Glessesboy
I think that this is close to the final product:
I am not a cartographer, but just to manage expectations: I doubt it. We're still in the phase of establishing gameplay, and I don't think there is enough widespread agreement that the gameplay is finalized. I also think some more work needs to be done to elevate the graphical quality of this map to the standards of this website. So yeah, I don't want you to keep your hopes up, I think you need to receive much more feedback before this map can go live.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts:
- I don't see the need for airports on this map. Airports are problematic for connectivity reasons, and should be avoided if the map can be made well connected enough otherwise.
- The inclusion of the ABC islands is a bit weird to me. They're really far away geographically (p much the other side of the world), so their inclusion seems arbitrary. To play on the "war" theme of Dominating12, it is unlikely troops would move back and forth between those locations very fast, making them virtually independent fronts.
- The bottom-left green region (Zealand) seems incredibly isolated. If you get a hold of the bottom pink region (Brabant), you get the green region basically for free without having to protect other regions. If you do own the green region, there's going to be no way out with your troops unless you fight your way through the pink region. It doesn't make a lot of sense.
- The topology around the north of the central pink region (Flevoland) seems odd to me. There is no way to get to the regions north of that river without going all the way through the yellow and cyan region, with some really tight bottlenecks involved there. I feel a connection between this pink and the red region north of it is necessary.
- Some territory borders seem unnecessary complex. For example, the river through the central river (Utrecht) doesn't seem to be adding any gameplay value, as it is not blocking any connections. It's also geographically inaccurate (in real life it's a canal, so it's very straight), so I think we could do with removing it entirely. If you want to keep the river, the territory line east of it that runs parallel to it can be made much shorter, removing clutter. The extension of that river through the top left green region could also be removed by changing the territory lines around so the territory north of the river bridge runs all the way to the west coast. I think it's super cool to make this a river-heavy map, it fits the NL, but there is a lot of value in being able to spot the routes through the map at a glance, without having to spend too much time looking for small details, such as where there are bridges, and where there aren't.
[quote=Glessesboy]I think that this is close to the final product:[/quote]
I am not a cartographer, but just to manage expectations: I doubt it. We're still in the phase of establishing gameplay, and I don't think there is enough widespread agreement that the gameplay is finalized. I also think some more work needs to be done to elevate the graphical quality of this map to the standards of this website. So yeah, I don't want you to keep your hopes up, I think you need to receive much more feedback before this map can go live.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts:
[list]
[li]I don't see the need for airports on this map. Airports are problematic for connectivity reasons, and should be avoided if the map can be made well connected enough otherwise.[/li]
[li]The inclusion of the ABC islands is a bit weird to me. They're really far away geographically (p much the other side of the world), so their inclusion seems arbitrary. To play on the "war" theme of Dominating12, it is unlikely troops would move back and forth between those locations very fast, making them virtually independent fronts.[/li]
[li]The bottom-left green region (Zealand) seems incredibly isolated. If you get a hold of the bottom pink region (Brabant), you get the green region basically for free without having to protect other regions. If you do own the green region, there's going to be no way out with your troops unless you fight your way through the pink region. It doesn't make a lot of sense.[/li]
[li]The topology around the north of the central pink region (Flevoland) seems odd to me. There is no way to get to the regions north of that river without going all the way through the yellow and cyan region, with some really tight bottlenecks involved there. I feel a connection between this pink and the red region north of it is necessary.[/li]
[li]Some territory borders seem unnecessary complex. For example, the river through the central river (Utrecht) doesn't seem to be adding any gameplay value, as it is not blocking any connections. It's also geographically inaccurate (in real life it's a canal, so it's very straight), so I think we could do with removing it entirely. If you want to keep the river, the territory line east of it that runs parallel to it can be made much shorter, removing clutter. The extension of that river through the top left green region could also be removed by changing the territory lines around so the territory north of the river bridge runs all the way to the west coast. I think it's super cool to make this a river-heavy map, it fits the NL, but there is a lot of value in being able to spot the routes through the map at a glance, without having to spend too much time looking for small details, such as where there are bridges, and where there aren't.[/li]
[/list]
“This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.”
- Speaker for the Dead, O.S. Card