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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby RedBaron0 on Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:02 pm

porkenbeans wrote:Here for the review,
I have only briefly looked at the map, and have not YET read the thread. I will give my first impressions. And, then get back, after further study.
#1.) I think that the stroke is way to much. It jumps out at me, right off the bat.
#2.) I like the intensity of the color, but it needs to be contrasted against the water. The water could be de-saturated and lightened a bit to accomplish this.

Not a bad start. 8-)


Exactly which stroke is too strong? The borders, the outline, the sea routes, or all of the above?

I can try different colors for the background, a lighter blue, turquoise, or a sea green.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby porkenbeans on Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:38 pm

The outside border on the islands. loose that stroke altogether. Instead try a drop shadow. But, before you do any of that, get your islands the size that you need. You have a whole lot of room with that big ocean. It does not matter that everything is to exact scale, so, you can increase the land masses by distorting and stretching them. Sado and all those smaller islands, can be larger for example. The whole main land mass can be stretched out just a bit so that you will have more needed room for labeling and such. 8-)

as for the water. Well its like this, you have your positive and negative spaces, The land and the water. They should contrast each other. One should be dark and the other light in color. First get the lightness thing worked out, then experiment with different colors until you find just the right shade. My guess is a light turquoise will look good. Just make sure that it is very light in color. You may need to change the color of that small turquoise island. :D
Or you can go the other way and make the water the dark space. Then the land would possibly need to be lightened. Anyway, you get my meaning.

I have not yet read the entire thread, so forgive me if it has already been mentioned, but have you considered bringing China in to the picture ? it would give you more territs. You would have to loose the symbol on the bottom right, and replace it with legend in the upper left.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby RedBaron0 on Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:10 am

I had a version with the border taken off and just a white drop shadow, that didn't fly to well at the time. http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7060/japanversion39inprogres.jpg

The blue background I think is best, and I can lighten the landmass some more, but it is pretty light already, some of the colors are stronger than others though.

The islands have been stretched; some of the original versions show the outline with almost no distortion. The islands were stretched out mostly left and right and diagonally on the canvas. I shifted the southern 1/3 of Honshu to the north adding considerably to the girth of that section of the island. The canvas size is going to limit me stretching the main land mass any more, but the smaller islands can be enlarged, Sado, Tsushima, Oki, and Shikoku. Generally though names and army circles fit near or in their territories.

No one has brought up the addition of the east coast of Asia near Japan, like Korea, Manchuria, or Far East Russia (Vladivostok) but this map is just Japan, I have 42 territories currently, I don't think there is a need to go any higher than that. This map has been operating as a small map around 32 territories for the most part. As a part of the game play discussions I have been fiddling with the idea of increasing the territory count, thus brings us to the current version shown on the bottom of pg. 10.

I've been hoping to sort out the gameplay of the this map. Bonus values, territory connections, etc. So far I've gotten only a few responses, it tells me one of two things: The gameplay for this simple classic style map is generally good, but uninteresting. OR, The gameplay is just uninteresting...
I have thought for the next update I will re-add the sea territories and introduce a hopefully unique element to the map that will make it more desirable map. The sea territories I will rename them the West and East Divine Wind. Each territory will be accessible from 2 or 3 territories on either coast. For those of you that don't know, divine wind would translate into Japanese as kamikaze. So I propose each of these 2 territories have the ability to bombard ANY territory on their respective coasts. Each territory would also be a killer neutral. So if you want to take the territory, your armies there will die. It would probably need to be a relatively high neutral value, say 10-15 considering the power each territory commands.

It's an idea to add to the gameplay issues for Japan, however, my personally belief is that many of the newer maps, while interesting, and visually stunning; they make most people's head hurt. Simpler classic style maps should ALSO be making there way through the foundry adding to the massive library of maps available to play ....of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby Industrial Helix on Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:18 am

Haven't visited this map in a while...

My suggestion is that you should bring back the Sea of Japan Territory, either as playable or starting neutral. Open to deployment is my preferred status.

I don't really care for the Pacific territory, the whole point of the Sea of Japan terr. was that it evened out the gameplay on the west coast. But if you want to throw it in there, I don't think its going to make a huge difference.

I like it with more territories, though Okinawa should be just one, imo. I favor adding Sea of Japan terr. to this.

The bonus regions look great to me, I think everything is pretty fair there.

As for the whole Kamikaze idea... I'd rather you didn't. CC needs a solid, standard gameplay map of Japan. I think that's why you're not getting too many replies on the topic. Well, that and the numbers. I see those numbers you're putting up and think I can't be bothered to read through all that to keep up with the map. But then, I failed high school math like twice so it might be me.

