Accurate Earth Map in development

[kevinman4404]

I see youre a Canadian

Realize I cannot make the Torngats a peak(s), they're just not high enough and I have to be selective.

I'll creep down the tundra of Labrador/N Quebec slightly. Anything with boreal forest over it will have to be the new terrain though- they're interdependant.

I'll keep in mind your elevation advice (and do the East extra carefully).

I'll picture Newfoundland and the surrounding area in my first update; you can see if you like it and suggest improvements if need be

Kevin

 

[kevinman4404]

A pic of a) Labrador and b) Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., New Brunswick

Note: I'm not entirely sure the rivers in S. Labrador are correct; I may have dragged a river too far or something and forgotten about it.

Newfoundland is grassland, and Labrador is combined tundra/thinsoilm.

Here is the update I'm most excited about, the terrain types:

A) Grassland. Under deciduous and tropical rain forest zones.
B) Thinsoil Grassland. Under coniferous forest.
C) Tundra. Where plants rarely grow. Modelled after the biome.
D) Bare rock+ice. Included it just in case I need it ie Iceland.

A) Fertile Plains. Perfect example being Alberta/great plains. Crops are abound on this terrain.
B) Arid Plains. Dry, sparse vegetation, savannah-like. Little crop activity, usually used for grazing.
C) Wasteland. Semidesert, such as the Patagonia in Argentina.
D) Desert.

These I feel could combine to make a very realistic looking map. Let me know what you think!

 

[Seven05]

Looks good, the terrains are pretty close to what I'm using in my mod and considering how much I like how my random maps look with so much terrain variety this will probably look incredible when finished.

 

[frekk]

Looking good ... I can't really see how the reliefs are going through the forest, but it looks like major areas for good settlement would be in Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and the Gaspe Peninsula ... which is geographically accurate. Labrador looks highly unappealing, which is also accurate (just make sure it has no resources, especially food).

Re the Torngats ... there are nearly a dozen peaks over 5000 feet and over 30 that are above 4500 feet. It is the highest range in Canada east of the Rockies. I think it merits a square or two of peaks. Look:

http://gallery.backcountry.net/albums/papabear_torngats/adw.sized.jpg

http://gallery.backcountry.net/albums/papabear_torngats/adq.sized.jpg

One other small thing. There's a sort of lake between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, just northeast of the Bay of Fundy, that makes it possible to cross from New Brunswick into southern Nova Scotia. I would suggest making the squares marked "here", coastal water rather than land:

Besides being from the region, there's a reason why I get so picky about Eastern Canada! The geography of this area - eg the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River - were probably the single most geographically signifigant aspect of the early colonization of North America by the French and English (with the Appalachians running a very close second). Two things are really important to get the geography right for a good historical representation of the early colonization: Newfoundland needs to be an island, and it has to be possible to sail down the St. Lawrence and colonize the interior, at least as far as Montreal. Nova Scotia is very important too, since it played a huge role in British power in North America until (and during) the Revolutionary war and much of that was based on its geography.

The terrains look really really good. I think you will need them to get the flexibility you'd need to make a map this size. With smaller maps, you can get away with fewer terrain types because it's much more generalized. But at this kind of detail, I think your new terrains are essential for alot of regions. Especially, Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia will benefit alot from them. But also some other places, I think you will need the additional flexibility of having more base terrains to do central Asia and the Middle East properly.

Something I'm wondering about too. What are you using as a basis for forest cover? I have often thought that the forest cover for Earth maps should be based on forest cover that existed prior to the changes caused by human activity. Here's one such map, note the huge difference in places like India, China, Europe, and eastern North America:

And that's only since the 1500s. It is thought that even greater deforestation took place during the agricultural revolution. I will try to find a map that shows forest cover prior to 4000 BC.

 

[kevinman4404]

@frekk: YES! You read my mind about the forests... I am doing original treecover and am/was using that exact same image.

About the coastal division at Nova Scotia, I'll post a few propositions later today, including the one you described.

About the mountains you wanted... I'm not sure but I think my cutoff point for peaks was 3000 meters (9kft). Maybe, more. But if I any similar mountains at all on the map I'll include a peak there. Just pointing out that it may be considerably shorter than the rest of the mountains. (I really didn't go overboard with mountains in this map, there will be a lot of civs in it). I'll see what I can do.

