Conquer Club

Posted: **Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:38 pm**

I've been in a mappy mood this evening, and have put together another update...
I've been playing around with some of the texture layers, and changed bits of the sea, and made it a bit bluer. The Isle of Wight has found a home, and the map is now sprinkled with army numbers. I tried a couple of circles, but think they're going to create more clutter than they're worth. I still need to sort out the positions of the names and numbers, but that isn't much of a priority right now... I'd much rather get the gameplay more-or-less worked out - I think it's fairly balanced... The North East is the smallest and easiest to hold bonus, but I don't think it's overpowered. The South West is easier to hold than some other areas, but this is partly because it's tucked away in the corner. I'm reluctant to add any paths across the water, because I think they'd just be a bit contrived. The two easier bonuses are at opposite ends of them map, so I'm not too worried about unbalancing things.

Now I've added the Isle of Wight, does it need an attack line to connect it to Hampshire, or is it obvious that's where the two bits of land connect?

Posted: **Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:55 pm**

MrBenn wrote:and changed bits of the sea,

Now I've added the Isle of Wight, does it need an attack line to connect it to Hampshire, or is it obvious that's where the two bits of land connect?

how exactly did you do the water, i think it is AWESOME, as for the isle of wight, i do not think you need attack routs, with this map, the simpler it will look the better

Posted: **Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:56 pm**

There's a lot of free space in Lincolshire, why not move "Rutland" there, place a small and low-opaque line to the tert, and have the 88 sit inside it?

I would also add another low-opacity line from Isle of Wight, just for clarity's sake.

This is beautiful.

.44

Posted: **Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:25 am**

Thanks for listening to me and i think putting a line there would make it to cluttered up so thanks

Posted: **Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:23 pm**

LED ZEPPELINER: how exactly did you do the water, i think it is AWESOME, as for the isle of wight, i do not think you need attack routs, with this map, the simpler it will look the better.
MrBenn: The water was just drawn with a solid round brush, with different shades of blue for different contoured regions (I loosely followed a sea depth map I found online somewhere). When the contours were all drawn and filled-in, I player around with the PS filters... I think I may have used 'Artistic: Paint Daubs'... which slightly smoothed the transition from one shade to another. At some point I've added some faint texture/grunge layers with very low opacity. It all come about through trial and error ;-)

the.killing.44: There's a lot of free space in Lincolshire, why not move "Rutland" there, place a small and low-opaque line to the tert, and have the 88 sit inside it? I would also add another low-opacity line from Isle of Wight, just for clarity's sake.
miniwally:

Thanks for listening to me and i think putting a line there would make it to cluttered up so thanks
MrBenn: I'll probably play around with the placement of numbers and names a bit... Good idea about using a line to Rutland/IoW, I'll see what I can do ;-)

Posted: **Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:57 pm**

i would also move Berkshiff, beds, west sussex, and east yorkshire. berkshiff is over the border when it doesn't have to, and the rest are too close to the army numbers

Posted: **Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:15 pm**

Can this get stamped, I can't make any more suggestions...

Posted: **Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:47 pm**

the.killing.44 wrote:I would also add another low-opacity line from Isle of Wight, just for clarity's sake.

This is beautiful.

.44

i think that there is so little room between isle of wight and the other place, that it would not be very noticable,

and yes this is beautiful

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:05 am**

This is a great map - keep going Benny - reckon this should be in the main foundry already as comments are about gameplay and graphics.

C.

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:01 pm**

LED ZEPPELINER wrote:i would also move Berkshiff, beds, west sussex, and east yorkshire. berkshiff is over the border when it doesn't have to, and the rest are too close to the army numbers

It would appear 'Berkshire' is a bit hard to read.

.

As for an attack line from I.O.W to Hampshire, I think without is better, but I suspect the concensus will want one. Paths across water are not needed.

As previously mentioned the water looks 'ace'

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:15 pm**

So obviously this isn't final, but Berks is too far on the border (as said before) and your 88s are haywire

But I whipped this up in about a minute. Took a black brush, 75% opacity, hand drawn. I think it looks fine…doesn't stand out but you can still tell …:

I'd stamp this.

.44

EDIT: What happens to the Northeast? atm it's just … worthless because there's no territory bonus … :-s

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:44 pm**

yeti_c wrote:this should be in the main foundry already as comments are about gameplay and graphics.

i agree. it's good enough to be further developed in the foundry.

ian.

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:21 pm**

Thanks chaps!

I'll work on moving names around on the next update... My big question (for those who live on this island) is to do with naming conventions. While I'm keen to use the proper county names, they're just not going to fit, so I will be forced to abbreviate.