Anyway, make Okinawa one again, add in Sea of Japan, someone ought to stamp it.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby ender516 on Sun Aug 16, 2009 12:30 pm

I am also a fan of standard gameplay maps. The fact that this is a map of Japan should sufficiently unique for it to pass muster on the guidelines. I don't think the kamikaze territories are necessary.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby porkenbeans on Sun Aug 16, 2009 4:09 pm

RedBaron0 wrote:I had a version with the border taken off and just a white drop shadow, that didn't fly to well at the time. http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7060/japanversion39inprogres.jpg

The blue background I think is best, and I can lighten the landmass some more, but it is pretty light already, some of the colors are stronger than others though.

The islands have been stretched; some of the original versions show the outline with almost no distortion. The islands were stretched out mostly left and right and diagonally on the canvas. I shifted the southern 1/3 of Honshu to the north adding considerably to the girth of that section of the island. The canvas size is going to limit me stretching the main land mass any more, but the smaller islands can be enlarged, Sado, Tsushima, Oki, and Shikoku. Generally though names and army circles fit near or in their territories.

No one has brought up the addition of the east coast of Asia near Japan, like Korea, Manchuria, or Far East Russia (Vladivostok) but this map is just Japan, I have 42 territories currently, I don't think there is a need to go any higher than that. This map has been operating as a small map around 32 territories for the most part. As a part of the game play discussions I have been fiddling with the idea of increasing the territory count, thus brings us to the current version shown on the bottom of pg. 10.

I've been hoping to sort out the gameplay of the this map. Bonus values, territory connections, etc. So far I've gotten only a few responses, it tells me one of two things: The gameplay for this simple classic style map is generally good, but uninteresting. OR, The gameplay is just uninteresting...
I have thought for the next update I will re-add the sea territories and introduce a hopefully unique element to the map that will make it more desirable map. The sea territories I will rename them the West and East Divine Wind. Each territory will be accessible from 2 or 3 territories on either coast. For those of you that don't know, divine wind would translate into Japanese as kamikaze. So I propose each of these 2 territories have the ability to bombard ANY territory on their respective coasts. Each territory would also be a killer neutral. So if you want to take the territory, your armies there will die. It would probably need to be a relatively high neutral value, say 10-15 considering the power each territory commands.

It's an idea to add to the gameplay issues for Japan, however, my personally belief is that many of the newer maps, while interesting, and visually stunning; they make most people's head hurt. Simpler classic style maps should ALSO be making there way through the foundry adding to the massive library of maps available to play ....of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Yeah that just does NOT work with an outer glow. IE; "white shadow".
What program are you using ? Photoshop ?
If so, can you give me just the 2 land and water layers ?
I will be happy to show you what I'm thinking. 8-)
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby RedBaron0 on Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:12 pm

GIMP 2.6

Each bonus region is its own layer, and the water then a wave pattern, and the country outline... lol The .xcf file 151 layers...

Sorry if I went off on a bit of rant, I'm just getting a little frustrated is all. I'm going to work on the map some tonight, probably have a update shortly.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:59 am

Click image to enlarge.
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Ugh... I forgot to reconnect Kushiro and Kunarisi, I'll get it on the next go around.

I think I might have found the line to use for the sea connections, thin black line(1 px) with white dots(2 px) in top with a tight drop shadow below. I've toned down some the bonus region colors and kept the background the blue color (blended NW to SE) But I'm still toying with the background color. I haven't enlarged anything, yet. I think at this point really everything fits reasonable well and the land mass doesn't need to be any larger than current. Any further distortion may change how recognizable the country outline is. I've dropped the opacity of the main country outline so it isn't so strong, but you might notice the underlap of the bonus regions, so I'll probably put that back to 100%. Still I leave the option of increasing the size of the smaller islands to as least accommodate the entire army circle. I'll probably hold off on that till we discuss more thoroughly the maps graphics. (Which ironically I worked on more is this update than anything else...)

Not much gameplay changes here, re-added just the Sea of Japan territory and made Okinawa 1 territory again, keeping the total at 42. The bonus value of Shikoku may have to go back to 1 because of this, unless I make Shihoku big enough to accommodate another territory. It's already kinda cramped down there, so it probably won't change. I changed the connections somewhat to kinda fall in line with bonus values keeping a good balance. I put a regular 88 into the Sea of Japan, since there is more territory, it may be best to have it as just a regular territory, but it may need to be a neutral start territory.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-14 pg10

Postby lt_oddball on Mon Aug 17, 2009 5:35 am

ender516 wrote:I am also a fan of standard gameplay maps. The fact that this is a map of Japan should sufficiently unique for it to pass muster on the guidelines. I don't think the kamikaze territories are necessary.


