people? places? both? Also why are are certain letters underlined? I am guessing that the underline letter corresponds to the cryptic territory names. But I look at Napoleon, which has the N underlined and I dont see any N1, N2, N3 areas. I see a bunch of NA's however. Doesnt that stand for NApoleon? Again, tucked at the bottom is the rest of the sprawling legend. I see that A stands for artillery, as well as a cannon ball icon. This could make sense, as NA1 could stand for Napoleon Artillery 1. But then I see that "1" stands for Unit, which doesn't quite make sense in the alpha naming scheme you have established. So I am a bit confused. NA1 now stands for Napoleon Artillery Unit, which I get, but what is NA2? Does 2 stand for unit also. Using my reasoning abilities I determin that NA is the 2nd Napoleon Artillery unit. But this would have been obvious, if the '1=unit' didn't obfuscate things.
So now I have a handle on the naming and such, although some named areas are quite counter intuitive, like K for Cook, S for Chasse and Y for Ney. I still don't know what the H1, H2, H3 areas are as there is nothing listed using the H letter. Could it be H'mont? I'm not sure. Ok I think I am starting to get it, even thought I have no idea if those are people or places or what, LHS? C.L? M.S.J? These will remain a mystery to everyone but scholars of this battle, unfortunately. Ok there is one more issue with the naming. I get that I stands for Infantry but your using a sans serif font which makes PI4 look like P14, same with KI2, k12, etc. This is a bit annoying.
5. On to the icons. I get what they are, but who are they? Whos red and who is blue? Well Napoleon is blue, then who is red. Sorry if I do not know my napoleonic wars very well, I suspect there are others. I am also kinda bummed that only the camanders have a side specific bonus. With out the bonus the sides are irrelevant, and with the bonus they are slightly less irelevant. If you want to pit side vs side more there should be more side specific bonuses. Ok, on to the icon movement. The artillery description is badly worded. Artillery can bombard any territory in a 4 territory radius, I suppose is what your looking for. Here is what you have and highlighted are the unnessasry words;
Artillery does not attack. Artillery can only bombard any territory directly in any direction up to a range of 4 territories away.
No use making more compicated than it has to. Simply cairns, simplify. I dont get the Calvary attack at all. Two territories in advance? advance is often used in conjuction with some temporal measure. Can they attack two territories away? Do they have a range of two? I'm not sure. And lastly, the commanders hat looks like a bell. Napoleons had is very iconic but the icon and the map outline look like a bell, or perhaps fruit mold, at least to me. It would also be nice to have a photo of the ol guy somewhere.
6. Lastly, I just noticed the extra legen about the title. Well that clears up those abreivations I was unsure about. Although you have abrieviated Hougomont as H'mont, given the frenchness of the names one might not make the leap. Also you have D'erlon twice, once on the side and again at the bottom. I'm not sure why its in two places but it's confusing.
See, it only took me 40 minutes to understand this map. And that is what I am taking about when I refer to a steep learning curve, which can and often does put off many players. Pearl harbor was complex, but not complicated, so it was understandable. This map is complex, and complicated. You have numerous 'user interface' issues and it all adds up to a bit of confusion. Perhaps others can 'get' the map much quicker, but understanding this map is something a user certainly has to work for.
I wont get to the graphics at this point tho, save that for another day.
Cheers,
mibi
