France: I invited a handful of French players I know to see what they think. There seems to be a consensus:
- add the overseas administrative units (5 regions, maybe 10-15 territories in total)
- add 30 major (population is greater than 400,000 and/or major port) cities as territories, the 5 largest of which will each have a bonus of 1
- connect the overseas territories to the mainland via their respective historical ports; maybe connect them as well to 1-2 major French international airports
- the 25 additional cities without a bonus: this will help with determining bonus values for each bonus, which should make the map more strategic (better bonus allocation -> more strategy)
- all these changes seem related to the original map maker's intention
Ancient Greece: I updated [the map](
http://WarLight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=12078) after having played it more:
- I noticed I missed a link (fixed)
- people's first impression is "so many sea links" (so: I reduced the number of links and reduced the brightness of the links 40-50%)
- I tested the map with top players; but playing with average players I noticed the picked in a bad way that I never considered (so: I restructured a couple bonuses to add greater balance and I made a default cities distribution mode to add balance and open the map up a bit)
Richard's maps: Your landmass maps are about as tactical/strategic as my China map is ugly. lol It's hard to balance of purpose (what is the map of? why should people be interested in it?), cartographic skill, beauty/proportion, and strategy/playability.