USA Map Pack [Quenched]

[gimil]

I only skimmed over the last few posts so I don't think anything has been said about this but forgive me if I am wrong...

I noticed on New England and South East, they don't have a photograph watermark on them. Is this intentional or is there plans to add them later on? Either way right now they feel a little more plain than the rest without photographs in the background.

Apparent from that without looking to closly at details I don't have any outstanding major issues with any of the maps at the moment.

[WidowMakers]

EDIT after gimils comment
OK. New Direction and Discussion Issues
Here is what needs to be discussed

1st - STATE COLORS:

1) Fill colors for states
2) Keep as true to the original USA map color pallet

only after STATE COLORS are complete...

2nd - ICON ATTRIBUTES:
Once that is done and agreed upon we will move to Icons:

1) Most fitting Icon per state
2) Icon that looks ok at very small size
3) Color and opacity
4) Potential requirement of increasing the width of legend boxes to fit icons.

only after ICONS are complete...

3rd - BACKGROUND IMAGES:

1) Most fitting to map
2)Color and opacity

Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate the help and direction the maps are moving. They could not have gotten where they are today without your help.

[Mr_Adams]

I like it all. good work.

[MrBenn]

The regions on the West map are the easiest to distinguish - possibly because it is the smallest

I think you can still stick with the single-colour palette, but use more variation in the colours you've used... possibly adding a splash of colour to the icons too??

This is a very quick example of what I was thinking... I'm not saying to use these colours, but just as an example of the wider variation possible, but sticking within the single-colour scheme....

[pamoa]

Frankly I'm not convinced the change you quickly proposed MrBenn. Okay maybe the darker Oklahoma. Maybe also in the South East and New England maps.

[MrBenn]

Frankly I'm not convinced the change you quickly proposed MrBenn. Okay maybe the darker Oklahoma. Maybe also in the South East and New England maps.

Nor am I....

I'm not saying to use these colours, but just as an example of the wider variation possible, but sticking within the single-colour scheme....

[edbeard]

I won't really comment on the colours because I am generally fine with them already

[RjBeals]

Click image to enlarge.

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the portion of I-20 Hwy in the southeast map, that runs from Atlanta up through Charlotte should be I-85. Not sure how you remedy this, as it splits in Atlanta. In Atlanta, I-85 continues south through Montgomery, and then to Mobile.

http://www.troy-pike-edc.org/DATA/Travel_Time.jpg

[Mr_Adams]

Click image to enlarge.

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the portion of I-20 Hwy in the southeast map, that runs from Atlanta up through Charlotte should be I-85. Not sure how you remedy this, as it splits in Atlanta. In Atlanta, I-85 continues south through Montgomery, and then to Mobile.

http://www.troy-pike-edc.org/DATA/Travel_Time.jpg

he probably just took that interstate # out to go with the play of the map.

[WidowMakers]

Here is the XML (without centered armies) for the WEST. I made a XML tool in excel. Once all of the bugs are worked out and it is agreed that it works well, I will post the file in the Foundry.

WEST XML v01
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/6/15/ ... ML_v01.xml

[WidowMakers]

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the portion of I-20 Hwy in the southeast map, that runs from Atlanta up through Charlotte should be I-85. Not sure how you remedy this, as it splits in Atlanta. In Atlanta, I-85 continues south through Montgomery, and then to Mobile.

http://www.troy-pike-edc.org/DATA/Travel_Time.jpg

I have NO clue how this happened. My desire was not to mix up interstates and as you stated Rj, the road is much different than I have shown. I will look into possibly making it a double road (i.e. 85/20) or just moving the interstates to different cities and adjusting the bonus accordingly.

