New Map Discussion for Next Game

[JettJackson]

We are looking for ideas for the map next game seeing as it is around a month away and it is never too early to get a map layout/design done for the map. So lets use this thread as an open discussion. If you have an idea or a layout make sure to post a map of the layout so that people can get a visualization of the layout.

[JettJackson]

Well seeing as no one posted on this yet, figured I'll throw my hat into the ring. The map idea I am posting is a standard double neutral gal map with 3 small CA gals and 4 planet gals. Ideas behind the map are as follows:

1. Racial weapons in their respective gals
2. Double warps from racials to neutrals and racial ring (to allow for good connectivity)
3. Weapons in opposing neutrals (basically to make it so that arming isn't done in <60 turns)
4. Intra Neutral warps (warps from the same neutral to itself to help boost connectivity)
5. CA gals (to allow for CA to be at a slight distance from planets so that mining isn't overdone)
6. Big ports in Planet gals (insuring that you have to bust to make a route, there is an outside chance that there will be a premade route though)
7. Less ports in Racials than the current game but still decent density (allows for trading to at least have some sort of dynamic as there will be less routes and more competition for s/d early on, also helps boost hunting)

Map specs
Alskant 13x13 sectors 2 uno 2 bank
All other racials 12x12 sectors 2 uno 2 bank
Neutral gals 22x20(with fed) 20x20 (without fed) (also with a border around them similar to current game style) 4 uno 4 bank
Planet Gals 9x6 10x5 5x10 6x9 with one bar per gal (I know some people like to play blackjack) all with 5 planets per gal
CA GAL 3x3 with full bars through out. 1 bank no unos

Total # of sectors of 2252 sectors, which is less than the current game however more than previous games as we have a number of returning teams plus connectivity is such that even though the sector number is large things won't be too far apart. Game speed of 1.75 the boost in sector numbers is to compensate for a higher speed. Cap of 650

Alliance Cap 25/5 Vet/Newb 30 total.
I will field any questions related to the map. This map is open to revision if need be.

[Azool]

Well seeing as no one posted on this yet, figured I'll throw my hat into the ring. The map idea I am posting is a standard double neutral gal map with 3 small CA gals and 4 planet gals. Ideas behind the map are as follows:

1. Racial weapons in their respective gals

I used to like the idea of this, but I think it offers a big early advantage to hunters with races with good weapons. Offers really quick arming for some. I'd prefer randomizing the weps

2. Double warps from racials to neutrals and racial ring (to allow for good connectivity)

I like it. Makes it harder to just hunt warps, allows for faster travel to certain portions of the gal, etc

3. Weapons in opposing neutrals (basically to make it so that arming isn't done in <60 turns)

I like this as well

4. Intra Neutral warps (warps from the same neutral to itself to help boost connectivity)

I like it too, but lets make sure the warps are useful. Last game the 2 intra gal warps (as I recall) didn't provide movement very far (was quicker to not take warp)

5. CA gals (to allow for CA to be at a slight distance from planets so that mining isn't overdone)

Mining is pretty useless right now. Mines should be changed somehow, or CAs should be more accessible. A good fleet can clear to any location with very few turns.

6. Big ports in Planet gals (insuring that you have to bust to make a route, there is an outside chance that there will be a premade route though)

I don't like traders being able to be completely safe. If an alliance mines a galaxy then it is impossible to get to a trader trading in that gal unless you have 3-4 people. And once the trader gets a ping anywhere close, they will run out before the mines can be cleared. Offers too much reward with no risk.

7. Less ports in Racials than the current game but still decent density (allows for trading to at least have some sort of dynamic as there will be less routes and more competition for s/d early on, also helps boost hunting)

I like it as long as the racial routes are typically worse than the neutral routes. I think taking more risk out in neutrals should offer better results.

Map specs
Alskant 13x13 sectors 2 uno 2 bank
All other racials 12x12 sectors 2 uno 2 bank

How about port density? Same for all, or slight Alsk advantage?

Neutral gals 20x20 (also with a border around them similar to current game style) 4 uno 4 bank
Planet Gals 9x6 10x5 5x10 6x9 with one bar per gal (I know some people like to play blackjack) all with 5 planets per gal
CA GAL 3x3 with full bars through out. 1 bank

I'd like to see 3 planets per gal. I think it would create more PBing if the targets were more limited.

What kind of connectivity on the planet gals? Unos in the CA gals?

Total # of sectors of 2212 sectors, which is less than the current game however more than previous games as we have a number of returning teams plus connectivity is such that even though the sector number is large things won't be too far apart. Game speed of 1.75 the boost in sector numbers is to compensate for a higher speed.

