Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes

4 (50%)

No

4 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 7

[E. Albright]

I think this map will be alright but next round I join won't have a hex map like this one.

This is exactly why round 26 turned into round 26a. We started with one of Pymous's lovely hexy maps, but the inter-connectivity was absurd. These maps are fine for certain types of play - if you were playing a blitz they'd be great, because they're easy to balance and the connectivity ensures everyone is close together so it's harder to drag out. However, they really underscore that there's a lot more to map design (particularly in terms of how many players can be supported) than balance and number of provinces.

It's not just that every map is not to everyone's taste, but they're also not suitable for every meta. Maps which form densely connected graphs reduce distance between nations a ridiculous amount, and also fundamentally change the impact of fliers and spell ranges. Number of provinces is the customary metric for measuring how many players can be supported, but it would be wonderful if the community would give average province connections as well. A 150 province map with exactly 2 connections for every province is nothing like one with exactly 149 connections each...

[Cthulhu]

I have a feeling this is going to end with a lot of ground-down irrelevant nations to get gobbled up by the ones that got lucky or avoided conflict.  Basically Thunderdome.

[Gigalith]

On the subject of weird maps, for a long time I've wanted to make a four-dimensional map I think of Tartarian Tesseract, a simple 3^4 or 4^4 (or even 5^4) grid where each province connects in each of the eight adjacent directions. Among other things, it would make borders difficult, since there's eight ways into every province. Unfortunately, I figure I'd have to write a script to actually wire the dang thing together.

[AlStar]

Displaying a map like that in a way that's playable would probably be challenging.

[Gigalith]

Not necessarily. Basically, you'd have, say, a four by four grid of four by four grids. You can either move up, down, left, or right on the same grid, or to the same square on a different grid up, down, left or right. This game uses boards in this fashion, if you can't picture it from my description.

[Karlito]

Number of provinces is the customary metric for measuring how many players can be supported, but it would be wonderful if the community would give average province connections as well.

I was thinking about writing a tool (if none such already exists), that would parse through map files and give you that kind of information.

[Darkwind3]

For my part, I voted for this map but hadn't really considered the layout so much as simple province count. When I was testing my expansion strategy I pretty quickly realized that an open, densely-connected map like this really rewards fast expansion, even moreso than usual.

I hadn't considered how the impact of flying troops would change, but now that E. Albright's mentioned it I can't help but feel a little glad nobody picked a flying nation. Just thinking about the mobility of zotzes on this map makes me shudder...

[Jilladilla]

Yeah, maybe next match we should not go with something like this...

But either way, I don't mind much, doing fairly well I feel, despite not having N9 blessed giants or any fancy bells and whistles on my troops.

I am starting to have some regrets for not bringing Titanaconda to this match though... He's so darn good at expanding...

[Cthulhu]

Next level strats:  Name your pretender Python no matter what it is.

[ThtblovesDF]

To join the bitching, I don't even have my cap-circle yet and am already encircled with only 2 neutral provinces remaining. Oh well...

[Cthulhu]

If it came to a vote for restart with a new map, I would vote yes. 

[Il Palazzo]

If it came to a vote for restart with a new map, I would vote yes. 

For the record, I don't mind either way.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

If it went to a vote I would vote for a restart with a better map.

[Karlito]

To join the bitching, I don't even have my cap-circle yet and am already encircled with only 2 neutral provinces remaining. Oh well...

I wouldn't be super opposed to a new map, though I'd probably vote no if it came to it. To be frank though, if you still haven't taken the 6 provinces around your capital by turn 8, then your expansion strategy needs work. A new map may help with some things, but getting beat by independents isn't one of them.

[Jilladilla]

To join the bitching, I don't even have my cap-circle yet and am already encircled with only 2 neutral provinces remaining. Oh well...

I wouldn't be super opposed to a new map, though I'd probably vote no if it came to it. To be frank though, if you still haven't taken the 6 provinces around your capital by turn 8, then your expansion strategy needs work. A new map may help with some things, but getting beat by independents isn't one of them.

If one of the provinces has indy defenses that wouldn't be out of place on a throne then it's understandable. It does happen.