EDIT: I'm guessing the Rockies I drew aren't all nearly that high, so I'm guessing my cutoff point was inconsistent. I will look into it and see if I can add a peak.

About the terrains, glad you two liked them. I plan on making thinsoil grassland a little more in the middle of grassland and tundra (to keep the gradual transition going).

About the St. Laurence, I'm not sure I quite got it to go down to Montreal (originally) but just past Québec. I definitely want to see if I can increase that... that's one of my favourite parts of playing world maps (usually as France).

For resources in Labrador. I am planning on no food, lots of timber and multiple iron at the border of Labrador/Quebec. And a bit of fish around it.

Kevin

 

[frekk]

Ungava Bay - thats that bay at the top and to the west of the tip of Labrador - has (had) absolutely massive iron deposits. It's mined out now, but it was one of the world's largest deposits. There are some others further south along the labrador/quebec border too. Quebec also has extensive copper deposits (and some gold).

Contrary to what many think, Quebec - indeed all of Canada - has no bauxite deposits! There is a huge aluminum industry in Quebec, but only because it has an abundance of cheap hydroelectric power with which to process bauxite.

 

[Ball Lightning]

Can you get a picture of Australia please?

 

[kevinman4404]

@Ball of Lightning: Yes, I'll have pics of all of australia in the next update.

The project has hit a major roadblock.

I can fully open, play, use the map I saved just after taking the in-editor pic above. In other words the update before last.

Then I chose to do the rest of my editing in-game (which I have to, with new resources and such). I saved right after the last update. Now I cannot reaccess it. It is not a matter of the map being too much to handle- normally if a map is too big/memory-eating it would let me choose a civ and only once its in the official loading screen would it freeze and crash. With the worldedit save, right when I select the map, it will go on loading forever. It is not a freeze/crash because the music keeps playing.

I have tried downgrading it to a Vanilla civ map file, like the first map; opening it from inside the worldedit, and making it a private map.

I will reopen my slightly older map and edit a bit and test the save/load process.

Please, if you have any ideas, let me know
Kevin

EDIT: I HAVE BYPASSED THIS PROBLEM. There is however a minor graphic problem (streaks on my minimap and on my map) which messes with the shading in those areas. I'll show that tonight. I'll try to start back from the non-in-game update and see if that gets rid of it.

 

[kevinman4404]

And so the progress continues, though it may be laid to waste by the graphic glitch. Don't mind any graphic glitches you see, for the moment.

Sorry Frekk, no N.S. yet. I closed game before I remembered.

ICELAND:

With Trees. One sheep and one fish.

MADAGASCAR:

With and Without Trees. One coffee, two rice, two fish. May add one deer.

~~~AUSTRALIA~~~

Southwestern Australia: (don't you just love the fertile belt?)

With Trees. 5 wheat?, 2 (citrus)fruit, 2 wine, 6 sheep, 2 lead, 1 iron, 1 natural gas, 2 fish.

South-central Australia:

Southwestern Australia:

With trees. 3 wheat, 2 sheep, 1 fruit, 2 wine, 1 copper, 1 gold, 1 clams.

Northwestern Australia: Will add one nickel once I make it.

With trees. 3 iron, 1 diamonds, 1 clams, 1 fish.

Northeastern Australia:

With trees. 1 cattle, 1 sheep, 2(+?) sugar cane, 3 coal, 1 lead, 1 copper, 2 aluminum/bauxite, 1 fish, 1 clams, and one unidentified object.

Tasmania:

With trees. 1 cattle, 1 oil, 1 whale, 1 fish, 1 natural gas, 1 unid. obj? Not sure about that though.

~~~NEW ZEALAND~~~

Southern New Zealand:

Without trees. 1 wheat, 1 cattle, 2 sheep, 1? fish.

Northern New Zealand:

Without trees. 1 cattle, 3 sheep, 1 fruit, 1 wine, 2 fish, 1 whale (out of image)?