I don't particularly like the faster game speed (I think it unbalances certain aspects of the game), but I like the activity that it generates, so I'm neutral on this one

Alliance Cap 25/5 Vet/Newb 30 total.

Like it

[JettJackson]

Well seeing as no one posted on this yet, figured I'll throw my hat into the ring. The map idea I am posting is a standard double neutral gal map with 3 small CA gals and 4 planet gals. Ideas behind the map are as follows:

1. Racial weapons in their respective gals

I used to like the idea of this, but I think it offers a big early advantage to hunters with races with good weapons. Offers really quick arming for some. I'd prefer randomizing the weps

2. Double warps from racials to neutrals and racial ring (to allow for good connectivity)

I like it. Makes it harder to just hunt warps, allows for faster travel to certain portions of the gal, etc

3. Weapons in opposing neutrals (basically to make it so that arming isn't done in <60 turns)

I like this as well

4. Intra Neutral warps (warps from the same neutral to itself to help boost connectivity)

I like it too, but lets make sure the warps are useful. Last game the 2 intra gal warps (as I recall) didn't provide movement very far (was quicker to not take warp)

5. CA gals (to allow for CA to be at a slight distance from planets so that mining isn't overdone)

Mining is pretty useless right now. Mines should be changed somehow, or CAs should be more accessible. A good fleet can clear to any location with very few turns.

6. Big ports in Planet gals (insuring that you have to bust to make a route, there is an outside chance that there will be a premade route though)

I don't like traders being able to be completely safe. If an alliance mines a galaxy then it is impossible to get to a trader trading in that gal unless you have 3-4 people. And once the trader gets a ping anywhere close, they will run out before the mines can be cleared. Offers too much reward with no risk.

7. Less ports in Racials than the current game but still decent density (allows for trading to at least have some sort of dynamic as there will be less routes and more competition for s/d early on, also helps boost hunting)

I like it as long as the racial routes are typically worse than the neutral routes. I think taking more risk out in neutrals should offer better results.

Map specs
Alskant 13x13 sectors 2 uno 2 bank
All other racials 12x12 sectors 2 uno 2 bank

How about port density? Same for all, or slight Alsk advantage?

Neutral gals 20x20 (also with a border around them similar to current game style) 4 uno 4 bank
Planet Gals 9x6 10x5 5x10 6x9 with one bar per gal (I know some people like to play blackjack) all with 5 planets per gal
CA GAL 3x3 with full bars through out. 1 bank

I'd like to see 3 planets per gal. I think it would create more PBing if the targets were more limited.

What kind of connectivity on the planet gals? Unos in the CA gals?

Total # of sectors of 2212 sectors, which is less than the current game however more than previous games as we have a number of returning teams plus connectivity is such that even though the sector number is large things won't be too far apart. Game speed of 1.75 the boost in sector numbers is to compensate for a higher speed.

I don't particularly like the faster game speed (I think it unbalances certain aspects of the game), but I like the activity that it generates, so I'm neutral on this one

Alliance Cap 25/5 Vet/Newb 30 total.

Like it

1. Either way random or not it still will be close, the and if you do it randomly then it takes away one of nijs advantages of having their weaps in their own gal

4. Yes I will make sure that the intra gal warps are of merit.

5. This one I was conflicted with, whether or not to include CAs in the neutrals instead of the CA gals, at this point its a toss up and if people think that CA would be better suited in the Neutral compared to CA gal I'd be for it. The key is limiting the Mine timers in the neutral such that we don't choke off the interaction and make it a mine war.

6. This one is more subject to personal preference/style, a planet gal is not going to be large enough to have an intragal route of any merit, so essentially the smart thing to do is hunt the outer port. Also with freighters being stronger than ist people would use them more for walking the route.

7 and the Alskant question. Yes the port density will be less in the racials compared to the neutrals and alskant will have a slightly less number of ports and more sectors to work with compared to other racials.

Connectivity, with the planet gals. Being that they are large gals might do double warps but I am also on the fence on this, Double warps work both ways for defense and offense.
CA gals will be without uno.

Speed. I have to say that I come from a class where speed = activity, I know some people say it hampers strategy but most people would like to just play as much as they can, I will however say I am going to make the Cap 650 instead of 700, so that people have to use it or lose it when it comes to turns.

