Lunar War [GP, G, X] files on p.1

[natty dread]

[bigimg]http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/4418/moonmapv1.png[/bigimg]

[natty dread]

Sorry I awas gonna post this way earlier but fell asleep... :p

Just to clarify: the rockets are starting points. All other territories start neutral...

[neanderpaul14]

Sorry I awas gonna post this way earlier but fell asleep... :p

Just to clarify: the rockets are starting points. All other territories start neutral...

The landing sites can attack their rocket right??

[Captain_Scarlet]

you are not actually indicating the actual landing sites for each country so its not meant to be an actual representation correct?

[natty dread]

Sorry I awas gonna post this way earlier but fell asleep... :p

Just to clarify: the rockets are starting points. All other territories start neutral...

The landing sites can attack their rocket right??

Of course.

you are not actually indicating the actual landing sites for each country so its not meant to be an actual representation correct?

The apollo landing sites are correct, I don't know about the reest. Ask isaiah.

[Evil DIMwit]

The gameplay looks decent, at a rough glance, though I'm not sure why you'd want separate bonus values for holding 12 and 13 seas; by the time you hold 12, you've probably got enough of the map that two more wouldn't matter much to you.

The weakest point of this map is probably that the connections around the seas and sinuses are really unclear. You have lines for some connections, borders for others -- and some are just plain confusing.

As far as theme, I think you're going in a good direction. If you're going to have Chinese and Japanese landing, though, I'd include Europe and India, too -- they've got their own lunar exploration programs going on.

Finally, are there particular reasons for the one-way connections?

[cairnswk]

Natty, i've been watching this develop up and you've progressed well....
1. the first thing that struck me was the purple Rocket instructions...it blurrs into the black and is not immediately legible.
2. you've got two different icons for the Chinese yet the others all appear consistent.
3. I had to look up Sinus for its reference for the moon as i think of it as tissue cavities in the body. Can you place a small reference as to what a sinus is below those three indicators for those of us who are unfamiliar with this as lunar term, not just myself.
4. looking at the overall map, for me it's not immediately clear or instructions evident about how seas connect to craters and what sinuses do?????
5. and i think you'll have to look at the overall use of fonts and colours.
Keep going thoough, this could be quite good.

[natty dread]

The gameplay looks decent, at a rough glance, though I'm not sure why you'd want separate bonus values for holding 12 and 13 seas; by the time you hold 12, you've probably got enough of the map that two more wouldn't matter much to you.

You'll need to discuss gameplay issues with isaiah. He's the one working on the gameplay, I'm just doing the graphics on this one.

The weakest point of this map is probably that the connections around the seas and sinuses are really unclear. You have lines for some connections, borders for others -- and some are just plain confusing.

Well, think of it as something similar as on the vancouver map. There's territories with borders and territories with connetions. But if it's too hard to comprehend here I could add some indicators to the sea territories, like arrows on the borders indicating which sea borders which...

As far as theme, I think you're going in a good direction. If you're going to have Chinese and Japanese landing, though, I'd include Europe and India, too -- they've got their own lunar exploration programs going on.

There's no room for them... but once again, I think isaiah can answer these questions better. I'm just the artist here...

1. the first thing that struck me was the purple Rocket instructions...it blurrs into the black and is not immediately legible.

That can be fixed.

2. you've got two different icons for the Chinese yet the others all appear consistent.

How do you mean? Chinese have yellow stars on red. I didn't want to colour their whole rockets red so I came up with this solution.

3. I had to look up Sinus for its reference for the moon as i think of it as tissue cavities in the body. Can you place a small reference as to what a sinus is below those three indicators for those of us who are unfamiliar with this as lunar term, not just myself.

I'm not actually sure myself. I think they are like seas, but too small to be named seas... think of them as lakes or something

4. looking at the overall map, for me it's not immediately clear or instructions evident about how seas connect to craters and what sinuses do?????

I will discuss with isaiah on how to address these points.

5. and i think you'll have to look at the overall use of fonts and colours.

What's wrong with the fonts?


Still, both of you have given good feedback, thanks for that. We will discuss these issues and try to come up with solutions for most of the problems.

