Lunar War [GP, G, X] files on p.1

[natty dread]

Files for beta:
XML: http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/2/7/2 ... arWar4.xml
Large image: http://a.imageshack.us/img827/7972/lunar36e.png
Small image: http://a.imageshack.us/img707/6391/lunar36esmall.png



Lunar War

Gameplay: isaiah40
Graphics: natty_Dread
XML: Gilligan


Latest XML

http://www.fileden.com/files/2010/2/7/2 ... arWar4.xml

Current Feedback Requests

- is there any reason for this map to not go in beta?




Introduction:

In the not so distant future, 8 superpowers of the Earth are waging a proxy war - a war for the moon. Each country wants to conquer moon for it's own purposes. USA, Russia, China, India, EU, South Africa, Brazil and Japan each have built rockets which they plan to launch at the moon, with 1 shuttle each - shuttles carrying armies of Space Marines. Which of the countries will be able to claim the moon and it's valuable Helium-3 resources in it's name?


Latest version:

36e

Click image to enlarge.

show: old versions

Gameplay:

updated after gameplay stamp


The map contains 75 territories, of which are:

8 shuttles (1 for each country)
16 landing sites (2 for each country)
27 craters
15 seas
6 Helium-3 mines
3 Missile bases


Shuttles: Each of these is a starting point and starts with 3 troops. Leftovers start with 10 neutrals. Each receives a +2 autodeploy.

USA shuttle US
Russia shuttle RU
Japan shuttle JP
China shuttle CN
India shuttle IN
Europe shuttle EU
South Africa shuttle ZA
Brazil shuttle BR

Each Shuttle can one-way assault the same country's landing sites 1 & 2.

Landing sites: Each starts with 3 neutrals. Holding both sites of the same country gives a +2 bonus, or +3 if you also hold the shuttle of the same country.

USA landing site US1
USA landing site US2
Russia landing site RU1
Russia landing site RU2
Japan landing site JP1
Japan landing site JP2
China landing site CN1
China landing site CN2
Europe landing site EU1
Europe landing site EU2
South Africa landing site ZA1
South Africa landing site ZA2
Brazil landing site BR1
Brazil landing site BR2

Landing sites cannot assault the rockets, only territories around them.

Craters: Each crater starts with 2-4 neutrals.

There are 27 individually named craters.

Burg
Hercules
Aristoteles
Plato
Eudoxus
Macrobius
Cassini
Autocylus
Plinius
Firmicus
Eratosthenes
Triesnecker
Reinhold
Lansberg
Ptolemaeus
Theophilus
Arzachel
Catharine
Piccolomini
Grimaldi
Byrgius
Bullialdus
Tycho
Walter
Aliacensis
Magnus
Maunolycus

Craters give no bonus except for the regular territory bonus.


Helium-3 mines: Each He-3 mine starts with 6 neutrals. Each gives +2 troops bonus.

Kepler mine
Copernicus mine
Stevinus mine
Albalegnius mine
Purbach mine
Franklin mine

There are 6 He-3 mines. They are craters that are being mined for the valuable Helium-3, an isotope of helium that is used for fuel in fusion reactors in the future.

Each Helium-3 mine gives a +2 bonus.

Marie: Marie (singular Mare) or seas each start with 4-5 neutrals. Holding all gives a +18 bonus.

Mare Frigoris
Mare Imbrium North
Mare Imbrium South
Mare Serenitatis
Mare Tranquillitatis
Northern Oceanus Procellarum
Southern Oceanus Procellarum
Mare Vaporum
Mare Crisium
Mare Spumansis
Mare Nectaris
Mare Fecunditas
Mare Humorum
Mare Nubium
Sinus Medii

Holding 5 seas gives +5, holding 7 gives +8, holding 10 gives +11, holding 13 gives +16.

Holding all 15 gives +18.

Missile bases: These start with 15 neutrals, and revert back to 15 neutrals at the beginning of the turn of the player who holds them, ie. they are killer neutrals.

Roris base
Fracastorius base
Longomontanus base

Missile bases are connected to territories around them in the same way as craters. Each base can one-way assault all shuttles, and are the only territories that can assault shuttles. They obviously give no bonus, being killer neutrals.


Objective

Hold any 1 of the 8 shuttles, and all 6 Helium-3 mines for one round and you will win automatically.

To-do list:

Nothing at the moment. Suggestions are welcome!

