Map: King of the Hill

RamsHead · #1 August 25th, 2007, 06:50 PM

So I decided to try my hand at some map making, and this King of the Hill map is the result. It is a large four player map with 101 provinces (4 water so no underwater nations). The starting positions are fixed. There are some special troops in the central area. If you put the victory condition as accumulated VPs, set it so there will be zero VP provinces (I have made it so that the center province will automatically be one), and then you can set the total number of accumulated VPs it takes to win (your choice).

Feedback is appreciated.

Zylithan · #2 August 25th, 2007, 08:39 PM

looks nice. I was thinking of making one like this. I notice it is totally symmetric, which is probably intended. What drawing program did you use to make the .tga?

Juzza · #3 August 25th, 2007, 09:59 PM

it's nice, but me, personally prefer chock points, there are some in the middle but no where else, other than that, I think it's a great map, though, next time, make it a little more presentable, I'm not saying it's bad, the way it looks, but every time you make a map you'll make the next one better, until eventually, you'll be making maps like KO

RamsHead · #4 August 26th, 2007, 12:18 AM

Zylithan: GIMP

Juzza: Yes, I agree, choke points are nice.

The mountains lining the outside of the central area probably look the most awkward. I originally didn't intend to put water there but then later changed my mind. Removing the mountains at that point would have been such a pain in the *** that I just left them there. Having the province colors flow more than just abruptly stop and change would be another improvement.

Ballbarian · #5 August 26th, 2007, 12:52 AM

Great first map RamsHead. I look forward to trying it out.

Quote:

I originally didn't intend to put water there but then later changed my mind. Removing the mountains at that point would have been such a pain in the *** that I just left them there.

Since you are using GIMP, I highly suggest learning how to use layers. This will save you a ton of headaches in the future by making it easy to make changes to pieces of your work without affecting the whole. Just imagine drawing on multiple pieces of clear plastic sheets laid over one another. Erase a mountain on the top sheet and the other sheets remain untouched, or change the ground beneath the mountain and the mountain remains untouched.

Gandalf Parker · #6 August 26th, 2007, 01:06 AM

In any paint program for any project, I highly recommend saving in the programs native format prior to the final save. In many cases (such as GIMP) it will allow you to save layers, palettes, fonts if there is text.. everything as a seperate component which can be changed without having to erase and blend in the changes. You also wont have compressions that can alter the image to a point that you cant get back to.

Just "flatten" it to a one-layer image prior to saving it in the format that you will distribute.

RamsHead · #7 August 26th, 2007, 03:35 PM

Yes, I agree that I have to get use to using layers. I will play around with them a bit so I can get the hang of it.

On a different note, when you play with VPs on this map, set it so that there are zero VPs. Since the center province's VP is already set up in the map file, any additional VPs will mess up the King of the Hill theme. I also noticed that the black text of province names can be difficult to read when in forests and mountains, so I changed the text to red.

Here is an updated King of the Hill map file as well as a King of the Hill attrition map file, which has a fifth player start in the center and see if he can hold out for victory.

PashaDawg · #8 September 1st, 2007, 08:38 AM

Nice map! Thanks!