Continent shape, geography, barriers and (mental) influence on territory held.

[Figment]

So we've seen Indar. Sooner or later we'll be seeing some other continents. So far most of us seem to be under the impression a T-split will occur on Indar, mostly due to the permanent sanctuary warpgates. I think enough has been said about that particular split.


However, what we've not really discussed is the influence of geography and base layout on the map division.

If you look at Indar, the first thing you notice is that it's one almost square landmass. This makes us as a symmetry and pattern seeking species already biased to cutting it up in equal shares. Another thing I think we need to keep in mind is that we, as humans, also like "nice borders". Hence if we divide something in pieces, we like that border to be smooth and have some sort of aesthetic appeal. Such "perfection" of border seems to generate a protective illusion of safety perhaps: the border is visualy complete and uninterrupted.


With the more recent knowledge gained regarding Indar, the T-split seems to be further encouraged by the continent having multiple "climate" zones that create more "natural" boundaries and zones exactly along the edges of the "T". The barrier can be physical and literally block you from passing, but can also be mental and self-imposed. Either through intimidation or clear separation. Typically such geographical features form mental barriers and territorial barriers as it indicates a crossing into someone else's territory.

More or less how a river or mountainrange says "this is the border", but similar mental barriers ("their side, our side") are formed by more artificial features like walls, fences, hedges, highways and railroads. Sometimes you have buffer zones, neutral territory or conflict zones as well. A canyon or open road can also create a "natural path of expansion".

Now, with PS1 it was quite easy to predict how a sequence of bases would fall due to the lattice and the lack of imagination of some people to use other lattices. Typically there were clusters of bases that would be grouped together mentally. As such, bases, towers and outposts can also be mentally grouped together as part of the same piece of territory, or as border markers.

Typically groupings were made by relative distance, but other groupings had again something to do with geography or otherwise: islands, in-crater, out-of-crater, lattice links and of course, the biggest grouping of all: continents.

In PS1 then the most noticable mental borders to say "this territory is yours and this is ours" were the warpgates themselves and entire continents were assigned to factions (home continents) or considered "neutral/free for all". On any continent itself, the borders were vague and nobody would be hesitant to move into someone elses territory once the initial barrier was passed.


So the questions I'm posing now are:

1. How can you design continents such that the quantity of terrain held by an empire fluctuates a lot?
2. What are the influences of hexagon formations, patterns and distributions?
3. How can you influence mental boundaries?
4. What is the treshold for a player to cross such boundaries?
5. How can you create continents such that the mental and physical control a foothold provides over nearby hexes is reduced and makes those hexes more likely to be taken?

If you have any other comments on mental and physical distribution of territory, let's hear it.