I agree... classic gameplay Japan map is fine.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby Industrial Helix on Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:00 am

Gameplay looks pretty good now, I say stick with it and move on to graphics. Though I think that there is no real reason why the sea of Japan ter. should start neutral. But that's just my opinion, your call though.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:54 am

Industrial Helix wrote:Gameplay looks pretty good now, I say stick with it and move on to graphics. Though I think that there is no real reason why the sea of Japan ter. should start neutral. But that's just my opinion, your call though.


It was more of a necessity when there was 10 less territories to prevent 1 player from having too much power over the west coast, now it isn't as big a deal.

Little mini update fixing my own little misses and mistakes mentioned above, and with a slight change to the background color.

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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby Industrial Helix on Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:07 pm

Well, if this is the last major form of gameplay that you're going to do, I say everything looks sound with the bonus regions.

One thing though, you might want to put a note under the 'mountains are impassable' that the Sea of Japan is not part of any bonus region. Seems obvious to me having watched this map over 11 pages, but to others at a first glance it might not. Your call.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:19 pm

It can't be the last major gameplay update, unless I pickup a gameplay stamp.

I was figuring I would have to do that for the Sea of Japan territory, I kinda left it off since I couldn't figure exactly how to word it, but I'll figure it out. ;)
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby MrBenn on Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:40 pm

RedBaron0 wrote:It can't be the last major gameplay update, unless I pickup a gameplay stamp.

I was figuring I would have to do that for the Sea of Japan territory, I kinda left it off since I couldn't figure exactly how to word it, but I'll figure it out. ;)

I don't think you should be considering major gameplay updates at all - all it achieves is mass confusion :lol:

I'm a little bit confused by the discussion/images that appear to show some starting positions... I'm hoping that I've misunderstood the intention, because I can;t see any real need for starting positions on this map... If you were just trying to estimate the probability of dropping a particular bonus, then the Bonus Probability Calculator may be some help to you.

The primary focus at this stage, should be to sort out the gameplay - the graphics should come fairly swiftly after that ;-)
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:56 pm

MrBenn wrote:
RedBaron0 wrote:It can't be the last major gameplay update, unless I pickup a gameplay stamp.

I was figuring I would have to do that for the Sea of Japan territory, I kinda left it off since I couldn't figure exactly how to word it, but I'll figure it out. ;)

I don't think you should be considering major gameplay updates at all - all it achieves is mass confusion :lol:

I'm a little bit confused by the discussion/images that appear to show some starting positions... I'm hoping that I've misunderstood the intention, because I can;t see any real need for starting positions on this map... If you were just trying to estimate the probability of dropping a particular bonus, then the Bonus Probability Calculator may be some help to you.

The primary focus at this stage, should be to sort out the gameplay - the graphics should come fairly swiftly after that ;-)


That's a big help Mr. Benn, I'll play with the calculator and see what I come up with.

There are no starting positions here, earlier the "Sea of Japan" territory was seen as a territory with power over the west coast and it was deemed to be best have it start as a neutral territory. That has changed since there is 10 more territories now than when the "Sea of Japan" was introduced.

And by "major gameplay updates" it should be said more like "major gameplay discussions" And I think I'm close to getting this sorted out, hopefully with the calculator and a couple of tweaks here and there I should be good to go for some ink. [-o< ;)

EDIT:
The numbers I've seen in the spreadsheet are promising, only the numbers on Shikoku have smidgen of concern. Considering it's value (1) and the fact it has 2 borders, I'd say even if you drop in the start it's NOT a game changer. That's my opinion though...

2 player/3player/4player
3.17% / 3.17% / 1.05% - probability a player will drop the bonus on the start
6.34% / 9.51% / 4.18% - probability ANY player will drop the bonus on the start
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-17 pg1&11

Postby ender516 on Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:30 am

I much prefer your latest ocean background colour scheme to the one just previous.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:56 am

I finished updating with the big image also having the new background. It's the same background color, just with a green hue added.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby barterer2002 on Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:42 am

Moving along nicely here RB. Haven't checked in in a while but I like the changes.

I don't think that sea of japan needs to have a neutral start
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:45 pm

Thanks bart, yeah, I agree, Sea of Japan won't start neutral.

Instead of just throwing out numbers I'll show you the chart of probabilities(provided by Mr. Benn) of dropping a bonus in the current setup.