Bedfordshire > Beds
Staffordshire > Staffs
Northamptonshire > Northants
Hertfordshire > Herts

How should these be represetned in the XML? Do I need to put a key onto the map (I don't really want to)...

the.killing.44 wrote:EDIT: What happens to the Northeast? atm it's just … worthless because there's no territory bonus …

Northeast will get +2, under the "Receive 2 armies for holding a region" rule.

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:24 pm**

Ah, right I misread it. :oops:

About the Beds and the like … on the new British Isles gimil had the key in the bottom left but there are still millions of threads created by people who did not see or think about the key. I expect you'll run into that same issue here, so why don't you just put "Beds" on both the map and XML and leave no room for misinterpretation?

.44

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:29 pm**

first of all, congrats, second: for the bonus' names, i was thinking that you could just have a break in the borders of territs where the very large bonus name runs through, i think that poeple will still be able to understand what connects to where

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:32 pm**

LED ZEPPELINER wrote:second: for the bonus' names, i was thinking that you could just have a break in the borders of territs where the very large bonus name runs through, i think that poeple will still be able to understand what connects to where

I don't think that would work at all … the bonus names are fine as is. Benn, mind saying how you did the water? It's fantastic, for the millionth time.

.44

EDIT: ](*,)

gotta stop skimming the blue text

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:37 pm**

the.killing.44 wrote:
LED ZEPPELINER wrote:second: for the bonus' names, i was thinking that you could just have a break in the borders of territs where the very large bonus name runs through, i think that poeple will still be able to understand what connects to where

I don't think that would work at all … the bonus names are fine as is. Benn, mind saying how you did the water? It's fantastic, for the millionth time.

.44

MrBenn wrote:LED ZEPPELINER: how exactly did you do the water, i think it is AWESOME, as for the isle of wight, i do not think you need attack routs, with this map, the simpler it will look the better.
MrBenn: The water was just drawn with a solid round brush, with different shades of blue for different contoured regions (I loosely followed a sea depth map I found online somewhere). When the contours were all drawn and filled-in, I player around with the PS filters... I think I may have used 'Artistic: Paint Daubs'... which slightly smoothed the transition from one shade to another. At some point I've added some faint texture/grunge layers with very low opacity. It all come about through trial and error

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:53 pm**

Nice map!

As for island of wright and hampshire, I'm against drawing an attack line. I think simplicity is best, and by leaving out the line and letting the player use logic to figure things out is coherent with the theme of the rest of the clean, simple map.

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:02 pm**

Thanks zunzee ;-)

Out of interest, does anybody recognise the typeface?

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:06 pm**

MrBenn wrote:Thanks zunzee

Out of interest, does anybody recognise the typeface?

Europa!

.44

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:09 pm**

No.... It will likely only be recognised by people from the UK, where it is used in abundance...

Posted: **Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:47 pm**

Well it does look like the one from Europa … but it's from the signs of the bus routes and the Tube, no?
[bigimg]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/images/general/standard-tube-map.gif[/bigimg]

.44

And the :!:

after "Europa" in my last post should've been a :?:

Posted: **Wed Feb 18, 2009 6:00 pm**

let's put neutrals on durham, to avoid someone having the north-east bonus from the drop.

traditionally (before 1974), yorkshire was split into three ridings (east, north and west) plus the city of york. given most of the rest of the map, the three ridings plus york seems to be a more appropriate to divide yorkshire than the modern counties.

http://www.yorkshire-ridings.org.uk/ridings.htm

there is a something close to a four-way border where surrey, kent, east sussex and west sussex meet. before 1974, east and west sussex were one county for ceremonial purposes (such as cricket), while huntingdonshire was not part of cambridgeshire till that date. we can kill two birds by merging east sussex with west sussex and creating huntingdonshire. the county of london also existed before 1965, occupying parts of middlesex, kent and surrey; to satisfy those who want london included, it's possible to represent london stylistically (for example, a solid army circle) rather than with real boundaries.

http://www.fatbadgers.co.uk/Tourism/susinfo.htm
http://www.rahbarnes.demon.co.uk/hunts/hunts2.htm
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporat ... ea_map.htm

ian.

Posted: **Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:47 pm**

i dont know how neccesary this is but i could not find anything else to coment on
The north west text looks like it is over the borders and i was wondering if it would look different if the layer with the text was moved under the border

great job
tlane

Posted: **Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:53 pm**

tlane wrote:i dont know how neccesary this is but i could not find anything else to coment on
The north west text looks like it is over the borders and i was wondering if it would look different if the layer with the text was moved under the border

great job
tlane

i don't feel it would look every different, if it is a real problem, im sure you could move the text 1 or 2 px up

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