@defender, very strange, since  the TBServer process is still running and was started on October 16.
I tested connecting to it and it worked just fine for me.
I'm not sure why you wouldn't have been able to connect all those different times.
Are you able to connect to it now? As I said, nothing has changed since October 16.

@zakc93, cool, though I am unsure what kind of maps he was working with.
It sounds like they were maps to represent the layout of a playground.
Since you took part in the study, can you describe some of the techniques he used to make maps more understandable?
Or how about you Defender, since it looks like you participated as well.
I'll certainly read his findings if he publishes them.
Or better yet, try his digital map prototype if he publishes that.

I've brainstormed some map ideas for a game like Risk, which is played on a rough map of the world.
Obviously that gets interesting since each territory/country is of a different size, and is certainly not laid out in a grid.
Though I think grids work pretty well for many types of games.

@Cody_91, I hear ya.
The unit time limit is intended to keep a multiplayer game moving.
It wouldn't be necessary for single player, and could probably even be turned off in multiplayer if 2 friends trusted each other to keep the game going.
Chess is often played with timers, especially if the 2 players are in a tournament, so I think this fits that analogy well.

@Defender, oh bummer, I just reset the TBServer process in case that will help with your issue.
Hopefully it does, since I have not been in the TB code for ages and do not have the time to hunt down bugs in the multiplayer.

I like age of warlords because the excessively many weaker units I can just set to AI and have them do their own thing. I only manually manage the more powerful units with abilities that the AI wouldn't know to use properly. So even though the number of units can get a bit much at least you don't have to control them all individually, you can let the AI do some or even all of the work for you if you want.
About the map in the study, it wasn't anything revolutionary, it also used directional sounds to indicate what's around you, and other basic things already used in games. But I'm assuming the point is to improve it, so there might be more interesting things in future.
Oh and the tactical battle multiplayer has been buggy for a long time actually, not sure when it started because it did work once upon a time.

I'm the one doing my masters on Nonvisual Modeling and Mapping.
Here is my Prototype
(Press t twice to turn on sounds and press \ to switch to using your screen reader rather than the self-voicing feature).
My goal is to take the amazing innovations in games like Tactical Battle, Swamp, and a Hero's Call, and apply them to Google Maps, ESRI, and NOAA maps.
It's true grids have their limitations, but at the moment, they're a whole lot better than the 1 dimensional interface in "WCAG compliant maps".
This version of the prototype I'm just using standard interface conventions.
In the future I'm going to explore ways of representing curves. But hands down, Audio Games are the best place to test these kinds of things, because users perform extreme testing in safe circumstances and give their feedback very clearly.
With identifying shapes with grids: If curves are so important, why have no Audio Games used them yet? (if you know of an Audio Game that uses curves, let me know!)
Although in my research, I found that it is probably more urgent to tackle the "map at a glance" problem.
For example, in Tactical Battle, it would be more effective if someone could press a button and see any major changes to the map after their turn in a matter of a few seconds, rather than needing to go through each square. Players are very good at going through grids to get an overview, but in my map, if you went as fast as you could through the squares in grid view, it would take you about 5 minutes to see the whole map. This is good, but I'm sure it could be better.
I know most of my time in Tactical Battle is spent looking at the map to figure out where the enemy troupes are.
Edit:
I now read all the posts and @Ian, what you are doing is exactly what needs to happen. One of my objectives is to get people outside the Audio Game community looking at what Audio Games are doing to solve these data visualization problems.
There is a Community of Auditory Display and @Ian your map innovation, no matter if it works or not, NEEDS to be presented there.
My goal is to bring ICAD and the Audio Game community together. There is a whole lot more funding and jobs through ICAD and academia than there is in Audio Games sadly, and many of the funded projects I've seen would be 100000 times better if @Ian was building them, for example.
I could talk for hours on just how much the Audio Game community has to offer, but I need to write my thesis.
@Ian I would love to talk with you and collaborate. Please add me on skype:
brandonkeithbiggs (From Gilroy).

@defender Yes, it does.. Audioquake's layout is something that has been really well done.

I couldn't get the version linked on page 1 to work, but I still have another one so that's OK for now.
Though, for maps like Warlords, with multaple races you can choose from, I wish the units had more abilities and stuff to their race. Like, Humans and Terrens work fine, there basicly the same speacies