ARCHIVED: Steampunk Worlds - Map Creation Thread

[Balthasar]

Size & position = relative importance, not geography, in the mod.

....well, you just lost the Argentinian vote. I really like what you did with this map. And I like the idea of an African "interior" too, with plenty of beasts, and Livingston, I presume.

 

[jlvfr]

Greenland is the curvy bit NE of Canada - at the same latitude as Scotland. Australia is on the extreme Eastern edge of the map, just below the equator. Those are two of the several parts of the world that were reduced in size relative to areas like England. Size & position = relative importance, not geography, in the mod.

Let's hope no aussie reads this!

 

[Blue Monkey]

....well, you just lost the Argentinian vote.

Well, the Euro-Argentinians are probably happy to be an important part of the Empire of Brasyl. The indigenes probably are unhappy both there or with the alternative of submission to Tikal.

Let's hope no aussie reads this!

No worries, mate! The sun never sets on the Anglian Empire! Victoria rules the orbs!
There are 4 North american civs. The Australian part of the Empire alone has about equal area to any of them.

And I like the idea of an African "interior" too, with plenty of beasts, and Livingston, I presume.

Room for Livingston, Burton, Roosevelt, Patterson & Ryall, Custer, Kurtz, H. Paget F., Holly & Vincey, D'Arnot, & Cordery. As well as their respective McGuffins.

I really like what you did with this map.

Now there's only the small formality of placing actual terrain, including LMs & solving the "Aetheric terrain" issues, together with the balance of resource placement. Civ start locations should be trivial.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Pellucidar isn't finished yet, but features prehistoric trees to go with the Dinosaurs.

Wandering around late one night I bumped into these (virtually). Looking at their surrounding terrain (marshy) it struck me (p.i.) that they might make an interesting forest/jungle for both Pellucidar & Amtor. They're a species of baobob peculiar to Madagascar.

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Okay, Balthasar. Please make a "lost worlds forest/jungle" terrain set for all of our benefit. Besides the Madagascar baobobs, there is the unique flora of Socotra Island, especially the Dragon's Blood Tree.

The linked site has many photos & links to the wikipedia article with links to further photo pages.

 

[Balthasar]

Okay, Balthasar. Please make a "lost worlds forest/jungle" terrain set for all of our benefit.

Well, all of the Pellucidar graphics are available right now in the Lost Worlds Map download. I'd like to do a complete prehistoric set one of these days, but right now I'm busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I've got a Western US trees set about half done, and an African set lined up after that, so it might be a minute before I get to it. The last set of buildings for the Lost World Mod is three-quarters done, and I have every intention of finishing that before I do anything else - but, thank you for your interest.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Well, all of the Pellucidar graphics are available right now in the Lost Worlds Map download. I'd like to do a complete prehistoric set one of these days, but right now I'm busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I've got a Western US trees set about half done, and an African set lined up after that, so it might be a minute before I get to it. The last set of buildings for the Lost World Mod is three-quarters done, and I have every intention of finishing that before I do anything else - but, thank you for your interest.

You're like me, plenty of irons, plenty of fire, just not enough hands. I'm patient, since my own work is so slow. I do reserve the right to remind you, further on down the road.

 

[AndrewG]

There's room for some remnants of Mu (Nan Madol?), Dilmun, Skull Island, & even an island I think of as a cross between Kôr, Adamawara & Nevèrÿon.

Hiya,

I don't know the current status of the map development part of this project, or if you're open to suggestions or anything, but looking at the map I see that there's room for R'lyeh somewhere off the southeastern coast of South America -- if it fits in with the game concept.

I love the way this is shaping up -- really looking forward to playing it!

 

[Blue Monkey]

I don't know the current status of the map development part of this project...

There's Balthasar's "Lost Worlds" map which I believe is currently becoming an actual biq, there is my own "Sceptre & Orbs" which is at the stage of placing & fine-tuning terrain, and there are rumors of an Earth-only map which I believe KingArthur can best comment on.

if you're open to suggestions or anything ...if it fits in with the game concept.

It seems you have answered your own question.

.

there's room for R'lyeh
.

TATTMWNMTK

 

[Blue Monkey]

The variety of terrain needed to do "Sceptre & Orbs" well is more than C3C can handle, without getting into the arcana of hex editing. Idly wrestling with it while listening to an audiobook of “the Coming Race” the light bulb came on. The Sceptre & Orbs biq will deal solely with the interplanetary romance. The underworld map elements & that culture group will be removed. A new biq "Hollow Earth" will take on that aspect of the SP alternate universe.

The map used in the conceptual graphic below is Rhye’s, the 134x 130 version with Europe enlarged. I’ve pasted on the polar regions from another map. The map will have vertical, as well as horizontal, wraparound. This simulates that one can journey from pole to pole through the nether regions. Given the 362 (x 362) tile limit the inner Earth can nearly equal the surface map in playable area. Rhye’s map has narrowed oceans. Extending them would increase the inner world’s area as well. I imagine that the several chthonic races will have their own enclaves & that the main contest will be for a larger central open area:
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Since the issues related to specialized terrain & limiting unit movement will be much simpler for the Hollow Earth, I’m going to let it take precedence over Sceptre & Orbs in my ever extending & receding work queue.

