Madagascar [Quenched]

[ZeakCytho]

Why does a continent with 5 territories and 3 borders have the same bonus as one with 5 territories and 5 borders?

I think either Antsiranana needs to be lowered or Fianarantsoa needs to be raised.

This needs to be addressed before the map leaves Beta...

[apey]

A message from dear t-o-m
@ Zeak:

Antsiranana is a +1, lowering it would mean it would be a...+0.
I'm just going to go ahead and assume you meant Toliara.

You say that it needs either lowering, or the yellow continent needs raising. Raising a continent value on a small map such as this wouldn't be a good move. Bonuses are not all about how many territories for how many boarders, there are other things that need thinking about.

B - Bonus
DT - Defending Territories
ATBC - Adjacent Territories on Boarder of Continent

Code: Select all

    Continent      |  B  |  DT  | ATBC

    Toliara           4      3      6   
    Fianarantsoa      4      5      5   

Comments on Conts:

Toliara:
It's a continent that has lots of boarders, meaning lots of places to break from. A +3 wouldn't be good because of this, as the continent is used a lot to go to and from the map's ends, for easy transportation.

Fianarantsoa
It's a continent that all of it's territories are on the outside, so it's fairly hard to hold, however a +5 would be too big for the map, and a +3 unreqarding.

Please bare in mind that a lot, lot of this thread has been about gameplay, with it taking me the longest [cutting out the short vacations] time to get out of all the stamps.

If you have any other questions please ask.

Tom

[ZeakCytho]

Oops, I did mean Toliara.

I still feel that Toliara should be a +3. It's only 3 borders to defend, regardless of how many places can attack it. From personal experience, I've found that players who grab Toliara early on have a major advantage. Reducing the bonus to +3 would negate this.

Or maybe I'm crazy. What do the other gameplay-oriented commenters around here think?

[cena-rules]

another message from tom

21:56:16 ‹t-o-m› Tell Zeak that i see what he means. And for a minute, i seriously considered changing it to +3, however, i remember the gameplay discussions that were mainly about most if not all of the action would be up north, which as it is now in BETA play, is true. Making it a +3 would make the south even more unattractive, and i remember Oak recommending me to make it +4 so the south would be used more.

[oaktown]

i dont think this map has enough terits....

Well, there are so many eight player games going on this tiny map that somebody must think it's OK!

I still feel that Toliara should be a +3. It's only 3 borders to defend, regardless of how many places can attack it. From personal experience, I've found that players who grab Toliara early on have a major advantage. Reducing the bonus to +3 would negate this.

Or maybe I'm crazy. What do the other gameplay-oriented commenters around here think?

We went back and forth with the borders and bonuses on this one for weeks... I said all along that a small map isn't very forgiving.

Mahajanga has the advantage of being next to the only small region on the map - holding both Mahajanga and Antsirana gives you +4 with only two borders. And it then has access to a three territory region.

Meanwhile, the Toliara player has nowhere to go, and is probably not collecting a bonus until two other players have already done so for one or two rounds, which makes it a high-risk, high-payoff start. Long ago in a galaxy far far away, risk was the name of the game.

Fianarantsoa is, indeed, a tough +4and a lousy start... every territory is a border. I think any armies you get there you pile up to hit one of the three more attractive neighboring regions. It's like starting with a bunch of asia armies in classic - you don't go for Asia in your first turn, you pile them up and hit something next to you.

It's up to tom to decide if he wants any changes before this is un-beta'd, but I'd be fine with leaving it as-is. It's a small map that requires you to make some choices and do some thinking, which I think is fine.

[Lupo]

After have played this map, I strongly believe that some changes have still to be done in order to fix the gameplay.

I am asking sorry from now if this idea has already been proposed, anyway I think I got a good solution for this map.
The graphic has been changed with paint, I guess the map maker could do a lot better than me:



Introducing a connection between Diana (or Sava) and Androy (or Tulear) and reducing some bonuses fix map gameplay without any need to increase the bonuses.

[Murda_cap]

I like the map, I think its really going to be strategic in those assassin type games. Played the map I think 3 times so far, I havent seen the bonuses as a problem.

[Blitzaholic]

After have played this map, I strongly believe that some changes have still to be done in order to fix the gameplay.

I am asking sorry from now if this idea has already been proposed, anyway I think I got a good solution for this map.
The graphic has been changed with paint, I guess the map maker could do a lot better than me:



Introducing a connection between Diana (or Sava) and Androy (or Tulear) and reducing some bonuses fix map gameplay without any need to increase the bonuses.

thats a neat idea with the anchors

perhaps 2 or 3 more territories as well

the TOA bonus or orange colored bonus should be worth more than 1 too

[oaktown]

The notion of direct north to south attack routes were explored months ago, and the foundry decided against it. This has been the only suggestion made in the past month, so I think it's time to lose the BETA tag.

[Lupo]

I personally believe the map be not balanced as it is right now.
Since you prefer to not connect north with south, I believe be still possible working on continent bonuses.
I would like to know if be possible to introduce new regions and/or modify some borders.

[NinjaArmy]

i still hate the bitch out of those mountains, but good work, otherwise tom