South Africa Districts map

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/190/southafricadistrictsmap.jpg/

I still need to add some texture and text and maybe some mountains and connections but I would like some comments/seguestions on it. Do I have good amounts of territories per region? where should I add mountains/connections? do you like or dislike the map?

Just a question...where are the smaller maps gone?
These maps seem to be for 5 players and above!
I have problems getting 4 players that play games just with 4 and under so what about some maps with 2 to 4 players in mind?

I feel we have more maps that are big and more on the way but not small ones.

Panama, Saturn, and the Caribbean maps are all suited for 2-4 players. The World, Eld World, House, Oregon Cities, USA, Great Britain and Ireland, and the Basketball maps are all well suited for 4-6 players. So, if you want to play with 4 players, that's almost every map we have that's ideal or good for 4 player play.

Edit: I'm working on a new 2-4 player map. I won't announce it until it's somewhat polished though.

I think you should add Swaziland to the map and grey it and Lesotho out. If you have one, you should have the other. Or, have neither as my suggestion. But, there is also a game play reason I suggest this. If you changed the light blue territory below Lesotho to red, it would make the red region only require three territories to defend instead of five. The light blue region would still require the same number of territories to defend.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/254/southafricadistrictsmap.jpg/

I would like some seguestions and coments........

I feel like the names made it look messy.....I am also planning on doing some more texture.

You made the text fit in the territories as best as you can. I think it may look messy as you mentioned, because the names are so long. An alternative you could try is to have all the text in the same direction and have the text for a territory right next to it's circle. My suggestion might make it worse, I just can't think of anything else you could try at the moment.

ok thanks for commenting Glanru so far your the first to comment on the map (Thorpe didn't say anything about the map).

Ok Pntbttr...first Nice and hard for game play...like it!
      
#2....try to put the names in light Blue or light green or even yellow that way the map doesn't look so dark and then you can read the names better.
#3 shorten so names by putting a N. for North and so on.
#4 the gray in the middle has a name but no circle...not a territory any more?
#5 Are you having any other connections?

Is that enough comments or do you want more?

lol

Sorry I was a little mad when I wrote above cause can't get a game going cause everybody was working on their maps...lol

thanks
I will try the different color thing for the names and I will make them all the same size and written in the same directions. I will Also Abreavate things.

The grey area in the middle was lesotho but Glanru said that I should have both Swaziland and lesotho or have neither and maybe just grey them both out.....if you have a better idea I will add them....

I would like seguestions on were I should add moutains/rivers/connections.

thanks....your probably right if I wasn't making a map then I might play more live games.......I don't really like live games though. I feel like I get terrible luck in live games.....I think I will start playing a little more live games though.

Ok..mountains..don't like rivers cause can't see them...around bottom of Frances Baard to separate it from green & purple.

around Sekhukun and Nkhahiamba.
around Alfred Nzo or just to ukhahiamba

The connections if you want them:
Ugu to City of Cape Town
West Coast to Ehianzeni
N. Siyanda to Waterburge

instead of making south africa look like an island, i would include part of africa but grey it out like cananda and mexico on the USA map. if you make the grey color the same as the color for Swaziland and Lesotho then it might lessen the confusion.

As far as rivers and mountains go, you should only choose the very largest rivers and mountains. The rivers need to made a little larger than life and not too dark so that they can be seen. It would definitely help the game play cause the majority of the regions are too hard to hold.

That being said, i am not a fan of "impassables" like mountains, rivers etc. The original risk map does not have impassables except for seas.
I would prefer maps that are based on locations that already have easy areas to defend without having to resort to using impassables. Lakes and seas work well but rivers and mountains not so much.
Glanru's victron map is a perfect example of a map that doesn't need impassables because it uses the seas to separate regions.

It's difficult to find places in the world that are already perfect for risk maps. Mediterranean sea was an excellent choice. South Africa on the other hand is just a mess of territories that produce regions that are hard to defend. I could scrap the official districts and draw in my own territory lines to make regions that are easier to defend but it might ruin it for someone who is from south africa.

The river and lake on the oregon cities map works because they are huge and easy to see. The map also works because the empty space between the cities has the same function as an ocean on a continents map. There is a reason why i didn't make a map of portland, oregon's largest city, because it would be one big lump of territories with no space. By picking a location where there were smaller cities with space in between them I was able to make a much better risk map. People like regions that are easy to defend.

For your next map i hope you can find another location that produces regions that are easier to defend without having to resort to using impassables. impassables are not user friendly and they significantly increase the amount of time it takes to make a map.

sorry it took so long to comment. i have been busy with other maps.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/southafricadistrictsmap.jpg/

Well there is another update......I didn't see this post till now so I will work on real moutains and rivers and add the greyed out africa above next time and I will work on some textures.....I will take any seguestions.

Thanks for the comments Vexer

is it better to have a map that is 1024x more than 664
or something smaller than 1024x664

it should be 1024 by whatever length is necessary to fit what you need to fit. please don't make a map that is smaller than 1024 pixels wide

Do you like it being so dark?