Click image to enlarge.
image


Worst case possibility: (3 player game)
Odds picking up 9 territory bonus(Chugoku) = 1 in 74,074
Odds picking up 7 territory bonus(Tohoku) = 1 in 2,500
Odds picking up 6 territory bonus(Hokkaido, Kyushu, Hokuriku) = 1 in 588
Odds picking up 4 territory bonus(Kanto) = 1 in 37
Odds picking up 3 territory bonus(Shikoku) = 1 in 11

Couple options here, leave the map as is and start 1 territory in Shikoku as neutral -OR- increase the physical size of the island and add a territory to the Shikoku bonus bringing the total territory count up to 43 changing the odds for the 4 territory bonus to 1 in 41. Each is simple to do. I figure since I'm thinking of increasing the size of the minor islands anyways, I'll look to add a territory between Kochi and Tokushima.

The question I have now is what else is there? Are there any other issues with bonus value, territory connection, and/or overall gameplay?
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby lt_oddball on Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:15 am

RedBaron0 wrote:Thanks bart, yeah, I agree, Sea of Japan won't start neutral.

Instead of just throwing out numbers I'll show you the chart of probabilities(provided by Mr. Benn) of dropping a bonus in the current setup.

Click image to enlarge.
image


Worst case possibility: (3 player game)
Odds picking up 9 territory bonus(Chugoku) = 1 in 74,074
Odds picking up 7 territory bonus(Tohoku) = 1 in 2,500
Odds picking up 6 territory bonus(Hokkaido, Kyushu, Hokuriku) = 1 in 588
Odds picking up 4 territory bonus(Kanto) = 1 in 37
Odds picking up 3 territory bonus(Shikoku) = 1 in 11

Couple options here, leave the map as is and start 1 territory in Shikoku as neutral -OR- increase the physical size of the island and add a territory to the Shikoku bonus bringing the total territory count up to 43 changing the odds for the 4 territory bonus to 1 in 41. Each is simple to do. I figure since I'm thinking of increasing the size of the minor islands anyways, I'll look to add a territory between Kochi and Tokushima.

The question I have now is what else is there? Are there any other issues with bonus value, territory connection, and/or overall gameplay?



For me the map is pretty ok. =D>

Sea of Japan neutral; well, it may be not so top important zone (with huge bonusses and that)..but you could think of it like ; people start as warrying factions..building armies from peasants to professional samurais...evolving from general to shogun.
Hence to develop the ability to sail an army over a stretch of sea it requires some time and control of a province..
So in that aspect the Sea terr. would be good to have as a starting neutral.

I don't understand quite the excel spreadsheet. I think it has some errors...(bonus 3 to 4 huge difference..but 2 player to 3 player not much decay in % even raise...strange).
Most importantly it doesn't include the effect of having troops spawned at the BORDER of the focus bonuszone that obviously SUPPORTS the attack on the focus bonus zone.

Shikoku: what is the chance you drop on 2 of its 3 terr. PLUS on Osaka and Oita ?
(impossible to predict in a simplified spreadsheet)



So the excel program is useless in that it only tells you that the smaller the bonuszone the bigger the change that one player spawns in there.
Don't need a spreadsheet to tell me that.

:mrgreen:
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby RedBaron0 on Fri Aug 21, 2009 11:43 am

The rise in the percentage from 2 player to 3 player makes sense to me if you consider that in a 2 player game, the drop is the same as a 3 player game, except 1/3 of the territories become neutral at the start. In the 3 player game the chances are higher since you have 3 real players who would only need 3 territories of the starting 14 be the ones in the bonus. Mr. Benn did the math here, but I'd trust that his math is sound. It makes sense for ever 3 player game made, 1 player will drop Shikoku once in every 11 games. You can see if you drop not only the bonus but border territories by looking at the odds of getting any of the other bonuses. Think of it as any 4(or any other number of territories) particular territories to be the bonus and it's borders. The odds do go down, but isn't impossible.

The Sea of Japan could go either way neutral or not, really we won't know for sure if affect gameplay till games are played. All I see as advantage at this point is a starting player there will have the opportunity to pick a starting position, North, South, or Central Japan.

For the next update I just realized I'll have to do some repositioning of army circles and territory names to prevent the numbers from overlapping when more than 100 armies.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby porkenbeans on Fri Aug 21, 2009 4:39 pm

I think that you guys are trying to hard to make everything EVEN. If every map were exactly even, then it would all just comes down to a dice game. Figuring out each map and its advantages and disadvantages, is what expands the game from just the luck of the dice. Which would you rather have, a dice game, or a game that rewards well thought out calculations that involve using your brain a bit more ? 8-)
I say just let it be as is. Its up to the players to figure out for themselves how they want to play each map.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby ender516 on Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:48 pm

porkenbeans wrote:I think that you guys are trying to hard to make everything EVEN. If every map were exactly even, then it would all just comes down to a dice game. Figuring out each map and its advantages and disadvantages, is what expands the game from just the luck of the dice. Which would you rather have, a dice game, or a game that rewards well thought out calculations that involve using your brain a bit more ? 8-)
I say just let it be as is. Its up to the players to figure out for themselves how they want to play each map.

