I am pleased to provide my map 'Arcanearth' to the community. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did making and playing it. This map is for folks that get tired of the randomness of random maps and want to play something carefully designed and thought out, with lots of flavor and surprises, but not really a 'scenario'...just a cool map.
--------- Version II 'Arcanearth_II' now linked: ----------
Arcanearth II
Changes:
1. No Acheron. Replaced with an immobilized Acheron somewhere on the map, plus goodies. Also added Eurebatres the gold dragon somewhere on map. You can't capture these however.
2. major changes to Eurasian continent: central mountains are now huge and feature various habitable valleys. Eastern steppes now extend all the way to the central atlantean ocean.
3. replaced Luchuirp with Sheaim; Used good leader for Ljosalfar; Moved Clan to old Luchuirp start position. Added Calabim to old Clan start position. Now 6 evil civs in total, 4 good. 3 neutral - a challenge for the good player now. Made these changes after finding that the good civ's central position gave them a distinct advantage over the evil civs around the periphery of the world. But feel free to mix and match the civs to your taste, though you will have to look at the map in WB of course.
4. Fixed various problems
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The inspiration behind this map is an alternate or parallel 'Arcane' Earth with large realistic areas of terrain approximating the coverage found on modern Earth Eurasia/North Africa. That being said, I took full liberty to create an interesting fantasy map. Types of terrain include a huge jungle, vast deserts and steppes, extensive mountain ranges with limited strategic passes, including high icy passes (blizzards at the highest elevations), long Amazon and Nile type river systems and deltas, a 'Mediterranean' ocean, fjords and ice floes, tropical west-indies/bahamas island system, an 'Atlantis', a south-east Asian area of swamps, jungles and lowlands, a 'British isle' connected to mainland 'Europe' via landbridge, and others...
Map Tech Details:
- Regular size map (but I think you will find it feels much 'larger' due to the realistic terrain and difficulty of crossing it).
- top latitude=80; bottom latitude=-45; wrap X=1; wrap Y=0
- Civs: 13 are included: Lanun, Malikim, Clan, Sheaim, Elohim, Ljosalfar, Svartalsfar, Bannor, Amurites, Doviello, Illians, Khazad, Hippus. 6 Evil, 4 Good, and 3 Neutral Civs.
- All civs are placed in a location unique to their culture and specific strengths/weaknesses. With minor map tweaks, you could squeeze in 1-3 additional civs (not recommended).
- Geographic placement and seperation between civs curbs worldwide spread of FoL and RoK, giving other religions a chance to develop.
- All Unique Features are present and placed in sensible and interesting (if not necessarily convenient) locations.
- Resource placement is clustered, with most civs having surpluses in their specific regional resources, and shortages of most other resources. For example, 'Italy' has wine and marble surpluses, while the 'Nile River' system has incense and cotton surpluses. This dramatically improves the value of trade and creates a system of mutual interdependence that can make war much more costly. Some civs which have strong easy start positions have few resources, others in more difficult locations have more. The more strategic resources (metals, incense, reagents) are very rare, and controlled by those civs that would logically settle in areas with culture-related resources. For instance, unless you are very lucky, befriending the dwarves could be your only way to get Iron. And there is only 1 mithril in the entire world.
Other notes:
- The base FF2 AI is not great at playing certain civs due to their unique placements, in order of badness: Amurites, Doviello, Lanun.
- All civs can make a good game of it, though of course they are not 'equal'.
The Map:
Arcanearth II
--------- Version II 'Arcanearth_II' now linked: ----------
Arcanearth II
Changes:
1. No Acheron. Replaced with an immobilized Acheron somewhere on the map, plus goodies. Also added Eurebatres the gold dragon somewhere on map. You can't capture these however.
2. major changes to Eurasian continent: central mountains are now huge and feature various habitable valleys. Eastern steppes now extend all the way to the central atlantean ocean.
3. replaced Luchuirp with Sheaim; Used good leader for Ljosalfar; Moved Clan to old Luchuirp start position. Added Calabim to old Clan start position. Now 6 evil civs in total, 4 good. 3 neutral - a challenge for the good player now. Made these changes after finding that the good civ's central position gave them a distinct advantage over the evil civs around the periphery of the world. But feel free to mix and match the civs to your taste, though you will have to look at the map in WB of course.
4. Fixed various problems
-------------
The inspiration behind this map is an alternate or parallel 'Arcane' Earth with large realistic areas of terrain approximating the coverage found on modern Earth Eurasia/North Africa. That being said, I took full liberty to create an interesting fantasy map. Types of terrain include a huge jungle, vast deserts and steppes, extensive mountain ranges with limited strategic passes, including high icy passes (blizzards at the highest elevations), long Amazon and Nile type river systems and deltas, a 'Mediterranean' ocean, fjords and ice floes, tropical west-indies/bahamas island system, an 'Atlantis', a south-east Asian area of swamps, jungles and lowlands, a 'British isle' connected to mainland 'Europe' via landbridge, and others...
Map Tech Details:
- Regular size map (but I think you will find it feels much 'larger' due to the realistic terrain and difficulty of crossing it).
- top latitude=80; bottom latitude=-45; wrap X=1; wrap Y=0
- Civs: 13 are included: Lanun, Malikim, Clan, Sheaim, Elohim, Ljosalfar, Svartalsfar, Bannor, Amurites, Doviello, Illians, Khazad, Hippus. 6 Evil, 4 Good, and 3 Neutral Civs.
- All civs are placed in a location unique to their culture and specific strengths/weaknesses. With minor map tweaks, you could squeeze in 1-3 additional civs (not recommended).
- Geographic placement and seperation between civs curbs worldwide spread of FoL and RoK, giving other religions a chance to develop.
- All Unique Features are present and placed in sensible and interesting (if not necessarily convenient) locations.
- Resource placement is clustered, with most civs having surpluses in their specific regional resources, and shortages of most other resources. For example, 'Italy' has wine and marble surpluses, while the 'Nile River' system has incense and cotton surpluses. This dramatically improves the value of trade and creates a system of mutual interdependence that can make war much more costly. Some civs which have strong easy start positions have few resources, others in more difficult locations have more. The more strategic resources (metals, incense, reagents) are very rare, and controlled by those civs that would logically settle in areas with culture-related resources. For instance, unless you are very lucky, befriending the dwarves could be your only way to get Iron. And there is only 1 mithril in the entire world.
Other notes:
- The base FF2 AI is not great at playing certain civs due to their unique placements, in order of badness: Amurites, Doviello, Lanun.
- All civs can make a good game of it, though of course they are not 'equal'.
The Map:
Arcanearth II
