Battle of the Elements

Yes, I have children and this is not anything they have ever mentioned. Is this at all related to Avatar the James Cameron movie? Is this a map of where the blue people live? Also, should the North and South poles really be connected?

[quote=PsymonStark - Mar 5, 11:13 PM] Well on the map itself, I believe that you have mistaken the Vexer formula. The formula takes into account the number of territories of the studied regions which border another region, and not the number of territories that can attack the region. For these means, Western and Eastern Air Temples should be a 1, Northern and Southern Air Temples should be a 2, and Water Tribes should be 2 each. The rest of the bonus are right. Before gameplay can be further studied, you need to create the internal borders. I based previous comments on the fact that the only region-region connections will be the marked ones. If you want, I can do a quick draft of them that will try to follow the clean curved style of the map, but will be up to you to adapt them to the map.[/quote] [spoiler=Battle of the Elements 3][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5405591.jpg[/img][/spoiler] Thank you very much Psymon for your help! I will add the interior borders soon. The show actually used a map of the Earth Kingdom with divider lines between provinces, so I'm going to base a lot of it on that. I just wanted to see if people were interested in the board before I put the time into it. [spoiler][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5405592.png[/img][/spoiler] Star0Dweller is the number person, so he'll talk look at your comment about bonuses. [quote=naathim - Mar 5, 06:08 AM]*fanboys at the mouth* Shame on you for forgetting Kyoshi Island!! Throw out the southern islands one and change it to Kyoshi lol (I know that's not really where it goes, but it's close enough!) [/quote] Kyoto Island is totally on the map!. It's just too small to make it a territory. [quote=Clarke - Mar 6, 02:56 AM]Yes, I have children and this is not anything they have ever mentioned. Is this at all related to Avatar the James Cameron movie? Is this a map of where the blue people live? Also, should the North and South poles really be connected? [/quote] The show is not based on James Cameron's movie. It actually came first. This is from a Nickelodeon cartoon, it's amazing and I'm obsessed with it. The North and South Poles should be connected, but it's spoilers to the show to explain.

There are a lot of maps that have ports, and somehow I don't really like them that much. Your map defenitely doesn't need ports (especially not with north and south pole connected) so maybe leave them out. (Air temples == ports).

Ok, the special bonus has been tested and it works without any coding (only a lot of log lines). So, we can apply it for the map.

[spoiler][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5407267-T1200800.jpg[/img][/spoiler] Here's my first attempt at interior borders.

I think you made it too linear. There are 5 territories with only one adjacency and over 20 with two adjacencies. Wait for other opinions though before doing anything. Plus there are some doubts on the adjacency of some territories. I'll write them when we nail borders. The style is nice (clean and matching the map) but I'd say it can benefit of some improvements yet. Also many territory labels need to be moved because now some of them are confusing. You missed a label on the Southern Earth Kingdom. Some extra connection lines will be needed in some places like the Fire Nation islands, Western and Southern Air Temples to make it obvious they connect. You should add again the north-south connection to make sure that no region has only one border.

[quote=PsymonStark - Mar 8, 10:34 PM]I think you made it too linear. There are 5 territories with only one adjacency and over 20 with two adjacencies. Wait for other opinions though before doing anything. Plus there are some doubts on the adjacency of some territories. I'll write them when we nail borders. The style is nice (clean and matching the map) but I'd say it can benefit of some improvements yet. Also many territory labels need to be moved because now some of them are confusing. You missed a label on the Southern Earth Kingdom. You should add again the north-south connection to make sure that no region has only one border. [/quote] [spoiler][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5407662.jpg[/img][/spoiler]

Whilst you are still discussing set up and game-play, I think +4 bonus is too much for owning just 4 single territories with Air Temples on, +3 would be better. The fact that you made them into portals as well is a good idea, it opens up the diagonal connectivity of the map. But I think it would be more intuitive if you had just two different colour Temple symbols, which can be on the territory and you will have the image as a guide that they are bonuses and colours as a guide to their portal connections. We also tend to use the word troop/s instead of soldier/s, because soldier defines an individual, but troop suggests a group of soldiers such as a platoon, regiment, brigade or army. We would not fight a war with 30 soldiers, but if they were perceived as troops of 1000 strong, this could be 30,000.

Oh, my message :( I'll rewrite it again. I think +4 is ok. It will make players more eager to conquer them, and as it's a divided bonus it will be harder to get/hold. I think that the reward for getting the last one should be bigger than the reward for getting 3, so to speak to incentive the owner of 3 to get the 4th. But if the majority thinks otherwise, I'll accept it. I thought better of a graphic legend, as players may not find the air temples directly. I would use the air bisons as graphic legend, placing two, and below a +1, three and below a +2, and 4 and below a +4/+3. Above all an "Air Temples" label. We'd get rid of the troop/soldier problem too. The new layout is better for me, more connectivity overall, and less importance of the Si Wong Desert, but I still can't tell if I can attack from South Pole to White Lotus Compound. This needs to be fixed. The inner peak in Zaofu also looks a bit weird and confusing. In any case, it's a very good job you're doing. Thanks for the fast answer!

Such a pretty map! I agree with Psymon that the Western and Souther Air temples need a little bit of something to show how the islands are connected. It may be intuitive for the people who make the map to see that they're connected, but it isn't always obvious as a player. And if people get burned on a map because they mis-interpret a connection, they generally carry a grudge against it. I know it throws off the bonus a bit, but I think a connection line between the North and South Earth Kingdoms should be put somewhere around Chameleon Bay or Full Moon Bay. I'd say either Chameleon to Eastern Air Temple or Yangchen Mountains. Or put a bridge in between Full Moon Bay and Mountain Pass. This will help decrease the linear problem Psymon mentioned and just make it less bulky to move in that part of the map. I'd also consider removing or bridging the river between Lou Gai Riverlands and Earth Plains, again to help reduce the linear-ness. I think Laogai is just one word? What about Omashu!! I'd almost forgotten! What about moving Zaofu to where Gaoling is and putting Omashu where you have Zaofu? Two maps for reference. http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Omashu http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Zaofu Just a suggestion on that one.

[spoiler][img]http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/5407714.jpg[/img][/spoiler] Here's an updated version. I changed the names of two territories, moving Zaofu, and adding Omashu. I changed the colours of the east-west air bison for differentiation, and added a new infographic to explain the multi-temple bonuses. For the people who haven't watched either Avatar series, the reason I made a flying bison symbol over a nondescript temple icon is because one of my favourite characters in the series is Appa the Flying Bison. In the show he's used as vehicle for the main characters as they travel the world. As well, the sky bison is the "official animal" of the air nation. I added a little more connectivity, specifically in the north and south water tribes (blue and purple). Now every territory is connected. As well as added a new connection between Full Moon Bay and Mountain Pass, bridging the North and South Earth Kingdoms (the greens). Final change, there are now connectivity lines between island territories within the Fire Nation (Red), Western, Southern, and Eastern Air Temples (Grey).

picture is not displaying in the spoiler

Did nobody recognize the three corner problem? [size=10](= four corner problem where one of the territories is sea)[/size]. I can't decide if [i]South Pole[/i] can attack [i]White Lotus Compound[/i] or not. For gameplay it might be best if it can.

I did! And I agree with Matty. I assume that it's something that Aaron changed in this last version that we can't see.

Check the spoiler tag again. I fixed the privacy setting on the photo