Qc125 - Request for comments and XML

[MarathonMax]

Map Name: Qc125
Mapmaker(s): MarathonMax
Number of Territories: 125
Special Features: Graphics and multiple levels of bonus areas
What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made: Funky graphics, electorally centric, multiple levels of bonus areas

Map Image:

Click image to enlarge.

Introduction

Qc125.com is a web site that projects possible electoral scenarios for Québec. As a Québecois and a fan of politics (one the greatest “sports” on Earth - LOL) I follow this site on Facebook.

As a fan of maps and ConquerClub, this map gave me an idea to create the next map for Québec.

I wrote to the site admin and he gave me permission to use this map as long as the “Qc125.com” logo appears in it. Merci, thank you.

The concept

This map represents the 18 electoral regions of Québec and its 125 and seats in the National Assemblée (hence its name “Qc125”).

Each square is a seat, or in the CC world, a territory. Each square of a region connects to all it surrounding ones horizontally, vertically and diagonally. For example, where I live, “Acadie” (center North of Montréal) connects all the following: St-Laurent (NW), D’arcy-McGee (W), N.-Dame-de-Grâce (SW), Mont-Royal-Outremont (S), Gouin (SE), Laurier-Dorion (E) amd Maurice-Richard (NE).

Some squares (territories) would connect across regions, sort of like “bridges”. I have yet to draw all possible connections but you can see a couple between “Montérégie Est” and “Canton de l’est”.

Each square color represents a projected win for each political party; red for Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ), dark blue for Parti Québécois (PQ), light blue for Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and orange for Québec Solidaire (QS).

Bonus areas (or “continent bonus” as we would call them in the traditional game) are earned based on two criteria:
- Owning all party seats of a region;
- Owning all seats of a region.

For example, in “Montérégie Ouest”, a player would earn a bonus for owning all PLQ seats (5), another bonus for all PQ seats (2) and for all CAQ ones (2). Additionally, another bonus would be earned if a player earns all 9 seats of that electoral region.

There are some exceptions.

The “Nord” region has only one seat. I want to people to let me know if a party *and* a region bonus should be awarded there. Owning “Nord” could either be worth 1 bonus (region) or 2 bonuses (region + party).

I also suggest that the “Montréal” region be split in “Ouest” and “Est” as it is the largest. The line would be drawn West of the “maurice-richard”-”Ste-Marie-St-Jacques” line.

Game Objective

I do not know if there should be a game objective (winning condition beyond simple total domination). This being a political map, the objective could be owning a 51% majority of seats, in this case owning 63 seats.

Alternatively, we could add a level of complexity to this objective, where a player needs to control 63 seats *plus* a majority of party seats. This would mean that a player would need 63 seats (any seats) plus 21 seats of any given party among the three leaders (PLQ, PQ, CAQ - sorry QS).

Conclusion

It is a simple map with two funk twists: graphics and game play.

I am looking for a contributions and for someone to code the XML.

Thank you, merci.

[IcePack]

Interesting concept, as someone whose travelled there / brother lives there, I recognize some of the places Fun stuff.
I think my feedback is mainly centered on readability, thats going to be a difficult task to fit this large map and have legible territories fitting within the map size parameters spread out the way it is. Have you looked at this issue and whether or not you think it can be addressed?

[MarathonMax]

Bonjour IcePack,

Yes it is a large map. The good news is that there is a lot of white spaces between regions, space that could be tightened.

As for naming territs, we could use an approach similar to that of USA 2.1, i.e. using numbers to id them along with a legend. Regions with white spaces around them (almost all of them except for Montréal) could have full names with a leader (thin line) connecting them to their territs.

I will wait on further comments before going ahead graphically implementing this idea.

[MarathonMax]

I have tightened the map somewhat

Click image to enlarge.

[dakky21]

You just gave me the idea to make Periodic table map.

[iancanton]

full marks for originality: as a concept, the nearest thing we have to this is us senate, whose people are not all senators.

to help further with legibility, have u considered combining the usa 2.1 legend style with seats that are not squares, but rectangles twice as wide as they are high, so that more names fit? u will have to stack more bonuses such as outaouais near-vertically instead of near-horizontally and zoom out substantially since, even now, the map dimensions are too large to be playable.

terminology: since a seat is a conquer club region (and the game log will refer to it as a region), we'd better refer to conquer club continents as areas rather than as regions, to avoid confusion.

nord, by itself, deserves neither a party nor area bonus. this is to avoid it either starting neutral and being ignored or not starting neutral and giving a clear starting advantage. nord bridges naturally with only abitibi-ouest. for gameplay reasons, the best method might be for abitibi to have party and area bonuses as usual, but for the nord bonus to trigger only if abitibi is also held. this is similar to the kosovo bonus in yugoslavia, though the wording on that map can be improved.

ian.

[MarathonMax]

wow all GREAAAAT comments. I like the +1 bonus for Nord, similar to Third Crusade, a map I often play.

[MarathonMax]

Following suggestions and some more digging, I looking at creating the map around this idea. What is visually missing here (and would need to be done) is the concept of "regions" present in the other map.

Advantages of this map

1) tighter
2) better territ connections

Click image to enlarge.

[IcePack]

My only question is with the territory names in the new version - are they going to be legible with the army numbers?

[MarathonMax]

I am thinking about a 3 letter code at the bottom of the hex. Army count in the middle.

[IcePack]

I do like the new version good idea about the 3 letter names etc
Lower left also needs to be in English I'm guesssing for final version

[iancanton]

although the hexagon-based map is clearly drawn to show the political distribution of seats, without excessive regard for where the seats are located, the hexagons look better than the squares.

the nature of hexagons is that they have six borders rather than four, so u'll need to pack the seats less tightly by moving some elsewhere while inserting blank impassable hexagons, both for the map to make geographic sense and to create continents for gameplay purposes. as an example, ungava ought to border only abitibi-ouest (as it has no roads going anywhere else), which in turn ought to connect only to abitibi-est and rouyn-noranda.

forming each seat from two hexagons, rather than one, gives u an easier time of connecting each seat to its real neighbours instead of to non-neighbours. this is because u have flexibility over whether the hexagon pair slopes upward, slopes downward or is vertically-stacked.

ian.