Creation Resource Library

This thread is designed to supply links to excellent websites that we've found useful to us - so that others can spend their time creating...and not researching. I would like to make this thread a research library, much like the unit library Lab Monkey made in the Unit Creations forum.

With that, if there is anyone who would like to add a link, please post it & a brief explanation of what can be found there, for maps, resources, Civs, or notable wars. Please do not post in this thread unless you have a link to submit. Please use PM's to respond to people in this thread if you do not have a link to share - or if you prefer to keep the thread from over-expanding, feel free to PM me with the link & I will post it in the following directory (along with your name for credit).

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Great source for information on modern countries, including a map with major cities, a general background on the Civ, imports/exports, government, military, etc.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/index.html
Another source for modern information on many major countries in the world. The site is deep, but a little surfing can get some nice info.

http://www.country-data.com/
Great general source for each country, overviewing all aspects.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/
Large database of maps. Includes general outline maps to thematic maps.

http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/
Directory of US states that includes shaded relief maps, satellite images, and county maps.

http://www.solarviews.com/raw/earth/earthcyl1.jpg
Shaded relief map of the entire Earth.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd/
Directory of many, many, many historical maps showing mostly political boundaries.

http://www.runningdeerslonghouse.com/webdoc111.htm
Map showing location of Indian tribes in US and parts of Canada & Mexico.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/
Clickable map of world that zooms in to show countries & major cities within.

http://www.sitesatlas.com/Maps/countries.htm
List of many country maps that include cities & major roads.

http://worldatlas.com/aatlas/world.htm
World map that allows you to click areas to zoom in several times. The final map often shows elevations as well as major cities, rivers, lakes, etc.

http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/we...american revolution pages/ar overview map.htm
Battle locations of the American Revolution on a large map of the East Coast of the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Great online Encyclopedia.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/index.html
Great site for specifics on what many countries use today in their militaries.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/18738.pdf
PDF format - Breakdown by country detailing military equipment used in recent times.

http://www.scramble.nl/airforces.htm
Great site for information on each country's Air Forces.

http://www.country-data.com/
Great general source for each country, but if you select one off the list and look down towards the bottom of the outline - you will find a detailed list of military equipment for each branch of service.

http://www.themilitaryzone.com/military_bases.html
A list of American military bases on home soil.

http://themilitaryzone.com/foreign_bases.html
A list of American military bases on foreign soil.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=59115

-Oz

There's a site with most of all the countries ciity names. When I find it I'll post a link

Here's a good search site. Its meant for doing research in school K-12
Here's the link netTrekker

Its a great site for research for the civilopedia.

http://miniatures.de/html/ger/nomenclature02.html - Information on middle ages/renaissance military. Very expansive, but very brief.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities
List of cities by country

Here's a nice little site with a lot of background information and unit models for ships (though some of them have been done already, some, i believe, have not):

http://www.flyinglab.com/pirates/catalog/ship.php

in trying to pick flavour and custom units for my home mod, i wanted to find a freeware FLC viewer... this one shows them frame by frame. dont know if there are any others, but it was enough to help me.

homepage: www.xnview.com

download links for different o/s: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/endownload.html

EW

All sorts of geographical data including maps:

http://www.maps.ethz.ch/map_catalogue-thematic1.html#mineral


I'm having a LOT of trouble finding a world map with general resources on it (i.e. different colored dots representing different resources). Yoou'd think that would be easy, it's not. There are individual country maps which are either way to specific thus making it difficult to translate the data into Civ3's extremely simple format, or the data is not specific to location (i.e. gives you the types of natural resources available to that country but not their locations in the country, hence quite useless for the purposes of map design).

I would REALLY appreciate a link to such a map.

yoshi said:

All sorts of geographical data including maps:

http://www.maps.ethz.ch/map_catalogue-thematic1.html#mineral


I'm having a LOT of trouble finding a world map with general resources on it (i.e. different colored dots representing different resources). Yoou'd think that would be easy, it's not. There are individual country maps which are either way to specific thus making it difficult to translate the data into Civ3's extremely simple format, or the data is not specific to location (i.e. gives you the types of natural resources available to that country but not their locations in the country, hence quite useless for the purposes of map design).

I would REALLY appreciate a link to such a map.

Click to expand...

All I can offer are the historical/area maps found here (and there are some good ones) with the sad note that the one truly global site is now a dead link.

Good Luck,

Oz

Thanks. That's one nice thread you've put together.

Actually, I re-checked sourboy's first map link and found a workld map that I'd overlooked with resources on it (it's just a bit vague though and missing a lot of data):

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-mineral-map.htm


BUT this weekend, I was rummaging through some books and found, would you believe it, a 1995 Oxford Encyclopedic World Atlas that I'd forgotten I had and it has EXACTLY what I was looking for (maps of each continent with resources AND power stations, farming, industry, terrain types EVERYTHING. The map is simple, but accurate (the resource map of Europe is particularly good due to the scale).

I would love to scan and post it for all to see (and use, as this is the best I've ever seen by far so I would recommend it to ANY map designer--especially those that make wonderful maps but fail when it comes to proper resource placement ). Problem is, I'm not sure about the legality of this. If it's legal, I'll post it (I'll also post the related political maps so you can determine whose border they fall under).

For general reference, I put together a list of resources and terrain types that I got from the map legends (many mods could use more realistic resources):

Strategic (?)

- Iron Ore
- Nickel
- Chromium
- Tungsten
- Manganese
- Titanium
- Molybebdenum
- Beryllium
- Cobalt
- Vanadium
- Copper
- Tin
- Lead
- Zinc
- Gold
- Silver
- Bauxite
- Gypsum
- Salt
- Coal
- Crude Oil
- Natural Gas
- Asbestos
- Silica
- Uranium
- Potash
- Sodium Sulphate
- Sulphur
- Platinum
- Vanadium
- Mercury
- Magnesium
- Antimony
- Mica
- Diamonds
- Zirconium
- Ferro Alloys
- Phosphate
- Aluminium

- Timber (required by early ships and buildings?)

- Grain (big freight item)

Luxury (?)

Crops:

- Bananas
- Barley
- Citrus Fruits
- Coffee
- Cotton
- Date Palms
- Groundnuts
- Maize
- Millet
- Potatoes
- Rice
- Rubber
- Soya Beans
- Sugar Beet
- Sugar Cane
- Tea
- Tobacco
- Vines
- Wheat
- Flax
- Oats
- Olives
- Rye
- Cacao
- Cloves
- Coconut Palms
- Palm Oil
- Sisal
- Fruit
- Vegetables

- Fruit Trees
- Vineyards
- Market Gardens

(Note that some of these are natural and others planted.)

Livestock:

- Beef Cattle
- Dairy Cattle
- Sheep


Terrain Types:

- Coniferous Forest (replace Pine Forest?)
- Plateaux
- Lowlands
- Shipping Lanes (replace Sea)
- Earthquake Zone (replace Volcano)
- Tropical Forest (replace Jungle)
- Steppe
- Savanna
- Arable Land
- Evergreen
- Non-Productive Land

[Note that the above is all taken from modern maps; historically, much of this would not have been available to civs.]


If you want their uses, you can check online by typing in the resource and definition ro something.

Example: Google, 'definition Copper list of uses'

One of the sites you get:

http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/elements/copper/copper.htm

(I'll post the resource maps in their own thread.)

yoshi said:

(I'll post the resource maps in their own thread.)

Click to expand...

When you do so, I'd PM a mod and try to get it stickied.

Best,

Oz

I PM'd TF. Said it was okay. Problem is, the files are bigger than 3 MB. Has yet to get back to me about that.