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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Maps for MWIF (12/21/2005 6:45:24 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: WiFDaniel
OK, this is my shot at the "mistakes" game... Based on the magnified German army.
1. The XX, XXX, XXXX signs on top of NATO symbols add little to the game as it is. You should only have 2 of them to tell DIVs from CORPS.
2. 8-4 numbers are not properly centered with the MOT symbol.
3. The MOT symbol is a bit strange. I understand you put (crossed box+ 2 dots) the same size as, say, a MECH symbol. However, it catches the eye strange. You may consider using similar size boxes all over the board and add the "2 dots" underneath. This may force you to shift all counters' numbers down a little for readability.
4. The 3-3 ART symbol is not standard size. Numbers are not properly centered either.
5. There is no point in knowing a plane cost 2/3/4 except during production (and except for light AA shooting at 4-BPs planes, but that's an exception within an optional rule, so you shouldn't base the whole design on it). IMO, there are enough figures on the counters not to add some.
6. I would move all the plane numbers a little to the inside of the counters. There are all in the far corners of the counters, leaving large empty spaces. This applies to naval units too.
7. The "R" letters on the 8-4 MOT and the 9-6 MECH mean reserve units, right? Is there any use for them after war starts? It's not like Germany's gonna turn neutral again and you would have to remove them from the map... You may consider removing them.
8. I assume all flipped Russians units are black-print, right...?
9. As was said, it'd be nice to have actual pictures of the planes...
Please post more !
Cheers,
Daniel
I liked all your comments.
1. For high res I'll keep them as is. For medium res I'll follow your suggestion and go with XX and XXXX (the bigger difference is easier to read when things get small). For low res they disappear entirely.
2. Yeah - fixed.
3. No. I like the wheels for high and medium res. The whole icon was not centered properly (all fixed now). Yes, the motorized icons are smaller than the others. That matches the board game counters.
4. Yeah - fixed.
5. For high res see my replay to #6. For low res I am thinking of keeping either just a letter indicating plane type (i.e., F, T, S, N, or A) or just the numbers (e.g. air-to-air, etc.). I am open to recommendations. For medium res I am thinking of the numbers + the letter + 2/3/4. The cost of the air unit is important for knowing whether to risk it in combat and choosing enemy planes for destruction.
6. For high res the center of the planes will be completely replaced with the graphics (scanned) from the board game. I will redraw the numbers for the air units using software because, for text, True Type fonts give better images than rescaled bitmaps. This means that we start with the scanned images and superimpose the numbers. That also lets me (or the player) change the values for any of the air units (all units, actually) in a CSV (comma separated values) file before starting a game.
7. While the R is irrelevant in many cases there are times when it is important (e.g., USSR at war with Japan and not Germany). I want this to be consistent throughout the game. Losing the R at medium and low res is good though.
8. The Russians in the picture aren't disrupted. What you are seeing is the effect of the fog-of-war optional rule. Disrupted units are not flipped, instead one of the little boxes at the top of the unit is colored in to denore its disrupted status. The boxes also indicate whether the unit is in supply, has moved already during the impulse, can not move during the impulse, has yet to move during the impulse, has been ordered to attack, etc..
9. Yeah - after the artist gets the map mostly done I'll have him work on the units. I already have a full list of exactly which units need to be taken from the counter sheets. We are using all the counter sheets except 26-28 (America in Flames) and 31-35 (Patton in Flames). I used the verb 'scanned' earlier. That wasn't correct. Rob has the actual computer files for the map and counter sheet graphics from ADG. We will be using those as bitmaps with 96 by 96 pixel resolution.
All comments are eagerly read by me. I don't want to develop the game in isolation and then be surprised that people dislike something about it. However, people are going to dislike things, I can't help that (Lincoln had some comments on this topic). I just don't want to be surprised by them after the game is released.
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