by whitestazn88 on Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:11 am
Interesting map idea here, probably the first I've given a look at in about a year.
I didn't read through the whole thread, so please bare any repetitions. Here's my 2 cents (which aren't worth much in this part of the forum, I haven't posted in a long time):
-You don't have to have all the labels for the parts of the map you aren't using (eg. China, Gulf of Thailand, and especially Cambodia). They are taking up space that could be used for better spacing of the territory names.
-Take some liberties with the space you have. You have the two flags in the background, but a)I don't think most people would even know the difference and b)you could incorporate that elsewhere(I'll talk about that below). That being said, why don't you fatten up Vietnam a little bit. Although it is noticeable, I think it would help the development of the map greatly.
-The Legend: It could be bigger, see my above comment about taking out the flags, and this can be accomplished easily. Rather than having all those lines point to the bonus areas, just color them and leave the bonus number in those regions. I would recommend taking out the briefing stuff, it can be moved to another area (I'll discuss below). By taking out the briefing information, you can then list the bonus regions in whatever order you like (I would do north-south, in the same direction as the map). The region titles would be colored to match the bonuses on the minimap, and you can even include the bonus next to the region titles.
-Map Title: As I said earlier, I didn't read through the whole thread, but I did notice others mention this as well. The whole "Vietnam War" thing isn't really politically correct, and because of the circumstances of the United States' somewhat embarrassment there, it isn't mentioned as such. Titles like the Vietnam Conflict would be better suited. In respect to the use of the flags in the background of your map, I think it would be well suited to be incorporated into the title, with each being behind half of the title. You could also include a byline to your title, like "The Cold War in Southeast Asia: South Vietnam/USA (with the yellow w/ 3 red stripes flag) v Vietcong/Reds (with the red/yellow star flag behind it). Even under this, I would include the briefing info. Some good examples of how to use this space include Arms Race, Operation Drug War, and Oasis. Check them out.
-Territories: I think there are too many, but that's completely up to you, and I'm no pro on balanced gameplay, so you can sort that out on your own. As for the names, I think that you should at least spell out what the abbreviations are for somewhere on the map (maybe in the title, legend, etc).
-Chokepoints are difficult to assess in this game, because I understand the importance of maintaining accuracy. Possible solutions include having an extra attacking space somewhere called "agent orange" or something similar that could attack certain northern territories.
-The two map pull-outs or whatever are decent, although they suffer somewhat from cramping. Maybe if you look into reducing some of the territs in those 2 areas in conjunction with the stretching of the map of Vietnam, you can fix that. Another way to adjust that would be to crop out more of the territs in the box that aren't attackable in the box (in the southern box, you would crop out the bottom left territs and just leave the bridges or something like that) Again, i think that being creative with the space and stretching out some areas may be of benefit if you decide to keep those boxes.
-Lastly, graphics: I think the map itself looks pretty good, although there are a few issues that aren't super important I'd like to bring up. I think it is obvious that the impassable areas will need to be improved upon, even if the rest of the map (at least the territs) remains the same. Is the map you used your own? If it isn't, I dunno if it is a problem, although you should ask someone, because I think the works need to be all on your own. The positions of the territories and where they are cut off I'm sure has been looked into, and they are perfectly fine, but you need to make sure you make the lines between bordering territories very clear. You need to figure out a better way of putting in the territory names as well, there are some areas that left me confused as to what went where. Lastly, I think it needs to be thematically matching. The current legend, the font on the territories, the font on the map itself, and the font in the title all look different, and they should be similar (IMHO).
That's all I got for you. Again, you don't have to take any of this into account if you don't want to, I haven't really reviewed maps for a while.
I might not be back here to post for a while, but good luck in the meantime, and I think you have a really good map in the works here. I personally didn't see myself spending this much time in reviewing a map, but yours is on a subject CC hasn't really done and that I'm fairly interested in. Keep it up.