Happy Valentine's Day

[dolomite13]

What more is needed to move this along so we can target Valentines Day 2014 ?

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[isaiah40]

What more is needed to move this along so we can target Valentines Day 2014 ?

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Will this help??

[koontz1973]

Dolomite, some things to think about. Make the map a doubles only map. With the region count, you can not go higher than 8 players, so do you want to add more or keep the region count?

[dolomite13]

Dolomite, some things to think about. Make the map a doubles only map. With the region count, you can not go higher than 8 players, so do you want to add more or keep the region count?

Hmm let me think about that.

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[koontz1973]

Dolomite, some things to think about. Make the map a doubles only map. With the region count, you can not go higher than 8 players, so do you want to add more or keep the region count?

Hmm let me think about that.

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Think about it quickly please. I need an update sooner rather than later for this one.

[dolomite13]

Overall I like the idea of making the map a doubles only map. When you think about Valentines day that sort of makes sense as the holiday is all about couples. And I would be happy decreasing it to 8 players as that was the original idea and I believe 8 players would play at about the right speed to be playable in the holiday season.

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Max Players: 8
Features: 2 player teams only. Win condition.

NOTE: This map is intended to be a fun seasonal map and available only on or around Valentines Day similar to how the St Patrick's Day map is activated only for that holiday each year. In the spirit of Valentine's Day the map has been designed to be a couples only map. So the map will only allow 4, 6, or 8 players on 2 player teams.

Territories: 32
- 7 Yellow Hearts
- 6 Orange Hearts
- 6 Blue Hearts
- 5 Red Heart (start neutral)
- 4 Green Hearts
- 4 Purple Hearts

Connections
- All hearts that overlap are adjacent

Starting Forces
- All hearts start with 3 troops

Bonus Forces
- Standard +1 for every 3 hearts (Minimum +3)
- 7 Yellow Hearts +6
- 6 Orange Hearts +4
- 6 Blue Hearts +4
- 5 Red Hearts (True Love) +2
- 4 Green Hearts +2
- 4 Purple Hearts +2

Win Condition
- Hold two hearts of each color to win the game (or eliminate your opponents of course)

Map v3.0.3
http://imageshack.com/a/img856/9167/09qq.png


Troop Deployment
Of the 32 territories the 5 on the red heart are set to neutral the remaining 27 are available for random drop.

Troop Image - http://imageshack.com/a/img802/9084/5tva.png

In a 4 player game - each player would have 6 Hearts each set to 3 armies with 3 remainder set to neutral. (27/4)
In a 6 player game - each player would have 4 Hearts each set to 3 armies with 3 remainder set to neutral. (27/6)
In a 8 player game - each player would have 3 Hearts each set to 3 armies with 3 remainder set to neutral. (27/8)

[koontz1973]

dolomite,
No one should drop a bonus, but the chance of a player getting 3 of the 4 hearts needed and getting close to the forth is high. I would suggest that you take one of the yellow hearts, make it green or purple and increase/decrease the bonuses. Red can go to +3. This then gives you some disparity of bonuses. Apart from that, GP looks pretty good for a once a year map.

[dolomite13]

In any scenario of drops their are always 3 that are neutral. What if I make Huggs (green) and Cuddle (purple) always neutral that way noone can drop a bonus. And increase red to +3 ?

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[koontz1973]

In any scenario of drops their are always 3 that are neutral. What if I make Huggs (green) and Cuddle (purple) always neutral that way noone can drop a bonus. And increase red to +3 ?

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Sounds like a plan. But code in hug me at the bottom as well. Right now the 3 corners of the map are pretty balanced and good to go, by coding in the two neutrals you end up with making the map slightly unbalanced. Compensate for that by adding in the third neutral to the bottom. But make the neutrals a one, not a three (no need to make it too hard for players considering this is only once a year). This gives you 7 regions bordering those neutrals, and can be used for card spots in games.

[dolomite13]

OK here is a new image. I think that the gameplay we have discussed above will work perfectly on this one.



88's - http://imageshack.com/a/img4/7808/ncab.png
888's - http://imageshack.com/a/img9/869/zq8t.png

Starts - Red are random drop. White are preset neutral.

I made them all 3's as each player territory is a 3 why not make the neutrals 3 as well. That way noone gets an easy conquer right from the start. With 8 players on this it should play fast enough.

[dolomite13]

After a little internal beta testing bonuses are now a little different

+1 per 3 hearts minimum 3 is still in effect as normal.
+2 for every 2 hearts of the same color
+5 for holding all 5 red hearts
Hole one heart of each color to win the game

http://imageshack.com/a/img28/4402/8vuz.png

[dolomite13]

Here is the new XML to match the above image

Conquer_Love_401a.xml

(15.48 KiB) Downloaded 971 times

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[Gilligan]

Here is the new XML to match the above image

Conquer_Love_401a.xml

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1 for every 2 appears to be too easy to drop on the start. Maybe 1 for every 3?

Or,
+1 every two green/purple
+1 every three orange/blue/yellow

since there's 4 of the former, 6 of the latter (ie, hold half of the hearts to get the bonus)

[dolomite13]

Here is the new XML to match the above image

Conquer_Love_401a.xml

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1 for every 2 appears to be too easy to drop on the start. Maybe 1 for every 3?

Or,
+1 every two green/purple
+1 every three orange/blue/yellow

since there's 4 of the former, 6 of the latter (ie, hold half of the hearts to get the bonus)

That might be good enough ...

