400-series Highways Map

[NuclearMarathon]

I wanted to come back to mapmaking to finish my QWC (Quebec City - Windsor Corridor) Map by restarting it from scratch to overcome the issues with making the proper sized army circles and finding the room to fit it all within the parameters of the Large and Small map sizes.

But I came out with a different idea for the map instead: Instead of a map based on the QWC, it seems like a better idea and more interesting gameplay for a map based on the 400-series Highways! So I went over each stretch of highway and came up with this list:

400 | 401 | 402 | 403 | 404 | 407 ETR | 416 | 417 | Queen Elizabeth Way | Gardiner Expressway | Don Valley Parkway | 7 | 11 | 17 | 115

Each of these highways would have two lanes going in opposite directions (northbound, southbound, eastbound, westbound). So then each highway's lane would have its own territory (except hwys 7, 11, 17, 115), and some being so long would be divided into sections.

And from all of the contruction that goes on maintaining and expanding these routes, I thought it'd be cool of using the idea of armies of roadworkers. But workers don’t live on the highways, instead they need cities to supply them. So routes don’t give you any armies, but each city on the map gives you armies instead:

Major Cities: Toronto | Barrie | Sudbury | Windsor | Kingston | Montreal | Hamilton | Ottawa | Niagara Falls
Minor Cities: New Market | Parry Sound | London | Kitchener | Mississauga | Oshawa | Belleville | Brockville | Cornwall | Sarnia | St Catharines | Peterborough | North Bay | Pembroke

And finally, since highways constantly draw from the taxpayers for maintainance and expansion, I thought that for bonuses, there could be territories for “government funding” for each certain highway (only if you have armies on the matching routes, of course). And a couple of the lesser highways (11, 17) can be funded to become 400-series highways (411, 417).

After organising a design system, I have sorted out there to be 82 territories in total for this map.

[Industrial Helix]

Cut it down to around 60 territories, I think. No need for overcomplications. Also, how about a draft?

[NuclearMarathon]

It's just a quick sketch, and it's not really to proportionate scale of the end-result (it won't be proportoinate to a realworld map in the end)

[bigimg]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/Sikauran/400/400-draft1.jpg[/bigimg]

Each black dot with an arrow on it is a lane of one direction (ie: northbound/southbound/eastbound/westbound). Each of these lanes will have predictable nomenclature (ie: "401 E to Toronto", "400 N to Sudbury", "Gardiner Expy W", etc).

[Industrial Helix]

You're going to need a digital draft for this to move into gameplay.

[TaCktiX]

You've definitely got a good gameplay sketch worked out right now. What I would caution against is Rail similarities. Cairns milked the maptype for all it was worth (4 Rail maps IIRC, and he would have done a fifth in Asia). Try to harness some things about highways that only highways have as gameplay elements, or make sure the graphics convey "Road" more than the easy comparison to "Rail." In other words, enforce the thematic differences.

[morleyjoe]

Like the idea, having grown up in Ontario and having traveled every Hwy on the map.

You could add the 427, the 406 from St. Catharines to Welland, and possibly Hwy 11 to connect Newmarket to Barrie. Also, QEW goes through Niagara Falls but ends at Fort Erie where it crosses to Buffalo. Niagara Falls also has the 420 and the 405 Queenston. As for Montreal, you should note the Quebec highways there, not the 417 and 401.

Maybe an extra bonus for the 407, as it is the only toll route, and makes it much quicker to get around. But it burned the Ontario Gov't as they foolishly sold it the an overseas company. Or an extra bonus for the carpool lanes on the 403, 404/DVP, and soon the QEW.

As for future roads, there is no 411 planned or otherwise, 427 is heading a little further north, 407 is to start moving east to 115 with 2 connections to the 401, and a conceptual Niagara mid-peninsula highway is considered between Fort Erie and Hamilton.

Cheers!
[player]morleyjoe[/player]