[Abandoned] - New Zealand

[milner94]

Thanks for taking all that into account, looking forward to seeing the update.

[reggie_mac]

Should have it finished up later today, put a good few hrs into it yesterday. Started from a blank slate again but its looking good. I've already tested the 88's on the small map too and they look good. here is a preview of the map.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2872989263_7ee11b20fc_o.jpg

[gho]

Wow, looks nice, kinda like the hong kong map. Are you keeping the southland-northland connection?

[reggie_mac]

Nope, Im going for Tasman - Taranaki.

[milner94]

Looks awesome, well done!

[reggie_mac]

Concept K

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3289/2875292896_57617ed67c_o.jpg

So a complete map redraw and a rehash of some of the borders

Think it getting there aye

[reggie_mac]

Concept L

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2876745479_78e62d7d9d_o.jpg

Have put the New Zealand Coat of Arms back in for the title, cause its f#%king cool (ok I'm biased) and moved the Key back down to the bottom right, given it the title 'Key' and made a north indicator.

Changed the highlight behind the text to something not so bright, and as I'm typing I'm realizing i didn't add to the key, but I'll get that on the next one.

So who do I have to pay, and how much do I have to pay them to get an idea stamp on this baby?

[reggie_mac]

Concept M

Added the 88's, Made the small map.. then saved over the wrong file .. retard. Anyway this is both sized maps with the 88's to see if they work. I've also added in the plae names i left out. Still to fix up the Key

I may also make the coat of arms just a tad bigger on the small map so the 'New Zealand' Stands out a bit better.

Small

Click image to enlarge.

Large

Click image to enlarge.

To do:
Make Attack Link easier to see in the Key
Change North Indicator
Change Key text

Thoughts?

[Ethitts]

This is looking great! Keep up the good work.

[reggie_mac]

Chur Chur,

I've also changed the highlight around the text as i feel it is encroaching on so of the borders and fading them out a bit, so I've toned it down and brought it closer in to the text.

[gho]

Nice, really good. I think you should make a negative bonus for holding either the entire north or south island so that the game is not over once somebody has got to that level

[reggie_mac]

Um, no.

That would be like having a negative bonus on Asia in a classic map to draw the game out.

[gho]

ok.
At the moment the map looks as if it can only be won if you conquer either the blue (with southland) or aqua (with northland) continent as they only have one continent borders, while the rest have 2 continent border. The previous connection you had fixed that problem, but was unrealistic. To make the other continents a bit more playable maybe you could decrease the bonuses of both of those, make blue worth 2 and aqua worth 1 and add an extra territory for it.

[t-o-m]

I think the gameplay on this map would be quite boring, its just up and down.
I think you should have ports in it or something like that to make the map less of a complete bottleneck.

[OliverFA]

I think the gameplay on this map would be quite boring, its just up and down.
I think you should have ports in it or something like that to make the map less of a complete bottleneck.

I am afraid I agree. The gameplay seems to be limited to a small front of 2-3 territories. It should be a bit more opened.

[milner94]

Yeah, I see where you guys are coming from. It is a bit bottlenecked, but that's just down to the geographical layout. A problem is that New Zealand has never had a proper war (as far as I know) apart from several rather bloody skirmishes between European settlers and Maori natives. So you can't really say what would happen in real life, because you've got nothing to base it on. You could put a port in some places, Dunedin, Christchurch, Invercargill etc. But then, that might not make for very interesting gameplay.

However, when you think about it Risk on the normal map is very much about blocking places off and creating strongholds. Building up forces in Siam to defend Australia. Blocking off Africa and N. America from S. America, while only defending 2 borders. On the New Zealand map, there are only a few territories with only 1 border. Stewart Island, but you can't use that as a blockage because it doesn't protect anywhere. Up north you've got Kaitai and Northland. I do think you should put in a link Auckland-Coromandel, which will help the situation.

Two names I think should be changed. I think Northland should be Bay of Islands, and South Canterbury, Mount Cook. Also, could you take off the sea link on the key? I just don't think it adds anything.

I do think the bonuses are slightly iffy, but they can be sorted later.

Still, looking great! Keep up the good work!

[Bones2484]

However, when you think about it Risk on the normal map is very much about blocking places off and creating strongholds. Building up forces in Siam to defend Australia. Blocking off Africa and N. America from S. America, while only defending 2 borders.

Well, yes.. but that is beside the point. That secures you 2 bonus armies. Here you can defend two territories and secure 3 entire continents.

The map looks great, don't get me wrong, but the game play at this point would be extremely boring. Just needs something to change it up. I don't have any better ideas that what has already been suggested.

[reggie_mac]

I agree with all of you, but i have yet to come up with a way to open the game up, i liked the Southland - Northland link i had earlier on, but it just looked ugly.

