No, no, that's perfectly fine. I'll type something up soon.
Edit: Can we trade maps prior to paper? I'm thinking no, but I could be wrong.
Quote:Dear Brazilian Brunnmigi,
I come to you bearing important news: Team Gillette wishes to begin formal discussions regarding settling and expanding our empires. We feel that it is quite possible to split the land between us in a manner acceptable to both sides, and although that might prove slightly difficult to arrange since neither of us have paper to make maps on, we would like to start negotiations with a proposal to settle our first city away from Caipirinha if you agree to settle your first city away from Occam's Razor.
Merovech
Team Gillette
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I'm continually amazed by your variations of "tropical trolls" - they're a really nice touch .
I like the idea, but I'd suggest a few changes. I'd like to suggest a slightly less business-y approach, and I'd also push the chat suggestion. If we're pushing for a friend, we need to convey a friendly & informal tone. How about something like this:
Quote:Dear Brazilian Brunnmigi,
We've been thinking and discussing a question you posed to us a couple messages ago. You said this: "We agree that cooperation is key in these games, and feel your team is made up of honorable folks. Did you have something more concrete in mind, or just a generic "let's hold hands and sing Kumbayah"?"
We've given this further thought, and we'd like to push towards something more concrete between us. We strongly believe, as you do I imagine, that we'd really like to be close friends with one of our neighbors. Menagerie is one neighbor and you are the other, and we've come to believe that we would prefer to work closely with your team. It will take quite a bit of time to build up the kind of trust necessary for this to really work, but we'd like to start on that now.
Our first suggestion is to not settle towards each other with our first cities. We will agree to settle away from Caipirinha if you will likewise settle away from Occam's Razor. On our side, we do not want Menagerie to be able to sit and hoard wonders while the rest of us fight, and on your side we know that you'll want to leverage Sury of India into a land advantage. We're eager to hear your thoughts on this.
One last note - we've realized teams are not often logged into the team accounts for chat, so our diplomats would like to add your diplomats on chat if that works for you. It's just a much easier medium of communication sometimes. You can reach any of these accounts at any time:
Edit: Alright, the only change I would make is turning
Quote:"We strongly believe, as you do I imagine, that we'd really like to be close friends with one of our neighbors. Menagerie is one neighbor and you are the other, and we've come to believe that we would prefer to work closely with your team. It will take quite a bit of time to build up the kind of trust necessary for this to really work, but we'd like to start on that now"
into "
Quote:We strongly believe that we'd really like to be close friends with one of our neighbors. Although we also border Team Menagerie, we've come to believe that we would prefer to work closely with your team. It will take quite a bit of time to build up the kind of trust necessary for this to really work, but we'd like to start on that now."
I think this slightly improves the first-glance understandability and concision of these sentences.
I am not normally on my gmail account, but I am usually logged in and I check it often. Should I still put it?
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Just realized they'll be no notification that I updated that post, so here it is.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
That's a good change, I like it. That paragraph was awkward in general. If nobody speaks up in the next 12 hours or so send away if not sooner. Add in chat addresses too as needed.
scooter Wrote:That's a good change, I like it. That paragraph was awkward in general. If nobody speaks up in the next 12 hours or so send away if not sooner. Add in chat addresses too as needed.
Phew. I'm glad you liked it
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I noted it already in the Turn Discussion thread, but we have now met TEAM. They have contact with Menagerie but not with Trolls, which is a little odd given the location of their warrior east of the Trolls' capital. Maybe Menagerie has a unit out their direction but missed the Trolls somehow?
Anyway, first contact message needs to be sent to TEAM.
I just sent our message to the Trolls (changing "any" to "either" in the last sentence, since I only put scooter and my email addresses).
Should I type something up for TEAM? I will do so if nobody responds by tomorrow.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Uhh, speedbumb: What is TEAM's contact information?
Quote:Hello Team Even, Amicable, and Mellow!
Our intrepid scout tells us that he met a Sumerian warrior recently and had a nice, friendly chat, as Vikings and TEAM units are wont to do. Is he correct in his assesment of your neighborly intentions?
Merovech
Team Gillette
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
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