.com.unity Forums - YARG2 , 24 players EA RAND game [7/24 players left]

My balancing aims for the map starts will be....

- Land capitals to all have 4-5 adjoining provinces. If I can ensure a fair spread of terrain types then all the better. Where possible, if a capital only has 4 neighbours, I will try to ensure at least two of them are mountains or forests so that the capital has adequate resources.

- Water capitals to have 3 adjoining provinces. Very difficult to ensure more than 3, so seems fairest to me if all three water nations have 3 adjoining provinces.

- All Land capitals to be at least 3 provinces apart. ie. Cap-Indy-Indy-Indy-Cap. If I can get the capitals further apart then I certainly will, but 21 Land nations doesn't leave that much room with only a 12-13 ppn (province per nation) average, so need to be realistic. A wraparound map also constricts space available to work with, as it removes the option of putting nations in the corner.

I can't guarantee any of the above though, since I have no idea yet how my above aims will clash with the reality of the map that is eventually decided upon. But like I said, I will try my best to fulfil the aims mentioned.

Still a few hours left for voting, but so far Alexander looks to have a healthy lead. And with regards the Alexander map, and specifically the water nations ....

As it stands on the base map, the water provinces do not form a complete wraparound. So in effect the water is just a long elongated section, which means one water nation starting at each end, with the third having to be piggy-in-the-middle. Which probably means a short and tough life for said piggy. There is another area of water available, but on the base map it only covers 6 provinces, which just isn't enough.

Solutions and Options.....

There are a number of isolated water provinces on the map that are connected by rivers. These rivers do not allow movement though. So I could connect up these isolated water provinces to the main areas of water, and that would result in the 6 province water section becoming 9 provinces. Which when added to the "totally safe until midgame" factor for starting there, could just about make it borderline acceptable as a start location.

Another option is to do some map editing and along with opening up the rivers for movement, place an additional river on the map (if my artistic skills are up to it that is) to connect up provinces (266) - (5). This would result in all the main water provinces being connected, and provide a lot more scope for placement.

Another idea is to make the existing water provinces wraparound by, for example, connecting (265) with (68), which then means each water nation will be playing piggy to the other two. So nice and fair.

Or there's always "Who cares about all this rubbish, do what you like because water nation suck anyway no matter where they start" :)

I can and will use my own judgement of course, but thought I'd throw a few ideas out for feedback. Since balancing the water nations on Alexander does require some specific thought to ensure all three have a fairly equal fighting chance. (of getting their arse kicked once they step on land ;))