We should all get together

[johnny_raoul 0]

some folks are darned good at the map thing, some are good at the research thing, some at the graphics thing and so on....

a World Map needs making, you know

email to each other

We could make a killer wicked super cool totally tubular sceneio and a map that others could expand on

any ideas?

[Hardrightconservative 5]

Sounds awesome Johnny!

[johnny_raoul 0]

well, you are signed-up to do the candidates

who are the map-makers? you, tom (who is too busy "in college") others have done maps

I might could do the general idea???

did you like The Manchurian Candiadte btw. I've been told its "too hard" but I didin't think so

[HorckDude 3]

I started a few months ago but due to time restraints I stopped. I have so far done all countries but the African ones.

[Bane 0]

While I can't say I have really proved myself in any real way (i.e. actually submitting a scenario), but I'd be willing to help in any way that doesn't involve the map.

[johnny_raoul 0]

well, shoot

let's think about it

if we decide on a World Map

scenerio:

1. go Sci-Fi - like a Star Trek Federation election w/ alliance w/ the Klingons being the main issue?

2. Go historical - like WWII or a Cold War thing

hmmm, a Cold War thing!

[JoSpiv 5]

I'll work on the Star Trek one with someone

I'm up on all the ish.

The Map would be the hardest part for me.

[Jayavarman 86]

Which countries will be combined? I believe there can be a maximum of 70 regions/states in the game.

[johnny_raoul 0]

N. America -

USA -NE, SE, SW, NW = 4

same for Canada = 4

Mex N and S = 2

Cenrtral America all as 1 = 1

Carribean all as 1 = 1

______________________

12

S. America -

NW, SE, SW - 3 maybe = 3

______________________

15

Europe

N, S, Central, NE, NW - 4

______________________

[johnny_raoul 0]

oops, hit the worng button

anyway, somthing like that

divide the electors up by golbal population - give Asia a huge importance, Mexico too

???

just floating ideas

[johnny_raoul 0]

is it really that hard to do a map? I guess it must be

what software do you need, photoshop?

I would think a World Map would have 50-60 regions, doesn't have to be every individial country at all - they'd be too small to click on for one thing

A Cold War scenerio sounds like a good one to start w/. Could have Democracy, Communism, Socialism, and one other, maybe Dictatorship

????

[MattyN 2]

Idea for Divisions of Ideological Groups:

Republican Democracy - US, Israel, Australia, UK, Japan, Pakistan

European Democracy - France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, India

Communist - Cuba, China, North Korea, Support in Russia, former Soviet Bloc

Islamic Fundamentalism - Iran, Portions of Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Contintent Division Idea:

North America US (in quarters), Canada (in quarters), Cuba, Mexico, Carribean, Central America

South America - Brazil, Southern SA, Northern SA

Africa - Southern Africa, Central Africa, NE Africa (more IF), NW Africa (more ED)

Middle East - Israel, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan (other countries merged into blocks with those major divisions)

EU - Turkey, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, UK, France, Germany

Russia - Eastern Russia, Central Russia, Siberia

Rest of Asia - Pakistan, India, China, Japan, NKorea, SKorea, Indochina (as a block), Indonesia

Australia - Australia, New Zealand

That would give 43 regions. Seem like reasonable divisions?

[johnny_raoul 0]

yeah, it does

now all we need is a MAP!

[MattyN 2]

Very true. I remember someone origianlly working on one...I'm not the best at Mapmaking...::shrugs:: I'd need a basis map and I don't have much in the way of software.

[MattyN 2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Timezones.png

I hate doubleposting, but I found that. If our resident master mapmakers could use that which pretty well divides up the world. We just come up with electoral votes based on population, pick a country that gets say...5 and work population wise from there.

[HorckDude 3]

Idea for Divisions of Ideological Groups:

Republican Democracy - US, Israel, Australia, UK, Japan, Pakistan

European Democracy - France, Germany, Canada, South Korea, India

Communist - Cuba, China, North Korea, Support in Russia, former Soviet Bloc

Islamic Fundamentalism - Iran, Portions of Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan

Contintent Division Idea:

North America US (in quarters), Canada (in quarters), Cuba, Mexico, Carribean, Central America

South America - Brazil, Southern SA, Northern SA

Africa - Southern Africa, Central Africa, NE Africa (more IF), NW Africa (more ED)

Middle East - Israel, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan (other countries merged into blocks with those major divisions)

EU - Turkey, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, UK, France, Germany

Russia - Eastern Russia, Central Russia, Siberia

Rest of Asia - Pakistan, India, China, Japan, NKorea, SKorea, Indochina (as a block), Indonesia

Australia - Australia, New Zealand

I was the one who started a world scenario.

And I had/have a good portion of the map done, but the problem is that the world is so big and you need big countries if you want them to be well clickable. The divisions you made sound good, but I have it a little different. I re-merged some countries which were seperated in the last few centuries. For example unifying Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Equador to Gran Colombia, which was a big state until the end of the 19th century.

I'm trying to group countries that are similar, but it can never be totally perfect because there are just too many small countries.

At this point I am done with North and South America and they are all clickable countries that have maintained much of their identity.

Asia and Australia are easy, but Europe, the Middle East and Africa are a hell.

The Middle-East has a lot of small countries close to eachother. Thorn in the eye is Israel which you almost can't find in this big world map. I had to merge many Arab countries, under which unifying Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Jemen and others into the 'Arabian Peninsula'.

That was a bad move, but there is no other option because of the small map.