New Zealand (with trees):

~~~Papa New Guinea and Area~~~

Papua New Guinea (and west):

Without trees. 1 copper, 2 coffee, 2 clams. May add 1 cattle. Yet to add swamp which is malfunctioning (again!).

With trees:

New Britain (to Papau New Guinea) and Solomon Islands:

With trees. 1 copper and 2 fish. I wonder if New Britain (which is bare) needs something, because Britain rarely invaded where resources weren't involved.

Note: The riverbend mistakes have since been fixed

PS: I hope I'm allowed to have so many photos in one post

 

[kevinman4404]

Alright, no more pictures I'm progressing faster than I can post.

I have now also done:

~Japan
~Hawaii
~Florida
~Ontario
~Quebec
~Maritimes
~Scandinavia
~Spain
~France (incl. Corsica and Sardinia)
~British Isles
~Central America up to Yucatan pen.
~All Carribean Isles
~S. Korea
As well as other small, isolated parts.

If anyone wants pictures of any of these please let me know- I have them ready on my computer.

I will be posting the Canadian regions I have completed regardless.

 

[frekk]

I'm sure we would all like to see the British Isles. That's usually the most difficult part of Earth maps.

 

[logandevil]

I want to see Nederland, Belgium and it will be great if in your mod we can creat new land (polders)

 

[RPG]

I'd like to see the Spain & Portugal.

 

[kevinman4404]

Britain:

No trees. The red wheat resource is barley.

Ireland:

No trees. Blue ore is lead.

British Isles:

With trees.

North Sea:

Note that I plan on changing both the oil and natural resources to a coastal texture, so its a nice, smooth transition (oily water, gassy water)

Spain and Portugal:

No trees. Those bushes are olives.

With trees.

Belgium and Holland:

No trees. Sorry I forgot to click the photo button for the with-tree version. Maybe next update. Note that some of the resources belong to either Germany or France. Those potato looking things near Amsterdam are root crops.

Hope you enjoy

 

[kevinman4404]

For Frekk: (unfortunately I can't include maritimes/Newfoundland cuz I forgot the hills on Labrador when I took the photo)

Ontario and St. Laurence Rivers:

No trees. The apple tree is my fruit resource. Note that I plan on extending that thinsoil texture a little farther south, that I will add nickel once I create it and that I have added fur/pelts (beaver) in lots of locations around the Hudson Bay, NE and NW Quebec and N of the Great lakes. The arrows, for the most part, do not point to the tile I put the beavers on, but rather the general direction, which should coincide with the locations I listed above.

As well, I have put a piece of land where indicated to seperate Lk Ontario and Lk Erie. Was this the right thing to do? The thinsoil will be extended 1-2 tiles downward from the existing tiles.

Also, let me know if you feel the St. Laurence is long enough. That's with my two tile (left and down) extension. Any more and it would probably look weird.

And now for the Nova Scotia modification...

This was the original

This was your suggestion

And this is your suggestion with a little more thickness

Personally, the original one's my favourite, but let me know which you prefer.

 

[frekk]

Definately prefer the last one. It looks perfect.

Compare:

http://www.preplannet.com/novamap.jpg

 

[kevinman4404]

NS is thinner than I thought. I'll go with your suggestion then.

 

[frekk]

As well, I have put a piece of land where indicated to seperate Lk Ontario and Lk Erie. Was this the right thing to do?

Sorry, missed this part.

Yes, absolutely. That would be the Niagara Falls right there. Buffalo NY would be right about there (or maybe in the adjacent square).

Also, let me know if you feel the St. Laurence is long enough. That's with my two tile (left and down) extension. Any more and it would probably look weird.

It is a shame you can't get it to within 2 tiles of Lake Ontario, so you could put a canal in (with 2 forts), and create the St. Lawrence Seaway. But that's ok ... it probably would look weird, and a couple of forts doesn't really represent what a major project building the Seaway was.

Maybe someone will do a proper canal mod ...

 

[RPG]

This map is coming along quite nicely! I like the new resources too!

 

[kevinman4404]

Another update: here are some new resources

Camel (static)

Dates (reskinned)

(a comparison with the banana resource)

I realize it's kind of bursting with fruit, but oh well

Tell me how you like them.


Progress-wise, on the map, I am working on and almost done South America. I have done other small areas as well.

If you want to see anything not listed I can have it done within anywhere from 1 hour to 3 days, depending on size, elevations, etc. The exception being Russia, I'm doing that last.

Kevin