Official Instructions and Standards for Making New Maps
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aeronautic wrote:
Brought forward from previous post:
Hoodlum's post
I'm usually calculating the bonuses wrong myself. i made this simple html calculator to help just for risk maps.
download link
That's clever stuff Hood.
Downloaded it and tested it and it works great.

I would like to put it into the Guide, but my only concern is it's a download from free web-space and I assume that it will expire.
It should be something that people can use on this site to set/check bonuses. Perhaps the programmers could patch something like it into the DXII Guide to Map Making main page?
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Region Bonus Calculator

How many territories? ( input )
How many borders? ( input )
= ( result )
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Hyd yn oed er fy mod Cymraeg , dim ond yn siarad Saesneg, felly yr wyf yn gobeithio y bydd y cyfieithu yn gywir.
Cireon wrote:
Yeah, sounds like something we can do!
“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
Matty wrote:
There is a little calculator now that you can use to calculate region bonus suggestions - https://dominating12.com/tools.

Because it can also be used by people commenting on maps, I made it publicly available, and not mapmakers only.
"Strength doesn't lie in numbers, strength doesn't lie in wealth. Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers." ~Maria
Hoodlum wrote:
Matty
There is a little calculator now that you can use to calculate region bonus suggestions - https://dominating12.com/tools.

Because it can also be used by people commenting on maps, I made it publicly available, and not mapmakers only.

nice.
Warrant ☰ ★Officer I and a Gentleman
The_Bishop wrote:
This is Vexer's formula, I know it well and it's easy to do by mind when you get used.
Bonus = (t/3) + (b/2.5) rounded to integer
t = territories
b = borders to defend


It proved over the years to be working pretty well, even if it tends to reward too much small regions and not enough large regions in my opinion. For example it doesn't apply to World Classic, where NA is evaluated 4,20 and Asia only 6,00. Even so it's still a good way, because too high bonuses for large regions could be dangerous, too low bonuses instead never break the game-play.
I consider respecting the formula as not mandatory, not strictly at least, and it is not even very accurate because the matter of establishing the bonuses could be more complex than just counting the territories, however it's a good starting point. Vexer himself was used to made arrangements, I can remember him saying something like: "If a region is in the center, attacked from many sides, then round up, otherwise round down. If the terts are 4 and the borders are 3 [it equals to 2.5333] then almost always round down".
I'd rather say: "Round down regions with 4 or less terts, round up with 5 to 8 terts, add one for 9 or more terts", debatable okay.

Another one is what I call the 'minus one' formula (it doesn't give any negatives):
Bonus = -1 + (t+b)/2 rounded to integer

Looks to me a good measurement of how hard a region really is, with the same lack of accuracy than Vexer's, sure.
Plus the flaw that it doesn't help much the mapmaker to decide the bonuses when lot of them are point-five results: better to round up or down?

As max value of a 'super-region' I'd suggest the 'minus two' formula:
Max bonus compound = integer( -2 + (t/3) + b ).
So if the sum of the bonuses of a super-region overpass the max then some of the bonuses need to be reduced accordingly (to be applied to super-regions not exceeding 4/9 of the map size).

Just my 2 cents ;)
«God doesn't play dice with the World» ~ Albert Einstein