Popularity of the Faerun Map?

[BouquetOfFlowers]

I am currently playing as C'Tis Desert Tombs on the Faerun map and am enjoying it quite a bit. It's the first time I will finish out the research tree while there is still significant opposition left on the map, so I get to try out lots of cool stuff, like Wish. The fact that there are neat special sites scattered around the map (some of them very tough) has made things interesting throughout. It took me many turns and three castle storming attempts to finally take over the City of Shadows right near the C'Tis starting position. When I finally killed Horus Ra with a lucky Disintegrate it was a very proud moment.
I would love to have an updated Version of the big map for the next time I want to try out an epic game. A smaller Version would be cool, too, but I am not as excited about that because, as has been said earlier, there are other well done small maps, but not really any other large maps with as much effort put into them.

[daesthai]

Bobum and I just started a game on the Faerun map (with a lot of AI nations). Too early yet to say much other than the fact that it's a beautiful map. I would be very curious though to see your updated Version. Is that one already available?

[Edi]

The new Version is not available Online yet, I'm just sounding out the general feelings about the large Faerun (the old one) and people's feelings about a smaller Version, which would naturally not have any impact on the availability of the old Version.

I was kind of expecting this two-fold response, that some would prefer a slightly smaller map and others would object to having the number of provinces cut.

It is my opinion that the smaller map is better suited for multislayer games because it won't take quite as much (that being relative, mind you) time to finish a game, it's better balanced and it still has huge scope. The old one gives me a constricted feeling whenever I try to start a game on it, there are too many too closely spaced provinces that hem you in and turn the map into a slow, slogging morass. Personal opinion, of course, I know some of you like the huge maps, especially for SP games.

PvK, the black stars I talked about are no bigger than the common city/village markers on the map, they just denote province location so you know where to look for places to go. One of the criticisms I remember was Zen or somebody else saying it was difficult to even locate provinces on the map, even with the neighbors filter on. Now there's a very small black star marked around the white pixel to show clearly, yet unobtrusively, where the provinces are. Much, much better than the old hide and seek game, I've noticed in test games.

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming and I'll get back to it next Monday, I need to log off in just a couple of minutes. But looks like there is quite enough demand for a revised map file for the old Faerun map. I'll probably reshuffle some start locations to reflect the newer Version, because it works better that way.

I'll also give you a nospec Version which cuts the specials out and it can be played just like any generic map. The update will take a while, though, because the map is so large.

Also in the works: A Dragonlance map, based on the downloadable poster map, but it still needs province assignment and is a long way from being complete. It's also going to be highly thematic, but you'll also get all three varieties (normal thematic, quickstart and nospec) to begin with when I'm done. Expect that to take a while, though. I want to have time to also play instead of just making maps.

Now, see you all on Monday.

Edi

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by PvK:
I haven't seen the new Version, so it's hard to know which I would prefer. They sound like they both offer different things, but the newer one is more refined and balanced. The larger one will probably still have its appeal thanks to sheer enormousness. Also I wonder how the black stars for flags will will look. Part of the appeal of the map is that it's very nice to look at, and clarity at the expense of black stars all over the place might be something I'd like to be able to turn off. If it's the same image and pixel size, though (is it??), players could just use the un-starred TGA.

Myself, I look forward to a somewhat lower province count, but even more, I look forward to the black stars on the map: The current map is incredibly hard to play races like Vanheim, Caelum, CotW Marignon and others with non-standard movement. Others are bad enough, because Illwinter hasn't done the minor tweak to allow the color of the neighbors filter to be changed, and the lines are almost invisible on much of Faerun (and a couple other maps).

But trying to do ocean movement, or flyers - Caelum's / Pangaea's flying scouts - is frustrating in the extreme currently.

Hrm. If Illwinter put a Question Mark sigil in place of the candle for "unknown" provinces, that'd help too - after all, most maps you can see the provinces via the borders drawn on the map anyway.

Anyways, looking forward to the new map.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Oh, well some said that a good idea must get some detractors...

So I am not really interested by a new faerun map. I am having big fun playing on the current one.

I like big maps, and the current size seems almost perfect for me. I would prefer some refinements such as state borders, or why not a faerun mod with orcs, elfs, barbarians etc... battling it for godness ! Think about it.

Big map enabled me to finish the research tree and to use some big bad spells/summons with a deadly opposition battling me. On a small map, it is more likely the game will be decided by the time you finish the research tree.

The current faerun map is indeed a craft of skill, a brillant display of work. If you want to improve it, please draw the borders on it, but nothing else.

Last, I especially loved this map because it was faerun. I was not battling in a nameless world, but in the forgotten realms. I also loved the middle earth map, even if it was only part of a continent, not a full world as in faerun.

[ July 20, 2004, 14:21: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[tinkthank]

Hello, thanks for all your effort!

I actually Emailed you with my feedback a while ago after DLing and trying out your map, but maybe it got spammed.

Your map is beautiful. I do not play on it, however, because it is just too large for me. 320 Provs sounds much better (that is still about 18-20 pro nation methinks).

Also, I like Machaka, and I tested your map on with Machaka, and found I had just way too much room.

Another issue was that I could not figure out the borders of the provinces; some type, even very subtle, would be helpful, especially because the "neigbors" filter is almost impossible to see (for me) against a light background. This was very frustrating at times. If your new and improved map were to have some borders, I would greatly like that.

I know nothing about Faerun -- where does it come from? Is this some popular fantasy author?

Thanks very much in advance.

[Boron]

Originally posted by tinkthank:

I know nothing about Faerun -- where does it come from? Is this some popular fantasy author?

Thanks very much in advance.

faerun is the main world of d&d .
you said in another post that you owned neverwinter nights . it plays on faerun too .

the swordcoast , baldurs gate , amn , beregost ... ( locations from bg 1 + 2 ) , icewind dale and neverwinter , waterdeep and so on ( locations from nwn ) , the aunaroch ( nwn shadows of unrentide ) all can be found on the faerun map

there are other planes like the ones where you play on planescape torment in the d&d universe too but it is the main world

unfortunately i am no d&d expert and know it only from pc games .
i myself played for a long time DSA aka Das schwarze Auge with friends as pen&paper rpg .

but d&d is the most known fantasy pen & paper rpg in the world i think