[Abandoned] - Oasis Sahara

[mattattam]

Your bonus' seem too high. I think almost all of them could be dropped 1 troop and some 2. Nice map though. I like the simple open game-play and feel to it

[nilcius]

Your bonus' seem too high. I think almost all of them could be dropped 1 troop and some 2. Nice map though. I like the simple open game-play and feel to it

Thanks for your comment
Yeah you're right about the bonusses, I wasn't sure about them myself, but that will be discussed in the gameplay workshop

[mattattam]

Your welcome . You should be along to the gameplay workshop shortly. Just so you know, you can make tweaks to gameplay before it gets in there. Preliminary tweaks are encouraged. I can understand if you'd like to wait and have more people in on the discussion though.

[Industrial Helix]

Design Brief Approved... this one is for the gameplay workshop!

[nilcius]

Design Brief Approved... this one is for the gameplay workshop!

Thanks!
I will start with lowering the bonusses 1 or 2, then other people can suggest more subtle changes to the bonusses.

[nilcius]

Changed the bonusses, I gave continents with an Oasis 1 less than similar sized continents without one.

Please let me know your thoughts about them, I'm still not sure whether they are adequate or not.
[bigimg]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8831/saharamap14.jpg[/bigimg]

[Industrial Helix]

When you make an update, post the new image in the new post and update the old image in the first post.

The bonuses seem a tad high: West Africa, Niger, Morocco, Mauritania and Mali could all go down by 1.

Libia is spelled Libya.

[natty dread]

Egypt seems a bit hard to hold, there's 2 territories on one side and 2 on the other side of a river, and you have to take 2 territories from another bonus to get from one side to the other...

If you would add a red port to Al Wahat it would at least be a bit easier, since you would only have to go through one territory to move between the halves.

Generally, you seem to have lots of bonus areas with 3 borders, only one with 2 borders, and a few with more... I'd like to see a few more bonuses that are easy to defend but give a low bonus.

[nilcius]

Egypt seems a bit hard to hold, there's 2 territories on one side and 2 on the other side of a river, and you have to take 2 territories from another bonus to get from one side to the other...

If you would add a red port to Al Wahat it would at least be a bit easier, since you would only have to go through one territory to move between the halves.

Generally, you seem to have lots of bonus areas with 3 borders, only one with 2 borders, and a few with more... I'd like to see a few more bonuses that are easy to defend but give a low bonus.

You've got a point there, I will add some rivers, lakes, mountains, jungles, w/e, to create more of these. There will be more variation in bonusses too.

[natty dread]

Don't need too many of them, maybe just 1 more bonus area that only has 2 borders... preferably on the east side of the map, since west side already has Marocco.

[nilcius]

I did some small changes to the rivers, and made a desert, now Chad, Sudan and some other continents don't have that much borders to defend anymore.

Only read your post now, but with a small river between Eritrea and E.F., Horn Of Africa would only have 2 borders too, would that suit gameplay better?
[bigimg]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/664/saharamap15.jpg[/bigimg]
Edit: I'm thinking if it wouldn't be better to keep the border bewteen Agadez and Gao open, because now there are only 3 territs to defend to hold the whole west part of the map (Ghana, Djanet, and Tataouine(or Algiers))

[natty dread]

with a small river between Eritrea and E.F., Horn Of Africa would only have 2 borders too, would that suit gameplay better?

Yes that'd be good.

'm thinking if it wouldn't be better to keep the border bewteen Agadez and Gao open, because now there are only 3 territs to defend to hold the whole west part of the map (Ghana, Djanet, and Tataouine(or Algiers))

agree with this too.

[nilcius]

Okay, so at this moment we've got this (version 1.6):
[bigimg]http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/2453/saharamap16.jpg[/bigimg]

[AndyDufresne]

The ports at Al Wahat and Cairo (I'd rename this area Sinai since that is what it mostly is composed of)---could be 'connector ports'? They could assault one another, but Al Wahat could also assault Tafilalt, and Cairo/Sinai could assault E.F. (Al Wahat maybe should not be able to assault E.F. then). It could allow for some extra movement around the map


--Andy

[Evil DIMwit]

The ports at Al Wahat and Cairo (I'd rename this area Sinai since that is what it mostly is composed of)---could be 'connector ports'? They could assault one another, but Al Wahat could also assault Tafilalt, and Cairo/Sinai could assault E.F. (Al Wahat maybe should not be able to assault E.F. then). It could allow for some extra movement around the map


--Andy

That's a little complicated. Maybe instead you could just put a blue anchor on Al Wahat or on Cairo in addition to a red one.
Or introduce a third color of port for the Mediterranean (say gold): Tafilalt would have blue and gold ports, Cairo would have gold and red ports, and Al Wahat would just have a gold port.

