Sired's Map project - Updated- 4/16 - files available see first post

[siredblood]

Thanks for the replies!

I agree Egypt should be larger, im going to shift all the upper Africa territory lines left. Never thought about making the marshes smaller, good call!… ill look more into other impassable areas as well now.

As for Findland and such, I was going for larger sea zones, ive never had a game where those countries were over crowded. Could be just my games though, is it more active then I thought?

[siredblood]

Oh, another question, I noticed when you put the US together, it don’t line up, say you want America to be stage center. Is this an issue for anyone? I don’t mind making it line up, if anyone would prefer America in the middle, this would make the sea zone numbers flow correctly. Me personally, I don’t know if I would like it better/less/same.

Anyway just a thought as ill be getting the rest of the map ready for paint.

[IWillNeverGrowUp]

@siredblood:

Thanks for the replies!

I agree Egypt should be larger, im going to shift all the upper Africa territory lines left. Never thought about making the marshes smaller, good call!… ill look more into other impassable areas as well now.

As for Findland and such, I was going for larger sea zones, ive never had a game where those countries were over crowded. Could be just my games though, is it more active then I thought?

Our Finland can get crowded sometimes. I do tend to play highly unconventional moves though. ;)

Oh, another question, I noticed when you put the US together, it don’t line up, say you want America to be stage center. Is this an issue for anyone? I don’t mind making it line up, if anyone would prefer America in the middle, this would make the sea zone numbers flow correctly. Me personally, I don’t know if I would like it better/less/same.

Personally I don’t think having the US in the middle would work as it’s really more of a staging point for the US player rather than actually used for the majority of the game. I imagine this is why the US has always been oddly split on all A&A maps.

[siredblood]

Thanks for al the feedback! All the above was taken care of (with the exception of the US lining up, I scratched that) The entire Europe map lines, layers are complete and I started painting the water, ive noticed im not too happy with the default convoy icons, so ive decided to toy with new ideas.

I hope to have a pic up later today sometime.

[siredblood]

This is what I came up with, I like the idea of the silhouette as its what it does for the standing army, which ill probably use (just make my own style). I left the one YG used on his map to show the size is still the same.

Painting didn’t get too far, as I spent most of the time of trying different convoy ideas. The sea zone lines, I mimicked the original, as though its my map, I want it to have the look of the original.

[IWillNeverGrowUp]

Those convoy markers look great. They fit in really well.

[siredblood]

@IWillNeverGrowUp:

Those convoy markers look great. They fit in really well.

Thanks! Ive actually modded them slightly, I replaced the ship silhouette with a transport, the same transport art used from HBG convoy marker (as I use those)

Water painting went well yesterday, should have updated pic Friday

[rasater]

Looks great, Sired! Can’t wait to see the land zones painted!

One thing I noticed is that some of the seazone borders don’t line up as they do in the OOB map. I found two in particular:

Border between SZ97 and SZ99 connects with land in Albania rather than Greece, meaning that Greece is completely surrounded by SZ99 whereas in the OOB map it borders both SZ97 and SZ99.

Border between SZ93 and SZ95 doesn’t line up with the border between Northern Italy and Southern France, meaning that Northern Italy has access to SZ93 and SZ95, which is different to the OOB map where it only has access to SZ95.

You might have noticed this already, but I just wanted to make sure.  :-D

I think this is going to be a great improvement to gameplay. Central Europe always gets so congested!  :-)

Keep up the good work. Happy new year!

[siredblood]

@rasater:

Looks great, Sired! Can’t wait to see the land zones painted!

One thing I noticed is that some of the seazone borders don’t line up as they do in the OOB map. I found two in particular:

Border between SZ97 and SZ99 connects with land in Albania rather than Greece, meaning that Greece is completely surrounded by SZ99 whereas in the OOB map it borders both SZ97 and SZ99.

