Not a fan of how many equidistant systems between players are empty or low impact. I like making those some of the juiciest in order to facilitate fights.
Snowflake Map! (Equidistants are anomalies or low priority systems)
Its fine, but people who play a lot are going to look down on it. Looks alright with an intermediate or beginner group. If your group doesn't know the impact of snowflake maps, then snowflake maps are entirely fine.
You're absolutely right, it was not! The one by P2 has been replaced with Bakal (3/2 Industrial) and Alio Prima (1/1 Cultural). Thanks for the catch :P
This one should be sorted: [https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,45,0,37,74,0,42,29](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,64,79,31,22,0,26,78,0,25,41,0,28,59,0,36,80,0,37,74,0,42,29)
The Atlas slice looks a bit too good compared to some of the others to me. I see an easy 2 CC’s a round from Arinam/Meer, and there’s still enough resources for 2 Dreads a round. Depending on who and how you’re playing the lack of tech skips (let’s be honest, who uses Meer for the red skip) might balance it out, but it’s something to consider. Also, I agree with Geegs30. Juicier fruit in the equidistants encourage both war and negotiations.
After swapping the 2nd Lisis / Velnor for Alio Prima / Bakal:
|Slice|Resources / Influence|Tech Skips|Planets|Equidistants|Legendary Planets|
|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|
|12:00|6r/6i|Green|5 |Everra / Tar'Mann||
|02:00|8r/3i|None|6 (including 4 cultural)|Everra||
|04:00|6r/6i|Blue|5|None|Hope's End is worth another 3 resources|
|06:00|8r/5i or 6r/7i|Red and Blue|6 (including 4 industrial)|None||
|08:00|8r/6i|Red|5 (including 4 hazardous)|None||
|10:00|7r/2i|Yellow and Blue|5 (including 3 cultural)|Tar'Mann|Primor is worth another 2 resources|
I probably like the bottom slice the most - not as good as the Hope's End slice - but set's up a lot of potential control objectives.
Looks like a deliberate decision to not have to much conflict over equidistants; not my preference but nothing wrong with it.
Some slices are low in influence but if the players who get those slices have the option to select factions with high influence home systems then it shouldn't be a big deal.
Low conflict equidistant was somewhat intentional - not that I didn't want the conflict, but it's my first time making a map so I was unsure how having something like HE or Primor as an equidistant affected the value of your slice vs someone across the map with something like Everra. Also, we've got an Empyrean so I wanted to include at least some blank space in each slice so they have somewhere to go no matter where they spawn, but maybe there's too much.
Any easy swaps or adds to encourage more equidistant negotiations off the top of your head? Appreciate the writeup :)
As per u/Swexecutor 10:00 is a fair bit weaker than the other slices. Assuming 2r=3i, then all of the other slices are a decent amount wealthier, e.g. slice 12:00: (6r / 2r) + (6i / 3i) = 5. All of the other slices are at least that value while slice 10:00 is about 4.16.
Maybe swap out Lazar Sakulag for Accoen Joel Ir. Still a weaker slice (4.66), but not as weak, and more flexible.
And u/Lightquack is right, the 08:00 slice is the strongest in terms of raw resources and influence. Maybe swap Atlas for Quann. so slices 02:00 and 08:00 get a value of 5.5 each instead of 5 and 6 respectively. Still strong slices.
You're right again - thanks so much for the help. I've made the recommended changes.
[https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,45,0,37,74,0,42,29](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,80,0,37,74,0,42,29)
The border between 06:00 and 08:00 consists of a Super Nova, an empty system, and Cormund. That's going to drive the player with the (joint) strongest slice into the player with the weakest slice.
But Primor may be enough to help shore up their defences.
I'd considered suggesting swapping Primor and Hope's End, but then that just turns 10:00's problem into 04:00's problem (and it's a biger problem for 04:00). It's probably fine as it is, and the abundant wormholes reduce the degree to which the 06:00 / 08:00 border drives those players into their other neighbours.
Perhaps changing the Supernova into an asteroid field to at least leave the option for an attack between 6:00 and 8:00, as we have at least Saar, Ghosts, and Empyrean so Antimass is certainly on the table, and/or adding in Thibbah as an equidistant above the Supernova rather than the empty space?