[porkenbeans]

Yes, I do. I thought about making a map of the moon, but never found an illustration like this to work from. I would like to see a 3D hand drawing of this scene. Or at least go in and paint over this image with some color. I think that it would be absolutely fantastic.

PS. if you could supply me with this shot without the text, I will be happy to work on the art. That is when I get freed up a bit. I have my hands full right now on numerous projects in the foundry.

[natty dread]

You'd be welcome to work with me on this one...

[killed2]

i really think you should carry through with this...

add some territ circles and connecting lines and your pretty much done! nice idea!

[killed2]

then again, you should probably make the font easier to see, it's is kind of hard to read on the lower part because of the background color

[Industrial Helix]

Yes please!

Definitely go through with it cause I would love this map.

[AndyDufresne]

There have been a couple of attempts. I suggest digging through the Recycle bin to look through them.


--Andy

[natty dread]

I'm working on a first draft. I'll release it as soon as I can.
I'm trying to find a similar (public domain) image of the moon without all the text in there.

[natty dread]

I've been a bit busy with my other map (see sig), but I am still working on this. Expect that first draft very soon!

[isaiah40]

I'm working on a first draft. I'll release it as soon as I can.
I'm trying to find a similar (public domain) image of the moon without all the text in there.

Don't know if you found an image yet, but here is one without text I had when I had the idea.

Click image to enlarge.

Hope this helps. I have some ideas I had (still have) I can post later if you want!

[natty dread]

Hope this helps. I have some ideas I had (still have) I can post later if you want!

Sure, I'd love to hear your ideas!

The image though... it would be great if we only had to make a small map. I'm a bit concerned on how to make it into the large image without losing quality...

[natty dread]

Ok, well, I resized it to 700x700 using bilinear resampling. I think it turned out fairly well, considering...

Click image to enlarge.

Hey Isaiah, want to work with me in this project?

[isaiah40]

It looks good. Now we just have to increase the canvas size to fit in the legend and game play instructions.

Sure I will! Thank you for asking! Let me dig up the ideas I have, and I'll send them to you later.

[natty dread]

OK, great! Let's have fun with this project

I'll see if I can improve the image a bit.

[RedBaron0]

It's an okay image, the image probably comes from NASA and is likely pieced together from other images. The image looks like there are ribs on it... lines of longitude almost, not your fault, I can see it in the original too.

Click image to enlarge.

This one might be better.

I think the biggest problem with a lot of these planetary maps.(Moon, Mars) Is that the map maker tries to hang onto a lot of the original image, but it doesn't lend itself to being made into a map very well. Get the gameplay setup and then see how you can work the graphics.

[isaiah40]

I see what you mean RB0. I was thinking of maybe we can trace it out and just get rid of the image. Then we wouldn't have to worry about it, and go from there. I'm sure we can use shades of grey (gray) for the bonuses.

Here's what I started a few months ago myself.

Click image to enlarge.

I had in mind that the US, USSR and Japan were fighting for control of the moon sometime in the distant future. This is as far as I took it before I started working on my current Fractured America map.

It is a very, very rough draft. I was thinking on having a couple of the Apollo landing sites, and adding in landing sites for the USSR and Japan. With bonuses for holding the oceans, craters etc. along with bonuses for holding everything within the equatorial and polar zones. Maybe adding in some sort of minerals, precious metals etc.

Anyways, these are just some of the ideas I had way back when. I think it is doable, we just have to get it down on 'paper' so to speak.

[natty dread]

It is a very, very rough draft. I was thinking on having a couple of the Apollo landing sites, and adding in landing sites for the USSR and Japan. With bonuses for holding the oceans, craters etc. along with bonuses for holding everything within the equatorial and polar zones. Maybe adding in some sort of minerals, precious metals etc.

Heh, amazing how similarly we've thought about this project... that's about exactly how I have envisioned the gameplay

Apollo landing sites are something I definitely would like to include in the map. Maybe as starting points?

Anyway, Rb0:s moon image looks really cool, I'm thinking maybe we should use that...? If it's ok with Rb0.

[isaiah40]

Heh, amazing how similarly we've thought about this project... that's about exactly how I have envisioned the gameplay

Apollo landing sites are something I definitely would like to include in the map. Maybe as starting points?

Anyway, Rb0:s moon image looks really cool, I'm thinking maybe we should use that...? If it's ok with Rb0.

