Map: Alexander ---> Updated Map - Ver 1.5 July 2008

[licker]

Not sure if this is pertinent to this map only, or generally, but fooling around with some games on the map yesterday and I would up with identical province names. Making matters worse they were one province away from each other It was something like Cecevic Highlands (if the name matters at all).

Otherwise a very nicely done map

[PashaDawg]

Hi Licker:

I only named a few provinces manually on this map. Otherwise, I relied on the software's random name giving thingie. It seems to have a limited number of names, and so, there are duplicates.

I avoided this on the Bering map by naming each province manually.

Pasha

[licker]

Ok, thanks for the answer, if it bothers me too much I guess I'll just have to name them all myself

I think i can handle one duplicate, but much more than that and it'll get too confusing.

[PashaDawg]

Hi:

I am thinking of redoing this map for a different look and better balance. Any suggestions on the number of players it should be designed for? Also, should it be designed for land & water nations or just land nations?

Pasha

[Trumanator]

I dunno about most of those questions, but I think you should definitely leave room for some water nations, since its very difficult to find maps of this size w/enough water.

[PashaDawg]

Thanks. That's helpful. Maybe 10 land nations and 2 water nations.

[vfb]

Oh yes please! Yes yes yes. 12 nations would be very nice!

[Fantomen]

I second that. I like medium sized games, but it is sometimes hard to find a good balanced map.

[Zeldor]

That map can accomodate like 15 land nations, so it'd be quite big if it had just 12 land players on it. Maybe aim for 2-3 less than Asia Twist + 2-3 water starts? [or make 2 version, with some water starts excluding coastal land starts].

[PashaDawg]

I am expecting to completely redraw the province borders and terrain. I start by placing the optional preset starts and then draw the provinces, and then terrain. It was a good way to balance things in the Greece Stain map. So, I am not bound by any concerns about map size. If I wanted to make it a 5-player map, I could.

I like to follow these guidelines:

1. No present starting position is less than 3 provinces from another, except perhaps through a sea province (sea starts at least 3 prov from each other in all cases).
2. # of land provinces = approx. 11 per player; # of water provinces, a bit less.
3. Balance the farm, mountain, and forest provinces so no one start position has an undue resource or gold advantage.
4. All preset land starts have 4-5 neighbor provinces (not counting sea provinces).

Other issues to watch out for?

Pasha