5 Player Avatar The Last Airbender
Creator: clord666 || First Published: 09/25/2015 || Players: 3 || Size: 40x40
Categories: None
Rating: 0 in 0 ratings
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Comments:
clord666 (09/25/2015 03:20am | Edited: 09/25/2015 05:10am):
Tried to make a 5 player map loosely based on the world of Avatar The Last Airbender
(which is an animated nickelodeon show which i love btw). I dont think it went too well
and i apologise for how bad it looks. Open to critique/suggestions about gameplay issues
or if the map is innacurate (which btw i openly admit is way off and i emphasise LOOSLEY
BASED OF TLA).
Fire Nation (Orange Star and Amber Blaze) vs. Earth Nation (Green Earth), Northern and
Sourthern Water Tribes (Blue Moon) and the Air Nomads (Grey Sky)
the-deadly-shadow (09/26/2015 11:47am):
It makes no sense to place BH units. If BH has no HQ the units just disappear if you play
a game on the site. However there is a glitch that you can't unload/build units at those
tiles. Since they are on water tiles, the only glitch you get is being unable to unload
cruiser/carriers there. However those disappearing units don't really help anyway. Maybe
there is a bridge under them, but I can't see that.

By the way: if you break a pipe, there will appear a land tile. Sea units produced near
the GE HQ can't reach the outer sea, even if the pipes are broken.
clord666 (09/27/2015 02:36am | Edited: 09/27/2015 02:37am):
Ahh i see. I didnt know that units without a HQ disappeared. The Black Hole units were
meant to represent the serpent (i dont know if you have watched The Last Airbender, but if
you have the bridge is supposed to be the Serpent's pass and the BH tanks were supposed to
represent the serpent, which would attack and slow anything that passed throught the
Serpent's pass).

Also the sea surrounded by the pipes (representing the walls of Ba Sing Se) is supposed to
represent Lake Laogai (also from the show) and isnt supposed to reach the outer sea. The
earth nation (GE) were earthbenders so didnt really have a navy.
Xmo5 (09/28/2015 01:41pm):
Wouldn't it make more sense if the fire nation were comprised of AB and RF instead of AB
and OS? Just a thought.

My other recommendation is to drastically reduce the number of predeployed units and let
the armies develop naturally on their own. For all of the air nomads, maybe you can place
some blocked off predeployed units that must be broken free by their allies and give them
limited production capabilities compared to other countries (for obvious reasons).

Basically, predeployed units make a map virtually impossible to balance due to all of the
variables involved. If you can make it balanced from turn 1, any advantage/disadvantage
later is the result of gameplay/strategy. In a case like this, you'd have to consider
every viable move of each predeployed unit for each player and all possible counter
strategies to determine for certain that the map is balanced. For the basics, consider the
monetary value of the units placed, the type of units, and the location/usefulness of the
units and make sure those values are the as close to the same as possible for each team.
If you don't have very any units and they can't interact early on, that should be
sufficient for your purposes.
clord666 (09/28/2015 11:24pm):
May i ask what's your reasoning for changing OS to RF? I made half the fire nation OS
because OS gets the first turn and in TLA (The Last Airbender) its the fire nation that
started the war. I made the other half of the fire nation army AB so that both fire nation
teams would have consecutive turns (but i didnt want them to have turns 1 and 2).

Apart from the pipes surrounding GE (representing the walls of Ba Sing Se) id rather not
place any more pipes. Also im not sure how to further limit air nomad production. They
cant build any naval units (so wont be able to move a land force to fight OS/AB on their
island or send land units to help their allies) and also will most likely face the brunt
of the attack at the start.

The predoployed units are meant to represnt some of the armies and forces that were in the
show so need to remain. Also OS/AB need a predeployed force to counter their initial
funding disadvantage and be able to expand quickly. This map isnt meant to be perfectly
balanced cause the war wasnt. im hoping to play a game on it soon and if there are huge
gameplay issues that arise i will fix those, i waited a bit to get a few opinions and
suggestions and see if anyone noticed issues like the one mentioned by the-deadly-shadow.

But you are probably right in that i went overboard with the predeployed so ill try to cut
back on that and on the properties that are already owned
Xmo5 (09/29/2015 11:55am):
Oh, not for balance reasons, simply because Orange Star doesn't sound like it belongs as
much as Red *Fire* does. Then change BM to Cobalt Ice and it would be Fire and Blaze vs
Earth, Sky, and Ice. Very theme friendly, I think. :) On an asymmetrical 2v3 map like
this, I don't think turn order really matters.

Also, with the predeployed units, the message I'm trying to get across is that the best,
most fair, and most playable way to make that concept work is to give the players access
to the right number and type of properties (at the right capture rates/distances to reach)
to correspond to armies of the size and type that you want, and then make as many of the
properties neutral as possible. I recognize that in the show they had "predeployed" forces
(I can't think of a "real life" example where that isn't the case) and I realize that you
don't need it to be perfectly balanced, but whenever you try to translate something else
into a map on AWBW, you'll have to take some liberties if you want it to be playable, and
unfortunately this is one of those things you pretty much have to sacrifice on.

