Eurasia Map [Old thread]

[The Bison King]

near east will benefit from reunified turkey and iran regions. middle east is probably the least attractive bonus on the board because of the number of potential hostile neighbours, so reducing the number of regions makes sense.

Not all the areas on the map need to be attractive though. There can be some hard bonuses, I think. Besides the changes you suggest don't reduce the borders of the area, and wouldn't make it any easier to defend.

However: I could add mountains between Caucasus & Volgograd and add a 1-way assault from Caucasus to Volgograd... effectively reducing the borders of Middle East by 1, and making it a bit easier to hold. How's that sound?

That sounds ok, but I think I will take this moment to reprise my suggestion of splitting the Middle Eastern bonus into an east and west bonus. Iran and Iraq in the East and all the other regions making a sort of... well I guess you could call the bonus Asia minor. I agree with Ian that as it is a completely undesirable region. I would never consider staging my game from what corner. It seems kind of a waste. I think my suggestion A.) makes perfect sense as far as a logical division of the region and, B.) would serve to make the region a practical area to base your strategy around.

I urge you to consider this once more. I do hate when people repeat suggestions, so If you decide that this isn't a direction you want to go I promise I will say no more of it. The one way mountain assault is an ok Idea, however if Istanbul is plugged that's a LONG way to go around if you need to get into the mid east from Europe.

[The Bison King]

PS. I think BI is fine how it is.

[natty dread]

That sounds ok, but I think I will take this moment to reprise my suggestion of splitting the Middle Eastern bonus into an east and west bonus.

I don't think that's the way I want to go with this at the moment. I'm going to at least try other options.

Anyway, there's an alternative to the one-way assault, I could change the division of Turkey so that it's more evenly divided, then add a sea route from the northern part (current Istanbul) to Volgograd. This would preserve Russia's ability to assault Middle East, while still reducing Middle East's borders by one.

[natty dread]

Ok, and that's what I did.

I named northern part of Turkey Marmara. Not totally accurate given the border, but it's close enough IMO and sounds cool.

So Marmara connects to Volgograd, and Caucasus and Volgograd don't connect anymore. Effectively, 1 less border in Middle East.

Other changes: Sea route between Ireland & France, Corsica/Sardinia is just Sardinia now.

Click image to enlarge.

[The Bison King]

I'd still call it Istanbul.

I wouldn't connect France to Ireland. I think that BI is a pretty small fry bonus even with 2 borders (whoever suggested that BI was unbalanced I think was frankly... just completely wrong), and that making France a desirable expansion point only works to make a player who could potentially chill on BI for a measly +2 into a player who feels required to expand and prevent another player from holding the Western Europe bonus.

[natty dread]

and that making France a desirable expansion point only works to make a player who could potentially chill on BI for a measly +2 into a player who feels required to expand and prevent another player from holding the Western Europe bonus.

Well... that's sort of desirable, actually. If you think about it, it fits the theme of the gameplay very well: all the various shared regions around the map, and also the superbonuses that give a little extra bonus for holding a group of bonuses, all are elements that aim to the same thing: to reward players for holding several bonuses within the same superbonus.

Forcing players who own neighbouring bonuses within a superbonus to compete is consistent with that goal, in fact it's the exact same thing the shared regions do.

[natty dread]

One thing I've been thinking... would it maybe make sense to switch Hungary & Belarus, ie. Hungary would be the striped one and Belarus would belong to East Europe only?

[natty dread]

Yeah I think I'll do that, it makes much more sense this way.

Click image to enlarge.

[natty dread]

Oops... Fixed the borders. While I was at it, I then spent an hour or two tweaking the borders all around... fixed small flaws, improved the line flow, all kinds of small perfectionistic tweaks that nobody will probably even notice...

Click image to enlarge.

[AndyDufresne]

I didn't even notice, but I'll take your word that they improved the map, especially when the sleuths stop by with their magnifying glass!

Otherwise, my continued thumbs up.


--Andy

[natty dread]

Things changed:

- Made a new sig more appropriate in style for the map
- Removed the pointer things from the Swiss & UAE labels, I think they're clear enough without
- Added some mountains to some mountains (most notably, made Himalayas a bit larger - they're after all the highest mountains in the world)
- Some other minor tweaks no one will notice except a perfectionist asshole like me

Click image to enlarge.

