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Old October 3rd, 2006, 06:50 AM
CornPuff CornPuff is offline
 
Join Date: May 9, 2006
Location: WA - Seattle
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Quote:
Originally Posted by R˙chean
I see your point then; we need to use forsaken waters' winter holdout as a place to start and make some decisions about glyphs and starting zones from there.
Yup, we need to get the kinks worked out of the system before we test someone else's map.

First things first, here is a link to a virtuascape file of Forsaken Waters with glyphs and start zones winter holdout style.

http://www.cornpuff.org/Heroscape/do...n%20Waters.hsc

Alright, here's a shot at a balance analysis:
The Glyphs of Astrid, Gerda, Valda, Kelda and Dagmar are the the same distance away from both start zones for normal, double-based, slithering and flying units with the following exceptions. A slithering unit on the Red side can step on the Glyph of Gerda in 9 move points, where it takes a slithering unit 10 move points to get to gerda from blue start. A double based figure from Red takes 11 Move Points (MP) to land on the glyph of Dagmar, while the blue side takes one less MP.

I don't see either of these as problems, but its worth pointing out the glyphs are extremely balanced.

The biggest difference between the two sides is that Red side has an 'island' that is excellent for a Raelin perch. There is no analog on blue side, as Raelin has to pick going to one of the sides, or landing on the contested central table. I would see this as a potential issue, but this map has been playtested so bloody much that we know it isn't significant.

I don't like the position of the glyph of Dagmar, as it screws up mobility on that ledge. Stop on glyph rules, IMHO, aren't that much fun, especially when its the init glyph that you don't care about that much.

If we add start spaces, I can see a way to add 3 spaces to each side without screwing up the glyph balance. Personally, I don't see much of a reason to add hexes to the start zone, as the limitation lends itself to a different type of strategy. On the other hand, sure, why not increase them. Tournament n00bs might be upset if they find they cant use 22 of their gruts, and we do have a responsibility to the tournament patrons.

I guess I'd rather keep it at 18. We might be looking at maps with fewer start zones in the future, and I'd hate to eliminate them just based on that. Let's see, 24 drones is 400 points. Should this be a metric?

Oh wait, I'm blabbering. Adding 3 hexes to each zone looks nice, should lessen tournament frustration, and doesn't damage the equality of the map. I added these hex locations this image, and highlighted them yellow.



Back to the glyphs.

We talked earlier about tournament maps having 2 faces. The first is the 'director's cut.' This is how the mapmaker intends the map to be played. The second is the 'standardized version.' This version will always have a spot for the "A" and "G" glyphs and no others.

My proposal is to remove the glyph of Dagmar (init), and the start zones plus three (like the image above) to make the FW Tournament Mix. The move and heal glyphs should be kept on to go with the designers original map as much as possible. For future maps, I'd of course consult the designers before accepting changes, but I don't think Rob and Craig are going to stop by and validate these changes.

For the standard A & G mix, I liked the gencon setup. It used the Valda and Astrid glyph spots. I'd also be quite happy leaving them where they are.

Sudema is top notch in Heroscape: Legacy. Try out this alternative unit cost system at your next game day or tournament.
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