This world scenario sure is tougher than any map ever done before.

You have to make a balance between a realistic political setting and playability.

I don't want it to be politically unrealistic but it shouldn't be too boring either with too many small unclickable countries all with 1 electoral vote. For this I really need to simplify the world and simplifying an immensely complicated system is a very hard job.

Right now I still need ideas for Europe and Africa. Europe has currently been devided into:

- Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark)

- Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)

- France

- Germany

- Spain & Portugal

- Italy

- Central Europe (Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary)

- Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, Romania)

- Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, Greece)

- Turkey

After merging countries it's still too unclickable, so I need to merge more. But western Europe is a problem because it is (and always has been) so different.

But I recently learned in my political science classes that the current political differences in Europe have evolved from religious boundaries: the northern countries that were protestant have become generally more liberal and the southern countries that were catholic more conservative:

Look at the deeply religious Spain, Portugal and Italy in the south, and in super-liberal states in Scandinavia, Germany and Holland.

I am thinking about seperating Europe around that lines, which means there won't be an entire 'western europe'.

Then there's Africa. Now I don't think you can simply split it up in north, south, east and west. That would be very colonial style when the west similarly cut up Africa for themselves.

I wan't to do a merging that makes sense, but I don have a really good idea. Although maybe all Islam countries in northern Africa should be grouped, but south of the Sahara I am at a loss on how to group countries together.

Does anyone have ideas?

[johnny_raoul 0]

silly as it may sound, the divisions on the Risk Game board might work?

don't think we're stiving after total accuracy here, as the scenerios themselves will be unrealisitic - just the idea of having a workable world map to play with

like I said to HRC on his UNA thread, it doesn't have to be Rand McNally accurate either - little buttons in the middle of oceans could work just fine for smaller states etc

but hey, if you make one, we will use it!!!

Cheers Mr. Dude, sir!

[sven 1]

I'm currently working on a world map. I'll try and make it so that each country is separate, but we can then erase lines if we want to merge countries, which we will need to.

As far as regions go, I suggest these:

AMERICAS - 10

-Canada

-Western USA

-Northeast USA

-Southeast USA

-Mexico

-Central America

-Carribean

-Northern part of South America

-Andes

-Brazil

EUROPE - 8

-British Isles

-Scandinavia

-Western Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux, Switzerland)

-Central Europe (Germany, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary)

-South Europe (Italy, Greece, Albania)

-Balkans

-Eastern Europe

-European Russia

ASIA - 21

-Central Russia

-Eastern Russia

-Central Asia

-Afghanistan-Pakistan

-Iran

-Arabia (Saudi plus smaller countries on peninsula and Kuwait)

-Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan

-Israel-Palestine (make it a swing state!)

-Caucasus

-Korea

-Japan

-Manchuria/NE China

-SE China (including Taiwan)

-Western China

-Indochina

-Thailand-Malaysia

-Indonesia

-Philippines

-Himalayas

-North India

-South India (including Sri Lanka)

AFRICA - 6

-North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco)

-West Africa

-East Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya)

-Central Africa

-Southern Africa

-Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion)

OCEANIA - 2

-Australia

-Pacific Islands (including New Zealand)

Americas - 10

Europe - 8

Asia - 21

Africa - 6

Oceania - 2

Total - 47

I think that's a pretty good division. If an EV was worth roughly 10 million people, you would have an electoral college of 600, and you would have a mixture of big and small states. The eastern Chinese and Indian states would each have a few dozen EVs while the entire Oceania region would have 3 (2 in Australia, 1 in Pacific Islands).

If you wanted, you could break up South America into more regions, or Africa could also be broken up too. I don't know much about those areas.

[JoSpiv 5]

I agree. I think the Risk Regions would be perfect.

Are there 70 of them? If there are more you'd have to combine some.

But this idea seems very cool. I can't wait for it.

[sven 1]

There's something like 42 Risk regions. This isn't the same. This has more to do with population.

Some changes I'd make, now I've looked into it further, is to separate Andes into Peru-Ecuador-Bolivia and Argentina-Paraguay-Uruguay-Chile. We may need to make up new names for some of these.

[sven 1]

I suggest for our four parties, we have something like this:

-Islamic - Particularly strong in Arabia. Weaker in places like Turkey. It would be weak in areas with populations without much power, non-existent in a few places, like South America.

-Leftist democracy - Strong in democratic countries, amongst leftist elements, particularly Green parties, Labour parties, Social Democratic parties.

-Right-wing democracy - People like Bush, Putin, other right-wingers in democracies.

-Dictators - Not sure about this last one. Could compete in Eastern Europe with right-wing democracy and left-wing democracy. Strong in Africa, some parts of East Asia. Maybe Authoritarian rather than dictator.

[JoSpiv 5]

Maybe the 4th could be Independent/non-affiliated/Neutral. Things of that nature

[johnny_raoul 0]

probably a stupid question, but is it not possible to copy and paste a map onto the P4E bitmap, then make adjustments to it

??

probably not

i would favor a historical scenerio for starters, Communism v. Democracy (which was a truly global struggle), with Socialism and Facism thrown in as contenders too

Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Mihn, Kruchev -sp- (Kruchev v. JFK -Cuban Missle Crisis!!!!) v. Ike, JFK, Chruchill etc.

?

[Hardrightconservative 5]

Sounds good Johnny. A Cold War scenario would be great.

[johnny_raoul 0]

you do the candidates, I'll do the issues and external events!

deal

???