What if we dropped the matching hearts and instead broke the basic mold of +1/3 and went +1 per 2 (minimum 3) just to make the bonus a little bigger overall.

Or we make red neutral 3 again and say that you need to hold 2 red to get that +1/2 same color bonus. That way we make people fight to take red.

We need an idea that will not allow a bonus to happen on the drop. Hmmm....

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[koontz1973]

dolomite, sorry for not being around much, I decided to take a back seat for a couple of weeks.

Bonuses, you need to change these.
Minimum is a +1 for 4. This stops all bonus drops and no need to code in more neutrals. Here is a proposal for you.

+1 for any 4 for same coloured hearts.
So you end up with if you hold all the hearts of the same colour:
Purple +1
Green +1
Red +3
Blue +6
Orange +6
Yellow +8
This will allow bonuses to be built up over the course of the game and stop all bonuses from being dropped. It also has the benefits of giving all the same bonus so in foggy games, it is harder to see where and also allows games to build up and not stagnate, yellow, orange and blue hearts have enough so two players can end up trying to get the same bonus forcing a change in strategy.

[dolomite13]

dolomite, sorry for not being around much, I decided to take a back seat for a couple of weeks.

Bonuses, you need to change these.
Minimum is a +1 for 4. This stops all bonus drops and no need to code in more neutrals. Here is a proposal for you.

+1 for any 4 for same coloured hearts.
So you end up with if you hold all the hearts of the same colour:
Purple +1
Green +1
Red +3
Blue +6
Orange +6
Yellow +8
This will allow bonuses to be built up over the course of the game and stop all bonuses from being dropped. It also has the benefits of giving all the same bonus so in foggy games, it is harder to see where and also allows games to build up and not stagnate, yellow, orange and blue hearts have enough so two players can end up trying to get the same bonus forcing a change in strategy.

I'm confused ... how does +1/4 create those bonuses?

I would also like to look at the win condition... thenobodies suggested the map be 2 player or 4 player teams only which means you can drop all of the in condition except the red heart and in a good defensive roll you would instant win in one turn... I want to put red back to 3 neutral and include holding some number (other than 1) of red (or all red) to meet the win condition.

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[koontz1973]

I'm confused ... how does +1/4 create those bonuses?

You have 4 purple hearts, holding all four gives you +1. 6 blue hearts can be held 6 different combinations of 4, giving you +6 for holding them all. So if you held 4 blue hearts, you get a +1, holding any 5 gives you +3 and all 6 gives you +6.
The huge advantage of the above system is it allows small bonuses, to grow and considering this is a seasonal map, you do not want to play it in the summer.

thenobodies suggested the map be 2 player or 4 player teams only

We already agreed on the doubles games only for this map. Adding quads to it makes no difference to GP at all.

I would also like to look at the win condition...

This adds nothing to the map what so ever. By the time any player holds all of one colour, the game is already over and it will be done in a round or two anyway.

I want to put red back to 3 neutral and include holding some number (other than 1) of red (or all red) to meet the win condition.

As above, it adds nothing to the map. Remember, just because we can do it, does not mean we should do it. But no one will go for red as it would be way to hard to hold for a round. Try something of the board now like hold cupid for a round to win. Make cupid a 10 neutral and a condition being you can only attack it from the red heart.

[dolomite13]

I see how that bonus would work now. I think I can code that ok.

How do you word that on the key?

+1 for every combination of 4 hearts of the same color

I could add Cupid back to the map at 10 neutral and add this text to the map.

Cupid is adjacent to all red hearts

Hold cupid and one heart of each color to win the game

I am also of the opinion we need to leave the map to 2 player team of 4, 6, and 8 players only. I do believe that at 8 players it will be a Valentines Day Massacre but that might be fun.

If all of this is cool I will make the image and xml changes this evening when I get home from work.

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[koontz1973]

+1 for every 4 hearts of the same color - this is enough for the wording.
Cupid is adjacent to all red hearts - yes.
Hold cupid and one heart of each color to win the game- just hold cupid for a round with one red heart only. This makes it easy to go for the winning condition but not in the early rounds.
2,4,6,8 player games only as long as it is doubles. Again, the larger games are made easier to play with the new bonus system.

All good to go then for the above.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

Koontz, your wording suggests it would take 8 hearts of the same color to get +2. I think dolomite'4 wording is better. If space could be found, simply spelling it out as +1 for 4 of same color, +3 for 5, and +6 for 6 hearts of the same color would make everyone' life sooooo much easier.

[dolomite13]

Hold cupid and one heart of each color to win the game- just hold cupid for a round with one red heart only. This makes it easy to go for the winning condition but not in the early rounds.

Hmmm... isn't this then just the same as the st patricks day map then? which is what we are trying to avoid.

Maybe we drop the win condition and make people have to conquer the map. We drop that extra +5 for the red heart and make cupid +10 for holding cupid and one heart of each color.

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[dolomite13]

Maybe like this?

Holding hearts of the same color grants the following bonuses 4 +1, 5 +3, 6 +6, 7 +8

[dolomite13]

How about this? I want to agree on the wording before I make new XML.

Changes
- Cupid added as a neutral 10 territory
- Cupid is adjacent to all red hearts
- Hold cupid and one heart of each color to win the game
- Holding hearts of the same color grants the following bonuses 4 = +1, 5 = +3, 6 = +6, 7 = +8
- Removed previous bonus structure and win condition

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http://imageshack.com/a/img689/5739/nofy.png

[koontz1973]

Great, get it tested and lets move on.