Conquer Club

I've always wanted a Metro/Subway map on CC, and took a crack at Mexico City's system...my favourite system, one of the world's largest, and also the world's cheapest to ride (MX$2, roughly US$0.20).

I started with the small map first, since there's a lot to fit on this map. The large map will let things be spaced out a little better. I've included the new Linea 12, that is scheduled to open in 2010, mostly because it vastly improves gameplay in my opinion.

Territories: 163
Continents: 12
Delveloper: Lobster Crush
Gameplay: pretty straightforward; transfer stations belong to both continents that share the station.



Comments welcome...I'm expecting at least one or two complaining about how crowded it is...

Cheers,
LC

besides the territory names being too squished with other territory names, I like this map

Joodoo wrote:besides the territory names being too squished with other territory names, I like this map

Thanks Joodoo,

I'm not too sure how to fix the squishedness...unfortunately the Mexicans like to name their subways stops with really long names! I don't think I can drop the size of the font any lower without making it way too tough to read, either.

I might try sketching out a large version of the map to see if that helps at all. If the large map looks much less squished, it might justify the sacrifice of squishing things onto the small map.

Cheers,
LC

colorblind person like me don't like the colours ( they look similar ) of the rails, but for the rest it's great !!! if you're making a line green please don't put a yellow or brown next to it, it gets confusing ! i hate being colorblind !

ben79 wrote:colorblind person like me don't like the colours ( they look similar ) of the rails, but for the rest it's great !!! if you're making a line green please don't put a yellow or brown next to it, it gets confusing ! i hate being colorblind !

Thanks ben,

Point taken. The colours are the official ones used by the Mexican Metro System, so I'd like to keep them the way they are if possible (even to my non-colourblind eyes the olive-green of Linea 3 is nearly identical to the gold used for Linea 12). I'll have a think about what I could do to fix this.

Cheers,
LC

The "tails" on this map would make for some bad game play.

Take the grey line in the Northeast for example. You can hold 11 territories just by protecting Deportivo Oceania. The same thing happens on the magenta line, the brown line, the gold line, and the green line.

Bones2484 wrote:The "tails" on this map would make for some bad game play.

Take the grey line in the Northeast for example. You can hold 11 territories just by protecting Deportivo Oceania. The same thing happens on the magenta line, the brown line, the gold line, and the green line.

True enough, Bones, but compared to most other Metro systems that I can think of, the gameplay is actually quite good (at least keeping faithful to the system map as-is). This is why I've but in Linea 12 (gold line), as it bisects a lot of the "tails" that would otherwise be much worse.

I've tried to account for these tails by adjusting bonuses for these lines. I'm planning to re-analyze the bonuses tonight, so will have another look.

Cheers,
LC

For reference, here's a map of the system as posted on wikipedia:



I would love to include the cool little symbols that they have for each station, but they just wouldn't fit (almost thankfully, since I think there might be copyright issues).

Cheers,
LC

Ok, needs to be cleaned up a lot, but here's a version with some of the "tails" trimmed quite a bit. Bonuses adjusted, but territ names not in the right spot yet. (Not sure what happened to Linea 8, but thinking a bonus of 10.)



Does this make more sense? Or keep the complete metro system?

LC

Good start but I don't like how some stations belong to multiple continents.
When two lines intersect, there should be two stations like the Rail USA and Rail Europe map

Use this to help adjust colours for the colourblind: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php

The problem is with Line 8 and Line 9, as you can see in the checker, they both come out a sewage brown colour. Try fiddling with the blue level. If you make it more blue (110 instead of 60), it doesn't look alarmingly different, but the colours are now different enough to be distinguishable.

Emperor_Metalman wrote:Good start but I don't like how some stations belong to multiple continents.
When two lines intersect, there should be two stations like the Rail USA and Rail Europe map

I actually believe the opposite, I like how this is set up. Makes for a different game play and I dont even want to imagine how much MORE cluttered the map would be with multiple stations in one.

Bones2484 wrote:

Emperor_Metalman wrote:Good start but I don't like how some stations belong to multiple continents.
When two lines intersect, there should be two stations like the Rail USA and Rail Europe map

I actually believe the opposite, I like how this is set up. Makes for a different game play and I dont even want to imagine how much MORE cluttered the map would be with multiple stations in one.

Glad you feel that way, Bones...I feel the same way, both as far as gameplay goes, and as far as clutteredness (that's my new word for the day).

I'm actually working on focusing it in a bit more on the city centre, so hopefully the clutteredness level goes down a bit more.

Cheers,
LC

shakeycat wrote:Use this to help adjust colours for the colourblind: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php

The problem is with Line 8 and Line 9, as you can see in the checker, they both come out a sewage brown colour. Try fiddling with the blue level. If you make it more blue (110 instead of 60), it doesn't look alarmingly different, but the colours are now different enough to be distinguishable.

I'll definitely fiddle with this a bit more when I get closer to a gameplay layout we're happy with.

