Australia [Quenched]

[DublinDoogey]

Just for suggestion, I'm not sure where Ayer's rock (is that what it's called?) is, but is there a way you could use it as an impassable border possibly between the dark yellow and orange continents?

Unless, of course, those are the hard to hold continents

[KEYOGI]

I may be able to use. I'll see what happens with it.

[sfhbballnut]

It's really starting to look like a playable map, nice job

[KEYOGI]

Thanks mate.

Added territory bonuses which need to be commented on. Attempted to add Uluru/Ayers Rock to N.T., but couldn't get it to work.

[hasaki]

To cut down on borders you can put in the rabbet proof fence there are three in total all in WA but I think you could put them where you want.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Rabbit_proof_fence_in_Western_Australia.PNG

[KEYOGI]

Great idea hasaki, I'll see what I can do with that.

[happysadfun]

A rabbit-proof fence. Cool.

[Marvaddin]

Yeah, Im sure that rabbit proof fence can also stop any armies
I dont know what is really sooooo realistic about this map. Comparing it to the first one you posted, the single thing that looks the same is the continents positions, because many many countries are now different... This is good, because we all can see you are interested in playability, but so you talk you will not make any major changes? Maybe you are going too fast, mate...

About the continents: (countries, borders, routes)
Western Australia (8, 5, 5). 5 borders are too much, I believe, but this is simple to solve, its only to remove Nullabor Plain border to Coober. Bonus of 5 at maximum. Hmmmm, "Great Victoria Desert"... what a great name, lol. Couldnt it be just Victoria Desert? Same to Sandy...

Queensland (8, 4, 6)... well, maybe you could move the connection to Western Australia to Brisbane and reduce a border here too, its an idea... by the way, the label "X to Y link" is not necessary, and its ugly too. Bonus of 5 too...

South Australia (5, 3, 5... or 4 if you remove Nullabor). Its playable, bonus of 3. But I just dont understand why you changed the real borders of the original map...

New South Wales (5, 4, 4). 4 borders in 5 countries isnt good, maybe one less border... You can think a better way to do it, Im sure. Bonus of 3.

N. Territory (4, 2, 6). Classic, bonus of 2

Victoria (4, 2, 4). Same, bonus of 2.

About the map playability:
It increased a lot... but its a bit strange... we have 3 groups of twin continents, lol. More important is to realize there are 2 big continents and 4 small ones, all connected... and Victoria is by far the most powerful area, since it can directly prevent other 2 small continents of being taken... and NT can be attacked from big continents, where people can possibly fortify and have bigger armies... beyond this, its a direct link from one big to the another one (maybe you can use better the original borders, making this different, and making the lake the fastest passage). In fact, I would try to decrease the power of Victoria a bit.
And only to confirm, you want a small Australia map, 36 countries, correct? Hmmm, maybe using a bigger size we could make some things different, you can think about it.

About visual:
I think you can remove the link label, and put the legend to the west, so we can avoid some wasted space... anyway, there will still be some space to something...
We can think about a different ocean, too, but its not really needed... but please try a different font, I dont like too much this one you are using... its very simple, it adds no appeal.

[KEYOGI]

This is good, because we all can see you are interested in playability, but so you talk you will not make any major changes? Maybe you are going too fast, mate...

I'm happy with the changes, as most of the original territories are still there and I don't feel I've sacrificed the acuracy of the country to improve gameplay. My state borders are all still intact and to me that's the most important thing.

Anyway, thankyou for all your suggestions, I'll definately look at making some of those suggestios work.

And on the desert names, that's what they're called, so that's why I named them so.

[Kayla]

maybe you two can work together on the other map to where you both like it. and then we only have one. i prefer the other one

[KEYOGI]

UPDATE

Thanks for the recent suggestions from everyone, I'm hoping this is near completion so I can get the code sorted and get this thing up on the site.


Changes that have been made:
- East coast to West coast link has been moved
- Nullabor Plain no longer borders SA
- Western Downs no longer borders NT
- Some additonal waterways


I'm hoping the impact of the changes will make SA and NT easier to defend against the might of WA and QLD


Continents and Bonus':
- Queensland - 8 territories - 3 bordering 6 - 5 bonus
- Western Australia - 8 territories - 4 bordering 5 - 5 bonus
- South Australia - 5 territories - 4 bordering 4 - 3 bonus
- New South Wales - 5 territories - 3 bordering 3 - 3 bonus
- Northern Territory - 4 territories - 2 bordering 5 - 2 bonus
- Victoria - 4 territories - 2 bordering 2 - 2 bonus

[Kayla]

the bridges shouldn't be the same color as the river. the names of the countries shouldn't be the same color as the background of the continent and it would be easier to glance up to find a certain country if they were bolder and a different font.

