Accurate Earth Map in development

WORLD HISTORY MAP alpha has been released:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dgzvn4qss244951/WORLDHISTORYMAPalpha1.zip

!!!Grid must be turned off in order for this mod to work!!!

!!!WorldHistoryMap requires BTS 3.19!!!

~~~

This is the thread for the map and related features that are being used in my mod (World History Mod). As promised, it will be released in the coming days and the download will be inserted into this post.

Link to my mod development thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=6473712

FEATURES

Best map graphics~ In every way, this should be the best looking map yet released, and much of the art is my work. One could not count the number of ongoing graphical improvements.
New, highly accurate 255x166 world map~ This map uses a projectionless interpretation of the world, to give near-perfect proportions.
New resources, terrains, features/forests and improvements~ Something like 85 resources, and more of everything else, but all of it sensible to some degree.
Wintermod~ Simulates winters
Icemod~ Simulates ice cover, including colder periods (ie Little Ice Age)
Floodmod~ Simulates flooding in at-risk regions
Geographic Simulation~ Active volcanoes and coral reefs.
Other Changes~ Mountains are now passable to many units. Siege machinery will not be as mobile as in the past.

FUTURE/POSTPONED FEATURES:

Border Reform~ Borders do not go over water, though civs can still improve coastal resources. Now borders are more realistic and the seas are in fact "open."
Geographic Simulation~ Simulated forest industry with lumber mills- disappearance of forests, regrowth and lumber mill income adjustments
Domestication~ The power to see a resource is held by the civ(s) that historically discovered it, and it is gradually spread/traded.
Other Changes~ All ships can travel over ocean, but those that are not ocean-ready take damage each turn (earlier ships with less health will die more quickly). Deserts and winters damage each turn, unless accustomed to it (Russia, Viking, desert civs, etc).

BUG LIST



PATCH #1 TODO LIST

-fix bugs
-finish domestication system 50%
-port colonization light forest graphic (currently using a fake)
-minor improvements to several resources
-fix grid
-border reform (borders only go over land, but one problem: city can't work tiles outside borders and I need help fixing that)
-UN resolutions which will obsolete controversial resources
-more resources (kola nuts, sorghum?)
-resource depletion
-resource complements: ie cork gives boost to wine, mercury gives boost to gold mining

PATCH #2 TODO LIST

-animated goat, poultry, seal resource
-winter/desert combat
-highland/desert UP
-ship ocean travel mechanics
-improve orchard improvement
-lumbermill mechanics
-get supereruption to cause widespread famine

ALPHA RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2012

ESTIMATED BETA RELEASE DATE: UNKNOWN

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: HIGH
GAME REQUIREMENTS: BTS 3.19 ONLY

I presume this is for BTS?

You'll probably need to have more grasslands in Africa and SA, if only to make the continent more competitive with Europe or NA.

Also, North America doesn't really look right around the Baja Peninsula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:North_America_satellite_orthographic.jpg

It is BTS and it will probably remain that way. If the map is released with nothing, not even the extra resources I usually use, it is as simple as changing the extension of the map. However, even the mod might work with both warlords and bts.

About South America- balancing is not neccessarily an issue. What matters to me is that it simulates the earth. (I can always give disadvantages civs an advantrage in other ways, or leave it a challenge like in real life). But am I right to have all those plains, do you think, or does my method just completely not work for South America?

And Baja is pretty bad- that bulge is supposed to be mid level west coast usa. That bulge needs to be reduced and moved up a bit. Don't know how I didn't notice it much. I'll fix that now.

the shape of baja area should be better now. Just realized I forgot to do the mexican and us deserts.

kevinman4404 said:

About South America- balancing is not neccessarily an issue. What matters to me is that it simulates the earth. (I can always give disadvantages civs an advantrage in other ways, or leave it a challenge like in real life). But am I right to have all those plains, do you think, or does my method just completely not work for South America?

Click to expand...

It might work, you could always playtest it and see if it works or not.

Have you put in mountains yet? I'm not seeing any on the map.

lol because the map is so large (bigger even than the other "giant" earth maps) and this is in mapview, mountains roandomly appear and disappear when zooming. Answer is I've done some- rockies, appalacians, and any african ranges. I'd rather finish that in worldbuilder- just easy for me to see where mountains feel right.

just added african lakes like in the other earth maps, and realized my african drawing is in need of really heavy revision. It seems I didn't follow the method I used for the rest of the world. And I finished american deserts.

I'll edit in a picture with the improvements soon.

And abotu South America, again its balance. Does anyone think its possible that under that massive jungle there's a collossal amount of plains?

Thanks =]

I do think grasslands underneath is more accurate. Jungle land is actually really really good for growing crops (at least for a few years before the soil is depleted).

Please, please don't put a mountain blocking Central America like in the Earth18Civs map!

How many tiles square is your Iberian Peninsula (Spain)?

@ nitro, eek. what would you suggest to differentiate between the three terrains, other than sattelite images?

@ Athousandyoung- with the map being as large as it is there should be a way of crossing to cetral america. And Iberian pensinula, I don't know if that's just spain, spain and north morocco, the sea too, and if it includes portugale/pyrenees or not. But spain is a 6x6 square, barcelona is on a 4 long 4 down L with a corner tile between its two arms, and there are 2 lone tiles attached to the 6x6 square

hope it looks good to u guys so far, i will update before i go to bed

EDIT: thanks to my abuse of the fill tool in mapview, I lost all coasts and an update is delayed till tommorow afternoon.

You could follow the general outline in this map for SA and Africa.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184684

