Spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what that face was... finally, mind. blown.

LOL.

Thanks for the tut, I will check it out right away!

Thats a great an easy to understand little tut and exactly what I was looking for, thanks a lot. That will make things a whole lot faster for me!!

Glad I could help!

I am well on my well to getting a map made, but I am sure I will have other questions. Hope everyone is as helpful as those above have been. }; )>

Can you post a link of the map (your warlight one or an image you are starting from)? Hard to give tips without seeing anything.

Can you post a link of the map (your warlight one or an image you are starting from)? Hard to give tips without seeing anything.

I intend to do just that, but I have not go the map uploaded to warlite yet as I am still building, but here is a screen shot of it. I have not built in the bonuses yet, this is only the territories so far.

Link to image: http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t21/M1dn1ghtR1der2/Untitled-5.png

So anyway as I said the idea here is to use the border states as a "clash" area. To try and stress that I have split those middle states into 2 or 3 chunks and added cities or battle sites (the circles). Far left will be a blocked bonus, and the bonuses for the middle states will be worth more than the outer upper and lower states, as well as bonuses for controling cities/battle sites in groups, and for controling the middle states as a whole.

Flaws? Suggestions? Scrap the whole thing and start over?

I like the idea of the blockade areas, but why do they extend so far into the North? Maybe have them cover only the Southern coastline. As they are now, a Southern player could break into the blockade and completely decimate the North. To me, this is not historically accurate. Had the South broken the Northern blockade, it would have protected their coastlines and made it easier to transport troops. It would not have given them easy access to every northern port from Baltimore to Maine.

Had the south broken the blockade it would have done more than just protected the coastline and made it easier to move troops.

It would have allowed them to sell their cotton to the Europeans and in return buy arms, re-invigorating their economy and alleviating the crushing inflation that the loss of the European markets caused in a cotton centric agricultural economy. It may have also led to the Europeans deciding to support the Confederates which arguably some European powers may have liked to do.

^^ This is no comment on the map, just the history.

I had thought of adding a "Europe" territory for each side to attack, but I felt that distracted to much from the original plan. I am not totally satisfied with the blockade as it is right now and will prob alter it before I am done. I let the blocked reach so far north for the very reason that Ska22 said. The South never did brake the blockade but had they done so, they would have had more freedom to move troops and to increase the CSA economy as Ska22 said. But that is digression.

Either way, while I am trying to be as historically accurate as poss, I cant put everything in it. I extended the blockade so far north in lieu of a Europe territory AND to grant the North some ability to strengthen the blockade at will, but I think you are right, and I may draw it back some, or perhaps add a second line of "blockades" to make it tougher to brake through. I may remove the access to the northern states and allow access to a still half developed "Europe" territory idea.

As I said this is not the final map by a long shot and I have some other ideas I may add, any further suggestions are very welcome!

Another question. When I uploaded the map to test if I built everything right I noticed this as I started building the bonus links. The territory borders dont show all the way around (see screen shot). Is there a way to fix this, or would it be eaiser in the long run to just re-draw it?

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t21/M1dn1ghtR1der2/Untitled2-11.png

You dont have space between your borders of bonuses. The way to fix this is to select all the territories in a bonus together, duplicate them (ctrl+D), outset them (ctrl+"zero"), and then union them (ctrl++). Then, duplicate this path multiple times, select one of the duplicates, and one of the territories in an adjacent bonus and use the difference tool (ctrl+-). Repeat until you have gone all the way around the entire bonus. Make sure that you are only using the difference tool on the duplicates of the outset path. If you accidentally use the original path, undo (ctrl+z) and then duplicate it again, so you don't lose the original path, because each time you use the difference tool, the path is removed.

This might not make sense, so if it doesn't, let me know and I'll try to explain it a different way.

Good luck!

Thanks for your answer BBBG, have not had time to play lately. I will try what you suggest later and see if I understand it right. Thanks for all your answers to my many ignorant questions.

