Texas

This is great work!

It would be nice if JB could tell us what real places would suit the territory labels you made up.

I would like to suggest arranging the expected roles of those actively involved in this map creation if I may?

jonboy1967 = geographic adviser
Virtuosity98 = Game-play & layout helper
naathim = Creator, Game-play analyst and layout
A Cartographer = Graphics

If you guys could go as far as you can to get the geographic accuracy, game-play, design & layout working well as far as you can take it, as soon as a graphics guy is available, the map can be developed quite easily. This would make a very good team effort, with naathim in charge as the creator.

Are you all up for it guys? If so, let's make the "go to" map for the big games!

Please discuss all pros and cons of the game-play until you are all happy and any necessary additions and alterations will become apparent as you develop it.

Also if naathim is happy to be in charge of the whole development of the map as the creator, could you also let me know what package the working demo is created in? A cartographer will take care of all the graphic work when the time comes that it is ready.
The staff and other cartographers will give feedback and help the map develop both in the game-play stage and in the graphics stage.

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I'm fine doing the basics. But I'm just working in PDN, so anything complex graphics wise is beyond me. Even putting the blur on the lines would take me a couple hours and not look half as good as it does in Photoshop. Psymon did get me to download the patch, so the file is a Photoshop file that shouldn't give anybody any trouble when it comes to the finishing work.

The next big step will be trying to figure out IF a mini-map would fit on the darn thing, and if it doesn't what are the other alternatives. And working out region bonuses that balance the map fairly.

I did try to make it so that every airport is reachable in just a few moves. All airports are within 7 moves of each other, except El Paso, which is 8 moves from both Oldham and Travis. Not sure if that's a great thing, or if people would prefer fewer airports. I also tried to embed them in the superregions, making a back door if you will, that would still have to be guarded.

What you are doing is not the basics, it is a huge part and sometimes the most difficult part of map creation!

You are creating a developed working model for a graphics guy to turn into a D12 game map. This sort of work requires a good grasp of game-play requirements & possibilities, a good understanding of map layout & connectivity, dedication to create & develop, determination & the ability to work with feedback & suggestion.

This is why I asked if you would front this map, even when a graphics guy is involved, you will remain as the author of the map.

jonboy1967 is fully aware that this is a map he suggested and admits that he has limited forum knowledge and no graphic skills whatsoever, he is totally reliant on guys like us to make this a reality. That is why he has been asked to be our geographic adviser, being a native of Texas, he knows things that will help us develop his dream.

The author of the map will be naathim, who has done all the research and the set up with help from advisers and helpers.
Co-author/s will be the graphics person/s. Any other co-authors will depend on a percentage of hands-on-work and/or involvement in the development.

This is why I set out a team sheet above and hope that everyone will be happy with their role and expected responsibilities to make this map happen?

Region bonus proposal. All pretty much straight from the basic formula.


Potential Superregion stats (airports included in border total)-
West- 7 bonus, 13 territories, 2 regions, 4 borders
Panhandle (maximum potential)- 13 bonus, 21 territories, 7 regions, 6-9 borders
South- 8 bonus, 16 territories, 4 regions, 4 borders
East- 10 bonus, 19 territories, 5 regions, 7 borders

Other possible combined regions-
Central (between the two rivers)- 4 bonus, 7 territories, 3 regions, 4 borders
North- 7 bonus, 13 territories, 3 regions, 6 borders

All in all I think it balances rather well, pretty straightforward. Lots of smaller regions to nab to give players a little one up/reason to attack. Two large central regions for players to survive in. And a good smattering of defensible +3's, which everybody loves.

The West I think is probably the easiest to defend, but since it has that larger 8 territory region, it'll be quite a bit harder to get. Maybe chop that big region into two smaller ones?

 It was mentioned to me, and I like it as well. The SW color scheme is great. It is really coming together.

 The only thing I can think of is giving the airports names. In saying that I would say DFW, Houston, Amarillo, El Paso, Brownsville, Austin. Everything else is wonderful.

 ....And just if anyone wanted to look it up...There is a mountain chain that runs along the most western side of Texas along the Rio Grande river.....btw, the whole west boarder is river most of the north and east as well. Just if anyone wanted to look. We also have some beaches....South Padre, Padre, Flour Bluff, Corpus Christi, Port Author, and Galveston.....Just Ideas

Hello again everyone. ""

 jonboy1967 is fully aware that this is a map he suggested and admits that he has limited forum knowledge and no graphic skills whatsoever, he is totally reliant on guys like us to make this a reality. That is why he has been asked to be our geographic adviser, being a native of Texas, he knows things that will help us develop his dream.

