New Zealand

There is a port I could put in Whangarei. Here is an enumeration of the regions you can hold while defending the minimum number of entry points at the moment, assuming Otago is 3: 1 territory - Northland (2) 2 territories - Northland + Auckland (4) - Southland (2) - Westland (2) 3 territories - Bay of Plenty (3) - Hawke's Bay (3) - Taranaki (2) - Wellington (3) - Tasman/Nelson (2) - Tasman/Nelson + Westland (4) - Southland + Otago (5) - Southland + Otago + Westland (7) 4 territories - Too many to list, many large regions everywhere So probably changing Northland to a bonus of 1, or putting an extra port in Whangarei would suitably re-balance it. There is also the possible problem in the Southland + Otago combination with 9 territories and the Southland + Otago + Westland combination with 18 territories (holding Dunedin, Selwyn and Buller). With 18 territories, that gives +3 for territories and +7 for regional bonuses, or 3+10. I will work on a plan to avoid this problem.

With 3 territories, you can also control either the whole of the South Island, or the North Island. But if you already control half the map, the number of borders is probably less important than that you control most of the territories.

Here is a new version of the map: http://i.imgur.com/kC910rD.jpg I moved the Whangarei border leftwards slightly, but I'll leave the Clutha river extension until the mountains are made, as it may depend on how the mountains are drawn. Also found a free wood texture on the internet, which I think looks pretty cool (perhaps with some changes to the regional colours). The main gameplay changes are: - Hurunui now borders Westland, so that to hold Southland + Otago + Westland, you now have 4 borders - Manawatu river added to North Island, so that Palmerston North is in the interior of Manawatu-Wanganui, and so that the bonus can be reduced to 3, which makes more sense for a region with only 4 territories. - Wanganui river added so that South Taranaki is in the interior of Taranaki, so that you only need hold 2 borders for a bonus of 2 armies. - Bonus on Northland reduced to 1. I am not sure how useful an extra port in Northland is. A bonus of 1 seems reasonable, since whoever holds Auckland probably soon holds Northland (and vice versa).

This reply is to your first post. I haven't read beyond that because I have too much to say already. I have two big problems with the map. First, the layout makes it hard to recognize as new zealand and second, the map is too crowded with the two parts of New Zealand crammed together so closely and there are too many small territories. I understand that you did what you did in order to maximize the land to ocean ratio so that you could fit a lot of territories on the map and you wanted to keep the map short so that we don't have to scroll too much but I think there is a better way to do it. If you put the north section on the right side and put the mini map in the middle I think it's much easier to recognize it as New Zealand. Now this configuration means less land mass as compared to ocean space but you do get an even shorter map, which is better, at 712 pixels instead of 900. Here's what it looks like: http://www.dominating12.com/forums/Map_Creation_Forum_Images/New%20Zealand%20Layout%20Example.jpg If you use ports instead of connection lines then there is no need to visually connect the two different sections which saves space and looks cleaner. I also think people will understand the map easier. The downside to this layout is less space. You wouldn't be able to fit as many territories. But I think the map has too many territories anyway. Some of the smaller ones should be combined. Typically a map with this much dead space (the ocean) shouldn't have more than 42 territories. If it were me I would start over and use this layout. I apologize for not getting my suggestions to you sooner but I tried to do it as fast as I could. Usually it's better to wait to hear from the Head Cartographer before doing too much work on a map. I'd like to hear from everyone else on this so that I know whether or not I am alone in my opinion.

You make some good points. Your suggested layout does look much better. I can move my map to match this layout and look at where I can further reduce the territory number (or where there isn't enough space for so many territories).

Alright, I've made the changes to the layout as suggested by Vexer. I think one reason it appears better has to do with the minimap in the centre, which both gives a focus on the shape of New Zealand, and gives space between the two islands on the main map. The image has been reduced in size by 90%, then the circles, labels and ports were restored to their original size. Here's the new version: http://i.imgur.com/wcgIpjY.jpg I have removed Manukau, which was kind of unnecessary for a bonus 2 region, and probably doesn't add much other than elongate the graph, and force things to be tighter. This gives 58 territories. Also reduced Wellington bonus to 2. I have considered what other territories could be removed. Here are some possible options: - Waimakariri is probably the leading possibility, since it doesn't appear to add much the the map - Waimate, in this case, Waitaki would probably absorb the extra space - Waipa - probably not too important - Kaikoura - probably not important Here are options which were considered, but which might not be so desirable: - Stratford - makes the region small, although it might be an option if the bonus was 1 army - Central Hawke's Bay, Wairoa, Wairarapa - it is probably not desirable to have too many regions with only 3 territories, there are already 4 regions with 3 territories (note: Carribean is a map with regions size 2, 3 and 3) - Rotorua - bad idea, this is a big tourist trap Otherwise, further reduction in territories might be accomplished by merging some regions (although the region name might be a bit strange, or have extra parts not normally associated with the region, although Gisborne and Marlborough regions have already been removed). Some mergers might include: - Northland/Auckland, with an Auckland territory being a merger of Rodney to Franklin - West Coast/Tasman/Nelson - with a single Tasman/Nelson territory - Taranaki/Manawatu-Wanganui - with removal of Stratford (probably don't need another large, hard-to-defend region) Keeping in mind that 54-56 territories are not allowed, if we want to get to 53 territories, I think the option most likely to be suitable is Waimakariri, Waimate, Waipa, Kaikoura, Stratford. Are there any opinions on which of these options might be desirable and how you think they might affect gameplay?

i cant comment on anything gameplay wise, however i can comment on the map design wise. i'm not sure about the background/texture. one this for me is that the background is very distracting. the playing field should be the main focus. i do like the wood design and border in itself however. the mountains. they are barely visible. i don't know i you plan on changing them or just do not know how to do them. if you need help let me know, i spent a long time figuring out how to make perfect mountains on a Risk map.

