USA 2.1 [10 Mar 2013] Beta Baby!!

[isaiah40]

any reason you chose green, yellow and blue for the colors? Wouldn't red/white/blue be more fitting?

It would, at the same time I had to get colors that contrasted well with each other and that were good for our color blind players. The 888's show up good with these colors so for now I'm going to keep them. But while in graphics I may play with the colors some more.

what a good job u've made of the state bonuses! 90% of them are good as is, which is some achievement on a map of this size and complexity.

Thank you!!

as mentioned before, the large states with yellow airports will need bigger bonuses to compensate for both their vulnerability to attack and the delay in actually starting to pay out: +9 instead of +6 for california, +8 instead of +5 for texas, +5 instead of +3 for illinois, +7 instead of +5 for new york and +6 instead of +5 for georgia.

Done.

the corner location of florida just about compensates for the large number of cities that it has, so we can leave it at +4. for dc, +2 auto-deploy instead of +3 is probably more balanced, since it's initially accessible only from baltimore and will almost certainly form part of a strategy that combines dc with i-95.

Done.

for the bonuses that involve state capitals, perhaps include the star symbol to make it clear that dc doesn't count.

For the Interstate bonuses I included "Does not include D.C." As for the other bonuses, I believe that they are clear considering that both the Capital and D.C. bonuses have their associated symbol next to them.

the road from plattsburgh to burlington has somehow gone through canada. straighten out the border to fix this.

ian.

Done.

And without further ado, here is v27!

Click image to enlarge.

[FreeMan10]

Wow! Quite some progress from the original version.

A graphics suggestion - change the pink airplanes to green, then change the yellow ones to red. To my eye, the yellow airports get lost in the middle of the map. Possibly just swap pink & yellow, but the complete color changes eliminates the yellow on yellow of LAX and Honolulu.

Also, IL, IN & OH are horribly misshapen from reality, but somehow these colors & borders seem to hide the fact. Either that, or I still have the original images in my mind's eye, and you've actually cleaned up the shape somewhat. Either way, it seems to work now.

EDIT: Also, and I think this was mentioned earlier, the northern border of FL & the north eastern border of GA are a little wonky. They look like impassibles that weren't called out in the legend.

[isaiah40]

Wow! Quite some progress from the original version.

A graphics suggestion - change the pink airplanes to green, then change the yellow ones to red. To my eye, the yellow airports get lost in the middle of the map. Possibly just swap pink & yellow, but the complete color changes eliminates the yellow on yellow of LAX and Honolulu.

Also, IL, IN & OH are horribly misshapen from reality, but somehow these colors & borders seem to hide the fact. Either that, or I still have the original images in my mind's eye, and you've actually cleaned up the shape somewhat. Either way, it seems to work now.

EDIT: Also, and I think this was mentioned earlier, the northern border of FL & the north eastern border of GA are a little wonky. They look like impassibles that weren't called out in the legend.

Thank you!

I'll play with the color of the planes to see if I can't get them to stick out more. One thing that won't happen is the yellow to red because the red will disappear on the blue for the color blind.

Yes there are some states that are out of whack, I plan on redoing them once into graphics.

[iancanton]

for the bonuses that involve state capitals, perhaps include the star symbol to make it clear that dc doesn't count.

For the Interstate bonuses I included "Does not include D.C." As for the other bonuses, I believe that they are clear considering that both the Capital and D.C. bonuses have their associated symbol next to them.

the +1 for every 2 capitals bonus is clear. i was actually referring more to the hold all capitals +14 bonus as the one where there might be some confusion.

also, when requesting the reduction in dc auto-deploy from +3 to +2, i had assumed that the i-95 bonus could include dc: by any logic, dc appears to be squarely on i-95, so it's natural for it to count toward the 5 consecutive cities needed.

ian.

[isaiah40]

Hmmm ... Well, I'm okay with either way with D.C. I'll add in the Does not include D.C. with the Hold all capitals for the great lakes.

[sumone10154]

New England should be renamed to Northeast. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are definitely not part of New England. Also, I-95 goes through Trenton.

