Thank you very much for your in depth analysis of how bonuses should be OxTheARTIST, I've decided that I will be following your way of bonuses in a way. I will have all the separate bonuses in a certain region add up so that it fits in with my scale, for example Egypt's singular bonuses would add up to make it the second most powerful, however to implement your idea, I will add super bonuses that will adhere to your scale so that one can play a representative and accurate diplo of the situation in the middle east right now like you've described, and they can also play different historical times and play a diplo game that would apply to potential power if all the countries were in a stable situation.

@Tabby, these games do exist, but very few people do them and they only usually happen in private games. I've seen OnlyThePie, xXOmegaXx, and CouchCoach do them (I did a variation of this once as well)

Yeah, this concept exists already. It's just hard to find games of it. I've played quite a few, and they're quite fun if the host stays active!

@Tabby Juggernaut (Zephaniah), i'd like to play a diplomacy series of games following these configurations. We could create a group of ACTIVE players to do it. We could change our roles on each game and make a ranking after this. We could limit the ammount of years (turns) we'd play on each game, perhaps 30-40.



As for the map, I have another sugestion. Maybe you should put the overlaping bonuses in the corner of the map (in order to avoid spaming too much the map with other bonuses.

Bonuses you could have there:
- Countries
- Rebel groups
- Ressource bonuses (Oil, Gaz, Water, Food)
- Holy Cities, Transport infrastructures and military bases bonuses


All these bonuses could be set to 0 in the settings, and game creators might chose which ones they'd like to have, if any of them xD.






Examples:

I approve of this suggestion.

Well, i'll see how can we organize such a series of games after this map is complete (it appears to me that it will be a perfect map to play this).

I will be incorporating a Suez canal right now and making a naval link from Istanbul, through Egypt and over to Yemen and to Hormuz to represent Trade in the middle east and to make use of the canal. As for the superbonuses being in the corner, that is what I planned to do and use flags for each nation, as for rebels I would use their self fashioned flags, eg ISIS' flag. If the rebels do not have a flag, I will design a 'typical' rebel flag for them. Also, an update for everyone, Egypt has had around 15+ territories added because the territories were overly large there.

Edited 1/31/2016 18:15:10

Also, what are your opinions of how the map is progressing right now, good or bad and are there any aesthetic issues right now?

I've added the canal, its a bit fat but it should serve the purpose. As for the ISIS flag, to save offense and any risk of illegal action, I will do as you've suggested Tabby Juggernaut. Also as for Libya and Afghanistan, they are part of the greater middle east and not the official recognition of the middle east, I might however make another map of the greater middle east for a wider range of roleplay possibility.

I think I could probably split the west bank into three but they would be very tight territories

@general amora, you're doing a very good job, keep doing it ^^. Maybe you could add a connection between Turkish Cyprus and Turkey; Turkish Cyprus is already a turkish puppet and it makes sense to do it as it's very close to Turkey. Maybe a few provinces representing the external powers on the region (american, and russian fleets as well as some russian bases at the caucasus and kazakstan) as their really crucial in the region and would be missed if not represented.

@Tabby Juggernaut (Zephaniah), yea of course we should add RP clans players. As for rules, the lack of in-game rules also make interesting maps. If there's a warmonger USA, other nations will fight him hard off (perhaps under russian banner?), it will also add to the roleplay, in other words, let the players decide in-game what to do. But we'll need rules to give points to every actions in-game, so a neutral moderator on every game in order to count those is needed. It would also be funny to have extra archivements in-game that could reward points.
Example extra-objectives:
-Israel must survive (USA)
-Israel must die (Iran)
-Iran influence must be countained (USA, Saudi Arabia and Israel)
-Russian influence must be countained (USA, Saudi Arabia and Turkey)
-USA influence must be countained (Russia, Iran)
-Kurdistan must be independent (Kurd Forces)
-Territorial integrity must be restored: Irak integrity restaured (USA, Irak and Iran), Syrian integrity restaured (Syria, Russia and Iran), Yemen integrity restaured (Iran or Saudi Arabia, depends on whom manages to win the war)
-ISIS must be defeated (Everyone)

I was wondering whether I should add city maps for the three most populous in the middle east, so Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran. I would have them worth only at most 3 tpt but they would add an interesting tactical standpoint, they would give opportunities to have things such as embassies, what do you all think? And they would add many more territories.

Edited 1/31/2016 19:30:55

It is a good idea.

@general amoora, I believe you should not add city maps, I think the map will become too large with city maps. Besides, these cities won't see much action, as they're in the middle of the countries and are then not key in any roleplaying. Maybe a small city map of Jerusalem might be good (10 provinces Max), but Cairo, Istanbul and Tehran are not (in my point of view) interesting for this map.

If you do cities, then definitely not Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran. These cities are big, populous and important yes, but barely any actual action happens around them because they're quite stable.

Some ideas if you actually do cities.

Jerusalem (some interesting skirmishes here with Jordan (historical) / Palestine)

Aleppo (must-have, if cities. Almost every group in Syria has some sort of outpost in this city)

Ramadi (not sure about this one. It is the city in Iraq with the most conflict between ISIS and Iraq)

Aden (not the biggest city in Yemen, but there is conflict between ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the government, and the Houthi rebels may make a push for it soon, seeing as they're close to taking Taizz)

Perhaps a close-up of Sinai? Either that or Arish. Not big, but there is some ISIS presence.

Maybe Dara'a as well, but there would already be Aleppo, and Aleppo is a lot more important.

Perhaps Baghdad? We may see some future fights here, but idk.


I don't know about cities, really for this map.

I REALLY think you should add:

Istanbul - Should enable a lot of possibilities for ancient templates, too. Byzantium/Constantinople ftw!

Cairo - Biggest growth in the region. It's stable NOW, but was stable not long ago, and stability may not continue for long.

Jerusalem - It's a holy city for everyone in the region. Need I say more?

Aleppo - Battle of Aleppo templates sounds pretty fun.

Baghdad - Not too stable and an important city.

Not a must, but good additions:

Damascus - Capital of the country going through a super violent conflict.

Raqqa - Capital of ISIS.

Mecca - Holy city for most of the region. Would be interesting and helpful for ancient templates too.

Tehran - Persia isn't being properly represented as the regional power they are. Stable? Sure, but had many uprisings and problems in the past. Could be a good addition.

Iskandariyya - Historically important, good for non-modern templates and still a big city nowadays.

Zephy I think you're thinking too historically. This is a modern map, and I think historical countries would look really weird on it :S

It would, but then again, don't we always use the modern maps for historical games? Flanderson's europe, world nations, afro-eurasia gargantuan...

Also, they are still ridiculously populous and important today, so why not? Good on both ways.

Leave the cities for the bigger middle east map you said you will make. There's no need for cities here, it won't add much but complicated connections everywhere.

Damascus - the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, the cultural and religious center of the Levant and was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750.
Today, Damascus is the centre of an metropolitan area with an estimated population of 5 million and is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries.