Evermore - MegaGame - Winner: AdmiralZhao!

[Xietor]

Agreed Hadrian.

i think there should be no more than 8 water provinces per water race. Let the water races experience the dog pile this time around!

Actually, i would like the map to have so few water provinces that the water races are forced out of the water if they wish to survive. It is totally unfair imho that in the Big Game they can be at the tops in almost every category, but are pretty much immune to all the initial rush fighting and dog piles that the land races were subjected to.

I did suggest banning all items that produce gems in the Big Game, as it is going to be game deciding because of the map size-wait and see. I would prefer to see gem producing items banned in the next game. Any idiot can sit in the water and make clams. What skill is there in that?

I would rather see a winner crowned on his ability to win battles, not by out micromanaging the others.

[Gandalf Parker]

I tried to keep the "number of provinces per player" pretty much the same for water players and land players (within the bounds of my terrible math abilities). Of course there is the argument that some of the water players can come onto land, but some of the land players tend to grab some water also (undead users for example) so I figure it tends to even out fairly.

As for BattleSkill vs MicroManagment I always thought that the small-map blitzes were where the BS players automatically excelled and the big maps were the MM players time to shine

[Velusion]

Xietor said:
I would prefer to see gem producing items banned in the next game. Any idiot can sit in the water and make clams. What skill is there in that?

This will not happen. Clams have a tradeoff as you are giving up resources that could be used immediately to conquer more provinces which could in turn give you more gems. With clams you are just doing another, safer, investment - but putting yourself in a weaker initial position by sacrificing gems.

The problem in these larger games is that the clams/hording is too good of an investment as you know the game will go on long enough for it to pay out nicely. Hence we will try tweaking the base cost so the payout is farther away. It might not be enough, but we'll see.

[Gandalf Parker]

Would "scattered water" be considered an advantage to the water nations? Or a drawback? It would make expansion much harder. And make it harder for one wter nation to quickly own up all of the water.

Or would be it better to group the water? Three lakes? or even just one ocean?

[Velusion]

I'm fine with there being some random "lakes" but I would like at least 75% all of the water provinces to belong to larger bodies of water and those larger bodies connected. I think this will encourage water nations to fight amongst each other but the winner will be more secure.

I'm inclined to have multiple "linked" oceans so there are choke points, but if the mapped looked good enough I would go with one large ocean. In the same vein I'd like "continents" of large land masses for land choke points.

Check out some of my other (non-wrap around) maps for examples of what I'm looking for:

http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/afterthoughtsmall.jpg
http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/discordancesmall.jpg
http://67.66.187.69/dominions3/perpetualitysmall.jpg

Except for a few minor errors - I really like (if I do say so myself ) the perpetuality map - so somthing like that, but wrap around would be great.

[Kristoffer O]

Perhaps a left-right wraparound, like a tube. Polar seas in the north and in the south. Continents in the middle with some crossing points.

[Velusion]

Kristoffer O said:
Perhaps a left-right wraparound, like a tube. Polar seas in the north and in the south. Continents in the middle with some crossing points.

I'd be willing to consider that, sure... though it doesn't completely fix the perceived problem of players on the edges having an advantage.

It does help address the biggest hesitation I have for complete wrap arounds - which is the difficulty players will have in planning moves around the visual edges. Imagine if your nation starts in the exact corner of the visual map with a complete (up/down left/right) wrap around map? Blah, it would be a total scroll mess. It suddenly becomes disadvantageous to start on the corners/edges.

[Gandalf Parker]

If the map is flagged right then the player will never notice he is on the edge. The game tiles the map and provides endless scrolling. As far as players are concerned, they all will think they "started in the middle" of the map

[Sombre]

I might be able to help out with the flags. Let me know what you had in mind.

[Velusion]

Sombre said:
I might be able to help out with the flags. Let me know what you had in mind.

I'll PM you