by shakeycat on Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:41 am
It's a bit of an unconventional map. We figured the differing colours of water would be a cleaner effect than bright borderlines all over the place. The army circles are ringed with the colours of the routes running through them, to make it clearest which territories are affected by what routes.
The land-water connections seem the most difficult - things like Cambridge Bay to Viscount Melville, Kugaruuk in general. Look hard, there are no surprises. The more you play, the more sense it'll make. There are no minimaps or teleports; it's all out in the open.
I'm not really sure how I could execute a "Northwest Passage" map without these elements. Without the ice, there would be too many borders on most territories, and an unreal sense of accessibility. Without the routes, it isn't really the passage - and the objective works! You can't just have land with connections between the islands like ferry boats, because it isn't about capturing land. Nor can it be water alone, because everything would funnel at Lancaster. You really can't get through the Melville Peninsula, or take your boat north through Nares.
We've had more than a year to look over the map and find a way to do it better, which is longer than most maps take! At this stage, it feels there isn't too much that can be done to make it into a blatantly straightforward, easy map like Charleston. It's not a simple concept.
Current Map Project:
Tokyo