Africa - Alkebulan

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The_Bishop wrote:
Anyway there's nothing wrong on setting bonuses a bit higher than usual, I'm not against it, in principle, so let's try! I've changed my mind a bit, I have to admit higher bonuses here might result to be more interesting.

Hoodlum provided us with 2 versions of the map, one with lower bonuses (summing to 32), one with higher bonuses (summing to 40).

A compromise can be found in between to make everybody happy. Like this:
[image]

Summing to the magic number 36, this is cool. B) I would test it this way and see how it works.
Both North Africa and Horn of Africa have 5 territories and 4 borders, so they have the same bonus (+4).
Apart from that detail this 'compromise' is identical to Matty's second proposal.

To summarise in a tab:
all previous suggestions and current (click to show)
..
P.S. The "East Africa" name is a bit confusing, there are two East Africas on the map! Maybe could be something different like "Eastern Coast & Madagascar" or "Indian Ocean Coast" or I don't know...
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
The_Bishop wrote:
Full image of the map with the new bonuses:
Alkebulan Africa 3.0 (click to show)
100% size: https://i.ibb.co/rMczJq5/Africa-Alkebulan.jpg
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
Matty wrote:
The_Bishop
... Both North Africa and Horn of Africa have 5 territories and 4 borders ...
I completely missed that o_O, well spotted.
"Strength doesn't lie in numbers, strength doesn't lie in wealth. Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers." ~Maria
periwinkle wrote:
Looks great! I've already created two games to try it out (2v2 and a 2v2v2v2)

One thing I noticed that the sea border crossings (sea attack routes) are hard to see. For example Eritrea to Yemen.  Can we make those dash lines a light cream colour? (Or the same off white as the names on the map?) I know players will miss those connections. Thanks!
The_Bishop wrote:
Fixed/changed some region names in the system:

Europe>> Southern Europe (more accurate)
Asia Minor>> Middle East (Asia Minor is wrong)
Sahara>> Sahara Desert (sounds good)
East Africa>> East Coast - Madagascar (to avoid any confusion)
..

@periwinkle, I think in the last 2 years Hoodlum has changed 3 computers, so the original file is probably lost. Hard to try that edit you ask working on the flat image. However, please don't get me wrong, consider that the most of us has 20/20 eyesight and we can see the connections quite easily! ;)
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
Hoodlum wrote:
original file is still on other laptop harddrive. harddrive should still be functional, just gotta get some sort of adapter to retrieve it.
Warrant ☰ ★Officer I and a Gentleman
The_Bishop wrote:
Got it @Hoodlum

Personally I love the graphic as it is, thanks Hoodlum for this, so I wouldn't change anything. However what suggested by Periwinkle could have some sense (please forgive my hilarity @periwinkle).

P.S. That region that I don't know how to call was originally called East Africa (not wrong but it tends to be confused with Horn of Africa), then I renamed it as East Coast - Madagascar, but I'm not really satisfied with this name, it's kind of a provisional name. Any suggestions? In Africa1890 map we have a similar region, not exactly the same though, and it's called Lower East Africa.
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
dough_boy wrote:
I have never been a fan of overly large regions. To me they tend to never get used. Is it an option to split them up? Maybe something like this?

Spoiler (click to show)
The_Bishop wrote:
@dough_boy, I don't think regions are overly large, the largest one has just 8 territories. Unless you mean 'graphically large'.
However every suggestion is an option, but I wouldn't change the region borders now that the work is finished (after almost 2 years!) At this point the map has to be beta-tested as it is and see the feedback.
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
dough_boy wrote:
Large as in too big to hold. 8/7 and 7/5. I tried looking for the source map, but couldn't find it. I couldn't find anything laying out these as regions (although there are 5 main regions it appears). I would like to hear others feedback. If everyone says it is fine as is start playing it. If there is other feedback that maybe adding a few more and breaking them up would be worth it, better to do it now instead of playing, making changes, then playing again.
Matty wrote:
For me the problem here is not so much the size (nr of territories), as it is how hard it is to defend them (nr of borders). There's few very good regions here. Your proposal doesn't change that though.
"Strength doesn't lie in numbers, strength doesn't lie in wealth. Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers." ~Maria
dough_boy wrote:
That is what I was trying to say, other than lower/mid right the rest isn't worth it.

Not sure I agree. Yes you have to defend 4 but that is better than defending 7. If you are saying you want like 4 but only have to defend 2, some of these areas make it seem like Atlantis
The_Bishop wrote:
In 9 player capitals I think Ankara should be moved to Persia, to avoid such a short distance: Italy--Ankara in fact is only 2 hops! I guess Hoody missed it.

By playing the map (in single) I can say it plays well and regions are quite easy, not hard. As a proof, I played a live game yesterday (my first live game with the new bonuses) and the first bonus to be held by someone was West Africa, the 'impossible' region with 7 tert's and 5 borders. Just a coincidence but it says something.

As for the visibility of the connections, it's hard to edit the image without having the layered file. What about adding white dots instead of modifing the dashes? It looks cool to me and I hope it doesn't ruin Hoodlum's art work.
White dots sea routes (click to show)
Current version 3.0 (click to show)
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein
periwinkle wrote:
LOVE the white dots! :) :) :)

It's subtle but just enough to highlight them :)
The_Bishop wrote:
I'm not a huge fan of the white dots myself.
For now it's available only when one selects the 'smaller view' option on the right upper corner.
The map is long so it's pretty useful to play in 'smaller view'.
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein