As the subject suggests this is a topic I'm starting for all things related to the new map Ronugal. Feedback, comments, criticisms, suggestions, or questions can go here in one place. Anything that's related to the map goes. Find settings that you like or dislike feel free to share them, find better bonus settings for a particular number of players, or just want to tell me I suck at map making and should stop, let it out here.

I really like your attention to detail - the map looks beautiful!

Is it based on anything or is it pure imagination? Where is the word Ronugal from?

I'm usually not a fan of negative bonuses, but they're done very tastefully in Ronugal (they're cancelled out by the nearby territory.)

It looks great - I can't wait to play it.

Thanks!

It's pure imagination mostly. I had some ideas for types of areas I wanted on my map. So I started with one of them (Castle Island - Australia like) and then just got drawing. Ronugal is a word I made up for one of my orange colors and decided I'd like to use it for my map's name. I'm not sure what made me think of it, I think I may have thought of Ron as a name and then expanded on it to make it sound to my liking.

I originally had that as a 5 piece bonus group, but decided I didn't want another single point grouping and thought the idea of cursed islands was cool and would fit in with my map. With just negative bonuses though nobody would go over there unless they were in a desperate situation so I decided to make it a little interesting and created a negation/reversal setup which went well with the general curse idea.

RIGHT ISLAND BONUSES EXPLAINED:

For anyone wondering how the bonuses on the right islands works I thought I'd explain it. As you can see with the bonus boxes each of the lower 3 territories is a -1 bonus by itself. If you want to go for these territories though there is a way to cancel out the -1 with a +1, by controlling the Phena island to the north. Controlling the Phena island with any of the lower island territories will negate the negative so you don't lose income. If you can get the Phena territory and all three of lower territories you will not only negate the negatives, but gain a bonus of +2. Going for these territories has some risk as you have to hold onto Phena, but has some reward if you can get them all as well.

So getting all the territories nets you +2 and if someone then comes along and takes Phena from you without taking the others, you go from +2 to -3, a net difference of 5. A risk you might be able to reduce if you can and are willing to abandon the territories. Way the risk before going for the +2 bonus if you don't want to be stuck with -3 income.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

I agree w/ Randy, this is a great looking map! Should be fun to play. The description you gave above on how the negative bonuses work is clear. In looking at the map I noticed that the Dryoken bonus is much easier to defend against the Kyoken District bonus (1 territory against 3 in two locations). Perhaps Kyoken District could be worth more, or Dryoken less? Would need to play it out but just a thought.

Yeah, balancing was the thing that I knew would be a bit of an issue since it was hard for me to do well without a fair amount of playtesting going on. Which I figured might as well take place on live where it could be done by more. I didn't notice that bonus could be had in a single turn if you get the Kyoken starting spot too. My initial thought is maybe lower Dryoken to 3 as the area in general can be powerful. Setting different default warlord spots might work better as well. I'll definitely keep an eye on the spots and am open to adjusting things to be better balanced if the position is too powerful and doesn't have a counter.

Looks like fun... giving it a try now.

Awesome map!