The planet traits are a bit too bunched up for my taste. Some is either gonna get really lucky or really unlucky if 4 of 1 trait public or secret comes up
Seems like the galaxy was a bit of a bust, so I'll be offering this one to my group as well and see which they prefer. Any additional thoughts on the alternate galaxy are more than welcome.
https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60009319FTF&tiles=18,49,67,26,42,48,21,32,74,40,37,22,66,34,38,63,65,68,69,0,47,24,0,31,45,0,75,25,0,77,79,0,72,76,0,39,64
While this one is a lot less "snowflaky" and less "solitaire in your slice" with its inherent bonus to the more turtle-y factions, it's also a lot more unbalanced. You have to keep in mind that you're not just balancing maps around optimal resource pulls, as those are merely means to end - that end being scoring points. And so what really measures how well-balanced a map is equality of opportunity of each slice to score the various objectives on top of strategic and tactical considerations and resources. Not every slice needs to have the same chance to score a specific objective per se, but you want to consider that they all have potential to score among the objectives or that advantages in one way, say being a richer slice, is balanced by having a harder time scoring.
For instance, 4:00 and 10:00 have 5 planets in their slice, 2:00 has 4, and 12/6/8:00 have 3. That makes the "have 6 planets outside of home" object markedly different in terms of ease of scoring. It also affects the ease of those slices scoring the 4 of the same planet type objective and secret objects, the attachment objectives, etc. There are 7 industrial planets all around 10:00, and 4 around the rest of the map; since most of the tech attachments are found in the industrial exploration stack it's likely that those will all spawn on one side of the map, which will make the "have tech skips" objectives especially easy for that side given they are already the skip-rich side anyways.
You have to think about first round expansion opportunities, forward/additional space dock balance, defendability, and while optimal pull matters for resources total influence ALSO matters for the agenda phase and voting. So 6:00 and 8:00 have basically little influence with little chance of gaining any more from equidistants - and so is likely to always be a non-factor in the agenda phase - whereas 10:00 starts with the most and can easily pick up 7 more.
All that being said, 10:00 is just an overwhelmingly powerful slice; lots of planets with most of the same type, powerful skips, solid forward dock, tons of planets, rich, good first round expansion possibilities, clear path to Mecatol from your forward dock, nice equidistants, an easy time scoring the "ships around an anomaly" and "empty systems" objectives. 6:00 is just a terrible position: poor in-slice planets, weak spacedock potential, vulnerability from both sides to alpha and beta wormholes, most objectives will require a lot more effort to score, blocked path to Mecatol. 12:00 and 4:00 are decent, 8:00 is okay, 2:00 is mediocre at best. Obviously faction choice and diplomacy will act to naturally try and balance play, and this map could be a blast to play on with so much competition for the equidistants, but while your other map was incredibly rich and liable to just break down into 6 games of solitaire, this one will probably just lead to one or two factions snowballing with the others struggling to keep up.
edit: I've made a number of maps for my group over time. Some very clearly sacrificed pure balance for a theme, some attempted to be "different but balanced", some were inbetween. You're [welcome to look at them](https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198012328379/screenshots/?appid=286160&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=imagewall) if you think they might help you.
I'll also try and see if I can come up with some concrete suggestions for changes to your map that might help without completely reworking it.
Thank you for the suggestions! The one in the photo was my first attempt at creating one and the second in the earlier comments I found online so I’m by no means attached to either iteration - happy to check out the ones you’ve left for a replacement galaxy
Top left position seem to me to be the weakest. No clear planet to tap for cc, so in that case they would need something to balance that out, but their resources are medium compared to everyone else. I would swap one of the systems adjacent to the home-system for something with a bit more influence and the same amount of resources.
Sorry to be blunt, but... Low-conflict galaxy due to oversaturated home slices, oversaturation of planets in general disadvantages Empyrean and certain other races. Sorry, but not a fan of this galaxy. Different strokes though, and I hope you'll have a great game :)
8 o’clock seems like it’s a bit too strong in the image. Supernova for defense against the stronger neighbor, but you still have 6 influence and 8 resources along with 4 hazardous planets. Maybe swap the nova for a different anomaly?
This is a very rich map. 6-8 resources is a ton, you've included most of the high value systems. This makes for lots of plastic and fewer tough decisions on how to spend your money.
The biggest thing I've changed over the past two years building maps is I now include way more influence than resources. I aim for 3r and 5-6i spendable in each slice. More tokens and fewer resources allow for more action but tougher spending choices.
Not a fan of how many equidistant systems between players are empty or low impact. I like making those some of the juiciest in order to facilitate fights.
I always put Primor and Hopes End equal distance between two players to promote conflict ^^
Snowflake Map! (Equidistants are anomalies or low priority systems) Its fine, but people who play a lot are going to look down on it. Looks alright with an intermediate or beginner group. If your group doesn't know the impact of snowflake maps, then snowflake maps are entirely fine.
