Map Check v2: 3 player Manta
This is a follow-up to my previous post, which had some excellent feedback. I did some more reading and youtube-ing, and a bunch more iterations (and alot of math; hopefully enough?) The design goal is still "use the wormholes as pseudo-hyperlane tiles to try and emulate the Trident map."
Some general notes: I tried to make the equidistants (31 and 34, but also sort of 37 and 38) highly desirable to drive player interaction (double systems, 3 of them with tech skips). With that in mind, I tried to make the individual slices relatively poorer (though not too poor, since we're all new players). Each slice gets four planets; a double system directly in front of the home system, and two singles. To break down each slice further...
Left slice - optimal total 9 (optimal resources 3.5, optimal influence 5.5)
- Pros
- Wealthiest slice
- While not technically part of the slice proper, has first access to 37
- Tiles 24, 31 (equidistant) and 37 give red/yellow/red tech skips for potential war suns
- Cons
- Nebula blocking access to Mecatol
- 26 is further away than corresponding planets in other slices
Center slice - optimal total 7 (optimal resources 4, optimal influence 3)
- Pros
- Has planets in every system on the way to Mecatol
- Has 3 tech skips in slice (blue, green and yellow), without considering equidistants
- Balanced between resources and influence
- Cons
- Being in the middle means more likely to compete with the other two systems over equidistant systems. The other two slices have access to one equidistant and one "behind Mecatol" system; this slice just has access to the two equidistants.
Right slice - optimal total 7 (optimal resources 4.5, optimal influence 2.5)
- Pros
- Asteroid Field and empty space/warp tiles (47 & 39) create space to make this slice more defendable/independent.
- Planets in slice are all adjacent to home system
- Good tech skips (green in slice, blue in equidistant)
- While not technically part of the slice proper, has first access to 38
- Cons
- Empty space on way to Mecatol doesn't slow them down like Left Slice, but is less efficient to race to Mecatol like Center Slice.
- Low Influence can (and probably will) impact command tokens
This map was inspired by SCPTs Trident map, and has enough of each planet type and tech skips so that all objectives are scorable. Thanks to users u/Nori_Kelp, u/Turevaryar, and several others for your constructive feedback!