[natty dread]

If there's a third port colour, it should of course be purple - it's between blue and red, right?

[Evil DIMwit]

If there's a third port colour, it should of course be purple - it's between blue and red, right?

Doesn't matter, as long as it's distinguishable under colorblindness.

[AndyDufresne]

The ports at Al Wahat and Cairo (I'd rename this area Sinai since that is what it mostly is composed of)---could be 'connector ports'? They could assault one another, but Al Wahat could also assault Tafilalt, and Cairo/Sinai could assault E.F. (Al Wahat maybe should not be able to assault E.F. then). It could allow for some extra movement around the map


--Andy

That's a little complicated. Maybe instead you could just put a blue anchor on Al Wahat or on Cairo in addition to a red one.
Or introduce a third color of port for the Mediterranean (say gold): Tafilalt would have blue and gold ports, Cairo would have gold and red ports, and Al Wahat would just have a gold port.

Hardly more complicated than some gameplay that makes its way through the Foundry! **Barunchink**


--Andy

[mattattam]

I really like your bonus adjustments. I think they are great. The only one I would change is Libya from +5 to +4. It is 5 territories that all border other bonus' but 5 just seems too high.

[nilcius]

Added an extra Anchor color so Al wahat can only attack Tafilalt and Caïro. Also changed Libya's bonus to +4.
[bigimg]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6601/saharamap17kopie.jpg[/bigimg]

[Evil DIMwit]

I'd like it if it were more visually clear whether Marrakesh borders Bechar, whether Tamanrasset borders Gao, whether Khartoum borders Western Ethiopia.

You should also add a starting neutral in one territory in each of Mauritania and Niger. With only three territories it's too easy for a player to start the game with a +2 bonus advantage (the unofficial cutoff is 4 territories). That brings your number of starting territories to 39, which is still a fair number.
That does mean that every bonus region will have a starting neutral except Central Africa, so I guess that's a feature.
Have you given thought to how many troops each neutral territory should start with? I recommend 3 for each oasis and 2 for each one that is not an oasis.

[nilcius]

I'd like it if it were more visually clear whether Marrakesh borders Bechar, whether Tamanrasset borders Gao, whether Khartoum borders Western Ethiopia.

You should also add a starting neutral in one territory in each of Mauritania and Niger. With only three territories it's too easy for a player to start the game with a +2 bonus advantage (the unofficial cutoff is 4 territories). That brings your number of starting territories to 39, which is still a fair number.
That does mean that every bonus region will have a starting neutral except Central Africa, so I guess that's a feature.
Have you given thought to how many troops each neutral territory should start with? I recommend 3 for each oasis and 2 for each one that is not an oasis.

Thanks for the comment, already had that in the XML file that Mauritania and Niger have starting neutrals, but forgot to put it on the original post
So I changed the borders a bit, is it clear now?
[bigimg]http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8199/saharamap18kopie.jpg[/bigimg]

Edit: 3 neutrals for an oasis and 2 for a non oasis seem good to me too.
Ports start with 3 also, you agree with that?

[Industrial Helix]

Looks like you can fit No. into the territory.

And what the hell is between Sudan and Chad... Desert? I don't think this makes too much sense as the two countries went to war as recent as 2004... I'm in favor of dropping the impassable there.

[nilcius]

Looks like you can fit No. into the territory.

And what the hell is between Sudan and Chad... Desert? I don't think this makes too much sense as the two countries went to war as recent as 2004... I'm in favor of dropping the impassable there.

Yeah that is a desert You're right that it might not be that logical. Made one there to have an extra natural border, but I will remove it. I think the bonusses of Chad and Sudan can stay the same?

I will adjust your 2 thoughts certainly, but since I'm going to a festival for 4 days, it will only be monday I will post the next version. But don't give up giving comments, it helps a lot!

[Evil DIMwit]

Ports start with 3 also, you agree with that?

It doesn't seem to me that ports have much particular significance except for the fact that they connect to other ports, and those other ports also start neutral, so I'd say 3 might be too high.