Cybercity: The Uprising

[Bob XIII]

Click image to enlarge.

Previous drafts:

http://a.imageshack.us/img375/8484/ccdraft31.png
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/782/ccbignumbers.png

Map name: 'Cybercity: the uprising'
Total territories: 107
Starting nuetrals: approx. 16

Aim/Design: a large sized complex map set during a civil war on an off-world mining colony. The basic idea of the map is to provide both experienced and new players with a variety of options as to how they will attack, defend and acquire bonuses, so that players can put their favourite strategy to the test. It has something for everyone... who's game to play it.

Uniqueness: It has a solid mixture of simple mechanics, making it easy to learn and hard to master. It uses one-way attacks selectively, has four different types of bombardments, teleporters and auto+/- territs and 4 no-bonus territs.

Relevant experience: I have little experience with XML or photoshop, but I'm keen and learning and fast as you are probabling seeing by now. Apart from that i have over a decade experience as a boardgame designer. Having completed many projects including a variety of 4x game simulations on various scales. Basically, I love designing board games... and if this map is accepted, i'm sure i can bring many more unique ideas to the table.

Changes since last version:
Smaller: It's almost back up to it's otiginal size, I originally reduced it to make more room in general, but this is no longer necesarry as i am using much simpler textures and i have removed range for bombardments.

New display: now has different coloured text for easier recognition, a more accurate description of the bombardment rules.

I would very much like any feedback people may regarding this map so far... even as much as a like/dislike- here's why... would be heaps appreciated..

[Bob XIII]

also... to give a bit of an idea for the theme, there will be a mining district, plant district, agri-domes, arcologies, a military district, outlands, a central nexus and much more ... : )

[Industrial Helix]

Ta-daa!

viewtopic.php?f=466&t=40463

^That should help you get ahold of the basics of mapmaking. Usually there are a lot of people willing to help with XML, but don't worry about that now. Let's see a draft and we'll go from there.

[Bob XIII]

well... a couple of hours later and i have a draft copied out into paint as a BMP... but i can't figure out how to post it???

[natty dread]

You need to save it as jpg, gif or png. Then you need to host it on an image hosting site such as imageshack or photobucket (I suggest imageshack because it's better.) Then you need to get the URL of your image and post it in your post with img -tags.

img-tags:

[img]http://put.url.of.image/here.jpg[/img]

[Bob XIII]

Click image to enlarge.

[Bob XIII]

Click image to enlarge.

[Bob XIII]

doesn't seem to be working, here's the url... http://img341.imageshack.us/i/cybercity.jpg/

[natty dread]

doesn't seem to be working, here's the url... http://img341.imageshack.us/i/cybercity.jpg/

that's the url to the page where the image is on. You need the url of the image itself. Right click the image and select "copy image location" then paste it on your post.

like this:

[karelpietertje]

They shall not force us!
They will stop degrading us!
They will not control us!
We will be victorious!

[Bob XIII]

cheers dude...

[Bob XIII]

okay... so here is a rough draft i've drawn to show simply how the map is intended to play out. please don't be turned off by the colours and look of it at this point, it's the shape and rules that are important at this stage...

As far as grapics are concerned the military, plant and industrial district will have a strong industrial theme. the nexus, arcology and agri-pods will have a sleek sterile sci-fi look. The territories in between (outlands/zones) will have a dark and grainey look. I will use bulkhead style dividers for the impassable walls and conveyers for the one way barriers along the supply line.

please comment if you like or dislike what i have so far... i will do up several diagrams to show the bombardment ranges too, so that ppl can see how it will balance out more clearly, but basically the artillery squares can't target each other nor the territories between them nor can they shoot their respective closest strategic defences(SD's). This means they are open to bombardment from the closest SD's and the missile bombardment in the centre... the missile bombardment also also can't target the SD's making them great staging points for attacking any player who controls the artilery or missile, players can use starports to attack target zones located next to the artilery squares. Target zones(TZ's) are also located next to the southern most SD's. The area in the north west can be targeted by both artillery making it very difficult to hold unless you controll the artillery or SD's first, but it has two Landing Zones (LZ's) for extra reinforcements as well as a higher concentration of comm towers... All in all, the map is quite balanced, the rad-zone and demilitarised zone (4 territories located above Rad Zone, just noticed it's not labelled on the key) are safe from bombardment making them a safe-ish area to build a traditional defensive line, but that's not say there aren't better areas for players who control the guns

[Bob XIII]

Okay so here are a few pics to show bombardment ranges for the stationary defences...

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

Click image to enlarge.

[Evil DIMwit]

Well, this is certainly different. Loads and loads of potential, and we'll have a lot to go over once it gets in the Gameplay Workshop. What I'll say right now:
1. Work in PNG. JPG leads to loss in graphic quality.
2. You've got a lot of small territories which would make the final product quite cluttered. In order to fit the army numbers in there, you'll want a space at least as large as one of those blue circles, and in some places, particularly the dome areas, the territories are just too small.

[Bob XIII]

Click image to enlarge.

Okay... so i have done an outline of the territories/regions now with larger domes and nexus... i think i can get away with the small shuttle network and strategic defences as they will be numbered and don't need as much room for a name... all in all, i think that this will work as a better shape now, i will be able to fit territ names, army counters and icons as far as i can tell...

So should I fully render a nice pic now?.. or just add basic icons and text, then petition the community for some support?

[Industrial Helix]

Make sure your territories fit numbers and text inside of them and that you have adequate space to write all the rules.

[Bob XIII]

So i decided to grab a copy of photoshop and start working out a proper draft... below is a pic of what i have so far... Still having a bit of trouble figuring out how to do a few things like emboss text into the map and make the little circular depressions on the territs... if someone can help me or point me in the direction of an appropriate forum it would be very much appreciated...

Click image to enlarge.

[Bob XIII]

okay so i got the cicles worked out... : ), now how to deboss or imboss text...

[Bob XIII]

okay... so here it is, all that's missing are territory labels. hope ppl like it... what do you think?

Click image to enlarge.

[MarshalNey]

It's coming along very nicely... I really like the thematic look of it and the names.

It's a bit intimidating to understand from a gameplay perspective... no one thing is insanely complicated, but the legend is very, um, full. And there are a few things in the Bombardments section that probably will have to be cut back, simplified or devoted ample space in the legend so that they can be clarified. "Min range 7" for instance- while I think I get the idea and I like the novelty- will probably need a lot more explanation, or graphical markers on the map to help in the explanation.

Anyway, that's all gameplay stuff that probably can be addressed more in the next forum. Conceptually and visually I like it.

Good work

[Bob XIII]

Click image to enlarge.

Okay... made a bit more room... how's that, better?

[Industrial Helix]

Its very tight... how on earth are you going to fit territory names inside of there?

[Bob XIII]

like this...

Click image to enlarge.

[Evil DIMwit]

Those territory labels are just too tiny. You'll have to bring them up at least two points.

For the legend, consider using different colors for the section headings than for the list entries. With just one color, it all blends together and it's difficult to decipher.

Where did you get the sprite icons? Nowhere copyrighted, I hope.

[AndyDufresne]

I'd chop off 1/4 of the regions/territories around the map, to allow for extra space.


--Andy