Dante's Inferno

I think I met satan already. She was pretty, nice tan and thought I didn't pay her enough attention. She wanted to watch "Wives of Orange County" on Sunday INSTEAD OF THE NFL and she was always wanting to spend my money. I somehow got rid of satan.

The reason for the "all territories are connected" rule is (as speculated) because of the 4 corners problem (like in the region Violence) but also, and more importantly to me, because of what my motivation was for this map. I wanted each region to be equally setup and there would be no "better locations" or "worse locations" for your capital. Without this rule, Lust 1 could not get to Lust 4 without going through 2 or 3. But Heresy 1 could get to Heresy 4 directly. That makes the game play different in the different regions. I wanted them all to be the same, making it a balanced board for all. I also agree that there is a problem with becoming blocked in Hell 1,2,3 which I will address in the next draft. Also I will rename Hell "Hades". I think it sounds better. Finally, one other point, in which I hope not to offend anyone but I know it will. I personally don't believe in heaven or hell. I respect everyone's right to believe in whatever they want. So to me, there is no such thing as "satan" other than a concept. He is as real to me as Zeus, Vishnu, and Santa Claus. If you believe in any of these thing, I respect that and would never argue about your beliefs. I got the idea for this map by googling "famous things in a group of 9". One of the answers that popped up was "Dante's 9 Circles of Hell" which Dante wrote about in [i]The Divine Comedy[/i] about 700 years ago. I did the research and thought it would lend itself to my vision of a 9 player capitals map and have some cool imagery. Also, don't forget, D12 is a game based on war. There is often talk of "carnage", "killing", and "blood baths" in the game chat. I know it is just a game and my map is just a game board to play the game. I am not pushing any philosophical ideas. I just wanted to make a cool map. Expect a second draft in the next week that will address some of the gameplay/connectivity issues raised. Thanks, Clarke

I think the all territories connected is fine. Like Clarke says, it keeps everything fair and equal. It reminds me more of the Caribbean. Everybody takes their little territory and gets the bonus then proceeds to stalemate. But since this is bigger you won't have so much stalemating going on. The actual bible says very little about hell. Most people's views about it actually come from Dante and Milton and other ehem 'secondary sources'. lol I wouldn't worry about people getting morally upset by it. They really don't have a leg to stand on other than personal belief. Maybe you can get a bit ecumenical with the names. Tartarus (which is actually Greek hell, Hades is just the underworld, but includes Elysium as well as Asphodel, which would be the Christian purgatory), Naraka is a catch-all term for the hell of eastern religions, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and Jahannam is for hell for Islam. Just an idea, spread the damnation around LOL.

Adding to OXEN's views, about theme. 4myGod created D12. He is a christian missionary and just like his username, I think even the icon and the number 12 has some meaning, but yeah you can also say that this is a war game. Perhaps A spiritual war theme could be appropriate using some of the ideas you have, maybe instead of 9, use 12.. Here's an extract of a brief D12 history lesson that Vexer has shared with some of us. "4myGod started the site in 2009 after being a disgruntled ConquerClub player. Their interface wasn't clickable at the time, their maps are awful and he thought he could make money off of it to support his missionary efforts. The 12 part comes from his religion. 12 is a significant number if christianity. He imagined that the top 12 players each month would be listed and have a competition though that didn't happen until I made it happen years later."

Here is the update. [IMG]http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/Richard_B_Clarke/D12%20Maps/DantesInferno_zpsc0385c8c.jpg[/IMG]

Now, you can travel around the white ring without being forced to go through Hades 1, 2, or 3. This makes it less likely you will be completely blocked in from opponents. Also, now if you earn a "super region" you need to defend 3 territories instead of just one of the Hades locations. Also, all capitals on the entire map are going to be no less than 5 territories from any other capital and no more than 7 territories from any other capital. So you only need to travel 5, 6, or 7 territories from your capital and you reach every other capital on the map. I like that balance. Anyway, I await comments and feedback regarding this recent update.

