Entering map details
After clicking Edit Selected Version, you will enter the map designer. This page describes how to use each feature.
Set Center Points
The first thing you should do when starting a new map is set the center point of each player-controllable territory.
This defines where the number of armies shows up on the map, so you typically want to set this to the biggest area of space within the territory so the army count has the most room to display.
To set them, simply click the Set Center Point button and then click on each territory in the location for that territory.
Defining Connections
Connections determine which territories can attack/transfer other territories. To connect territories, select the direct-connect tool represented by the horizontal green line. Then simply drag from one territory to another to connect them. (Note that the two territories must have center points set first.)
If you make a mistake, you can disconnect territories by following the same procedure. Simply drag between them again and they will be disconnected.
If you have territories that wrap around the map, horizontally or vertically, you can use the two buttons to the right of the direct-connect button to define these.
Defining Bonuses
To create your bonuses, follow these steps:
- Open the Bonuses Window
- Click Create New Bonus
- Enter a name, a color, and how many armies the bonus is worth.
- Click Save and close the Bonuses Window
- Click the Select Territories button
- Select the territories you wish to include in the bonus (hold the Control key to select multiple territories.)
- On the left side, check the box next to your bonus.
The color of the bonus defines the color that the stroke (border) of each territory in that bonus will display.
Determining Bonus Values
A general rule of thumb to assign bonus values is by this formula:
- 1 or 2 territories: not recommended due to balance issues
- 3 territories: 2 armies
- 4 territories: 3 armies
- 5 territories: 4 armies
- 6 territories: 4 or 5 armies
- 7 territories: 5 or 6 armies etc.
Things to take into account when assigning bonus values, besides the number of territories within the bonus, are the number of adjacent bonuses and number of territories that need to be defended within the bonus.
Distribution Modes
Distribution modes are defined in the same way as bonuses. See Initial Territory Distribution if you need a refresher on how distribution modes work.
It's usually a good idea to make a Warlords distribution (select one territory from each bonus) and a Cities distribution (select all territories except one in each bonus). It's recommended to also think about any other distributions that you can make that players may desire. It's useful to have an additional 2-5 distributions if they make sense for your map.
You do not need to add a "Full Distribution" option to your map that contains every territory. This is added automatically for all maps, so if you add your own there will be two of them.