The HIVE [Quenched]

[The One 4500]

Hey,

I dig the board size...I like the hive, but i think you could get away with something more epic. I like the traditional standard play, leaves everything up to pure strategy. Good work so far! Don't have anything else for you unless you have more specific questions.

[mark74]

I'd play it. Bring it on.

[ustus]

ok, i like everything about this map except the nodes (and i'm not too fond of bees, but that's beside the point).

I would deff play this map as it stands, but i'd like to make some suggestions for the nodes.

first, i agree they need to be the shapes and locations they are to allow for the bonus regions. What i don't like about them is the one way attack. I could even handle the huge distances of attack if all nodes bordered each other

perhaps, though, they could simply be honey storage depots and you could have a bonus for holding all 5

or they could be something else and could have an autodeploy

or they could be non-bonus territs

or you could have them be non playable territories, nothing there just graphical stuff (personally, i don't much care for this one)

Honestly, i'll play it however, just throwing ideas out.

[boat4hire]

i love the map... beehive idea is spectacular...i wanna play already

[Evil DIMwit]

I don't like how the 3-hex groups are almost as bright as the nodes. Try making the small groups darker and more orangey, close enough to blend in with the other hex colors but still distinct.

Here is teh current color pallete.



If I make the lighter darker, all of the rest need to get darker as well. Then the darkest is TOO dark.

There really is no confusing the Nodes since they are completely different that the other hexes.

WM

The question isn't confusion, the question is aesthetics. I just think the very light groups don't look good. Honey comes in many colors -- there's no reason you should have to make the pallet a one-hue gradient. Of course, if you think it looks fine this way, power to you.

[PersonalCommande]

I'd rather have the impasses in RED
I really hate getting stuffed up because I can't see borders properly.


PC

[chipv]

Great idea, WM, will be a popular map.

Apologies if this has been addressed but is there anyway to shortcut the distance between the far sides of the board?

For example in Conquerman you can use the diamonds or aliens to get around - World 2.1 wraps around horizontally so there is usually
no problem in making a kill especially in terminator games. I can see terminator being a nightmare without some shortuct or wraparound.
Team games and 1v1 may also suffer from bad drops deciding outcome as well unless there is some way to break bonuses.

What about some special jump hexes something like that around the board? It could be frustrating without something like this.
The gameplay would be sharper as you would have to consider blocking these hexes as opposed to just building on bonus borders, especially the small bonuses.

[WidowMakers]

ok, i like everything about this map except the nodes (and i'm not too fond of bees, but that's beside the point).

I would deff play this map as it stands, but i'd like to make some suggestions for the nodes.

first, i agree they need to be the shapes and locations they are to allow for the bonus regions. What i don't like about them is the one way attack. I could even handle the huge distances of attack if all nodes bordered each other

I was thinking of making them all attack each other. That way the movement around the map would be better. No bonus however. Just Storage areas like you suggested.

[WidowMakers]

The question isn't confusion, the question is aesthetics. I just think the very light groups don't look good. Honey comes in many colors -- there's no reason you should have to make the pallet a one-hue gradient. Of course, if you think it looks fine this way, power to you.

I understand what you mean but when I started making the lighter darker, they blended to much together.
Plus I wanted to stay with the yellow golden colors for honey.

But please put together another pallet so I can see what you mean. Maybe it will look better.

[WidowMakers]

I'd rather have the impasses in RED
I really hate getting stuffed up because I can't see borders properly.


PC

I don't understand what you mean. The impassable borders are a thick black line. Why is it hard to see them?

[WidowMakers]

Great idea, WM, will be a popular map.

Apologies if this has been addressed but is there anyway to shortcut the distance between the far sides of the board?

For example in Conquerman you can use the diamonds or aliens to get around - World 2.1 wraps around horizontally so there is usually
no problem in making a kill especially in terminator games. I can see terminator being a nightmare without some shortuct or wraparound.
Team games and 1v1 may also suffer from bad drops deciding outcome as well unless there is some way to break bonuses.

What about some special jump hexes something like that around the board? It could be frustrating without something like this.
The gameplay would be sharper as you would have to consider blocking these hexes as opposed to just building on bonus borders, especially the small bonuses.

The NODES (which will be renamed) allow for great movement. I think teh 1-way borders will eb replaced and all nodes attack each other inserted. They will have no bonus and just serve as hubs to enable movement.

[chipv]

Great idea, WM, will be a popular map.

Apologies if this has been addressed but is there anyway to shortcut the distance between the far sides of the board?

For example in Conquerman you can use the diamonds or aliens to get around - World 2.1 wraps around horizontally so there is usually
no problem in making a kill especially in terminator games. I can see terminator being a nightmare without some shortuct or wraparound.
Team games and 1v1 may also suffer from bad drops deciding outcome as well unless there is some way to break bonuses.

What about some special jump hexes something like that around the board? It could be frustrating without something like this.
The gameplay would be sharper as you would have to consider blocking these hexes as opposed to just building on bonus borders, especially the small bonuses.

The NODES (which will be renamed) allow for great movement. I think teh 1-way borders will eb replaced and all nodes attack each other inserted. They will have no bonus and just serve as hubs to enable movement.

