[IDEA] Battling for the Pacific

[thenoahw]

I have looked through the entire map studios and I haven't found this suggestion anywhere.

Would anyone be interested in playing a Pacific Ocean map? I feel like we have plenty maps of continents but the Pacific has a lot of nice islands. I imagine there could really be some fun things to do with the commands and other special features. I currently have just a map of the pacific set up like a normal risk map with standard commands.

I have included the blank map I used, my simple command map (just for the idea's sake), and a perspective map I think would work nicely for this area.

Thoughts on this? any interest?

 

[Geoffrey]

I was going to mention that maybe there should be five things - polynesia, melanesia, micronesia, Australia and New Zealand but then including Indonesia and Philippines could be interesting too! I


if you were doing the whole lot like image #2 you could have it themed as The Ring of Fire? Then that would include the entire pacific region!

This is a real interesting idea and I'd be all for a pacific map, especially any map that further details New Zealand

 

[smi]

just to add some pics about the ring of fire:

It certainly would give a lot of character to this map to be ring of fire themed with volcanos and tectonic plates (maybe a 2012 post apocaliptic - volcanos erupting blocking the way - killing troops style ? )

But still i am not sure if this is the right character for a map like this

 

[thenoahw]

maybe give bonuses for holding the 7 major volcanoes like a big separated command?
and would there be any problem with my concept map as far as territories?

I was thinking maybe this could become another small 1v1 map. I could make all the colors on the concept map (which I intended to maybe be commands?) as territories. currently there are 14 if I counted correctly but the South and North American coasts could be split up, so could Polynesia(taking out New Zealand), Australia, and maybe indonesia could be split. That brings it around 20 in my head and then we add in the 7 volcanoes and we have a little south of 30 terts. Thoughts on that?

 

[Cardinalsrule]

"the seven major volcanoes"??? which are those, lol












EDIT: The Geologist in me is going to be REALLY interested in this answer... :evil:

 

[thenoahw]

The seven orange ones in smi's second picturr. I was assuming those, being noted like that, we're a big deal. If I'm wrong then my apologies. I was more or less guessing.

 

[smi]

"the seven major volcanoes"??? which are those, lol

EDIT: The Geologist in me is going to be REALLY interested in this answer... :evil:

havent you heard about "El seven volvanerino" or "The big seven V" ? What kind of a geologist are you???

Ok, jokes aside i googled to find anything on this and i found ... the volcanic seven summits

The Volcanic Seven Summits are the highest volcanoes on each of the seven continents, just as the Seven Summits are the highest peaks on each of the seven continents.

But i think thenoahw commented on the specific image i linked, not on some general geological principle.


Anyway on the point of the map, one more idea :

the area around the volcanos to be circular commands like this:

and have like +6 or +7 bonus BUT with the central area (the volcano) to be autodeployed -3. Like the volcano erupting killing soldiers or having to make a sacrifice?
But still not sure if that promotes a fun gameplay

 

[thenoahw]

I like that idea but I still likes the idea of keeping this one small too. We can see what the gurus have to say

 

[Cardinalsrule]

The seven orange ones in smi's second picturr. I was assuming those, being noted like that, we're a big deal. If I'm wrong then my apologies. I was more or less guessing.

Just messing with you... There are no "big 7" on the Ring of Fire.....

 

[Shepherd]

my concern about this idea - and with any idea that involves a region that is largely water (Ring of Fire, Pacific Theater of WWII, the Caribbean, Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea, etc.), is that when you set the area to a map that can't be larger than 1000x800 pixels the majority of the image is unplayable area. the Pacific Ocean takes up an awful lot of map real estate.

And even if that wasn't the case, why would you want to play a map that is a big half-circle? The player that gets a good drop on one end or the other is going to win every time.

 

[Geoffrey]

The middle of the map could be filled with New Zealand and the many Pacific Islands or a bunch of navies!

Another idea - excuse my lingo (I know it's on the wikipedia somewhere, but I'll just explain myself rather than use the right words), but maps like Africa and UK have the outer regions where the cities/countries are mapped around the map. Something could potentially be done but instead of it being on the outside, it's reversed and on the inside! This could include the largest cities around the Pacific, or the countries closest to the maps volcanoes.

And whether the 7 volcanoes are a thing or not (though one of the maps do clearly map out 7 peaks different than the rest of them) that could definitely be interesting to have the Volcanoes mean something.

