Imperium Romanum, Vox edition

[Lupus ferox]

Working on this one now....

[Lupus ferox]

Although the theme is almost ready, i'm hesitating now since i stumbled over this map.

What do you guys/girl think? Continue or rs?

[dustin]

Hmmm... I think a straight-up port of Imperium Romanum Expletus would work for vox, without changing the country layout at all, and the theme just a little.

I don't want all the first maps for Vox to be lux conversions, but IR Expletus is one that I would like to see carried over, to show some similarity is there.

[Lupus ferox]

This is it. It needs a bit of fine tuning. And unit graphics... It uploaded... I certainly would appreciate some testing...

[mbauer]

I certainly would appreciate some testing...

So would I.

[Lupus ferox]

This is a funny world. More map makers than players.......

[GregM]

Neat, is this the biggest map so far? Impressions after a first game:

Starting with no armies is interesting and gives a slow start with exponential troop buildup as the map gets claimed. The Anglosaxons seem pretty confined and might be at a disadvantage since the Galicians block them from getting much territory in the initial land grab. That probably hurts the Galicians too, since the Anglosaxons will probably focus on trying to take over their castle.

I don't know if others would agree, but it's been my impression in playing Vox maps that, all other things being equal, it's difficult to hold territory that is closer to your opponent's castle than to yours (even by a single move, on smaller maps). Thus each territory has a sort of "default" owner--the player with the closest castle. It might be good to balance maps by making each player's "default" income similar (if the scenario is supposed to be balanced). My impression is that the East Romans have a lot of default income, while the Anglosaxons have very little.

The colors for the Vandals and West Romans are a maybe bit too similar. Egyptian and Galician colors might also be too close but they're less likely to come into immediate contact. Brightening all the colors might help with this, if it doesn't kill the look you're going for.

[mbauer]

This is a funny world. More map makers than players.......

It is possible for mapmakers to scratch each others back and actually test and give feedback to others maps.

[Behemoth]

When I'm more familiar with the maps I'm happy to pass on my thoughts. To be honest I haven't played any one map enough yet.

[Lupus ferox]

Neat, is this the biggest map so far? Impressions after a first game:

Starting with no armies is interesting and gives a slow start with exponential troop buildup as the map gets claimed. The Anglosaxons seem pretty confined and might be at a disadvantage since the Galicians block them from getting much territory in the initial land grab. That probably hurts the Galicians too, since the Anglosaxons will probably focus on trying to take over their castle.

I don't know if others would agree, but it's been my impression in playing Vox maps that, all other things being equal, it's difficult to hold territory that is closer to your opponent's castle than to yours (even by a single move, on smaller maps). Thus each territory has a sort of "default" owner--the player with the closest castle. It might be good to balance maps by making each player's "default" income similar (if the scenario is supposed to be balanced). My impression is that the East Romans have a lot of default income, while the Anglosaxons have very little.

The colors for the Vandals and West Romans are a maybe bit too similar. Egyptian and Galician colors might also be too close but they're less likely to come into immediate contact. Brightening all the colors might help with this, if it doesn't kill the look you're going for.

Thanks Greg. I did win as Brits and French against bots. So it can work. But indeed, I was thinking about getting rid of Paris or London and put a city and castle in Spain somewhere. Would that help?

[Lupus ferox]

I got rid of London and introduced Olipsia, which is now Lisbon. The borders are terrible now because of map editing, i'll fix this when this new setup works better... It'll take me two hours full time to do the realigning.....

Grmbl....

[Lupus ferox]

The map is balanced now. Good for hours of fun...

I tested it by running 6 polymath2 bots.... 6 runs, 6 different winners...

Next is unit graphics, and when you are all satisfied, border realignment...

[SunTzu]

I don't want all the first maps for Vox to be lux conversions, but IR Expletus is one that I would like to see carried over, to show some similarity is there.

What about the Dark Ages?

[dustin]

The shield countries in The Dark Ages are probably too small for Vox. So a straight port of that may not be feasible.

I do want to have a few epically large maps for Vox though...

[SunTzu]

What if the shields were castles and moved around a bit?

[dustin]

That could be cool.