[Abandoned] - Zodiac Map

[rsacheli]

V7.1 - Few minor Changes

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V7 - Changed Fonts

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V6.4.5

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There are 124 Territories on this map.
12 Constellations which are each a continent as well as a part of a group of 2 other continents.
Explanation: Each Constellation is Part of a season (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring) and part of an Element (Fire, Water, Earth, Air) as well as a continent by itself.

Aquarius: 1-10
Capricorn: 1-8
Sagittarius: 1-10
Scorpio: 1-17
Libra: 1-4
Virgo: 1-11
Leo: 1-8
Cancer: 1-7
Gemini: 1-15
Taurus: 1-10
Ares: 1-3
Pisces: 1-16

Spring -Aries, Taurus, & Gemini
Summer - Cancer, Leo, & Virgo
Fall - Libra, Scorpio, & Sagittarius
Winter - Capricorn, Aquarius, & Pisces
Fire – Leo, Ares, and Sagittarius
Water – Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio
Air – Gemini, Aquarius, and Libra
Earth – Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo

The one Territory that does not fall into any continent is the Black hole in the center which offers 2 access points to half of the constellations, and access at one point to an additional constellation. This territ will reset to 3 Neutral at the beginning of the holders turn, also it decays all connected territs by 1 at the beginning of each turn (only affects the player who holds the connected territ on their turn). This territory will start neutral with 6 Units on it.

Each player will start with an equal number of random territories. Any undesignated territories will be neutral with 2-5 units (at random).

2 players = 41 Territories each – 41 random neutrals + neutral black hole
3 players = 41 Territories each – 0 random neutrals + neutral black hole
4 players = 30 Territories each – 3 random neutrals + neutral black hole
5 players = 24 Territories each – 3 random neutrals + neutral black hole
6 players = 20 Territories each – 4 random neutrals + neutral black hole
7 players = 17 Territories each – 4 random neutrals + neutral black hole
8 players = 15 Territories each – 3 random neutrals + neutral black hole


The equation for the bonuses of the larger grouped continents that I used is:
Bonus = NumTerrits/3 (rounded to the nearest whole number)
- However with the implementation of individual constellation bonuses, I am considering dividing the current equation by 2, so that when someone owns a grouping continent, they won’t have an overly outrageous bonus (even though holding the grouped continents will be extremely difficult)
For the individual constellations I created a line plot (below) and divided it into 6 sections and every constellation that fell within the certain number of territs was assigned a bonus from 3 to 8.

[whitestazn88]

i don't know how popular midkemil is, but its the only map i can think of with mostly linear gameplay.

it could be a good idea, definitely something playable, and i wouldn't mind learning some constellations in the process either

and it might be kinda hard on the eyes, if all you do is make white stars and a black background..

[rsacheli]

I was actually thinking with the zodiac it would be more like the 8 thoughts map in a sense... I'll try to post a draft in this thread later today...if I find the time that is...

[rsacheli]

I made a quick sample in paint... but dont have time to upload... It will be two weeks before I get a chance to... I would like more input...



right now it is a circle with 12 slices and a small circle in the middle... each slice is a month... the small circle is the sun... or earth...

at the edge of the outer circle where the slices meet is a star the is part of the constellation... each star in the constellation is a territory... each month is a territory and the sun is as well...

as for a legend so far... I have each constellation's bonus = # of stars / 3 (rounded to nearest whole) and if someone owns the sun they recieve -2 for each complete constellation they own...



thats what i have in a nut shell as of right now...

[rsacheli]

- no longer applicable -

[TaCktiX]

It's...really...big...

Any chance of getting rid of a lot of that excess whitespace? Eventually you'll need to make the map fit into a 600x600 space.

[whitestazn88]

libra is on the wrong side of the map.... and it looks kinda crappy imo

[rsacheli]

again... this is just a ROUGHT DRAFT!!!

I am working on making it smaller and making it look better...

i just want know what ppl think of the concept... is it a playable idea? would ppl play it? i need this input before i put too much more effort into making it look good... im not going to waste my time if its not going to go anywhere...


are you sure of libra's wrongness? libra is supposed to be between scorpio and virgo according to the star maps i referenced...

[whitestazn88]

if you'd like my opinion, it currently looks unplayable... i don't like the whole linear gameplay concept and there's too much openness in the center circle... maybe break it up into seasons

[rsacheli]

so, make 3 months = a season = a new "continent"?

im contemplating connecting a the constellations... via wormholes? idk... ill come up with something...

or perhaps adding actual pictures surrounding the starts that would be broken up in to the territs holding the stars... then it wouldnt be as linear...

i just wanted to put this out here with the accurate stars and put it down (outside of my head)


i agree that currently it looks like crap... but thats what this is for... criticism to make it better... so saying it looks like crap but offering no advice is kinda pointless... (yes i admit i did say someone elses idea was dumb w/o offering any suggestions... so perhaps i dont deserve anything more than that...)

