Baltic Sea Map

Personally I prefer it when regions can push into bordering territories to decrease borders. It creates more tension and less stalemates... also The_Bishop, ^ is why I like Italia so much. :)

[spoiler=Yes, Ultras... but it is not the same thing.]One case is if you can expand [i][b]reducing[/b] your borders[/i], the second case is if you can expand [i][b]without adding[/b] new borders[/i], another third case is if you can expand [i]forming a [b]super-region[/b][/i] -- so reducing your borders, it's true, but you need to conquer a whole region to do that, not only one territory as it is in this case. For example in the Italia map you mentioned, the only case of reducible borders is Lombardia + Novara. But it's a wanted effect, being Novara a town of Piemonte more related to Lombardia region than its own region. And also not so effective, because it's rare that someone tries to hold Lombardia being the hardest region. Just to clarify.[/spoiler]

erm, what is the difference between reducing and staying the same? It's the same gameplay. Reducing just means you have a few extra troops to spare. It also makes chokepoints actually worth fighting over.

I am not going to remark on Graphics or game play, but the first and most important thing I noticed was the lack of Region references. I had to read the whole thread to see if anybody had remarked on them and eventually saw The_Bishop had mentioned it. [quote=PsymonStark]If someone finds a territory called St. Petersburg (and maybe Novgorod) and doesn't know where is Russia... I don't think anything will make it better for him.[/quote] I don't agree with this Psymon. We must not let our higher knowledge of Maps and Geography cloud our consideration for the map users who will be of all ages and nationalities and Keys & References are of the utmost importance. Also as it was also mentioned, any map that has Ports indicated by Anchors or Helms always has a key description on the map. Nice looking map, keep up the good work.

I suppose you're right Aero... perhaps overlay region names as well? But in all honesty it should not affect gameplay, who bothers memorizing Westeros region names? --- EDIT: Oh, Rossiya is unclear...

After a lot of time, and with decent geography knowledge, I am still unable to discern between regions in some maps, like San Francisco or New York. Many maps have no region legend. See Central America, region names there are kilometric! Many maps also have to be played a few times before being completely understood. See how many people needs to ask what those little anchors are, even with a big key on the map. They don't bother reading it or just don't notice it. I have already changed the names in the legend to English. I'll add some extra remark to the exclave territories too.

I agree Psymon, but when you are offering additional bonuses for joint regions, they either have to have obvious colour similarities or be labelled so that players with no Geography knowledge can see what they have to conquer etc. If there were no joint bonuses on the map, you could simply just leave numbers on the regions as you have done.

[quote=Joca's ghost]psyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyymoooooooooooooooooooooooon... get this fiiiiiiniiiiiiiiisheeeeeeed...[/quote] Couldn't help it haha. Srsly though I can NOT wait for this.

Beautiful as always psymon!! Just wanted to say that before I come back later and actually try and analyze!!

I agree with Bishop and Aero on this one. You NEED to make it more obvious what the regions are. I like region names, but I think Bishops idea of color coding the regions with their names on your legend is best. That way it's easy to figure out. I'm good with geography and yeah, I would have figured out where Russia was anyways, but you got to make the maps for everybody, not just people who will automatically understand. I don't see the issue with Ostergotland/Sweden borders. You're only reducing the borders by one and you're not gaining a region, so it's fairly moot. Agree, Russia should definitely be a 4 in this case. Very well balanced map!

Ok, after some time, I finished an update. [spoiler=Baltic07][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5272549.jpg[/img][/spoiler] -Changed label font. -Increased the size of Dzukija-Latgale border for clarity. -Created the Västra Götaland-Örebro connection, as asked. -Decreased background saturation. -Colored, bolded the region names in the legend for clarity. -Probably some more things that I have forgotten because I did them some days ago. I also thought about the possible capitals. If any of you could take a look at them if would be great. [spoiler=Balticaps][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5272550.jpg[/img][/spoiler] Edit: Hmmm, I see I messed up 6p. Ignore those for a while until I come up with something better. Maybe Haapsalu instead of Mazowieckie could do the trick.

Well, it looks good. I wanted to tell you Psymon: the Northeast-corner area looks to me a bit too "slow", maybe a connection Kolka-Slantsy could be nice. I'm going to analyze it better especially the caps eventually giving my suggestions. I have the feeling you are producing something cool!

Psymon, renaming Rossiya to Russia isn't parallel to the rest of the map. the rest uses the native language of the country: Danmark, Svealand, Kaliningrad Oblast, Polska... and then... RUSSIA. Change it back to Rossiya imo. More accurate. I don't see when any confusion would result from. KGD Oblast belongs to Russia, what else are you going to attach it to? Germany? [spoiler=lol]I just realized that this post sounds like a jingoistic Russian[/spoiler]

Ultra's right. As long as you have them color coded so you know where the extra bonus comes into play it's fine. I think most people can equate Russiya or whatever and Russia. You're always so good with sticking with native names too lol.

I keep confusing Danmark and Denmark, I thought again Danmark is English, just that. I'll change it to Rossiya for the next version. More opinions on the Kotka-Slantsy connection? It's the biggest circle of the map (11 terr), most other circles are 8 or 9 terr long... I think it can be good.