Hmmmmmmz, I was going to say that it works for World Expanded as well, and I disagreed with Vexer. But World Expaned also has larger territories (alot less ocean), and these are indeed cropped. And even though it is playable this way, it will be really, really hard to fit capital circles :S About your suggestions: I would really NOT remove Kaikoura - you are already removing Waimate, so the orange region will have alot less borders (even if you dont remove Waimate, you can still have a border less by taking Central Otago You can get some extra space for Rotorua by moving the Waikato-Rotorua border a bit to the left. Removing Stratford might work nicely (with another bonus of 1) Maybe you can give Masterton a bit more space by eating a bit from the Tararua border You can of course cheat and make the land a bit bigger than in reality. A couple of pixels is doable I guess, though I don't have experience with this. And Im not sure what, but something should be done at the Auckland region. The new layout (left-right switch) looks better yes. The graphics are far from complete, yes ;)

How about a new version: http://i.imgur.com/mVfK25e.jpg Based on marcoxa's comment on the distracting background, I can see the problem. I tried to increase contrast so that the overlay would show through some of the other colours. I think I've fixed this, first of all, desaturating the texture so that it doesn't affect the colour tone of everything else, and a lightening of the resulting background colour. The texture contrast has been dulled down, so different colours of the regions should now pop out more instead of fighting the wood grain. Also changed the title so that it is a bevel on top of the wood. In terms of reduction of territories (down to 53 territories): - Stratford was removed, and probably a good thing, because it was a bit tight there - Opotoki removed, but actually, it's more of a rename Opotoki to be Whakatane, rename old Whakatane as Rotorua, and remove old Rotorua. It might also be better this way because while Rotorua straddles Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions, more of it is in the Bay of Plenty region, and it doesn't look so crammed here anymore. - Waipa was removed, giving more space, and moved the mouth of the river slightly down to give Franklin more space. Also added a bridge Hamilton-Waikato. - Waimakariri removed - Waitaki absorbs Waimate. We kept Kaikoura, but perhaps to keep the southern Canterbury border at 2 territories, I've made Queenstown be adjacent to Waitaki and Mackenzie (the Queenstown-Lakes district doesn't actually touch Mackenzie in real-life, but it is very close). Also made Mackenzie adjacent to Ashburton (same situation), but to reduce the long chain of territories effect. Changes in bonus: - Taranaki = 1, there are two bordering territories, but only 2 territories (compared to Northland, where you can have 1 border, but to do that, you need 4 territories) - Waikato = 4, one less because it has 2 fewere territories, and 1 fewer border - Canterbury = 6, one more, perhaps because I prevented having one border less in the south. Auckland Region: Not sure what types of change you are after. Do you want more borders or territories? If more borders, perhaps another connection line from Great Barrier Island (perhaps to Coromandel)? Comments?

much better background. however i would suggest to at least play with adding a subtle texture for just the land. to separate it from the board a bit. it could be fine just they way it is, but its always good to try all the options. i like what you did with the title. it makes it fit in with the map instead of just appearing to be on top of it. could you do the same with the other black objects? would it be possible to decrease the white dropshadow? it seams a bit much. but only by a tiny bit. it just looks a bit distracting. when are you going to do the mountains?

I think you should try focusing on gameplay first. I am not a fan of the current graphics, but I will not comment on that until the gameplay is mostly decided on.

I will say more tomorrow, but it looks very clean right now. Very nicely done. (The thing about the Auckland region is that its the most crowded region on the board - The circle a territories region on both sides, the connection line ends up below that very circle, and then it also has a port fitted in, a couple of small islands that appear to belong to that territory as well, and then there is also some text from another terrotiry that goes over the old terriotory again. Problems following me? Right, thats what I mean. Of course, these are all fine, no problem at all, but all of them together is a bit too much.)

I'm going to try and focus on evaluating game play over the weekend. What I can say for now is that there is too much red in the wood background. Adjust the Hue away from red, reduce the saturation and darken it a bit.

Nice job...Orange though? Hehe. I would love to see what he can do with those mountains....one can hope he will do better than we have! Try not to have any land the same color or texture as the background.

http://i.imgur.com/u7YQEVH.jpg Based on above points: - background hue/saturation/lightness altered, making it closer to brown than orange. - title bevel reduced - I traced the outline and region borders to convert them to paths, and after reducing the thickness, it appeared cleaner than before, particularly around Auckland. In this version, I have experimented with having no outline, and applying a bevel to the landmass. - slight bevel to region lines also added - territory border line opacity reduced - extra texture for land added using NASA's topography of NZ, other textures that I tried didn't look right. - black image's opacity reduced to 80% so they fit in better