 Could not have said it better myself Aero.

 Just want to say again Just how awesome a job naathim is doing. From the rough draft till now is just so much difference. Incredible. Thanks again.

 I have names for regions

 This may or may not work. Here in Texas, this is how we talk about regions. Super or otherwise. Hope it helps.

 Amarillo area...panhandle (or High Plains)
 El Paswo...west Big Bend (cuz of the rio grande bend) region
 Dallas FtWorth..north
 Texarkana to lufkin...east
 brownsville to san antonio...the valley
 austin and surrounding area...the hill country
 houston/lufkin to border.. Piney Woods

Also this is a map I like for super territories and names to match. Again I hope I help just a bit....KEEP THE Southwest Color Scheme

http://www.durangotexas.com/eyesontexas/TexasRegions/TexasRegionsFiles/texasregionsmap.jpg

Just a proof that it is possible to show a minimap with legible bonuses:


Also, I agree with every single bonus! Great work again naathim!


7 or 8 moves is still quite far, so there definitely aren't too many airports at the moment. I think the amount of airports at the moment is not too many, but definitely adequate, so great job there as well.

Alright. Changed a few names. I did break that 5 region up into two smaller ones. Mini-map added with bonuses.

Played around with the background/texture just for fun/ideas. Still got the old one so no worries LOL.

I like the idea of a wanted poster though. Put up something like 'Dom12 gang, 5,000 token reward' with the dom12 logo underneath. Or you know something like that.

It took me FOREVER to find that longhorn skull that was a free image with no background...

But if nobody has objections, I'd say it's ready for somebody with a real graphics package to make it look pretty.

This is great work. It may be a little while before I get on to Graphics, as Psymon has no map time at the moment and I am handling 4 maps.

In the meantime, could you double check the locations are correct & correctly spelled, try and exhaust the game-play & bonus testing so that we will not have to change anything when the graphics are being developed? You could try the risk tester program that Hoodlum showed us if you wanted. It allows you to input the map into a playable program, great for testing game-play.
This could be a valuable testing tool for you naathim.
http://www.dominating12.com/forum/?cmd=topic&id=2004

There are also the region names to consider. JB gave some suggestions above.

@jonboy1967, can you please double check that all the territory names, their spelling and their locations are correct?

@V98, can you please check the connections and particularly for any unintuitive connections? Could you also give feedback on the perceived game-play for naathim?

@Everyone, do you think the Wild West would be a good theme for this map? I will need views on your perception of the finished map to speed up the design & development of the graphics.

We'll need a really compact font for this one. Like Italia's font, but not that standard, if possible.

Oh cool!! I'll go and test it today! That seems really fun!

I'm 99% sure that everything is spelled correctly. But I will triple check and wait for JB to confirm the names are what he wants.

AND I completely forgot about the region names. I'm not sure if this is a map where you can FIT the region names in the mini-map. Should we try and fit them, or just come up with a list?

The regions need names regardless of whether or not you can fit them on the map so that they can be inputted into the system.

We could try giving all the regions in the mini map a letter a-z and then have a legend across the bottom of the page that tells us the corresponding names. But if that makes the map too messing then the names can be left off.

We could use the space that now uses the "Wanted" sign for the legend. But many maps have region names omitted so that shouldn't be a problem.

The theme is terrific in my humble opinion. Naathim I cannot state how well this looks to me.

I have to do overall checking of the spelling, but I noticed one thing. The airport in Hardin is not right to me. Houston is in Harris county and that is where I think the airport needs to be put. That is our biggest city.

Also I think the wanted sign could stay and the legend go in the bottom right of the map.

Will get back to you on spellings

Ok, this is what I found on my part.
 
San Saba is two words (Central Texas area)
Brazaria should be Brazoria (Southeast by Galveston)
Throckmorton could be changed to Young to save room

  I really think Hood County (next to Dallas county) should be changed to Tarrant. That is an obvious mistake in this area. Tarrant County is Ft Worth. Another big city.

 Ok, more on the Houston thing in my opinion. I think the Harris territory needs to go away. It needs to be changed to Houston because of the airport. The Hardin airport moved to the new formed Houston territory. In saying that, that leaves a name opening for the territory Houston is currently in. This should be Montgomery. Montgomery Tx is where the Tx Flag was born. If I left that out I might get lynched....lol

 One last thing. The hidalgo airport should be changed to McAllen to represent a city.

 And one last thing. It would not hurt my feelings if 1 more airport was added to another big city. The name is already there. In west Texas...Midland

 Other than those few things. Just terrific work. Thanks all involved.