Don't forget World Diplomacy IX (19 players).
Personally I don't know, but such a variant would be nice :)

My bad. World Dip has 17.

Creating a variant of that size from scratch would be extremely time consuming and difficult to balance. Perhaps you could search variantbank for one of that size to suggest gets coded?

Perhaps there's a way to re-design WWIV with 24 countries starting with 4 SCs each?

I know nothing about variants design, but I get what you mean, Hellenic Riot.

http://www.variantbank.org/players/20+player.asp

The sole 24 players variant is called "Mercator IX".
Unknown designer .
The map is not visible, though.

If no one can find out more about Mercator IX, the I have an idea: I remember one thread that talked about making a variant out of a city/college map. I was thinking that maybe we could divide up New York, London, Beijing or some other large city so that it was divided into 24 groups. We could also have the subways be like in Haven where there is an underground section of the map and there are certain territories that connect to the underground portion of the map, in this case it would be where ever there are subway stations. We could have important buildings be SC's. We could also have two types of units, armies, and either tanks, or bicycles. The tanks could have the power of two armies, but be unable to move into buildings, or there could be bicycles, which could move two spaces, but also not move into buildings. To make a map we could pretty much just take a map of the city and convert it into a Diplomacy style map by tracing over it or something. I was thinking about doing it with New York because I am American so I know it better than most other big cities, but the rivers might be a problem. There multiple bridges and tunnels that could allow units through, and that might make the game more interesting, or it might cause problems with units bottlenecking, and the game stalling because people cannot cross the rivers. However, the problems Hellenic Riot pointed out would probably surface.

The city idea is pretty fascinating. A NYC map with a player for each borough could be interesting.

Some more indicators possibly useful in order to compare Variants:

I’ll include the top of the list, the bottom of the list, Classic for reference and the 2 most popular multiplayer Variants: WWIV , Modern_II (Classic FoW is popular but has the same parameters of Classic obviously)

Total number of SCs:
244 World War IV
172 Imperial Diplomacy II
122 Colonial 1885
109 Known World 901
102 Haven
… …
64 Modern Diplomacy II
… …
34 Classic
… …
17 War in 2020
16 Sail Ho II
15 843: Treaty of Verdun
15 NorthSea Wars
7 Pure




Total number of Territories (map partitions):

513 World War IV
346 Imperial Diplomacy II
269 Known World 901
257 Colonial 1885
238 Haven
… …
141 Modern Diplomacy II
… …
75 Classic
… …
37 Classic Touchy
32 843: Treaty of Verdun
31 NorthSea Wars
27 War in 2020
7 Pure




SCs / players ratio: the average size of a power in the Variant (when neutrals SCs are all held):
Duels variants are not listed in this case, they all have a greater ratio.

14.8 World War II
13.2 Imperial Diplomacy II
13.2 Youngstown World War II
13.0 Classic - Pick your countries
12.2 Colonial 1885
… …
7.0 World War IV
… …
6.4 Modern Diplomacy II
… …
4.9 Classic
… …
3.1 Classic - NoNeutrals
1.7 War in 2020
1.0 Classic - Chaos
1.0 Classic - Chaoctopi
1.0 Pure

Apprenticeship for variants design, part #2.
Other variants parameters:


SCs claustrophobia: How much the game starts close to a "Zero-sum game", aka, initial % of the map held by active players.
Duels variants are not listed in this case, they are at the bottom of the list.
100.0% Classic - Crowded
100.0% Classic - NoNeutrals
100.0% Classic - Chaos
100.0% Classic - Chaoctopi
100.0% Pure
92.3% Who controls America
88.2% Greek Diplomacy*
78.6% Classic Touchy
76.5% Hundred
75.9% Pirates
… …
64.7% Classic
… …
59.4% Modern Diplomacy II
… …
44.1% The Ancient Mediterranean
43.2% Sengoku
43.0% World War IV
38.7% Rat Wars
38.1% Africa
37.5% The Dutch Revolt
35.7% American Conflict
29.4% Classic - Italy+ Vs England+ Vs Russia
26.5% Classic - France vs Germany vs Austria
20.6% Classic - 1897

*Greek actually up to 88.2%





SC density: SCs / Territories ratio: average number of supply centers per Territory
100.0% Pure
75.7% Classic Touchy
63.0% War in 2020
60.2% Classic - Economic
56.6% Celtic Britain
52.2% Hussite Wars
52.1% Colonial Diplomacy
52.0% Who controls America
51.5% Indians of the Great Lakes
50.0% Balkan Wars VI
… …
47.6% World War IV
… …
45.4% Modern Diplomacy II
… …
45.3% Classic
… …
35.7% American Conflict
34.0% Greek Diplomacy
33.9% 1066 (V2.0)
32.8% Mars
32.7% 1066
32.2% Imperium Diplomacy
29.3% Classic - NoNeutrals
29.2% Duo
26.7% Sail Ho II
16.2% Rat Wars

Guaroz,

I admit that WWIV was the first variant I looked at in order to downsize to 24 players.
Looking at those numbers though, I wouldn’t use the WWIV map :
the current WWIV map has an average size of a power of 7.0 SCs.
Having 24 players instead of 35 would lead to an average size of a power of 10.2 SCs, which is a rather high value and would lead to an unnecessarily time-consuming process of unit-management.
The key point of the game is Diplomacy, not units, so I’d rather play a on a map where I have to command 2,5,15 units than a game where I have to command 5,25,80 units.
This means that in my opinion the WWIV environment is too big for a 24 players variant. I’d rather have 48 players than 24 in that map, but I’d never think that a 48 players game could work because of practical reasons.

This said, everything depends on what you mean with “re-design”.
I assumed you “only” wanted to change the initial sovereignty of SCs in order to have 24 powers instead of 35.
Else, if you mean merging or splitting Territories, adding or removing Territories, changing SCs locations… well, this process is equivalent to starting from scratch, it will take forever and is honestly beyond my possibilities.

The first. I meant re-assign or re-appoint SCs to 24 powers instead of 35. But you're right: the map is too big and it would produce a too high VC. So please forget my idea. Maybe look for a smaller map.

I have been experimenting with the idea of a "crowded" Imperial II variant. If you make it just like Classic Crowded (i.e. the game starts with all SCs 100% full) then you can squeeze in 22 new nations, with most new nations starting off with 3-4 SCs (like Mexico or CSA/Prussia/Austria). However, this sacrifices quite a bit of accuracy in the historical situation of 1860 (like putting Korea & Taiwan together, making the Native American tribes & Pacific islanders as politically united and powerful as the USA/CSA, etc.).

If you made the Imperial II map less crowded, adding say only 11 new nations, this would get you to the goal of 24 powers and still have some neutrals left over to bargain for.

The thing about Imperial II is that it doesn't even try to be balanced (at least in terms of starting SCs), so the essential character of the variant wouldn't be lost with adding some new nations even if their starting positions weren't as great as a world power like Britan. In fact, having more non-colonial powers in general might make it even harder on the worldwide empires. I am thinking in particular of Holland who can typically be aasured of locking up the Indian Ocean early on even if played with a minimum of effort.