Eurasia Map [Old thread]

[natty dread]

Fixed the territory labels of Primorsky & Liaoning, even though nobody complained about them... Yes, this is what I do when I don't get any important feedback, I obsess over minute details.

Click image to enlarge.

Fun trivia: the map image now contains 150 layers, and that's with all the territory labels merged to one layer.

[The Bison King]

I feel like you could fit the word Italy into it more naturally in the upper region.

[natty dread]

Actually it doesn't fit that good there.
Also, the army number fits more naturally there.

[tkr4lf]

I gotta say Natty, this is looking better and better. I'll have to echo Andy and say all my thumbs up! This definitely looks like it will be a fun map to play on.

[natty dread]

Thanks.

If anyone has any further gameplay comments, feel free to post them... otherwise, maybe we can get this stamped soon?

[iancanton]

china is still looking all wrong. east china is too sparse and unrecognisable. it really ought to be split into more regions and two bonus zones, possibly with added impassables.

contrast that with indian peninsula, which is one of the well-designed areas on the map. it would be even better if the route from sri lanka to indonesia was removed, to give an outside change of being able to hold the super-bonus.

ian.

[natty dread]

china is still looking all wrong. east china is too sparse and unrecognisable. it really ought to be split into more regions and two bonus zones, possibly with added impassables.

I'll see what I can do about that. I can maybe add one or two territories there, but that's the maximum - any territories I add at this point means adding more neutrals to the map and I want to avoid too many neutrals.

contrast that with indian peninsula, which is one of the well-designed areas on the map. it would be even better if the route from sri lanka to indonesia was removed, to give an outside change of being able to hold the super-bonus.

Eh, I don't like that idea, besides - India is already really easy to hold, if you take Myanmar & Tibet you can hold the entire area with only 4 borders. Besides, the connection between Indonesia & India makes sense thematically.

[sannemanrobinson]

East China and West China are pretty equal now. Except that West China can be attacked from more places. Maybe change Shaanxi to East China then? You can call East China then Han Chinese for a less geographical naming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnolinguistic_map_of_China_1983.jpg).

Edit: I missed South Nei Mongol which makes it balanced again.

[natty dread]

Ok, after giving it some thought, I think the best I can do is add one territory to East China and increase the bonus value of East China (and along with it the total bonus of Eastern Asia) by 1. Adding further territories would disrupt the gameplay balance, and splitting East China just isn't feasible - there's already 5 bonuses in Eastern Asia and a 6th one would be too much for one superbonus, I think.

So I added the southern Hainan island, and connected it to Taiwan and Guangzhou.

As for neutrals, I'm thinking of making Switzerland a neutral 2. After all, Switzerland is known for it's neutrality...

Click image to enlarge.

[pamoa]

As for neutrals, I'm thinking of making Switzerland a neutral 2. After all, Switzerland is known for it's neutrality...

I second

[AndyDufresne]

As for neutrals, I'm thinking of making Switzerland a neutral 2. After all, Switzerland is known for it's neutrality...

I second

Wah, wah. I'm taking back my thumbs.


--Andy

[natty dread]

Why?

[natty dread]

Another option would be to get rid of the starting positions, and have the neutral starts be Egypt, Ireland, Switzerland and Ulan Bator.

This would still prevent bonus drops on the 3-territory bonuses, and it would still put a slight block on Africa.

[natty dread]

An alternate mountain style I've been playing with:

[sannemanrobinson]

I liked the mountains as they were before with the integrated territory lines. Why did you try a new mountain?

[J_Indr]

I liked the previous style more.

[natty dread]

Just trying out random stuff, waiting for the gameplay stamp.

[sannemanrobinson]

Without the starting positions this map would be less a niche like Feudal war. The map is special enough as a conquer map in my opinion and I would probably play it more. On the other hand it could be interesting to have battles on the east and west first and then a clash of the titans?

Hainan makes sense if you look at the map with this visible island.

[natty dread]

Without the starting positions this map would be less a niche like Feudal war. The map is special enough as a conquer map in my opinion and I would probably play it more. On the other hand it could be interesting to have battles on the east and west first and then a clash of the titans?

I think you are mistaken, this is not going to be a conquest map like feudal war either way. The starting positions were added only to prevent bonus drops, and if the neutrals are moved to those countries then they aren't needed anymore.

[natty dread]

Ok, I changed the division of East China a bit - and ended up adding one more territory to the area, making it a total of 8 territories, but the border count is the same.

Now, this means there needs to be one more neutral on the map, ie. 5 neutrals total. So I think I'll change it to this: All African territories, Ireland & Zavkhan, with 2 neutrals each.

Click image to enlarge.

[The Bison King]

I think you should call East China "Inner China" and West China "Outer China". Anything to break up the large amount of directionally labeled territories.

[natty dread]

Well the thing is, dividing them to Inner and Outer would work if there were only 2 areas of China, but there are 3, so it would be kinda weird...

I like to avoid directional names where possible, but in this case I don't think there are any better alternatives.

[isaiah40]

Not really, as you have one area named "Manchuria", so renaming East and West China won't be weird at all.

[AndyDufresne]

Not really, as you have one area named "Manchuria", so renaming East and West China won't be weird at all.

I think Inner and Outer China could work, as it looks like both are real terms (Inner China more so than Outer, but I found relevant search results on Google for both).


--Andy

[natty dread]

But Manchuria is a part of China... The point is, "Inner" and "Outer" are binary terms - when you have "inner something" and "outer something" that implies that together they form "all of something". When you have inner, outer and then a third something, it kind of doesn't add up, you know? East and West give more leeway, since they don't exclude the existence of other directions.

Either way, I've been considering the idea of splitting one more bonus from China... the upside would be making the area more attractive, while the downside would be having to rearrange the legend, and I really like the current order of the legend, it's very logical... plus, rearranging it is a pain in the ass...

The most obvious option would be to simply split Hainan, Guangdong & Henan to their own bonus, since these regions correspond to the Central South division of China. The downside is, this would make the remaining East China kind of awkward shape, but then it would be a good opportunity for expansion...