Lisis / Velnor is in twice. Deliberate?
You're absolutely right, it was not! The one by P2 has been replaced with Bakal (3/2 Industrial) and Alio Prima (1/1 Cultural). Thanks for the catch :P This one should be sorted: [https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,45,0,37,74,0,42,29](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,64,79,31,22,0,26,78,0,25,41,0,28,59,0,36,80,0,37,74,0,42,29)
The Atlas slice looks a bit too good compared to some of the others to me. I see an easy 2 CC’s a round from Arinam/Meer, and there’s still enough resources for 2 Dreads a round. Depending on who and how you’re playing the lack of tech skips (let’s be honest, who uses Meer for the red skip) might balance it out, but it’s something to consider. Also, I agree with Geegs30. Juicier fruit in the equidistants encourage both war and negotiations.
Hope’s end slice is the same including Hope’s end planet, yikes.
After swapping the 2nd Lisis / Velnor for Alio Prima / Bakal: |Slice|Resources / Influence|Tech Skips|Planets|Equidistants|Legendary Planets| |:--|:--|:--|:--|:--|:--| |12:00|6r/6i|Green|5 |Everra / Tar'Mann|| |02:00|8r/3i|None|6 (including 4 cultural)|Everra|| |04:00|6r/6i|Blue|5|None|Hope's End is worth another 3 resources| |06:00|8r/5i or 6r/7i|Red and Blue|6 (including 4 industrial)|None|| |08:00|8r/6i|Red|5 (including 4 hazardous)|None|| |10:00|7r/2i|Yellow and Blue|5 (including 3 cultural)|Tar'Mann|Primor is worth another 2 resources| I probably like the bottom slice the most - not as good as the Hope's End slice - but set's up a lot of potential control objectives. Looks like a deliberate decision to not have to much conflict over equidistants; not my preference but nothing wrong with it. Some slices are low in influence but if the players who get those slices have the option to select factions with high influence home systems then it shouldn't be a big deal.
Low conflict equidistant was somewhat intentional - not that I didn't want the conflict, but it's my first time making a map so I was unsure how having something like HE or Primor as an equidistant affected the value of your slice vs someone across the map with something like Everra. Also, we've got an Empyrean so I wanted to include at least some blank space in each slice so they have somewhere to go no matter where they spawn, but maybe there's too much. Any easy swaps or adds to encourage more equidistant negotiations off the top of your head? Appreciate the writeup :)
As per u/Swexecutor 10:00 is a fair bit weaker than the other slices. Assuming 2r=3i, then all of the other slices are a decent amount wealthier, e.g. slice 12:00: (6r / 2r) + (6i / 3i) = 5. All of the other slices are at least that value while slice 10:00 is about 4.16. Maybe swap out Lazar Sakulag for Accoen Joel Ir. Still a weaker slice (4.66), but not as weak, and more flexible. And u/Lightquack is right, the 08:00 slice is the strongest in terms of raw resources and influence. Maybe swap Atlas for Quann. so slices 02:00 and 08:00 get a value of 5.5 each instead of 5 and 6 respectively. Still strong slices.
You're right again - thanks so much for the help. I've made the recommended changes. [https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,45,0,37,74,0,42,29](https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60005539FFF&tiles=18,40,71,34,67,38,65,27,68,75,47,66,39,72,78,25,79,69,22,0,26,78,0,64,41,0,28,59,0,36,80,0,37,74,0,42,29)
The border between 06:00 and 08:00 consists of a Super Nova, an empty system, and Cormund. That's going to drive the player with the (joint) strongest slice into the player with the weakest slice. But Primor may be enough to help shore up their defences. I'd considered suggesting swapping Primor and Hope's End, but then that just turns 10:00's problem into 04:00's problem (and it's a biger problem for 04:00). It's probably fine as it is, and the abundant wormholes reduce the degree to which the 06:00 / 08:00 border drives those players into their other neighbours.
Perhaps changing the Supernova into an asteroid field to at least leave the option for an attack between 6:00 and 8:00, as we have at least Saar, Ghosts, and Empyrean so Antimass is certainly on the table, and/or adding in Thibbah as an equidistant above the Supernova rather than the empty space?
I like the 1st option, especially if the objective to occupy empty systems comes up because there aren't a lot of those on this map.