Thanks

[WidowMakers]

OK here are three possible scenarios for the Southeast map
NOTE: I added a connection from Montgomery to Mobile Alabama in all three maps
Scenario 1
Use only Interstate 20
Changes:

1) North Carolina no longer has any interstate connections.
2) Georgia has one more border (Augusta <> Columbia)
3) South Carolina has same number of borders but Columbia now borders two states

Scenario 2
Use only Interstate 85
Changes:

1) Mississippi no longer has any interstate connections.
2) Alabama now has one more border (Montgomery <> Atlanta instead of Birmingham <> Atlanta)

Scenario 3
Use both Interstate 20 and 85
Changes:

Nothing except adjusting the legend to show both roads

I think #3 is the best. It keeps all game play the same and allows for each state to have some part of an interstate. I really don't want to add another total interstate (say extend both 20 and 85 to their total lengths) since that would over complicate the map (visually) and make too many changes to game play.

[WidowMakers]

While this Southeast discussion is going on, I will make some adjustments to the base colors of the states for all maps. Stay tuned

WM

[TaCktiX]

i would go with scenario 3, but add I-20 and I-85 markers more often than I-75 markers so people know when the road changes. Right now it could be interpreted that I-20 is that little stretch between Mississippi and Alabama, and the Georgia road doesn't mean anything.

[edbeard]

agree. keep the gameplay and add more markers

[WidowMakers]

i would go with scenario 3, but add I-20 and I-85 markers more often than I-75 markers so people know when the road changes. Right now it could be interpreted that I-20 is that little stretch between Mississippi and Alabama, and the Georgia road doesn't mean anything.

OK will do. Now onto the base colors for the states in the next update.

WM

[iancanton]

i would go with scenario 3, but add I-20 and I-85 markers more often than I-75 markers so people know when the road changes. Right now it could be interpreted that I-20 is that little stretch between Mississippi and Alabama, and the Georgia road doesn't mean anything.

letting i-20 have a slightly different colour from i-85 will make things much more obvious, though i'm thinking that u're not wanting the difference to stand out too much in case someone thinks they are not part of the same bonus.

scenario 2 (i-85 only) is a good alternative and is my second choice to scenario 3.

ian.

[spiesr]

Why would we need to know the differnce between 20 and 85, they would both be one continent so it doesn't matter where one stops and the other starts...

[TaCktiX]

Why would we need to know the differnce between 20 and 85, they would both be one continent so it doesn't matter where one stops and the other starts...

It might not matter gameplay-wise, but we want to represent the good ol' US of A properly now.

[RjBeals]

I vote number 2. You don't need 20 in there anyway, you don't need a major high-way in every state.

[WidowMakers]

OK Here are the Base State Color Adjustments. PLEASE NO COMMENTS ON ICONS RIGHT NOW.
I also decided to use the Interstate 20/85 option for the Southeast map. Most of the people that commented wanted that option.

I went back to the Current USA map and pulled colors from each bonus region. That is what these are based off of.

VERSION 8 West


VERSION 6 Soutwest


VERSION 10 Southeast


VERSION 5 Rockies


VERSION 12 Great Lakes


VERSION 7 New England

[TaCktiX]

The colors look great, but why is I-95 in Northeast only worth +3 when it's a length of 10?

[yeti_c]

The colors look great, but why is I-95 in Northeast only worth +3 when it's a length of 10?

Probably partly due to it's inherent bonuses of

a) Rhode Island (+1)
b) 4 Capitals (+0 -> but 1 more = +3)

Although - it does seem very low in comparison to the other road on the map which has a +7?

C.

[pamoa]

For colours you need to try with a 3 digits army of the same (nearest) colour of the state, specially on the dark blue ones. I can already predict it will be a problem reading the last digit.

[WidowMakers]

The colors look great, but why is I-95 in Northeast only worth +3 when it's a length of 10?

That was missed an never caught during bonus discussions. Please feel free to give a suggestion.

For colours you need to try with a 3 digits army of the same (nearest) colour of the state, specially on the dark blue ones. I can already predict it will be a problem reading the last digit.

The main concern with 888 armies is that they do not cover each other. Since these colors are the exact same once used in the current USA map, the "issues" would be the same. And I really don't think it is an issue. But if enough people do then we need to redo the entire Rockie color scheme which I think is a waste.

Others thoughts on this?

So the 2 issues are:

-Bonus for Interstate in New England
-Dark Blue colors in Rockies

If that is it, once these are done we can move onto icons. Thanks again everyone. Almost done.

WM