[bbqpenguin]

i like this idea considerably more than azn. as it is, it of course looks silly and unplayable but it's an interesting idea and i think this has potential to go places if you stick with it. let me know if you need any advice or assistance

[whitestazn88]

you don't even need the middle circle in my opinion....


just connect the stars with lines.... it might work out now that i've thought about it... kinda like how rail aus is not as linear as rail us/europe


by connecting constellations, and not using the center circle, more attack routes are open...

and season bonuses would no longer be needed... but maybe other bonuses based on traditional zodiac pairings, like x and y go well together = +2 or something....

[rsacheli]

so you think more along the lines of a star map? line them all up and connect them thru the night sky? or leave them in the circle? just remove the months?

perhaps lose the months but keep the sun?



any chance this can get moved to the drafting room?

[whitestazn88]

just on the night sky, no sun

[rsacheli]

moon?

[Friskies]

Such a map would be great!

First, I was thinking of only the constellations around the EARTH (I'll remind you the Sun goes through all these constellations). However, there are too many stars to make all of them territories. A way to attack adjacent stars and 4 warp zones (at equinox and solstice for instance).
Then, for the bonus, a whole season seems more reasonable because there is great difference in the number of stars between neighbouring constellations. In addition to this rule (which makes only 4 continents). We could have 4 other continents based on the element of the zodiacal sign. For instance: Fire = Ares + Lion + Sagittarius. This makes all in all 8 continents which can be crossed.
Finally, I thought of a more astrological map, not a scientifical one. It would be more beautiful and pleasant to play.

For inspiration: http://www.astrosurf.com/nezenlair/nel2/printemps.htm, http://www.dinosoria.com/univers/rustica_14.jpg

[snapdoodle]

Ohhh... that's a little disappointing for me. I thought this would be about the awesome Zodiac Warriors anime from ages past.

I think you need to spice it up past a simple astronomy map if it's going to capture imaginations.

[rsacheli]

First, I was thinking of only the constellations around the EARTH (I'll remind you the Sun goes through all these constellations).

The sun doesnt move around the earth... infact the earth orbits the sun... giving the illusion of the sun's movement... thats why I picked the sun as the center...



I like the warp zones idea... as well as the seasons/element ideas...

[GrimReaper.]

Has potential

[bbqpenguin]

one thing i'd like to note is, that while we want to stay as scientifically accurate as possible with this map, it's not a huge deal if we fudge with it a little (ex: if we wanna put ursa major next to scorpio or something like that... well, it's not atrologically correct but who cares all that much really) what's more important is gameplay and making this fun to play, not total accuracy. if we have to rearrange the skies a bit here, so be it

[Friskies]

Yes, we should not make this map really accurate. But the point of reference is the Earth here, guy .
Why not add some famous constellations in order to make continents and ways a bit easier to see?

[rsacheli]

this is a zodiac map not a night sky... I thought about the night sky idea and it would be to large... And does it really matter if it's the sun or the earth in the middle? I'm prolly just gonna make it a black hole so all the concerns on what is correct can just stop... If I wanted it to be completely correct I wouldn't have made it circular for one... Look at my draft... That is my idea I started with and the end product will be similar to that... I'm not adding any other constellations cause then it wouldn't be a zodiac map like I stated before

[jako]

u know, when i read ur first post, an image of teh night sky, plus all the constellations came to mind. now that would be a great looking map to play on. the current one is like a bad cross between 8 thoughts/crossword/chinese checkers. sorry but thats how it seems to me.

try to give what i said some thought. the current one is way too big even for a large map but if u try my way, u could fit all nicely and have each star a territory and the constellation it self a continent. then just use path ways to connect all the constellations together but u might have to use different line types or colours to differentiate between pathways within a star (perhaps white glowy lines) and something else to connect the constellations themselves.

good luck. it sounds promising.

[Lynx Cat]

I think the sun is actually a good idea, since the 12 signs are based on the solar zodiac. Sun is the classical "planet" that has the most connection with the zodiac. By the way, another suggestion of what you could put around the Sun are the other 6 classical "planets" - Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

But otherwise, and focusing on gameplay/concept, the map presented honestly doesn't look so good to me because there are too many "dead-ends" / easily isolated areas. For example, look at Scorpio. You can protect a 21-territory area by holding just 1territory, and that sounds ridiculous to me. No, scratch that - I hadn't noticed that ALL zodiac signs are connected to the rest of the map by 1 territory each. That's egregious. I don't mean to discourage you, I think the idea has lots of potential (if there's someone who's pretty good with graphics willing to work on it, it could well be one of my favorite maps) as long as the layout is more balanced.

Maybe lay out the constellations so that they "fit" each other a bit more neatly (sorta jigsaw-like), and make it so that each constellation has about 2-5 connections to the rest of the map - both to the two constellations in either side along the zodiac, and to the planets in the center of the circle. I don't know, maybe you could use other elements to connect them as well, such as the aforementioned seasons, or even the four classical elements (since there are three signs associated to each element, maybe there could be shortcuts between them). Just throwing ideas around and hoping to help, since I think this could be a great map if gameplay and graphics are well-designed.

[rsacheli]

a soon as I get my laptop back I'll work on the second draft...