Ok a quick example. I want to make Minn, Ill. Iowa, and Wis all one bonus. I follow your above instructions to the point where I union them (ctrl & +) At that point I lose all the inner boundaries and the all 4 states become one big territory. Prior to the ctrl & + function I get the double border. Perhaps I miss drew the map to start with as I drew out each state as an individual rather than as a bonus group. The reason for that was I wanted to make as in this example the 4 states mention before as one bonus, and also a part of another bonus involving the entire Northern states as a whole. To further complicate the matter I added cities to the mix, however I will correct those once I have the basic state trouble worked out.

Should I have started out as drawing the map with the 4 states mentioned before as a single bonus rather and a whole (and so on with the other bonuses), rather than each state by itself? Sorry if I seem dense or am not getting it right.

BBBG just a quick note on the tut you gave me before. Between the 5th and 6th image you forgot to mention using the outset tool (ctrl+zero), I think that is where I feel into trouble. }; )>

Midnight, you group territories into bonuses after you upload the map to Warlight. Draw each state by itself, then which bonus you want the states to be in on the Map Development page on Warlight.

Thanks Swords, I even got that far, but when I drew the states out the first time I didnt have the states divided correctly so once the bonuses were made up the borders did not show properly. I have now after a bit of trial and error, worked out what I was doing wrong. Unfortunately that means a re-draw, but such is how one learns.

Thanks again to all of you for answering my noobich questions.

Ok so here it is, at least my first real run at it. Note that the bonuses are still set to defalt 4 and will change. Comments, ideas, flaws?

http://WarLight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=14719

The water ones are a bit odd to me. You have North Atlantic connected to Maryland, then New Jersey coast south of it (NJ is north of Maryland). Why does western gulf not connect to mainland? I am not sure the intent on the water ones, but I think you might want to rework that some.

Visually, I would add the surrounding areas as out of bounds (OK/rest of plains). The black hole looks a bit odd to me, but doesn't effect game play. Use this map as an example (might not want to use gray since you have gray territories): http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=9427

DC as part of both Central USA and Central Cities seems odd. Also, you may want DC to border Virginia since you really wouldn't have to capture Maryland before attacking it.

I'd almost like to see some 'border state' between Maryland and Virginia for play-ability. Not sure how that would fit in historic context though.

Western/Eastern CSA bonus links are reversed (cities are fine).

Kansas has union color but is in border states and western USA and USA bonuses also. Cities in KS are also in conflicting bonuses.

That sounds like a lot, but I like the idea and the map. I look forward to playing it when finished. You should make distribution modes to reflect the North vs South of course (that way borders can be not picked in some modes and could make them more armies if you wanted).

The water territories are intended to be a blockade, and I set it up as it is to prevent an all out obliteration from either side via route of the blockade. For example I can not see in 1861 a ship sailing from Texas to the Northern US and decimating the Northern Army from the rear, or vice verse. Those territories are only ment to be a bonus exactly as a blockade would in actual combat. Blockades are more or less passive in that they dont allow import or export, but dont contribute to any real combat action. Thats my theory anyway, but this is far from the final map so suggestions on how to rework it are welcome.

Visually, I would add the surrounding areas as out of bounds (OK/rest of plains). The black hole looks a bit odd to me, but doesn't effect game play. Use this map as an example (might not want to use gray since you have gray territories): http://warlight.net/SinglePlayer.aspx?PreviewMap=9427

This will be fixed once the mechanics are worked out.

DC as part of both Central USA and Central Cities seems odd. Also, you may want DC to border Virginia since you really wouldn't have to capture Maryland before attacking it.

I did this, as well as with Kansas, to place some importance on these territories DC being the US Capital and Kansas being a Free State in the Union but still filled with bitter fighting with Missouri, the way they are now grants a bigger advantage to getting both bonuses without creating a landslide in armies. I hope ...

Western/Eastern CSA bonus links are reversed (cities are fine).

I know, to lazy to fix it right now, but it will be corrected }; )>

I'd almost like to see some 'border state' between Maryland and Virginia for play-ability. Not sure how that would fit in historic context though.

I would also like that, and while Maryland was "technically" a Union State it was also a hot spot for fighting, and still have plans for that state, as well as Virginia.

Thanks for your input Chris, if you have any other suggestions please post!