Thanks to Rhodie for making a "Typhoon" unit that helped with the conceptual breakthrough that makes this new approach postable. The Typhoon can stand-in for a Maelstrom that ships must get through to gain access to the North Polar entry point.

 

[Virote_Considon]

Very nice! Reminds me of a "cavern" mod I was working on a while back...

 

[Blue Monkey]

Here's a composite screenshot of a very early version of the Hollow Earth biq. The map is 156 x 362.

Thumbnail (very large original)


It has to be a composite because at this stage I haven't worked out which will be LM terrain & which standard. The largest "caverns" will share base terrains with the surface, although the forests will be quite different. To do this one area will use Grass & LM Plains, while the other will have Plains & LM Grass. I made myself a little chart to help me work out how to have as much terrain variety as possible. I've already worked out the basic concept for a few tricks, like making LM Desert = Tundra, which frees up a base terrain + two kinds of forest to play with. Here's a close shot of what Tundra turned into Tunnel looks like, with Mushroom & Stalagmite Forests.

 

[Moosezilla]

Abner Perry said he thought Pellucidar was the opposite (water where land,land where water) of the surface. He didn't have to be right. Good effort B.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Abner Perry said he thought Pellucidar was the opposite (water where land,land where water) of the surface. He didn't have to be right. Good effort B.

This is not a concave Hollow Earth, such as Cyrus Teed proposed. It's syncretic of several 19th century theories & tales. The North Polar entrance will be via a maelstrom (thanks go to Poe); The South Pole via a cavern passage (the type Verne used, as well as HPL & others). Later in the scenario there will be means to get into the underworld from other locations as well.

The large central area will be Pellucidar-like in terms of flora & fauna and primitive tribes, but there will also be Vril'ya, reptiloids, Ghul (a la HPL), chthonic mushroom farmers, a lost antediluvian civ (a la Haggard), Agharthans, and another surprise or three. Not to mention the mysterious regions on the surface, like Skull Island, Shambhala, the land of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, etc.

 

[Balthasar]

Keep this in mind: if you make all of the underground terrain LM terrain, it will be easier to manage and create, graphics-wise. Thats why I made Barsoom entirely from LM terrain. Water is insanely difficult to sort. The editor keeps wanting to drop non-LM water in at various points, depending on the nearby terrain, so my asteroids, for instance, represent a sort of dance I did with the program to make all of the unwanted LM sea disappear.

That's such a great underground you've got there. The tundra path makes it look a little like a salt cave. It's a bit bleak - it wouldn't hurt to have a few differently colored rocks in, here and there, unless this world is made entirely of, say, obsidian. On the other hand, it could all be even darker too, if that's the direction you're shooting. I daresay that my torches would look good in here. You might also consider using LM water for the underground seas (Maybe make use of EFZI water?).

Now I'm off to do a major overhaul of my own caves....

 

[Virote_Considon]

Nice map! I have a few scenarios with a similar concept which I have been working on at some point or other!

 

[Blue Monkey]

Keep this in mind: if you make all of the underground terrain LM terrain, it will be easier to manage and create, graphics-wise.

The major problem is that forests cannot be on LM terrain - the editor automatically changes it to the base terrain. So for both surface & underworld to have forests each must have the use of at least one base terrain. Thus the Gr / Lm Pl & Pl / Lm Gr set up. Since in the underworld I'll need cave like environments, as well as a variety of lighted terrains, the underworld gets use of the tundra - giving the choice of 2 base terrains, with pine & regular forest graphics for both, as well as the lm forest. Plus it can share the terrain used on the surface - the other base with its regular forest, pine, & jungle.

The tundra path makes it look a little like a salt cave. It's a bit bleak - it wouldn't hurt to have a few differently colored rocks in, here and there, unless this world is made entirely of, say, obsidian.

The graphics will be changing. There is another version of the stalagmites in a lighter brown. I'm going to make them more varied. The larger areas (grass / plains) are going have more of a "normal" look. So only the passages & the impassable rock will be dark in the end.

You might also consider using LM water for the underground seas

There is only LM Sea. Coast & Ocean have only the base version.

The only way beyond those limits is the hex-editing solution. I'm not up for dealing with that - my understanding is that it must be done tile by tile.

 

[Virote_Considon]

You can also make LM Coasts by placing down some LM terrain over where you want the coast to be, and then placing down LM Seas, turning the tiles into LM Coasts.

 

[Blue Monkey]

You're talking about extending the graphics into at least a second tile, a major graphics project at best. If you know someone who has successfully created such a set, let me know. Such a unique file's usefulness would then become very limited for other locations on the map - an important consideration.

 

[Blue Monkey]

I've been rethinking the conception of the Hollow Earth map. If I made the surface map more abstract and reduce the number of civs (2-3 per continent) then that would free up map space, terrain types, and civs for the Hollow Earth itself.

Here's a very sketchy schema:

 

[Midnight-Blue766]

Will there at least be a seperate "Steampunk Earth" Map if you are going for this new idea?