Ironically, adding predeployed units to make a map more "accurate" usually has the
opposite effect. Where the show first picks up, the Fire Nation is content to sit back and
rule with an iron fist and they don't actually have much of an active military
campaign/conquest underway. Here, all those predeployed units can hit the ground running
full speed and all of your accuracy is lost on Day 1; in other words, the map looks true
to the show, but no game played on it will be. Consider how easily the Fire Nation could
group their predeployed forces and head SE. Air would fall quickly because they have
little defense. Water and Earth would take more time, but all Fire needs to do is capture
one HQ of each and the game's over. Letting players ramp up naturally gives the battle a
more natural and accurate feel while being much more fair and easier to balance.
clord666 (09/29/2015 09:48pm | Edited: 09/29/2015 09:50pm):
Hahaha i like your thinking of Fire and Blaze vs Earth, Sky, and Ice. I admit that never
occured to me, i just wanted to get the colours and turn order right. Id rather not change
OS to RF cause i do still want the fire nation to have the first turn, though whoever
plays OS can change the country to RF if they want to. Blue Moon player could also change
country to Cobalt Ice, however i dont think i need to change this since Blue *Moon*
already has thematic connections with the water tribe (Moon Spirit).

Also this map isnt set when the show picks up, its set when the Fire Nation first started
the war and rapidly expanded/wiped out the air nation. I cant really give them a boost
akin to the comet, so thats what the pre-deployed units are for. OS/AB can combine their
forces and head south, but i assumed they would split up in order to capture more
properties. Either way i do expect them to charge ahead. I dont pretend to be great at map
making so i cant completely predict what will happen nor am i completely sure if OS/AB
will completely dominate or end up overextending and being at a funding disadvantage.
Thats why i created a game to see how things pan out. If OS/AB do dominate, ill cut back
on their pre-deployed forces or reduce the properties on the Fire Nation island or
increase properties near GS/BM/GE.

Perhaps im confused in my understanding of how having multiple HQs work, but i think that
(please correct me if im wrong) a side isnt defeated until all its HQs are captured and if
a HQ is captured, it becomes a city. So i dont see how GS could be defeated so quickly
since they have 4 total HQs with 2 being a bit far from fire nation forces. They may lose
one of the near islands or perhaps both, but hopefully they should still be able to
infuence the outcome of the game. I also dont see how OS/AB would automatically win if it
captures one of each HQ. BM has 2 HQs in the North and South and GE has 2 HQs where Ba
Sing Se and Omashu are.
Xmo5 (09/30/2015 09:19am | Edited: 09/30/2015 09:33am):
That's how labs work, not HQs. No matter how many HQs a player has, capturing a single one
will eliminate them. If a player has no HQs and instead has labs, they must all be
captured to eliminate the player. If a player has both HQs and labs, then capturing the
labs does not eliminate the player and capturing a single HQ eliminates the player.

Also, I highly recommend modifying it so that it's designed around the point where the
show picks up because that will make the battle more fair and interesting. Remember that
to be a good map, it must first be fun and fair(ish) to play on. After that, you have as
much freedom as you want to make it like something else (like TLA).

If you're insistent on keeping the setup as is, I'd look for other ways around the "Fire
nation is super powerful at the beginning" concept. For example, you could give them
preowned cities and towers within reasonable distance of their enemies (so they will
eventually be captured) but far enough away that some fighting will take place first. You
could even set up an infantry/mountain timer with cities and towers so that they don't
have to interact with the main battle. Regardless, something like this could make the fire
nation much stronger to start, but then watch the tides reverse. If you lose the
predeployeds, that could be an easier way to make your idea playable.
clord666 (09/30/2015 09:56am):
I changed some of the HQs to labs. The positions of the cities correspond with locations
in TLA to an extent so id rather nor change the setup unless I can help it (that is if
games are completely unbalanced and this cant be remedied without altering the map).
Also i dont think OS/AB is too OP now since i cut back a bit on the predeployed units.
Like i said if they dominate the game ill definitely cut back on their pre-deployed units
and properties.
Fruitigal (10/11/2015 01:46am):
Would changing 6,26 to a blank port throw out the balance? (if want another port for the
other half of the team can be 9,19, again leave it blank, in exchange for the city located
there), but it just seems like for AB and OS that, as the other 3 Co, would be working
together and therefore they would not be fighting each other than for AB and OS, with the
limited land, and close proximity that it may be in favour for the other team. There is
also the lack of foothold for them, since there is no city for airports to fight from,
without the alliance getting there first.
clord666 (10/11/2015 03:19am):
Firstly im not sure what the coordinate system is, but most of the properities roughly
correspond with locations from the show The Last Airbender. And if it does become too hard
for AB/OS to get a foothold and they lose, ill make some of the closer neutral cities into
bases or give them more cities on their island.



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