Yet another World Map

Hi. I just tried my hand at map-making for the first time.

For this first go, I cloned the World Map ("tra115's World") and solely focused on the units. I changed several "rare" units into mainstream units in order to increase the variety. Of course, that also required considering the balance of attack vs. defense units, not only in attack and defense numbers but also in defense bonuses and keeping common strats and upgrades in mind. I wanted to complement the strats in two significant ways: first, to provide more units that are affected by the strats, and second, to allow for complementary units that mesh well with the strats but are not affected.

For an example of the first point, I added a second unit for each of Ground, Naval and Air Main Attack, and I added a second Ground Stealth unit (modified Assassins). That should be fun for fans of RA, NC, MoS, SM and perhaps DS and GW. I then balanced that out by bringing in Anti-Tank Infantry and Coastal Batteries (there are already Anti-Aircraft, of course).

For an example of the second point, I added a Ground: Secondary Attack unit (Light Tanks), which would work well for NC fans. Another example is increasing the range of Militia to 3 in order to make Iron Fist a viable option.

I also wanted to complement the strats by balancing the un-modified statistics - adding a Battleship (main attack) that has the same range as the Transport (10), while slightly increasing the ranges on the Subs and Destroyers (11) since they are faster and more maneuverable, anyway. I did a similar thing with the Air units by adding Fighters (main attack) and set the range to 13, the same as the standard Air Transports, while the Bombers and Stealth remained at the standard 15. With the various defense bonuses, the Fighters, with my other modifications, should make for excellent Air Transport escorts, with or without running SM.

In order to pull all this off, I committed the sacrilege of tweaking most of the standard units, as well. The only units that ended up completely un-touched were Infantry, Tanks, and the Naval Transport.

I'd like people to play it if they wish and see what they think. It's an experiment. I hope people have fun with it. I'll be hosting a game on that map sometime next week, probably.

Thanks!

One thing I'd like some feedback on is that I took artistic license by adding the Cruiser (Naval: Other) and set it up as a foil for Subs (+2 defense against Subs, and a view range of 30). I also set Subs to have a -2 defense against Cruisers. I then set the Cruiser range at 13, which makes it a versatile ship in its own right, but it will also be able to keep up with the other ships (either 10 or 11 range default) if a player runs NC, for example.

Oh, the AA guns ended up untouched, though I kept changing the cost multiple times, and I also considered changing it to "other" so that you wouldn't need the upgrade (which I have anyway). But, I left the AA guns as-is for now. I had a similar dilemma with the Helicopters. I changed the attack, defense, range and capacity, but I debated a long time whether to convert it to "other" so that the upgrade (or if you don't have Facebook) wouldn't be necessary. But, I left Helicopters as special attack for now.

I just started a game on the map...there are a few differences from what I have stated above - all regarding units, though. No city, country or income alterations for v1.0. I'll be starting another one later this weekend.

I just started another game on the map - called "tra115's World again". The current published version of the map ended up leaving many of the standard units alone out of respect for upgrades, strats, and people's expectations. Still, there are a few things here and there that have been changed from standard, and of course the addition of bringing modified rare units into the mainstream.

For v1.0, I ended up actually not making any changes to the standard units that overlap with upgrades. For example, I had put the Destroyer and Submarine back to range of 10.

v1.1 has some significant changes - first, the ships can no longer capture cities, and second, I'm tweaking the defensive units...so far, it seems that the addition of additional attack units is significantly out of balance...I'm going to tweak the defense bonuses and/or cost of the Anti-Tank Infantry and the Coastal Batteries.

In v1.2, there are more units back to their original configurations, while others have gone off in potentially useful and interesting directions. I made Coastal Batteries Ground: Special Defense, so they need the upgrade to be unlocked, like AA guns. They are also not as powerful and cost the same as AA guns.

AA guns have been boosted to +9 defense against all aircraft to account for the stronger Bombers.

Battleships have been bumped up in cost to 300.

Assassins have been dialed back a bit and increased in cost to 200.

Cruisers have been tweaked a little bit, but the cost and defense bonuses remain the same.

Anti-Tank Infantry not only have a defense bonus against tanks, but tanks now have a negative defense bonus against Anti-Tank Infantry. Their attack and defense have been evened out at 5 each, and their movement dropped a notch below regular Infantry (5 instead of 6) because the thinking is that these infantry are more heavily armed and so would move a little slower than regular infantry. I also increased their cost to 3x that of Infantry (210).

Heavy Artillery was deemed too powerful, but I left the stats alone and instead increased the cost to 360 (2x that of AA guns, just for a crude reference). That many not have helped enough, time will tell. That unit is definitely a work-in-progress, as are the Anti-Tank Infantry.

And yes, the map itself is missing an image, as is the Convoy. I'll get around to that soon.

I hope people have enjoyed playing, and I hope people come back here to comment (or drop me a note directly).

Finally! I got some pictures for the map itself and for some units - changed the Cruiser to a Frigate to be a bit more appropriate - lots of subtle changes, and a few significant ones, since I last wrote. Added/modified/deleted about half a dozen cities. That's all I plan to do there.

As soon as I figure out how to change boundaries, I am going to split India into North and South, add major navigable river systems (St. Lawrence, connect the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Nile, etc.) and some impassable regions (such as Himalayas).