CD: Golden Age of Piracy Scenario

Cheers mates,

This post is about the Making of the "Golden Age of Piracy" map and scenario, which took me a couple of weeks to get into what I consider suitable for general entertainment in the atWar environment.



The process has comprised the following steps, to be detailed in this post:
Original Idea
Inspirational Review
Structuring Idea
Planning
Implementation
Evaluation



Note: Currently I'm testing the map for its functionality (cities: position, income and reinforcement rate; troops: adequacy and movement; bordes; etc.). After the map and unit testing a scenario will be developed to group the 82 countries into 8-12 player parties with some additional events (to maintain a certain equilibrium between the sides).


The Process


I. Original Idea

The original idea arises with a simple internet search for historical maps on the Cribbean region, with the purpose of looking at the expansion of colonization over time. The basic question was "How was the territory conquered over time?". Later I had a glance at the units used by some othe custom-made maps like "A song of Ice and Fire" (Pulse), "Age of Empires" (perrydepwner) and "Medieval Europe 1150" (Primal) to see how they translated the ideas into the units used with the maps/scenarios.

At this stage it was important for me to use a historical map rather than an accurate (satellite-image based) map of modern origin. I do believe that the historical map aren't really inaccurate in terms of proportion, since they somehow reflect the knowledge of that time and the experience acquired during the centuries of travelling around and moving troops, populations and merchandise from one side to the other.


II. Inspirational Review

The second step, after having some vague idea on the type of map/scenario I wanted to produce (and enjoy!), comprised the following points:
Looking for a suitable map (historical, geographically focused and of good quality)
Looking at historical issues: types of units, alliances, parties, etc.
Looking at "fellow maps/scenarios" made by other people within the atWar environment.


III. Structuring the idea

Here some decisions were made:
Which one is THE map?
What kind of units will be available?
For how many players shall the map/scenario be?
Is it "just" about a map or a map-scenario-combination?
What are the requirements (graphically and informationally)?


IV. Planning

Basic questions to be answered in the planning phase are:
What are the logic steps?
What are the graphical requirements?
What are the informational requirements?

The basic steps, thus, became:

• Design the map (background): look for a suitable map (geographical focus, size and quality), edit the map, and upload the map into a new map project.
  
• Define countries: define the countries and draw the borders in the map project.
  
• Define units: define the units, look for images that suit for their icons, edit icons and upload them into the map.
  
• Define cities: define the cities (income, reinforcement, availability of units, etc.) and position them into map.
  
• Design the flags for countries and (eventually) cities: find the flags (Coat of Arms), edit them and upload them into map.
  
• Map testing: publish the map and do some testing (alone or, even better, with fellow players willing to do some beta testing).
  
• Evaluation and Modification: do the necessary modifications on the map (income, reinforcement, cities' position, etc.).
  
• Design scenario: design scenario, defining player sides and events.
  
• Marketing: make the scenario/map public!

V. Implementation

Here I will present some steps that had to be carried out to get to the result you may review by playing the "Golden Age of Piracy" scenario (map for now!).

5.1 The Map

Just googled for maps ("historical map Cribbean"), paying attention to have high-quality maps only. Just use the option for the image search... "Larger than 8MP".




Used PhotoShop to edit map: removing excessive labels (with Clone Stamp Tool), added color (with Brush Tool and using Layers with different Fill Percentage) and resized map (from 6,5 MB to 1,5 MB).

Clone Stamp Tool:




Brush Tool:




Layers with Fill Percentage:




The results form this work were the following:

(a) Original map (detail):




(b) Map with minimum labels (detail):




(c) Map with minimum labels and color (details):






5.2 The Countries

Defined the countries (Territories and Extraterritorial sides: Pirates)

Drew the countries, paying attention for details and the max in-game zoom to see the results. Important is to take the necessary time for this job; haste is waste! It's better to make several border drawing sessions (with patience) than to make them at once (and less details).

Pirates do not have territories in this map/scenario). They were defined as contries and "just" have cities assigned. For the selection of the pirates (for a game), it makes the use of a scenario necessary.


5.3 The Flags

Just googled for Flags (Coat of Arms) for countries and Pirate Flags (historical ones) for the Pirates (defined also as "extraterritorial countries).
Edited the Flags into a standard size.

(a) Coat of Arms:




(b) Pirate Flags:




5.4 The Units

Just copied the standard units into the map and started to modify them. ONLY changed the names and Icons of the standard land and naval units and eliminated the rare and air units.

Added additional naval and land units.

Designed the Icons for all the units, googling for suitable images and editing them into the 40x27px format.

(a) Units before editing (for selection):




(b) Edited unit icons:




5.5 The Cover Image

Just used a googled image and added the typography that suits the theme of the map/scenario.




5.6 Scenario

After testing the scenario 2.01 is ready for play.


VI. Evaluation

Did some personal functionality testing and a beta testing of the scenario 1.01, which resulted in the boosting of income for the version 2.01.


Thats for now.
Cheers,
CD

That's was a very nice read, CD

Scritto da Amok, 29.04.2013 at 04:18

That's was a very nice read, CD

Thnx! Hope people enjoy playing the scenario!
Cheers,
CD

Units used in map/scenario:




Comments on naval units:

• Galleon, Black Pearl and Merchantman: They are standard naval units; Destroyer, Submarine and Transport, respectively.
  
• Frigate: Is a secondary attack unit that has less attack power than Galleon but higher range.
  
• Brigantine: Is a powerful defence unit with shorter range.
  
• Schooner, Caravel and Dutch Flute: Are support units, which means they are less powerfull in attack or defence but can carry 2, 4 and 5 units, respectively.

Cheers,
CD