[collider]

I want to propose something different - though it may need some refinement. I call it "Racial Hegemony":

- One central, small (7x7) federal galaxy with 3 CAs and UNOs, lots of fed buoys, a large amount of weapon and hardware shops, no ports.
- Around that the usual racial galaxies, with less than usual size (11x11 Alskant, 9x9 the rest), few and low level ports, few and random weapons, connected to each other, with 1 or 2 warps to federal galaxy.
- One planet galaxy per racial galaxy, with the respective racial ports (and some neutral maybe), long or wide (9x23 or 7x23), not wrapped around (barrier on the short sides), random additional barriers, connected only on one end to the respective racial, random planets (around 3 per galaxy), 1 or 2 random weapon shops and one random hardware shop (including a possible UNO).

A possible, simpler variant would be to reduce to 4 racial and 4 planet galaxies (with 2 races in each racial galaxy). This would allow larger planet galaxies without making the total size too large. But which races can be combined without influencing the balance too much?

[Page]

My problem with your layout collider is that it seems like it would make more sense to hunt from fed than planets (and to op from them too), weapons/ca are all in the central galaxy, it's as close to any racial/planet gal as any of the other planet gals are and it's completely safe from the start of the game. The only benefits to a planet gal would be the potential of bonding and saving a small amount of money on selling weapons (not even enough to justify the cost of building) and using the planets would probably cost more turns than not using them.

On a side note it'd also be great if people could post why they think particularly aspects of their map will make the game more fun/interesting to play so we can get a feel of the what the map aims to achieve :)

[JettJackson]

On a side note it'd also be great if people could post why they think particularly aspects of their map will make the game more fun/interesting to play so we can get a feel of the what the map aims to achieve

Well the basic premise of what my map aims at is activity and connectivity. Such that things are far enough away that people have to work somewhat to achieve goals, but close enough that those goals are achievable. Also I felt that this game was lacking in the hunting department with everything so spread out and the limited amounts of funds available made it very difficult to support a hunter, so my map is more a balance closer to equal such that people will be able to hunt and we can finally test out these new ships changes to their fullest extent.

[JettJackson]

I want to propose something different - though it may need some refinement. I call it "Racial Hegemony":

- One central, small (7x7) federal galaxy with 3 CAs and UNOs, lots of fed buoys, a large amount of weapon and hardware shops, no ports.
- Around that the usual racial galaxies, with less than usual size (11x11 Alskant, 9x9 the rest), few and low level ports, few and random weapons, connected to each other, with 1 or 2 warps to federal galaxy.
- One planet galaxy per racial galaxy, with the respective racial ports (and some neutral maybe), long or wide (9x23 or 7x23), not wrapped around (barrier on the short sides), random additional barriers, connected only on one end to the respective racial, random planets (around 3 per galaxy), 1 or 2 random weapon shops and one random hardware shop (including a possible UNO).

A possible, simpler variant would be to reduce to 4 racial and 4 planet galaxies (with 2 races in each racial galaxy). This would allow larger planet galaxies without making the total size too large. But which races can be combined without influencing the balance too much?

Interesting map but there are a few issues that I would see being a problem, the racials would be too small especially with no true neutral gals, the central gal would almost insure that people would be hunting/opping from fed, and the planets to racial connection with them being similiar races would allow for super routes too easily. This could be a workable map but more so for a high speed special game something like a 3 week 3 speed game.

[collider]

My main intention was to create something different (also a second proposal in this thread). And the structure I posted was what I came upon. Obviously the map is based on the idea to nudge the gameplay a bit towards racial play. Some other intentions/motivations behind it:
-- simplicity - while the number of galaxy is not exactly low, the structure itself is relatively simple.
-- compactness - that's why the galaxies are quite small.
-- no large neutral galaxies (with intra-gal-warps) - as I said: I wanted it to be different.

Regarding the criticism posted:
1. Weapon shops/CAs in the fed gal: Yes, this makes hunting/opping from there too easy. Actually, the concept was meant to enforce the opposite: a detour when rearming. But since it can have the contrary effect, the weapon shops must be placed somewhere else. Maybe it is an option to place more of them in the planet gals.
2. Too small racial gals without neutrals: As I said above, I wanted to aviod large neutral gals. I also want to avoid a lot of ready-to-run top routes. I always found the large number of - mostly useless ports - a shortcoming of SMR. But maybe I went too far and I have no experience in map design. So maybe the racial/planet gals can be larger and the planet gals have more neutral ports at the start.
If the size or number of ports is a serious problem, it could also help to combine gals into larger ones (like in the variant I talked of) - either with only 4 planet/neutral gals (11x31?) or even with only 4 racials as well (then probably without a fed gal).

The new image shows one of these variants (here with non-matching racial pairs).

[Beausoleil]

The new image shows one of these variants (here with non-matching racial pairs).

+1