Re: Map feel

Carl Edman (cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu)
Tue, 11 Aug 92 15:51:52 PDT

The Great God Atnerks writes:
> Here is a mock-up I made, playing around with interior
> locations and what they might look like.

I don't think that interior regions this really adds very much to the
game. As far as I can see the only difference between an interior and
an exterior region is that you use different direction identifiers.

On the other hand, interior structures and substructures are IMHO
very good ideas. Cities, towns, markets, ruins aso. could and should
all be implemented this way. A mock turn describing a similar
situation might instead look like this:

---------------------------------------------
Cnossa [204], plains province

Routes leaving Cnossa:
North, River Asart, river, to Celenth [227], 9 days
Northeast, River Estil, river, to Baraxes [232], 4 days
East, wilderness, to Aldain [233], 9 days
Southeast, wilderness, to Ossicus [230], 16 days
South, River Asart, river, to Pallia [219], 4 days
Southwest, wilderness, to Pentara [228], 20 days
West, wilderness, Forest Cnossa [2081], 4 days
Northwest, road, Lake Cnossa [2071], 3 days

Region features:
City of the Lost [2001], city, population: about 1000,
strength: 2
Imperial Palace [3000], citadel, population: about 500
> Osswid [501]
>> Protectors of Cnossa [1001] 500 men

Tower of the Art [3506], tower, strength 5,
population: about 100
> Leonic, Steward of the Art [1598]
>> Guardians of the Art [1002] 100 men
>> BtA [801]
Market of Cnossa [1003]
Prices are...
...
Tavern of the Art [1004]
Jesters of the Art, 20 men [1005]
Innocent bystanders, 5 men [1006]
City guard, 50 men [1007]
Traveller [1008]
Ruins of Old Cnossa [2002], ruins
Milinkthos
The Wranglers, 10 men [1009]
...
---------------------------------------------------------------
Observations:
The Imperial Palace and the Tower of the Art both have opaque bits
set, so that the lines marked with '>' would only be seen by factions
with sufficient observation skill. Population lines are visible
however to everybody.

The Imperial Palace, the Tower of the Art and the Tavern of the Art
and the Market are all inside the city walls, but the Ruins of Old
Cnossa are outside. People can be inside the city, inside building in
the city aso. or completely outside as the Wranglers are.

Cnossa is a plains province, so horse catching is possible, but only
when outside all structures (as the Wranglers are). Milinkthos is
inside the Ruins which means that if he issues an explore command, he
will automatically explore the ruins.

The City of the Lost is the first feature inside Cnossa, so it
controls that region. The palace is the first feature inside that
City, so the palace controls both the city and the region. Finally,
Osswid is stacked first inside the palace, so he controls all, though
without observation you can't see that.

People can move between all of these features with simple zero time
stacking commands. On the other hand if they want to move into
another type of terrain like the Lake region or the Forest region,
they just issue simple move commands. No subregions necessary.

Carl Edman


Main Index  |  Olympia  |  Arena  |  PBM FAQ  |  Links