Theoretically 5-7, practically 2-7... I would like to see a bigger center, perhaps make it a circle, 18 territories around at the outside, then an interior 6 territory and 3 territory circles? Also Hades means Underworld, Tartarus is Greek for Hell. Although [i]Dis[/i] may be better in context here: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dis_(Divine_Comedy)]Dis (Divine Comedy) - Wikipedia[/url]

Everybody can conquer his own region and then push all his forces on the white circle. This will cause the distances to be 1-3. Except someone that get unlucky with dice and cannot take the region. But this is too much luck based. And few conquerable territories remaining. Also, seeing the criticism, I feel like it will be hardly accepted as it doesn't fit properly with the site style. I am sorry on saying this because I appreciate the graphic and artistic conception. But this is not something that looks as a map and the game-play is too extreme.

Love it. Shouldn't the Hades regions be +3 or +4? If the sin regions with 1 border have +2 (double) then Hades regions should be +8. I know +8 is extremely extreme but +4 is just isn't it.

@Madagascarter> The center Hades region is not one large white region. It is 3 regions of 4 territories per region. Hades 1 and B,F,V is a single region. That is why +2. @Ultrasplot>I will make a draft version taking your idea into consideration. Sounds interesting. @The Bishop> Not all maps on D12 are maps. House is a house, we have a baseball field and a basketball court, saturn is a planet, then there is solar system. I am sorry for thinking outside the box and trying to be creative. Even though this is not a "map" it still works as a gameboard for playing D12, once I settle the gameplay issues. Also, not sure what you mean about style of the site. I thought the main thing is that the graphics are high quality and there is no "pixilation". I didn't know that geography, either real or imaginary, was a requirement. I like "concept" maps. Here is another concept map I made 6 months ago and never submitted. I am not submitting it, I am just showing you that it is fun to think bigger than just geography. I would be very interested in some feedback from Fendi and Vexer and Psymon. [IMG]http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e277/Richard_B_Clarke/D12%20Maps/CircuitBreaker_zpsaf6b6928.jpg[/IMG]

That "Death Inside" logo is too similar to Intel ! Personally I would blank that out straight away and overwrite the image.

new one looks interesting, dk if it'd hold through beta testing but at least I wanna test this one haha

I think symmetric maps aren't really very popular on this website, so I am not sure if this design is worth going for. Other than that, the outer regions are all dead ends. They are good for getting region bonuses, but they won't play any important role in gameplay otherwise. That means that the actual interesting part of this map is... seven territories. I don't want to come across negative, but I don't think the proposed options are viable as maps. Maybe you should go back to the drawing board and see what is actually missing from this site.

@Clarke - I don't like House, nor Basket nor Saturn. This is mostly a game based on numbers and probabilities, but part of the fun is to think that it represents a real war. Since territorial maps are more attractive than fictional maps and irregular shapes are generally more appreciated than geometric shapes. I like Solar System instead even if it is non-realistic, but still it represents a real "place" (where one day maybe humans will make wars for real) and it has a greatly irregular shape and a nice game-play in my opinion. This is the most delicate thing, everybody want to try be creative but it is better in my opinion to do something normal, just little details can make the difference, a bit of connectivity more or less, a bit of defensibility more or less, and so on... Extreme things usually don't work, Brethren Coast first attempt was an example of that; then finally aeronautic decided to turn it in a normal game-play.

Just because we call them "maps", does not make them any less of what they really are---gameboards. That is all they are. They are graphical images to facilitate our playing of the game we all enjoy. I see nothing wrong in trying to break from the mold and expand our minds and creativity. The single most important thing for any gameboard is gameplay. Secondly, on D12, high quality design and imagery is also required. I think I have presented a high quality image. The only way to know for sure about gameplay is to beta test it. I am going to make another draft of Dante's Inferno on Monday, taking Ultrasplot's ideas into consideration. It is sad that all of those on D12 who have published gameboards are not more open and receptive to new gameboard makers. It feels more like they want to try to keep the club as exclusive as possible. It is sad really...