He did a good job of researching the sorts of land found in various areas of the world.

Cool map so far! Alaska still misses that kind of "tail" (I don't know if that penisula has a name, but a city called Chignik is on it) and some islands in the Bering Street. South of Australia Tasmania is missing. Keep on working on the map, I'm looking forward to play it!

I don't agree with the type of terrain used for Australia - too many plains, not enough grassland in the south east, south west and the tropical area in the north. Also you have left Tasmania off the map.

Remember Siberia is freezing cold but they got lots of Oil and resources.

Remember Utah has a S**tload of oil reserves. Alaska does too. Virginia, West Virginia has alot of coal and such. California Gold mines?

Canada has lots of mooses

Detroit has Faygo. DO NOT FORGET THE FAYGO. While other drinsk are steadily rising to $1.28 a bottle at Walmart, Faygo remains in 88cent form. And don't associate faygo with those DAMN CLOWNS!

@Iuvavus ~ Aleutians are being omitted due to the rotation of North America and Siberia. Tasmania is present at this time. You'll see it when I post the next picture.

@Hourlydaily ~ As I said, tasmania will make it into next update. As for land types, don't worry; I am goign to have 2 versions probably- this one is based on crop type, while the other one will be either some sort of research or traced from other maps. Preferably the former. At least one will have (more) grasslands on all 3 corners.

@Meatwad4289 ~ Lol. Anyways I am inputting resources based on personal geography knowledge, but mainly resource maps found in atlases. I am getting DK's The Great World Atlas just because it has small resource maps for every country. I just have to make sure that there are mineral maps to account for the metal resources.

Next update (tonight) will have coasts, which I'm not totally happy with yet, will have Scandinavia finished minus resources, and the Euphrates, Tigris and North Nile rivers plotted. Maybe more stuff too.

The map is looking very nice ingame right now.

There really should be a belt of tropical jungle/grassland around the equator...

coasts are pretty much done, though I'm sure I'll improve them, and theyre not set in stone

notice africa is a lot different, i dunno if you like it... il probably be making another version of this map anyways...

i may be able to release another update tonight

changes in this update: tasmania, african lakes, lake winnipeg, most coasts

*** if you know how to make a map compatible with a mod, please tell me! yes i've changed the ini and the modpath in the save itself. please help of its useless! note that the mod it needs to work with is a spinoff (and was originally) rfc! Without it the map cannot be released, because it contains all the extra resources and map features, as well as how the game works!***

oh and, I am awfully reluctant to copy genghis kai's land cover, simply because a lot of his appears quite simplified, and there are some controversies, like the patagonia desert (if im thinking of the right one). However, I went on mapview and did a 3 page print of his map, and now I can see very clearly how he did his land cover, so if needed i have this resource available to use.

thanks

Just so anyone who is interested knows I haven't lost interest- I just bought Patrick Obriens atlas of world history and the dk's the great world atlas, with both sattelite stuff and, thankfully, maps showing where resources and commodities are (and maybe minerals too)

therefore progress will resume when the stuff arrives in 4-6 business days, and more progress when the next mapview comes out

EDIT-UPDATE: It appears amazon is bulls*itting me, sure it may say 4-6 days once shipped, but somehow they manage to concoct an 18 day shipping estimate. Maybe theyre overestimating but I doubt it, I ordered a popular movie once and it took a month. And of course they blame it on me being in southern ontario.

I have finally started on the 400x300 map (I chose this size instead because it will fit my over 200 civs that reappear throughout history). Downside is only 10-15% of you will be able to play it because of its sheer bulk.

Here is a preview:



If you have any suggestions please let me know. I simply love how the non-projection map concept looks so far.

[banter ahead]

Finally something you must realize- yes russia is too far north compared to scandinavia, but like a globe, the latitudes arent straight horizontal. This map has a weird rotation curve to it. Also, I filled in smaller islands because it would be easier to fill by hand than to use the fill function later on. Many smaller islands haven't been included, and will be added later. Some pacific ones may not, as this is not meant to be a continuous map, though of course it will be in game. Most lakes and seas are still to be added. And lastly, I honestly didn't notice I didnt finish the middle east's outline. I'm fixing it right now.

enjoy

A huge update:



In the next update, I'll have more islands (ie hawaii, more in philippines), I'll have the two ice shelves and the summer snow cover. Scratch That

I also hope to implement seasonal snow cover.

Another Update:



July (or is it August?) snowcover is added. Tundra biome and arid/hyperarid regions are added. Northern Permanent Ice pack is added (in water only, the rest is either to be tundra, snow or barrens for the icier areas)

Mistakes needing correction: Gobi desert needs to be tilted to match map's rotation and be moved north in line with korea.

About half of the arid (desert)(not hyperarid tho) will become either wasteland or steppe. As well some of the land surrounding many desert areas will become steppe/wasteland. [So no not all of arabia and iraq especially will be desert]

So yes, I hope to add two or more land types. Then they will compare like this:

Desert~ Food [0] Prod [0]* Gold [0] eg the Sahara Desert
Barrens~ Food [0] Prod [0] Gold [0] eg Central Greenland, Antarctica
Wasteland~ Food [0]* Prod [1]* Gold [0]* eg most of the Patagonia Desert
Steppe~ Food [1] Prod [0] Gold [0] eg Turkey, Mongolia
Snow~ Food [0]* Prod [0] Gold [0] eg Far North of Canada
Tundra~ Food [1] Prod [1] Gold [0] eg Northern coast of Russia
Plains~ Food [2] Prod [2]* Gold [1] eg Alberta, savanah
Grassland~ Food [3] Prod [2] Gold [1] eg France
Flood Plains~ Food [5] Prod [2?] Gold [1?] eg Nile

* = will probably be changed

All the features remain as they are with the addition of the volcano, with the art coming from Ffh Age of ice this time. Way nicer!