As for the graphics, the symbols for the landing sites and rockets are just draft versions. I'll change them to something fancier eventually.

[natty dread]

Version 2:

[bigimg]http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/6478/moonmapv2.png[/bigimg]

[isaiah40]

you are not actually indicating the actual landing sites for each country so its not meant to be an actual representation correct?

As natty said the us landing sites are correct. The Russian and Japanese ones we just used some of the unmanned landing sites for them.

The gameplay looks decent, at a rough glance, though I'm not sure why you'd want separate bonus values for holding 12 and 13 seas; by the time you hold 12, you've probably got enough of the map that two more wouldn't matter much to you.

SO would you suggest just combing the two for one bonus?

The weakest point of this map is probably that the connections around the seas and sinuses are really unclear. You have lines for some connections, borders for others -- and some are just plain confusing.

Basically anything that touches anything else are connected. We will work on making them clearer. As for using lines for some of the connections, we have to have some to show what connects to what. As you see, most of the lines are connecting craters. And others show connections from craters to landing sites.

As I mentioned, we will work at getting the connections clearer.

As far as theme, I think you're going in a good direction. If you're going to have Chinese and Japanese landing, though, I'd include Europe and India, too -- they've got their own lunar exploration programs going on.

Thank you! As natty also mentioned, unfortunately there isn't room for everything. Would you suggest maybe changing maybe either Japan or China say, for the EU?

Finally, are there particular reasons for the one-way connections?

No particularly. Would you rather see everything be two attacks? We are open to suggestions, please let your voice be heard, we are just the makers, you are the players!!

Looking better natty!! Though the text on the right side still seems a bit blurry. Anyway you can maybe make it metallic like you have the rocket labels??

[natty dread]

Looking better natty!! Though the text on the right side still seems a bit blurry. Anyway you can maybe make it metallic like you have the rocket labels??

Thanks. I'll work on the right side text, i'll try to come up with something better... the opposite colour drop shadow worked so well on the text on the left side that I just went nuts with it

As for the bonuses, I was thinking... when two players start from the same country, it will become a bloody competition of who gets the landing sites... I would suggest splitting tha landing site bonus in two as well:

+2 for 3 landing sites of a country
+5 for all landigns sites of a country

As for the seas, how about this:

5 seas +5
7 seas +8
10 seas +11
13 seas +16

[isaiah40]

As for the bonuses, I was thinking... when two players start from the same country, it will become a bloody competition of who gets the landing sites... I would suggest splitting tha landing site bonus in two as well:

+2 for 3 landing sites of a country
+5 for all landigns sites of a country

As for the seas, how about this:

5 seas +5
7 seas +8
10 seas +11
13 seas +16

Any objections to this idea, I'm all for it!! Although, ar you going to have room for it?

[Evil DIMwit]

As far as theme, I think you're going in a good direction. If you're going to have Chinese and Japanese landing, though, I'd include Europe and India, too -- they've got their own lunar exploration programs going on.

Thank you! As natty also mentioned, unfortunately there isn't room for everything. Would you suggest maybe changing maybe either Japan or China say, for the EU?

I'd recommend splitting up Japan and China's rockets so each of China, Japan, India, and the EU have one rocket. The U.S. and Russia each having two makes since given their history -- though I'd also recommend making each of those countries' sets of landing sites visually distinct somehow -- maybe stripes for the second U.S. set and the Russian tricolor for the second Russian set?

Finally, are there particular reasons for the one-way connections?

No particularly. Would you rather see everything be two attacks? We are open to suggestions, please let your voice be heard, we are just the makers, you are the players!!

Makes no difference to me, as long as the gameplay's solid. It's just odd for me to see a feature there with no purpose, especially a one-way connection on the moon, where there's not much real-world reason to have one.

[natty dread]

Version 3.

[bigimg]http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1192/moonmapv3.png[/bigimg]


Mods, want to move this down to drafting room? I think this fulfills the requirements of a working draft by now.

[ender516]

I'd recommend splitting up Japan and China's rockets so each of China, Japan, India, and the EU have one rocket. The U.S. and Russia each having two makes since given their history -- though I'd also recommend making each of those countries' sets of landing sites visually distinct somehow -- maybe stripes for the second U.S. set and the Russian tricolor for the second Russian set?