Ah yes I see it now, the Nodes are exactly what I meant, you already did this, sorry bout that.

I have one other suggestion in keeping with the honeycomb theme.

How about making it difficult to exit the node locally?
So 5 one way attacks INTO each node and a single one way attack OUT.

You could compensate for the difficulty in exitting each node with autodeploy.

Ok maybe too much, but hexagons will allow some nice gameplay options so I'd like to see something a little different personally.

[MarathonMax]

where do I vote I LIKE IT !!!

[Evil DIMwit]

The question isn't confusion, the question is aesthetics. I just think the very light groups don't look good. Honey comes in many colors -- there's no reason you should have to make the pallet a one-hue gradient. Of course, if you think it looks fine this way, power to you.

I understand what you mean but when I started making the lighter darker, they blended to much together.
Plus I wanted to stay with the yellow golden colors for honey.

But please put together another pallet so I can see what you mean. Maybe it will look better.

Well, don't know if this does look better but I meant something like
[bigimg]http://www.freewebs.com/dimagic/ConquerClub/colored_hive.png[/bigimg]

[WidowMakers]

Thanks for the post Evil DIMwit. I now see what you mean. That does look better. I will update the colors with the next version.

[wemeetagain]

HOLLY CRAP THAT LOOKS CONFUSING. I'd try it once or twice, but probably wouldn't like it.

[trinicardinal]

It looks interesting. i would probably give it a try

[josta59]

Pretty cool...but can I pretend they're bee MECHS?! (see my post on page 10)

[1bigmoney1]

looks interesting. l would try to play a game or two,to see how it goes.

[ram1961]

In nature, there's only one queen bee in a hive, but there are several drones (10 to 20) and thousands of female worker bees. In the comb, some cells contain pollen for raising brood. Many other cells contain nectar being converted to honey that the bees eventually use for food. Another large number of cells contain brood/larvae that is being developed into bees.

The groups of pollen, nectar and brood cells could make up the the bonus groupings

One of the nodes could be the queen that dominates all the nodes. Drone nodes could only attack immediately neighboring drone nodes to either side or the queen node.

Just some ideas on making the Hive theme closer to the actual environment the bees live in.

Otherwise, good idea so let's try it.

[john9blue]

The edges look kind of pixelated. Softening them wouldn't hurt, especially since this map is uniform and everybody knows what the borders are (unless you're going for a Conquer-Man style pixelated look, which I hope you aren't). A honey texture would be cool, too. And speaking of Conquer Man, why not have the bees' wings buzzing like they're in motion?

[WidowMakers]

The edges look kind of pixelated. Softening them wouldn't hurt, especially since this map is uniform and everybody knows what the borders are (unless you're going for a Conquer-Man style pixelated look, which I hope you aren't). A honey texture would be cool, too. And speaking of Conquer Man, why not have the bees' wings buzzing like they're in motion?

The issue with softening them is that more space is used. I am too the limit as far as usable space for text and army numbers. That is why everything is pixel fonts and lines. If I anti alias the edges, everything blurs and start to run together. Then the impassable borders need to get bigger (thicker) to stand out from the regular softer lines. Then that all runs together again.

The original goal was to MAXIMIZE territories. The visuals will come along for the ride but not dictate the size. Conquerman was a throwback to 8-bit games. This map is just the results of spacial limitations and pixels.

WM

[WidowMakers]

In nature, there's only one queen bee in a hive, but there are several drones (10 to 20) and thousands of female worker bees. In the comb, some cells contain pollen for raising brood. Many other cells contain nectar being converted to honey that the bees eventually use for food. Another large number of cells contain brood/larvae that is being developed into bees.

The groups of pollen, nectar and brood cells could make up the the bonus groupings

One of the nodes could be the queen that dominates all the nodes. Drone nodes could only attack immediately neighboring drone nodes to either side or the queen node.

Just some ideas on making the Hive theme closer to the actual environment the bees live in.

Otherwise, good idea so let's try it.

A very interesting idea and I myself have been trying to figure out what the nodes could be.

Here are the constraints:

1) No special game mechanics - No bombarding, 1-way attacks (even though I have that listed already SHAME ON ME I need to edit) or autodeploy. I would like to keep this simple standard GP.
2) Node Instructions need to be simple. This goes along with no special mechanics. There is no room for complex and lengthy text explaining stuff. Also all nodes will need to be referred to as teh same thing with 1,2,3,4,5 after them. easier to explain and less space too.

So nodes (whatever they are eventually called) will either just be hubs to allow quicker movement (i.e. all nodes attack each other)
or
somewhere have bonuses like the KOTM tops or the Great lakes (hold 2 (+2) hold 3 (+4) hold 4 (+7) Hold all (+9) or whatever.

I tend to like both:

1) All nodes attack all nodes
2) Rising bonus structure for holding nodes

Only issue is where to put the text. If this idea is liked, then I will need to rework the legend and figure out good names for the nodes.
I like HONEY STORAGE as a replacement to the node word

WM

[nfollador]

Great map. My vote is "YES".

[Tirbid]

I see no problem with the map, once the details are all worked out. It looks like it could be quite a challange. I say bring it on.