Border between SZ93 and SZ95 doesn’t line up with the border between Northern Italy and Southern France, meaning that Northern Italy has access to SZ93 and SZ95, which is different to the OOB map where it only has access to SZ95.

You might have noticed this already, but I just wanted to make sure.  :-D

I think this is going to be a great improvement to gameplay. Central Europe always gets so congested!  :-)

Keep up the good work. Happy new year!

awesome thanks, I was hoping if there were flaws they would be pointed out! Thanks again!

[rasater]

Cool! Glad to be of help!

Another thing I thought of; border between SZ122 and SZ123 (Iceland) could be moved a little further to the west (left). Just to make it a little more clear that SZ123 is accessible from SZ117.

Again, great work. Keep it up!

[siredblood]

thanks again, I took a few days away from this project to work on cards, but im back on it now! Im fixing those errors now, thanks again, you saved the day!

[rasater]

You’re a busy man! Really looking forward to seeing this project progress.  :-)

Another question; are you going to keep the connecting land between Scotland and Northern Ireland? From a gameplay perspective I can see why you’d do that, seeing as the two countries belong to the same zone, but it just looks a bit weird to me to see it like that. Looking at the origial map though, they’ve put the UK roundel right where that land bridge is on your map, maybe you were planning on doing the same?

Regardless, you’re doing great work here. Keep it up!

[siredblood]

The land mass in that pic don’t show the country lines, as it was a water pic of the convoy (which is way batter now, same design method though)

My goal, in less I fk it up, keep the gameplay 100% in tact (which I thank  for helping me do so) im not trying to change values or lines, if I do, its on accident and needs to be fixed.

Thanks again for keeping me in check, ill post an updated pic prior to the weekend. I still have lots of crap im trying to do, one of which is the vid for the painted units flyover… time just slips away :( I need 50hr day cycles!

[rasater]

time just slips away  :-( I need 50hr day cycles!

Don’t I know it. Take it easy, man. Don’t sweat it. Burn-out is a real thing. Post something when you can, if you can.

You’re doing a great job, keep it up! Looking forward to your next update!

[Young Grasshopper]

Excellent work, I’m looking forward to printing one off and showing it in my YouTube videos.

[siredblood]

@Young:

Excellent work, I’m looking forward to printing one off and showing it in my YouTube videos.

That would be dope :P

[siredblood]

Just about to wrap up the map water/Sea zones/Convoy, etc …. I noticed on my 1999 Europe map, it has ocean names on the map, im toying with the idea, what do you guys think?

Anyway, I may have a pic up tonight of the progress, if not, tomorrow for sure. I have my scheduled cleared for the next 8hrs, so its map time, along with some rum and redbull :)

[Young Grasshopper]

I like the idea of the ocean names if you have the right font and they are transparent enough not to steal the focal point. Never really liked those random illustrations floating around in the empty sea spaces… maybe a nautical compass if there’s room some where.

[siredblood]

I was thinking the same, very transparent for the ocean names

Ill be painting/tinkering the next few hours with the water still,but I wanted to show a pic of the overall map, you can see everything was pretty much adjusted with the exception of the Americas. The islands in the pacific were made slightly larger, England grew, obviously the main reason for the project, a bigger Europe, smaller Africa. Spain I shrunk, I would rather more room in the French territories, and ya, I know spain looks weird, but I was the necessary evil to keep reasonable sea zones and keep the game lines in tact. Some of the other small islands were also enlarged, Crete for one, cant recall the others right now :)

I also removed a few little island specs I thought were more or less in the way, I don’t think we needed 2 little islands in Norway taking up the sea zone, just did a few of those to make better use of the sea zones.

I haven’t 100% decided the hue of the water yet, will be adjusted to the mainland colors after I paint (starting tomorrow)

Hope to have more pic up over the weekend. The hard part is over, After I paint its pretty much done, then its just tinker/adjust. This file has over 400 layers, will be over 500 after I add the IPC values, whoowe!

[LHoffman]

Great stuff. Looking forward to seeing it progress.