Battle Royal: Map the Future

[North King]

On to 2.: As I have stated, the current map cannot be much improved beyond its current capabilities due to its inheritance from the above original. This can be further substantiated to the fact North King, who has done virtually all of the recent upgrades to that map, actively contemplated a switch from it, and was given something to do with as he wished.

And I fully advocate getting rid of the old map; the primary reason I haven't switched already for althistories is that I'm attempting to get a thick-bordered and rivered version (perhaps with more rivers as well) made; random-map making has seriously delayed that.

Now, you might notice that map is also a Robinson (although it can very easily be turned into any other kind),

Actually, if you do have a Winkel-Tripel version of Earth, I'd prefer it massively over the Robinson.

As I have also said, the straight-line latitude effect of Robinson is of the most minor assistance in any given era of history, because borders are never straight, and even presuming you could somehow fudge an excuse that you could use them as reference to create borders, you would still need actual latitude and longitude lines on the map to do that, in which case it'd be every bit as easy as on any other type of map. A more curved surface does not somehow magically impair one's ability to draw a freehand border because it's precisely that: freehand. I will get back to this point when I produce some reasons why Winkel-Tripel is better.

And even this is a hilarious argument for keeping the current map. Has anyone ever looked at the "straight lines" that get drawn? I'll give you a little hint: if you start from the place where Minnesota's border should start going across, and you start drawing straight across to the Washington-B.C. boundary, you cut through the upper Mississippi. If you manage to avoid that, you leave the Lake of the Woods stranded deep in Canadian territory, when is should be on the border itself. Sudan's border with Egypt... well, Sudan's borders are never going to be right on the current map. Ever. There simply is not enough room to fit Sudan, Chad, Libya, and the Central African Republic on the same Africa.

I don't know if my opinion holds any weight in map-making matters for everyone, but the current base begs for being tossed in the trash. Yes, that means leaving behind all the nostalgia of playing on the same map that the ancient, glory-day NESes were played on, but you know...

Classic Map.

Our Map.

We are not playing on the same map. We are not playing on something even resembling that map. I have "mutilated" that map dozens, no, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times, from my use of a better ocean color that doesn't kill the eyeballs, to the addition of real island chains, to the changing of various lakes and rivers to something that is almost what the real world looks like. And I haven't heard a single substantial complaint along the way (the most I've gotten is some kind of aesthetic argument).

I'll concede that I'm decent at mapmaking, but I am not a magician. The most I can reasonably do at this point to our map is reform a few Pacific islands and redraw Antarctica; the ONLY reason I didn't switch to a better map before was that, until Symphony kindly found us one, I was unable to find a good black, blue, and white map of the world beyond our own.

Like I said, I cannot do magic, nor can Symphony, nor can anyone else I know of on this forum. Either you make the traumatizing switch to a new map for later benefits that I cannot stress enough, or you have substandard maps. There is no in-between.

If you take my opinion on cartography seriously at all, then I cannot stress enough to you that we need to change our map.

Of the alternatives, Winkel-Tripel is supremely more accurate than Robinson, yet still a fairly familiar alternative. I've already switched to the new projection for my own random maps; there's really no reason not to switch for our Earth map.

Resuming my pre-update lurk status; I've had my say.

 

[Symphony D.]

Retroactive deletion.

 

[Luckymoose]

Whatever we go with I suggest not ever using 1 pixel coastlines. Ever.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I've been working on converting the 1-pixel thick robinson map to 2 pixels thick, though that file's been lost during my move to a new school. I'll be restarting when I get my laptop back from the school's IT people.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Classic Map.

Our Map.


If you take my opinion on cartography seriously at all, then I cannot stress enough to you that we need to change our map.

Of the alternatives, Winkel-Tripel is supremely more accurate than Robinson, yet still a fairly familiar alternative. I've already switched to the new projection for my own random maps; there's really no reason not to switch for our Earth map.

Were those two maps different?

If the map makers want to change, I'm all for it.

 

[Warman17]

not everyone has to go with the flow. If a mod wants to use an old map hes free to do so, we shouldn't pressure people into using something they dont want to. If say das and symphony want to use a new map they can go ahead, and if i want to use the old one i can go right on ahead and use it.

 

[North King]

not everyone has to go with the flow. If a mod wants to use an old map hes free to do so, we shouldn't pressure people into using something they dont want to. If say das and symphony want to use a new map they can go ahead, and if i want to use the old one i can go right on ahead and use it.

Certainly. You're free to use incoherent blobs for each of the continents, and handwrite the nation names in.

Just don't expect anyone to respect your cartography.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Do you refer to the current system as 'incoherent blobs'?

 

[BananaLee]

So much argument over what the world looks like - which it's all but a game.

Mighty fascinating.

Me, I'm a fan of good old Mercator for navigation and Mercator sinusoidal for area representation.

 

[Symphony D.]

Retroactive deletion.

 

[Warman17]

Certainly. You're free to use incoherent blobs for each of the continents, and handwrite the nation names in.

Just don't expect anyone to respect your cartography.

Since when has the old map have incoherent blobs and handwritten nation names?

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Mine has handwritten names!

 

[Dachs]

Since when has the old map have incoherent blobs and handwritten nation names?

Yeah! Those blobs aren't incoherent, just horribly inexact!

 

[Oruc]

Just keep using the current map.

 

[North King]

Since when has the old map have incoherent blobs and handwritten nation names?

Handwritten nation names, in case you couldn't tell, was exaggeration.

But incoherent blobs... it is exactly that. I worked on that map for years. I've refined it almost as much as humanly possible to get it into something that looks vaguely like Earth; I venture that no one has as intimate a knowledge of the relationship between that map and real geography as I do.

They are incoherent blobs.

 

[Warman17]

Handwritten nation names, in case you couldn't tell, was exaggeration.

But incoherent blobs... it is exactly that. I worked on that map for years. I've refined it almost as much as humanly possible to get it into something that looks vaguely like Earth; I venture that no one has as intimate a knowledge of the relationship between that map and real geography as I do.

They are incoherent blobs.

They worked perfectly fine for me. Sure it Czechoslovakia never really came out well, but is it really THAT important?

Aw well I'm not going to complain, I'm not doing the work.

 

[North King]

They worked perfectly fine for me. Sure it Czechoslovakia never really came out well, but is it really THAT important?

Nor did Austria. Or Switzerland. Or most of the Balkans. Or any part of Africa. Or most of South America. Or Asia.

But yeah, I suppose if that doesn't matter, it's an okay map.

 

[jeps]

I like W-T

Mollweide is...wow.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I assume that's 'Wow- bad'.

 

[jeps]

no, its more of a wow- different.