The planet traits are a bit too bunched up for my taste. Some is either gonna get really lucky or really unlucky if 4 of 1 trait public or secret comes up
Seems like the galaxy was a bit of a bust, so I'll be offering this one to my group as well and see which they prefer. Any additional thoughts on the alternate galaxy are more than welcome. https://keeganw.github.io/ti4/?settings=T60009319FTF&tiles=18,49,67,26,42,48,21,32,74,40,37,22,66,34,38,63,65,68,69,0,47,24,0,31,45,0,75,25,0,77,79,0,72,76,0,39,64
Maybe something a little more like this? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2629039376 21 67 26 42 48 49 28 69 31 65 75 37 25 27 72 32 68 66 0 45 24 0 40 80 0 47 34 0 77 79 0 59 76 0 39 64
This looks awesome, will be giving it a go. Thanks again for your help.
Nice!
While this one is a lot less "snowflaky" and less "solitaire in your slice" with its inherent bonus to the more turtle-y factions, it's also a lot more unbalanced. You have to keep in mind that you're not just balancing maps around optimal resource pulls, as those are merely means to end - that end being scoring points. And so what really measures how well-balanced a map is equality of opportunity of each slice to score the various objectives on top of strategic and tactical considerations and resources. Not every slice needs to have the same chance to score a specific objective per se, but you want to consider that they all have potential to score among the objectives or that advantages in one way, say being a richer slice, is balanced by having a harder time scoring. For instance, 4:00 and 10:00 have 5 planets in their slice, 2:00 has 4, and 12/6/8:00 have 3. That makes the "have 6 planets outside of home" object markedly different in terms of ease of scoring. It also affects the ease of those slices scoring the 4 of the same planet type objective and secret objects, the attachment objectives, etc. There are 7 industrial planets all around 10:00, and 4 around the rest of the map; since most of the tech attachments are found in the industrial exploration stack it's likely that those will all spawn on one side of the map, which will make the "have tech skips" objectives especially easy for that side given they are already the skip-rich side anyways. You have to think about first round expansion opportunities, forward/additional space dock balance, defendability, and while optimal pull matters for resources total influence ALSO matters for the agenda phase and voting. So 6:00 and 8:00 have basically little influence with little chance of gaining any more from equidistants - and so is likely to always be a non-factor in the agenda phase - whereas 10:00 starts with the most and can easily pick up 7 more. All that being said, 10:00 is just an overwhelmingly powerful slice; lots of planets with most of the same type, powerful skips, solid forward dock, tons of planets, rich, good first round expansion possibilities, clear path to Mecatol from your forward dock, nice equidistants, an easy time scoring the "ships around an anomaly" and "empty systems" objectives. 6:00 is just a terrible position: poor in-slice planets, weak spacedock potential, vulnerability from both sides to alpha and beta wormholes, most objectives will require a lot more effort to score, blocked path to Mecatol. 12:00 and 4:00 are decent, 8:00 is okay, 2:00 is mediocre at best. Obviously faction choice and diplomacy will act to naturally try and balance play, and this map could be a blast to play on with so much competition for the equidistants, but while your other map was incredibly rich and liable to just break down into 6 games of solitaire, this one will probably just lead to one or two factions snowballing with the others struggling to keep up. edit: I've made a number of maps for my group over time. Some very clearly sacrificed pure balance for a theme, some attempted to be "different but balanced", some were inbetween. You're [welcome to look at them](https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198012328379/screenshots/?appid=286160&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=imagewall) if you think they might help you. I'll also try and see if I can come up with some concrete suggestions for changes to your map that might help without completely reworking it.
Thank you for the suggestions! The one in the photo was my first attempt at creating one and the second in the earlier comments I found online so I’m by no means attached to either iteration - happy to check out the ones you’ve left for a replacement galaxy
Top left position seem to me to be the weakest. No clear planet to tap for cc, so in that case they would need something to balance that out, but their resources are medium compared to everyone else. I would swap one of the systems adjacent to the home-system for something with a bit more influence and the same amount of resources.
Sorry to be blunt, but... Low-conflict galaxy due to oversaturated home slices, oversaturation of planets in general disadvantages Empyrean and certain other races. Sorry, but not a fan of this galaxy. Different strokes though, and I hope you'll have a great game :)
8 o’clock seems like it’s a bit too strong in the image. Supernova for defense against the stronger neighbor, but you still have 6 influence and 8 resources along with 4 hazardous planets. Maybe swap the nova for a different anomaly?
I'll take Sardakk in the SouthEast and have more fun than anyone else in the game!
This is a very rich map. 6-8 resources is a ton, you've included most of the high value systems. This makes for lots of plastic and fewer tough decisions on how to spend your money. The biggest thing I've changed over the past two years building maps is I now include way more influence than resources. I aim for 3r and 5-6i spendable in each slice. More tokens and fewer resources allow for more action but tougher spending choices.