I've always thought the the best solution is to create a link from Otago or Southland to Auckland, but im still trying to work that one out. Once I can get that sorted then I can look into taking off the Tasman-Taranaki link (or should it stay) because I'm not really a fan of it

Yeah, I see where you guys are coming from. It is a bit bottlenecked, but that's just down to the geographical layout. A problem is that New Zealand has never had a proper war (as far as I know) apart from several rather bloody skirmishes between European settlers and Maori natives. So you can't really say what would happen in real life, because you've got nothing to base it on.

It was a war, but the reason no-one hears about it is because no-one won it, they had a truce and signed a treaty, now all we have are treaty settlement issues.

You could put a port in some places, Dunedin, Christchurch, Invercargill etc. But then, that might not make for very interesting gameplay.

That was where i sort of started way back, and i printed out and test played on it, it sort of just turned into a free for all, maybe a little to many options. But if i can incorporate a little of that into what i've got i think that'll sort it.

Two names I think should be changed. I think Northland should be Bay of Islands, and South Canterbury, Mount Cook. Also, could you take off the sea link on the key? I just don't think it adds anything.

Northland changing to Bay of Islands is a possibility, South Canterbury changing to Mount Cook not so much, as we are now supposed to call it Aoraki, which possibly could work, for some info The area is made up of 3 Districts, Mackenzie, Timaru and Waimate, with Aoraki(Mt Cook) being on the border of Mackenzie and the West coast. The most common name for these areas combined is South Canterbury, so for now i will stick with that.

Attack link on the key shall be removed cause i know i will need to put something else in there when i get the game play sorted, its kinda just a place holder for now

I do think the bonuses are slightly iffy, but they can be sorted later.

Yup, I just made those numbers up for now , i will run a bonus calculator over the whole lot once i get game play sorted


And i'd like to say thanks for all the feed back guys

I'll get this sorted yet ....

[reggie_mac]

Northland changing to Bay of Islands is a possibility,

I've looked into it and i can't really get away with doing this. The bay of islands is in the south eastern most part of the Katia region and the Northland region is made up of 2 district councils Kiapara and Whangarei.

I really should have called Katia 'The Far North' to be a bit more correct, but as milner94 mentioned some of the names i had are pretty ghey Which is why so many of them have changed from the original idea.

A Naming Insight
Basically what i did was got District Council, Regional Council, Department of Conservation, and other maps and over laid them, figured out what i could add together to make the territories without just making s#1t up and hey presto a map. So if you were to look for map on NZ you won't find one like mine, but if you look up any area, or ask a Kiwi (NZ person not the bird) where one of these areas is they'd know where it is and it should all be ok.

But how can you get away with that?
Well, that's just how NZ is, For example, as i mentioned earlier, I live in Otago, but our Hospital is run by the Southland District health board, where as the town just down the road is run by Otago District Health board. It's the same for sports, We are part of the Otago Union for rugby (what we call football), but we play in the Southland competition from Soccer (what you call football) One could say the borders in New Zealand have very blurred line, which i guess comes from being a small country (population less than 4.5 million). So when stuff like this is done, and you have to make something that works, but is not a complete farce we call it Kiwi Ingenuity.

[reggie_mac]

Concept N

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/2880848300_c17f02e572_o.jpg

So I've chucked some anchors on Otago and Auckland to show that they have harbors and can attack each other, i know they look a bit Naff at the moment, but i will continue to work on them throughout the process of making them look better.

Note that this is from the Working Document, so i havn't fixed the text up from the resize (I'm making the original at 300dpi so I can print it out and play on it), or moved anything around to its final location, I just wanted to get the harbour idea out there and see what everyone thinks.

[gho]

The anchors look alright, if you make the link make sure you make it large, the thing i hate about the malta map is the heliports look so small.

[reggie_mac]

yeah, i wouldn't want to go much smaller than it is now, but i've a couple of other things to try out yet, may add a bit of a twist to the map would would open the game play up hugely, hopefully without turning into a free for all.

[milner94]

Yeah there's a balance between not having too many bottlenecks and having everyone just randomly attacking all over the place and not really having any strategy. I don't think there should be too many twists as people won't play it if they don't understand it or it doesn't provide for even a slightly realistic game. But good work, keep it up!

[MrBenn]

I typed out a long post but my computer has just eaten it

Anyway, in essence you have a very good draft here that isn't very far away from moving up the foundry chain

My only real concern about the map is the size of it... You have used the full 800px height for the large image, which has given you a lot of empty space, and will mean a lot of scrolling for people. Is there any way you could play with the rotation at all to balance it up a bit? The biggest problem with maps of Japan (which are a similar shape/orientation) have been related to the amount of 'wasted' space on the map.

[milner94]

Surely if people would have to scroll they'd use the small map? I do, anyway.

I think rotating it would make it look a bit strange, personally.