I like this idea. Eight starting positions is good for all numbers of players. I'd like to think of the U.S. and Russian programs as divided between government and private industry, these being the only countries currently with the possibility of such a split. You could use a dollar sign for the U.S. private industry symbol, but I don't know if the Russians have a nifty symbol for the ruble.

And Sinus is Latin for Bay. I think you should either use all English or all Latin, with my vote for Latin, as it is equally accessible and understandable worldwide. In that case, the legend should talk about maria, not seas, and sinii, not bays. Of course we could put translations into the legend:

(__) Sinus (Bay) (__) Mare (Sea)

[natty dread]

I like this idea. Eight starting positions is good for all numbers of players.

We already have 8 starting positions. Each rocket is a starting position.

As for adding more countries or splitting japan & china into 2 countries each, I'm not very keen on it. It would screw the bonus system for one thing. I'll have to discuss this with isaiah, but I think we'd rather keep the 4 countries we have now.

And Sinus is Latin for Bay. I think you should either use all English or all Latin, with my vote for Latin, as it is equally accessible and understandable worldwide. In that case, the legend should talk about maria, not seas, and sinii, not bays. Of course we could put translations into the legend:

Good idea. I will fix the legend in the next version.

[isaiah40]

I like this idea. Eight starting positions is good for all numbers of players.

We already have 8 starting positions. Each rocket is a starting position.

As for adding more countries or splitting japan & china into 2 countries each, I'm not very keen on it. It would screw the bonus system for one thing. I'll have to discuss this with isaiah, but I think we'd rather keep the 4 countries we have now.

And Sinus is Latin for Bay. I think you should either use all English or all Latin, with my vote for Latin, as it is equally accessible and understandable worldwide. In that case, the legend should talk about maria, not seas, and sinii, not bays. Of course we could put translations into the legend:

Good idea. I will fix the legend in the next version.

I agree with natty (okay so I'm biased because we're both working on the map) that the 4 countries we have now are enough. Unless the majority want 8 countries, we'll stick with what we have.

[natty dread]

Besides that the gameplay is designed around 4 countries...

Anyway, here's v4.

[bigimg]http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6800/moonmapv4.png[/bigimg]

[natty dread]

Version 5.

[bigimg]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2716/moonmapv5.png[/bigimg]

[ender516]

I like the flags in V5. It might be better to put those flags on the rockets as well, rather than below, with the old icons still on the rockets.

I suppose trying to divide the landing sites into eight groups would lead to very small bonus zones, so you are right to leave India and the EU out of this.

Typos: maria, Aristellus

[isaiah40]

I like the flags in V5. It might be better to put those flags on the rockets as well, rather than below, with the old icons still on the rockets.

I suppose trying to divide the landing sites into eight groups would lead to very small bonus zones, so you are right to leave India and the EU out of this.

Typos: maria, Aristellus

Good idea! You'd be able to see the flags better!

[jefjef]

This is moving along quickly.

1 critique. Your rockets look like bullets. Maybe lengthen them a tad more.

[natty dread]

I'll redraw the rockets for the next version.

Any latin experts here? I want to make sure all the names will be right.

So it's Maria instead of Marie (makes sense), and Aristillus = Aristellus?

[ender516]

I'll redraw the rockets for the next version.

Any latin experts here? I want to make sure all the names will be right.

So it's Maria instead of Marie (makes sense), and Aristillus = Aristellus?

Sorry, in trying to correct your spelling, I made a mistake of my own. The legend has "Aris. = Arstillus", which is missing the first "i" in the full form, which is what I was trying to correct. But I switched the 2nd "i" to an "e". As near as I can Google, it is "Aristillus". I am pretty sure about the Latin, but if I remember at home, I'll check my old Collins Latin Gem Dictionary.

As far as the rockets go, maybe tail fins, or some tapering which suggests a multi-stage booster, would be a good idea.

[natty dread]

The legend has "Aris. = Arstillus"

Ah, you're right I'll correct that.

Also your ideas for the rockets are good.