LC

Lobster Crush wrote:

Bones2484 wrote:

Emperor_Metalman wrote:Good start but I don't like how some stations belong to multiple continents.
When two lines intersect, there should be two stations like the Rail USA and Rail Europe map

I actually believe the opposite, I like how this is set up. Makes for a different game play and I dont even want to imagine how much MORE cluttered the map would be with multiple stations in one.

Glad you feel that way, Bones...I feel the same way, both as far as gameplay goes, and as far as clutteredness (that's my new word for the day).

I'm actually working on focusing it in a bit more on the city centre, so hopefully the clutteredness level goes down a bit more.

Cheers,
LC

The reason why I was suggesting multiple stations per territory is so that there are more choices of which bonus to take.
Some of the larger lines should be split into subcontinents.

I thought about the possibilities of this map when I was down there at new years, and what I love about riding the DF metro are the symbols for each station. I imagine the metro system holds the copyright, but it would be worth looking into their use. Otherwise this map is just a crowded, confusing array of circles and words, without any style.

oaktown wrote:I thought about the possibilities of this map when I was down there at new years, and what I love about riding the DF metro are the symbols for each station. I imagine the metro system holds the copyright, but it would be worth looking into their use. Otherwise this map is just a crowded, confusing array of circles and words, without any style.

100% agree with the symbols...they're what makes the DF system my favourite in the world. I imagine that trying to get permission to use them would be more trouble than it's worth, though, since Mexican bureaucracy is notoriously difficult to deal with.

I'm working on scaling it back so that things aren't so cramped. Maybe I'll do a mock up with the symbols, and if people really like it, they might be willing to help me out with the Mexican red tape...

And hey, I wish I knew you were down there for New Years...I was too. My wife is actually living down there this year for research.

Cheers,
LC

I've been messing around with the idea of more metro systems as a map pack. Here's what I've sketched out for NYC, for what it's worth:



Obviously pretty rough, but a start. Emp. Metalman will be happy to see this one is more like the US/Europe Railway maps (separate stations where lines intersect). For some reason this makes more sense to me for the NYC system than the Mexico City one.

I'd love to do up maps for the 10 biggest systems in the world, which would be:

NYC
Paris
London
Seoul
Madrid
Tokyo
Mexico City
Berlin
Shanghai
Chicago
Moscow

Any interest?
LC

you could always showcase Winnipegs fine transit system

Danyael wrote:you could always showcase Winnipegs fine transit system

True enough. I think it would look something like this:



LC

Lobster Crush wrote:I've been messing around with the idea of more metro systems as a map pack. Here's what I've sketched out for NYC, for what it's worth:

Click image to enlarge.

Obviously pretty rough, but a start. Emp. Metalman will be happy to see this one is more like the US/Europe Railway maps (separate stations where lines intersect). For some reason this makes more sense to me for the NYC system than the Mexico City one.

I'd love to do up maps for the 10 biggest systems in the world, which would be:

NYC
Paris
London
Seoul
Madrid
Tokyo
Mexico City
Berlin
Shanghai
Chicago
Moscow

Any interest?
LC

i think your ideas are pretty good ... you just need to spruce the graphics with a lot more detail

Lobster Crush wrote:

Danyael wrote:you could always showcase Winnipegs fine transit system

True enough. I think it would look something like this:

Click image to enlarge.

LC

thats about it lol

I'd really like to see this Winnipeg Transit idea take off. Though the Cartographers will probably have a fit over the first 4 territory map. Let them! No other map combines so much, um, Winnipeg, all into one.

I've been flirting with the idea of making transit for the Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto/Nara (Kansai) area. Is a bit extensive, but could be interesting.

Looking at the New York one, I wonder, would we do regular bonuses? Or would we make starting points and goals, something like pot of gold. ie. apartment and job, with a route of 15 territories in between on the shortest route, full of neutrals (2). That times 8. One could either ride the train to kill opponents, or make a dash for work to win. Just a thought.

Lobster Crush wrote:I've been messing around with the idea of more metro systems as a map pack. Here's what I've sketched out for NYC, for what it's worth:

Click image to enlarge.

Obviously pretty rough, but a start. Emp. Metalman will be happy to see this one is more like the US/Europe Railway maps (separate stations where lines intersect). For some reason this makes more sense to me for the NYC system than the Mexico City one.

I'd love to do up maps for the 10 biggest systems in the world, which would be:

NYC
Paris
London
Seoul
Madrid
Tokyo
Mexico City
Berlin
Shanghai
Chicago
Moscow

Any interest?
LC

You NYC map looks good
Only problem is that some of the bonuses are too large and the 2*4 grid of stations in the top right corner is a bad idea.

as a df metro user (not so often, though) i cant wait for this!

but, the issue is that lines like A and B have LONG lines of stations that don't cross other lines....taking em off wouldn't do....but keeping them is troublesome too....i would keep em and add 1 or 2 armies more to their bonus. but that's just me. oh and keep line 12..
and about size....cant this be made the size of world 2.1? it has way more than this number of terrs....