Map is attached!
Final Version of the Map on Page 2 of thread
Final Version of the Map on Page 2 of thread
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[Spoilers] FFH PBEM XV Map Thread
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Like I noted in the Organizing thread, most of the map is complete. I'll post it here for review once it's done, although there will be certain features which I'm not going to be keen on changing.
The concept of the map is the "Quest for the treasure of the Sierra Madre", influenced both by the 1940's movie & the Fallout New Vegas add-on, "Dead Money". Players start on the "arms" of a five-pronged large continent, and in the center is a mountainous keep where there is an abundance of gold resources and probably some other nice stuff in a barbarian city. I think the map has turned out pretty well, but I am concerned about the resources; I'd like to think that I know how to make a pretty good SP map, but I've never tried to balance something for FFH MP before. Right now I've probably provided everyone with a great abundance of resources to try to even out disparities in terrain (the starts are fairly equivalent but not mirrored), but I've be thrilled & grateful if someone would be willing to enter the map once I finish it and trim or relocate any resources you feel are unbalanced, excessive, or otherwise problematic. Also, if I stick the Dragon's Hoard in a barb city, will it spawn Sons, even if Acheron is not present & has been blocked from spawning?
Okay, map attached for review from whoever feels the urge.
The idea is a take on the basic concept of "players start on the outer edges of a continent, and there's a prize inside". The tendrils of land the players start on are designed to have a mostly green but thin and somewhat sparse coastline, with a lush center area which is bordered by mountainous terrain and which is balanced by an surfeit of jungle and quite a few barbs. I'm worried though that I may have been a little *too* generous with those resources. The main body of the continent has alternating grass / swamp and desert/ plains / fp sections between players. The FP sections all have the same # of FP. The resources here too are fairly rich. Maybe too much so? The center has the "Vault", which controls access to the great riches of the Sierra Madre. The 9 Gold resources might be excessive, but I figured that given the distances involved and how tough the Sierra Madre defender is, anyone who can claim it and then hold it probably deserves it anyway. I much more enjoyed creating the terrain than adding in the resources- the map isn't mirrored (although every start has the same tiles / resources if players found in place), so I wasn't too confident in how to balance everything while keeping the map "natural". Players all have the same amount and basic ease of access to some food resources, all luxuries and all strategic resources. Mostly I just tossed food at places which looked like they could use a few. If anyone wants to do some Socialist wealth "redistribution" or just delete resources you feel are excessive, please feel free (although do say what you intend to change, and make sure you delete any fort goblins)  . Of course I'm open to suggestions for changes I should just make myself as well. Oh yeah, and I also added a little "adventure" area. I hope the players like it  So yeah, feedback welcome, etc.!
Okay, poked about a bit, played a couple positions. Neat map, although I think Mackoti's won on a similar map...not sure, as it was the worst-reported of all the PBEMs.
It's a huge map, which makes it a great builder-fest. I'm at a loss for how Fin/Org could lose here, actually...although I was playing the orcs and I got incredible luck with For The Horde and took the middle city the turn after. Not to mention a ton of tempting ghosts and minotaurs in the questing area. Barbs kept spawning Great Merchants and sending them on trade missions to me, which was annoying or funny. Incredibly lush capitals. Might move Mack away from his starting pigs/wet corn/cows location, the fish is a bit harder to get to in most games. No Lanun, so the sea power balance is very fair. Just a warning, this is going to be a very massive game, but I reckon it's going to be a nice settling race for folks. Not sure how Mack or Thoth could lose to the rest, but that was a given anyway.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
Yeah, Mack or Thoth will win the game, probably Thoth since he has a lot of time to build up the Clan to a truly scary force before he has to face off vs. Vamps. Nothing I could do about that without drastically overstepping my bounds as an impartial map-maker, though.
When you cast "For the Hoard", were you able to grab any of the ghosts, minotaurs, or other non-orc units? I purposely took away their Orcish racial promotion so that they couldn't be grabbed- it's a serious balance issue if they can. Btw, I'm going to disable the OO for the map, since so many cities are likely to be coastal. Also, I only added Pearls in case the EitB game has a Lanun player; same reason I made sure everyone has a deer, in case the Ljo are in the game. Bobchillingworth Wrote:Yeah, Mack or Thoth will win the game, probably Thoth since he has a lot of time to build up the Clan to a truly scary force before he has to face off vs. Vamps. Nothing I could do about that without drastically overstepping my bounds as an impartial map-maker, though. I got two Minotaurs and three ghosts, actually, they had the orc racial promo for some reason, not quite sure why. Although the balance issue is somewhat helped by them being across ocean.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
Damn, I'll have to look into that- not only are they very dangerous units if they can be brought to shore, but if they get removed it's too easy for other players to explore the questing area. Maybe I need to not only remove the orc race but actually make them something like Undead instead.
Thanks for the feedback btw 
I took a very quick look and noticed three Brigits. Is there a reason you're using walls for your maze instead of mountains? Since they're on hell terrain, you probably don't need to worry about them being cleared by hell terrain spread, but I bet vitalize or sanctify might still be able to get rid of them.
The players are insane if they allow this game to start with huts: Thoth will pick up 90% of them with his world spell (and a bunch of lairs, too, if he's willing to declare war on the barbs). I have to say this looks like a pretty crazy game: the two strongest players have the strongest civ choices.
The adventure area has one big affect on gameplay: It makes domination nigh impossible to achieve. With roughly 1/5 of the map given over to a maze.
I've got a solution for this though. Given that the boss of the dungeon is called "Captain Coldheart", you could very easily make the cave ice themed. Replace the walls with ice covered oceans. That should halve the weighting given over to the adventure area in the "land area" listing. For the "Dragons Hoard" wonder... have you considered the idea of giving the wonder as a promotion to the guardians? That way it will be in the city, but not spawning Sons.
Three Bridgits?!
 Sheesh. I'll have to look into that. I guess they multiply like fort Goblins. I'm using Walls for three reasons: * They look better * I'm actually counting on the Infernals being able to get rid of them via spells, so they aren't totally screwed if someone really wants to play as them and they spawn in the maze. * I'm hoping they block vision, unlike ice. Pretty sure they do. I ended up deciding to forgo the Dragon's Hoard and just stick lots of nice buildings in the Vault which will give gold when the town is captured, and to surround it with all those Gold resources. I won't risk the Sons somehow appearing in another game (and Thoth could just move it to a friendly barb city, let them have it & wait for Sons to spawn, if he really wanted to), and nothing I could actually stick in the city would be more impressive than the bounty of resources it controls. Huts was a bad idea on part of the players. I just tried to balance out their spacing. I think I'm going to also give the starting warriors the Strong and Heavy promotions, so that Thoth can't just eliminate someone super early with goblin fort archers. Stupid Clan make maps really tough to balance. |