Oh, and one gameplay change: I decided the African regions start as neutral 2:s, 1:s would be a bit unfair as they'd provide 1-3 players easy spoils.

Now, are there any more gameplay complaints? I'd like to get the gameplay in place so I can do the final graphical tweaks and the small version.

[natty dread]

More small tweaks. I keep obsessing over small things on this map.

Click image to enlarge.

Also, a version with 88:s.

Click image to enlarge.

Here's also a fancy graph of the current bonus area sizes:

Code: Select all

number of bonus areas on the map
^
|
7     
6   █ █
5   █ █
4   █ █
3   █ █ █ █
2 █ █ █ █ █ █
1 █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ----> bonus area size by region count


[natty dread]

One small gameplay change: Added mountains between Tuva/Baikal.

Click image to enlarge.

Any more gameplay concerns? I think everything so far has been addressed pretty well...

[natty dread]

Alternate tundra style.

Click image to enlarge.

[lostatlimbo]

New tundra is a total winner. Very nice.

Would it make more sense to have Israel be the tweener territory instead of Iraq, since the former has been under a tug of war for most of human history?

This is looking really, really good.

Some nitpicks:
The color difference is slight between West/East India. All the other regions are well contrasted, but that one blends a little. (At least to me).
Greece could use a little more TLC in my opinion. Even within style it looks a little too squared off.

What do you think about including Turkey (Marmara, Anatolia) as part of the Turkics bonus and up it to 7, then lower Middle East to 6? Would add a little spice to the gameplay.

[natty dread]

Would it make more sense to have Israel be the tweener territory instead of Iraq, since the former has been under a tug of war for most of human history?

Possibly, but Iraq works better for the gameplay - with Israel Arabia would have one more border. Besides, the striped regions don't necessarily correspond with areas of strife anyway.

The color difference is slight between West/East India. All the other regions are well contrasted, but that one blends a little. (At least to me).

I can tweak it a little but not much. The colours within superbonuses are supposed to be somewhat similar.

Greece could use a little more TLC in my opinion. Even within style it looks a little too squared off.

It's pretty accurate at this scale... there's not much improvement to be made but I'll see what I can do.

What do you think about including Turkey (Marmara, Anatolia) as part of the Turkics bonus and up it to 7, then lower Middle East to 6? Would add a little spice to the gameplay.

I don't like bonuses that are split apart in that way. They're hugely inconvenient and really hard to defend.

[natty dread]

Well, couldn't do much for Greece - it's not very noticeable. I did also tweak the colours of India somewhat.

Click image to enlarge.

[pamoa]

nitpicking for nitpicking
you should really do something about that Eastern Europe line in the minimap
at least a nice curve instead of this ugly angled rounded line

[natty dread]

nitpicking for nitpicking
you should really do something about that Eastern Europe line in the minimap
at least a nice curve instead of this ugly angled rounded line

I kinda like that the line has a bit of a handmade look... but I'll see what I can do.

[natty dread]

Click image to enlarge.

[AndyDufresne]

New tundra looks good.

Don't have much more to say, since I'm all thumbs up about this map. Good work,


--Andy

[natty dread]

Thanks Andy. I wonder if the gameplay mods are thumbs up about it as well?

Seriously guys, if there's any more issues with the gameplay, anything, just bring it up and I'll see what I can do about it.

[lostatlimbo]

I think what bugs me about Greece is that it looks like an island very distant from the mainland, when it is actually attached and a relatively thin inlet. But whatever. Its minor, I guess. Just looks goofy to me.

Have you considered "The Stans" as a bonus region name for the current "Turkics"?

[natty dread]

Have you considered "The Stans" as a bonus region name for the current "Turkics"?

I had it as such previously, but people didn't like it. Besides, "the Stans" is very ambiguous and it sounds kind of silly. It sounds like an 80:s pop band where ever member is named Stanley.

Turkic countries isn't totally accurate either, since Afghanistan & Tajikistan technically aren't part of it, and it would include a few other minor countries, but so far I haven't found a better name for the region. If you have any other suggestions besides "the stans" I'm willing to consider them.

[pamoa]

nitpicking for nitpicking
you should really do something about that Eastern Europe line in the minimap
at least a nice curve instead of this ugly angled rounded line

I kinda like that the line has a bit of a handmade look... but I'll see what I can do.

nice and clean for me now
stamps STAMPS stamps STAMPS