I see your point, but unless the map is highly symmetric, it will not be even. What we want to avoid is a map where a really unfair advantage comes up too often. The randomness of the drop will mean that no one will come out ahead in the long run because of such an imbalance, but it's not much fun for anybody to play a game where one player has been handed a huge advantage over the others.
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-18 pg1&11

Postby 00iCon on Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:03 am

porkenbeans wrote:I think that you guys are trying to hard to make everything EVEN. If every map were exactly even, then it would all just comes down to a dice game. Figuring out each map and its advantages and disadvantages, is what expands the game from just the luck of the dice. Which would you rather have, a dice game, or a game that rewards well thought out calculations that involve using your brain a bit more ? 8-)
I say just let it be as is. Its up to the players to figure out for themselves how they want to play each map.

I'd say it's more a toss up between the risk and reward of an action, than a thought through calculation.

Anyway, the map's come along well, looks futuristic with the sea routes that way.

I think the probability of getting the bonus on Shikoku is balanced with the bonus for holding it. Could be corrected by adding another attack route.
Wait how can you even get the drop bonus if Kochi is neutral?
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Re: Japan - 日本 [D] - Gameplay Discussion - UPDATED 8-23 pg12

Postby RedBaron0 on Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:07 am

Newest Image:
Click image to enlarge.
image


Bonus spreadsheet with comparisons to Classic:
Click image to enlarge.
image


Starting bonus probabilities:
Click image to enlarge.
image


I'll finish the big version later on, probably later today.

Small graphical changes:
White drop shadow deleted from behind sea routes.
Tokushima renamed Naruto each city is in the region(only a couple miles apart) Naruto is a shorter word...

Most everything here updated falls under Gameplay issues one way or another.
Each territory should be able to accommodate army amounts of at least 4 digits(or 3 digits and a color code) after some slight redrawing of territory boundaries and repositioning of territory names.
Small island territories have been enlarged to at least mostly fit the army circle. The large island of Shikoku has been enlarged about 20% to allow for a 4th territory in said bonus region.(Nakamora) This brings he map territory total to 43.
An additional territory has led to an increase of the Shikoku bonus value from 1 to 2 all bonus calculations can be viewed in the image above and compared to the Classic map.
Drop probabilities should be more than acceptable now, and can be viewed above. At worst in a 3 player game, chances of dropping either of the 4 territory bonuses is about 1 in 41. In a 2 player game the chances of dropping either of the 4 territory bonuses is about 1 in 62.
Added an explanation about the Sea of Japan territory.

00iCon wrote:Anyway, the map's come along well, looks futuristic with the sea routes that way.
I think the probability of getting the bonus on Shikoku is balanced with the bonus for holding it. Could be corrected by adding another attack route.
Wait how can you even get the drop bonus if Kochi is neutral?


Thanks, I'm still fiddling with it, I like it a little better without the white shadow behind it.
While true, I figured it better to increase the size of the bonus by 1 territory rather than add an attack route. A 3 territory bonus with 3 borders wouldn't be worth the value to hold, even if you got it on the drop.
You couldn't drop the bonus, it was an option if I kept the territory count at 42 to code Kochi as neutral.

porkenbeans wrote:I think that you guys are trying to hard to make everything EVEN. If every map were exactly even, then it would all just comes down to a dice game. Figuring out each map and its advantages and disadvantages, is what expands the game from just the luck of the dice. Which would you rather have, a dice game, or a game that rewards well thought out calculations that involve using your brain a bit more ? 8-)
I say just let it be as is. Its up to the players to figure out for themselves how they want to play each map.


I don't think I'm overly trying to keep the map even. It's just to prevent an early advantage as has been already stated. There are quirks to this map. I hate to say it, but, I think most folks are going to try and gain control of either the north or south of the map. This is countered by the smaller, easier to hold bonus regions being closer to the center of the map which I think allows a player to start just about anywhere and have an opportunity to win; depending on your opponent, strategy, and a bit of luck. ;)

Another little interesting quirk will be the fact there is 43 territories. 43 is a prime number, so no matter the amount of players, there will be at least 1 random neutral territory.
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