First I made a historical map about the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy:
http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=5042

And now I have been finished a fantasy map, the Crescent Island:
http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=8750

I hope you will be enjoy it. If someone find a missing link, please write here where is it.

Everything looks pretty good. I think you should probably draw lines or somehow show which island territories are connected, especially the big one in the center. That's the first problem I notice.

I just love how you used the [Droste Effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droste_effect) in the Crescent Island map! :)

Also, I agree with Muppet. Even though connection lines take a tiny bit away from the beauty of the map, in the end, this is a map to play a game on, not just a map to look pretty. I think the usefulness of connection lines is important enough to justify adding them.

Best new map I've seen in a while, I dig.

Truly looks amazing. You can easily tell when the maker spent some time on it's work.

props to you

Thanks the perceptions. I wanted to show the waterway between the center island and the main island, but this take the question of the waterways. There are many place where are imaginable some waterways (for example: Arms Coast-Elfend, Slave Coast-Ghost Plateau, Forgotten Ruins-Black Dragon Jungle, Dragon Temple-Dino Cemetery, Kobold Road-Satyr Woods)and I couldnt decide what I do. I thought if there are no waterways in the map (except of course in the islands), the link between the center island and the white elf neighborhood is obviously.

Do you think the map would be better with more waterways?

Or it is enough, just should show the link between the main and the center island?

Maybe I should show the links of the smaller islands too? (Smuggler, Banshee, Troglodyte Island)

What do you think?

Is this map open to the public yet? I think my friends would enjoy it.

Also, I have played the Austria-Hungary map, and I think that some of the bonuses in the West are too big. Perhaps break them up into smaller mini-bonuses? It was pretty fun, but with random distribution, it can be a bit unbalanced.

@TexasJohn

Too big bonuses in the Austria-Hungary west-side? Actually there are the smaller bonuses in the west, and the bigger bonuses in the east. Maybe it seems unbalanced, but this was the concept: in the west it is able faster expansion with less resources, and in the east is possible a slower expansion with more reserves. Something for something, this is the balance factor.

Of course the random deployment can cause unbalanced situations in every map :)

Correction, I meant the Eastern bonuses are a bit large. Maybe that's what you were going for, but the time I played it, it ended up as a bit of a slaughter. That's what I get for having two of the top-10 ladder players on the opposing teams. But more importantly, what is up with that Crescent Island map? I searched for it, but couldn't find it.

It is pending to public.

Gotcha. Let us know when it is public, because it looks CRACKING. Perhaps the complaints about lack of connecting lines may have some validity, but it looks pretty good mate!

It's hard to say how to show the connections, because the map is such work of art in itself. You might be able to just make a little white line from territories like Smuggler, Banshee, Troglodyte, and Gnome. (If you snap a line from center point to center point in Inkscape, it falls behind the territories and only shows up in the gap between them.) I think that might be little enough not to ruin the artistic aspect of the map.

For the main island, could the connection be something artistic as well? Like footsteps or waves or stars or something?

No matter which way you go with it, wonderful job and great map.

Ok, Im ready with the waterway lines, and added 2 new links between Jewel Coast-Ghost Plateau and Jewel Coast-Elfend.

http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=8750

Thanks the suggestions!

And what do you think about some extra waterways in the outer side of the Island?

It looks elegant, but I have one criticism, one that seems to be true of an increasing number of maps. As well as relatively small bonuses, sets of these small bonuses combine to form absolutely enormous bonuses, both in terms of size and bonus value. None of what one might think of as the "core" Warlight maps do this.

I don't inherently object to this two-tier bonus system, but I think it is a mistake to make the higher tier bonuses particularly large. Yes, if (for example) the North-Eastern Corner was a single bonus in a map without bonus tiers, it would have to be worth a lot; it's a lot of territories to secure, representing a large expenditure of resources and effort. But, as it is, the player who holds it already receives 36 armies per turn from the lower-tier bonuses that make it up; the resources and effort are largely paid for by securing the lower-tier bonuses.

I would suggest the upper-tier bonuses should not be though of as "how big a bonus is 40 territories worth" but "how big a bonus is arranging to take _these_ 7 lower-tier bonuses rather than another set worth". That might be quite a modest value and still offer a sensible reward.

@bloodnok:
I think some (many??) mapmakers simply overlook the fact that the superbonuses are awarded *on top of* the subbonuses. And, I have to admit, a superbonus worth 3 or 5 armies or so does look ridiculous at first, but in practice it can often (didn't look at this example in particular though) be a very suitable value.

If you want to play-test better values, I suggest you leave the subbonuses as-is and modify the superbonuses to new_value = old_value - sum_of_subbonuses as an initial "guess" and use that as a start for further tweaking.

@bloodnok @RvW

I dont believe that these are the perfect bonus values and I am prepared to change the values if that results more exciting gameplays. I understand your arguments, but I can evaluate only more concrete proposals.

My plan is to add +1 bonus to every subbonuses (its will be in this case: 44,43,43,44) and lower the big bonuses by 10 (15,15,15,15)

It would be better in your opinions?

UPDATE:

the new bonus values ready, it is pending to public

And prepare for 4 new bigbonuses: Elf Alliance, Human Union, Greenskin Hordes, and Undead Minions.