[isaiah40]

New England should be renamed to Northeast. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are definitely not part of New England. Also, I-95 goes through Trenton.

New England will not be renamed, as then I would have to change Great Lakes because Delaware is not around the great lakes. But I digress, this map is based on the USA map and the USA map pack. Though I can move I-95 so it goes through Trenton.

[iancanton]

I can move I-95 so it goes through Trenton.

in this case, the new jersey state bonus increases from +1 to +2.

ian.

[isaiah40]

Okay ian, I think I covered all your suggestions, so this should do it for game play *crosses fingers*

Click image to enlarge.

[iancanton]

it's certainly been a long time in coming. onward and upward!



ian.

[isaiah40]

Now that we're in graphics:

- Redid all the borders
- Moved some army circles and names around slightly

Click image to enlarge.

[RjBeals]

Is this being developed in adobe illustrator?

[isaiah40]

Is this being developed in adobe illustrator?

I am developing it in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

[Victor Sullivan]

Hm, I suppose it's been a while since I was here last, but why the color scheme change?

-Sully

[isaiah40]

Hm, I suppose it's been a while since I was here last, but why the color scheme change?

-Sully

Clearer, cleaner, doesn't look cramped, cluttered etc.

[Victor Sullivan]

Hm, I suppose it's been a while since I was here last, but why the color scheme change?

-Sully

Clearer, cleaner, doesn't look cramped, cluttered etc.

Oh. That's a shame. I liked it much, much better before... Green, yellow, and blue don't really say "USA" to me

-Sully

[isaiah40]

Ok, so what colors?? Besides Red, White and Blue??

[RjBeals]

I say red/white/blue. Who cares about color blindness.
Did you see the USA map I created? Link Here I used red/white/blue and some other colors I thought blended nice.

Also - are you using vector lines in photoshop for borders? or just brush strokes?

[isaiah40]

I say red/white/blue. Who cares about color blindness.
Did you see the USA map I created? Link Here I used red/white/blue and some other colors I thought blended nice.

Also - are you using vector lines in photoshop for borders? or just brush strokes?

I like that! I am using vector lines for the borders.

[isaiah40]

A few changes here and there, namely changed a couple of the colors, and redid the text on the map itself, so hopefully it is clearer and easier to read.

Click image to enlarge.

[ManBungalow]

Very nice.

You could try adding a background image. Find an image which really says "USA", and place it behind all the other layers. Then turn the opacity of the current grey background to 80% and see how it looks - but obviously it can't be distracting at all. It would perhaps connect this map more to the existing USA map pack. See how it goes, anyway; I know you have a good sense of aesthetics and will be able to judge if something looks really out of order.

[koontz1973]

Colours are a lot better, but I see you have two blues and 3 yellows still. How about make Alaska a white region also and turn Hawaii green? It would help with the mini map as all three yellows are very close to each other.

[isaiah40]

Very nice.

You could try adding a background image. Find an image which really says "USA", and place it behind all the other layers. Then turn the opacity of the current grey background to 80% and see how it looks - but obviously it can't be distracting at all. It would perhaps connect this map more to the existing USA map pack. See how it goes, anyway; I know you have a good sense of aesthetics and will be able to judge if something looks really out of order.

Thanks, I'll play around and see if anything looks good. My concern is that it will make the map look more cluttered and busy than it already is, but we'll see.

Colours are a lot better, but I see you have two blues and 3 yellows still. How about make Alaska a white region also and turn Hawaii green? It would help with the mini map as all three yellows are very close to each other.

Thanks, but I only have one yellow as The west coast, Alaska and Hawaii are in the Western region for the capitals. So since Alaska is no where near the Great lakes region (3000 miles away), and Hawaii, well, both will stay yellow.

[nolefan5311]

I like the new color scheme a lot isaiah. It is still a little difficult to make out the state border lines in the southeast, but overall, this looks really good.

[koontz1973]

Thanks, but I only have one yellow as The west coast, Alaska and Hawaii are in the Western region for the capitals. So since Alaska is no where near the Great lakes region (3000 miles away), and Hawaii, well, both will stay yellow.

Just noticed that. Oh well, good thing I like yellow then.