 

[thenoahw]

I really like Geoffrey's ideas about the inset maps but I don't think the esthetics would be nice to have that in the middle when the real bulk of the map is around the outside like a frame. It puts focus on the micro regions instead of the Pacific. But based on the map I found where I coloured the different nations and territories, I think there is plenty to take up the centre of the map. Especially if we try a perspective from the southwest which would put Melanesia and Micronesia closer to the middle and minimize the rather empty far northern and eastern parts of the pacific. There, the map could just focus on the continents' coasts.

 

[thenoahw]

And also, what if the map was of the pacific with the ring of fire being a separated command with autodecays but an hefty troop income? That way we don't feel like we are marginalizing the ring of fire because I don't think we could make a map of just that or even call it that since we would have to include other parts of the pacific anyway. Thoughts?

 

[thenoahw]

I understand that our map department is busy but is there any public interest in a map like this?

 

[Cardinalsrule]

I understand that our map department is busy but is there any public interest in a map like this?

There are several maps currently in various stages of production, so as you noted, the cartographers are busy. Just so you understand, Shep is the unquestioned leader of that group. If he doesn't express any interest, that tells you all you need to know. I refer you to his post on page one.

 

[Geoffrey]

Shep is the unquestioned leader of that group. If he doesn't express any interest, that tells you all you need to know.

I've usually liked this site because it feels more community orientated, but I do feel the map committee has always been led by Shepherd as far as I've been aware of the map making process. I've never had a problem with this because it's always seemed to work (even if we haven't had many new maps recently) and we've had high quality maps. But when you put it like that, this whole map process seems a little bit one sided!

I notice we sort of have this group here; https://www.majorcommand.com/clans/28/ which is a map testing committee, but it would be nice to be able to turn it all into a shared community project for when MC comes out of Beta! I've enjoyed discussing maps recently and while I sometimes avoid some of the official lingo that's on a wikipedia page that I can never seem to find, but I've enjoyed discussing ideas here! Even if my ideas are sometimes not the best, exploring all ideas should be an option for such a small community, and I'd love to see MC head in the right direction!

 

[Cardinalsrule]

I didn't really mean for it to sound "one-sided". But the fact is, that Shep is the one who always ends up doing the hard, tedious work of setting up the domains, the coding for commands, the connections, the game rules, and everything else that takes many, many hours squinting at his screen. And, every map that he makes is top-quality. So, it follows that if he doesn't think a map is going to be up to standards, basically it doesn't get made.


Exploring ideas, with anyone and everyone welcome to propose them and discuss them, is definitely part of this community. But SOMEONE has to make the final decision as to whether or not a project is a go, yes? At MajCom, that someone is Shepherd. I myself have proposed a map, and had it shot down, so I understand that bit of disappointment, but little disappointments are part of life. Everyone at CentCom trusts Shep's abilities and instincts implicitly.


The testing clan was set up so that when new maps are ready, Clan members will get to play the test games on them, make sure all the connections work, see it there's anything 'out-of-whack', as it were, so that everything works like it's supposed to when the map is released for general consumption. For starters, Centcom and the Onyx donors will get that honor, followed by Gold donors, etc. This was one of their promised rewards for the donations they made. When the time comes, these donors will get invites to join that Clan.

 

[Geoffrey]

Yea I know what you said, just that it sounds harsh that one person makes all the big decisions, but in practise Shepherd does a fantastic job, we get high quality content here and the system works great!

But SOMEONE has to make the final decision as to whether or not a project is a go, yes?

That's how it works at the moment, but the decision could go to a few people who are interested in it! I've seen quite a few good cartographers design maps here every now and again, and I'm sure if we could find people who had the same quality control as Shepherd does, we could definitely have a friendly and responsive map committee or something that leads the system as a group! I won't say anymore on the matter, but it is my opinion that in things where a large manner of things are being judged for our entire community to play on, two heads might be better than one!

 

[Cardinalsrule]

Not disagreeing with you. Currently, under the 'old' code, it is a horribly long and tedious process to make a map playable, and Shep is really the only one around (Wids and Beals pop in now and again but aren't really active) who understands the entire process. Hopefully with the new code that process will be greatly streamlined and others can jump in. I'm quite sure that Shepherd wouldn't complain about getting some help. If we could get a committee of people willing to put in the time, with the necessary knowledge base and abilities, it would be better, for sure.

 

[Geoffrey]

Definitely, hopefully once we get out of beta we can decide whether a new way of handling things is needed or whether Shepherd being in charge is fine, and hopefully whichever happens to MC is the best option