I don't think he'll mind as it is probably a free pic from the government anyways. What do you think of outlining the moon, then drawing in the bonus regions? I'm not a big fan of having everything done over top the original with it poking though.

I was thinking of the landing sites as starting points, but for an 8 player game we may need to throw in another country fighting for the moon, like maybe China? Then we can have 2 landing sites for each as starting points. For the bonuses, since some of the territories will overlap the "zones", that might make it for some interesting play.

So who does the graphics for this one? You or me? What colors should we use? I'm was thinking grays and browns. The font something like I have on my very rough draft, but diffidently futuristic. Yes, no?

[natty dread]

I was thinking of the landing sites as starting points, but for an 8 player game we may need to throw in another country fighting for the moon, like maybe China? Then we can have 2 landing sites for each as starting points. For the bonuses, since some of the territories will overlap the "zones", that might make it for some interesting play.

Let's see... There was 17 apollo missions, 1-10 were just for practice, so 11-17 were real missions, except 13 which never got there... But I guess we could include the planned landing site for the apollo 13 flight... that would give us 7 landing sites. Then we just need one more... maybe russia or china would do. Do you have a source where you could find the approximate locations of the landing sites?

So who does the graphics for this one? You or me? What colors should we use? I'm was thinking grays and browns. The font something like I have on my very rough draft, but diffidently futuristic. Yes, no?

Well... we could both work on the graphics more or less, but then there could be some problems since we probably use different software...

To me it seems you have good ideas on the gameplay. So how about if you do all the gameplay design, like territories, continents and such, and I work on the graphics? Of course these don't need to be set in stone, we can each help each other on our jobs...

As for the graphical style... let me work out a quick draft where I'll put in some fonts and army circles... we can then decide if any of them are good.

Color scheme... I was actually thinking of using army circles with coloured outlines indicating different bonus regions. If we do decide to use bonus regions that is... we could also just use collectable territories, and then it's a different thing... we should decide on this first I think. As for the grays and browns... this could prove problematic for colorblind people. The moon is so monochromatic anyway, so adding a bit more colour could be a good thing... Personally I often like to use cold colours, I find them easier on the eyes than reds & yellows...

Also, the shape of the army circle can also be used to differentiate different territories and/or bonus regions.

[natty dread]

This is just a rough draft, but...

Click image to enlarge.

Ok, here's 10 different fonts for the territory names etc. Then there's 4 different army circles with 4 different colours, each shown with 3 different blend modes...

Any of these look good?

[AndyDufresne]

I can't really say I'm a fan of any of the text samples or army shadows samples...though maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...if I felt it went with the rest of the graphics style...

Though this Mars Map is vacationed/scrapped, I really liked the sci-fi theme it had going.
Mars.


--Andy

[natty dread]

maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...

Actually they're the same font, one is just in bold...

[AndyDufresne]

maybe I could live with #1 text or #3 text...

Actually they're the same font, one is just in bold...

Right, I realized that. That text, and one of the styles, of the ones your presented, looked the best...or at least, the most tolerable.


--Andy

[natty dread]

Personally, I'd rather go with #5 or #9...

[RedBaron0]

Research the Apollo missions a bit more thoroughly.

Pre-Apollo missions with the Saturn V rocket were unmanned tests
Apollo 1 never launched due to a fire on the ground during a routine test where 3 astronauts died.
Apollo 2-6 were to retest the systems of the Saturn V rocket, and again were unmanned
Apollo 7 manned test flight, Earth orbit
Apollo 8 manned test flight, Lunar orbit
Apollo 9 manned test flight, Earth orbit with Lunar lander for testing
Apollo 10 manned test flight, Lunar orbit with Lunar lander for testing
Apollo 11 manned landing, Sea of Tranquility
Apollo 12 manned landing, Ocean of Storms
Apollo 13 manned mission, aborted landing
Apollo 14 manned landing, Fra Mauro highlands
Apollo 15 manned landing, Sea of Rains/Hadley rille
Apollo 16 manned landing, Descartes Highlands
Apollo 17 manned landing, Sea of Serenity/Taurus-Littrow region
Apollo 18 manned flight in Earth orbit USA/Soviet joint mission
Other remaining Apollo mission scraped or reused to launch SkyLab missions.



A little googling filled in the gaps in my mind, but most of it was in there.