[KEYOGI]

the bridges shouldn't be the same color as the river. the names of the countries shouldn't be the same color as the background of the continent and it would be easier to glance up to find a certain country if they were bolder and a different font.

The bridges are not the same colour as the river, they are the same as the territories, is that a problem?

As for the fonts, believe me, I've tried many options and found this to work best. They could be made a little bigger, but then I have the problem on territory names not fitting within their boundries, causing further confusion. The actual font itself, while not overly exciting, is easy to read.

[Kayla]

the bridge would be the outside part, the lines, not the gap inbetween. it should be another color, the words arent that big of a problem though, just the color and font, maybe not the font, maybe just changing the color would help

[KEYOGI]

the bridge would be the outside part, the lines, not the gap inbetween. it should be another color, the words arent that big of a problem though, just the color and font, maybe not the font, maybe just changing the color would help

The bridges are black, with the rivers being dark blue, maybe I'll lighten the colour of the rivers a little. Again, I can tell the difference on my monitor but I will make some adjustment in my next fix.

The only other font colour option I have is white, but I found it could possibly be confusing where there are a number of small territories together, such as Adelaide, Grampians and Mt. Gambier. Having corresponding font colours and territories I feel makes it easy to quickly identify which territory belongs within which state/continent.

[strike wolf]

The small bridges are hard to tell.

[Marvaddin]

Again, I think you should consider to change Tennant Creek and Alice Springs border to a north-south oriented one. And looks like Victoria is even stronger in this version

The map is beautiful... but those "mountains" seem made in Paint... they are terrible! And I like background pictures like those, but they are so dark that they are almost invisible... and where is a Kangoroo, or a Koala?

Maybe you can add some land to Camberra, and mainly Melbourne... these territories are tiny, they will look bad with 2 numbers. About the "Great" names, I would remove the "Great" or they will make the drop box where you choose names too "Great", lol.

[happysadfun]

34 countries. Add NZ to jack it up to 38. Split Hobart, and if you decide not to switch it at least call it tasmania.

[KEYOGI]

Again, I think you should consider to change Tennant Creek and Alice Springs border to a north-south oriented one. And looks like Victoria is even stronger in this version

If I do that, it creates choke points, it's the reason it was changed.

34 countries. Add NZ to jack it up to 38. Split Hobart, and if you decide not to switch it at least call it tasmania.

I can't add NZ, there is simply not enough room and if I split Tassie there'll be no room for numbers on the state. The reason I called it Hobart was because there is a Canberra territory and not an ACT. I think the best thing to do is to rename the Continent Victoria and Tasmania.

[happysadfun]

You could make it closer than it is.

[KEYOGI]

I've adjusted the rivers, mountains and background to suit peoples requests. I now feel the background is probably too dominant though. My main aim of introducing the pictures was to break up the background so it didn't look so bland. I don't think it should distract from the map itself. Comments?

[Spockers]

I think the BG is too dominant, as you say.

You had it spot on in your previous update

[gavin_sidhu]

34 countries. Add NZ to jack it up to 38. Split Hobart, and if you decide not to switch it at least call it tasmania.

I can't add NZ, there is simply not enough room and if I split Tassie there'll be no room for numbers on the state. The reason I called it Hobart was because there is a Canberra territory and not an ACT. I think the best thing to do is to rename the Continent Victoria and Tasmania.

If u removed the impassable borders to somewhere else in the map (like where the Australian bight is) you could easily fit it without too much fiddling around.

[KEYOGI]

34 countries. Add NZ to jack it up to 38. Split Hobart, and if you decide not to switch it at least call it tasmania.

I don't see what the problem is. The Ireland map has less territories. With 34, a 6 player game has people starting with 5 troops and 4 nuetral. 38 makes 6 starting, 2 nuetral. What does it matter?

[KEYOGI]

What I really need is comments on the bonus troops for holding continents.