[BTS] New Terra: 84 x 52 Earth map, 18 fairly placed civs, landmarks, 3 "new" civs

[lindsay40k]

Edit: check my sig for the latest version. Bigger than my first map, more balanced and better looking. Ya ta!

This is my first map upload, I hope people enjoy it. Download it here, unpack it, and pop it into the PublicMaps folder in your Civilization IV Beyond the Sword directory (in Documents) to play the Scenario.

I wasn't happy with a number of things about the Earth 18 Civs map that comes with BTS. The Inca seem to always gets trapped, the Aztec conquer the USA before the Old and New Worlds meet, and Western Europe is very densely populated.

I started with a list of civs I and my usual gaming partners like to play; Japan, Carthage, France, Mali, Persia, Inca, England, Rome, Russia, Egypt, Zulu.

I added the Khmer, Mongols, Aztecs, Maya and Native America (renamed to the Sioux) to fill out space and keep things interesting.

I then added a trio of civs with mixed-up leaders & colours, and renamed them to various indigenous peoples who inhabit areas left empty by the list of civs available. (I'm sure there are many mods that would have enabled more seamless representation of these nations, however my goal was to stay strictly mod-free for the same of simplicity.)

The Mali became the Narinjerri of Australia, who seemed suited to an early unit. They were given Fishing and Hunting. Mansu Musa seemed a good match for the renowned inventor and preacher David Unaipon, so no need to change him. I chose the spelling of their name most accessible to dyslexic players.

The seaworthy Vikings became the Polynesians, who are masters of Hunting and Fishing and whose wardancers might have become Berzerkers had their economy developed differently The land-grabbing Zara Yaqob quickly unites the Pacific islands as Kamehameha I.

The enlightened Gandhi stands in as Tagak Curley, the Inuit civil rights leader. His people are herein virtually identical to Native America, except that they prefer Hunting to Agriculture.

The name New Terra didn't seem to be taken except by a mapscript, so I presumed it would be OK to use it for a mapname. Let me know if I've stepped on your toes and I'll change it

Various concepts informed the map:

- The New World shall be the only source of Corn and have many Calendar resources, yet lack Iron, Horse or Wheat. No Crossbows, Pikes or Knights shall await colonists and conquistadors eager for new food sources - but a prescient Sitting Bull may prioritise Gunpowder and "unite" the indigenous peoples.

- African civs and the Khmer have access to two Ivory; one to keep, one to trade. Persia can grab one in India.

- Ocean-hopping by popping borders to reach another landmass three tiles away is a common feature. The Polynesians island-hop with ease, thanks to CRE (, and Australia and whilst Old World civilizations who settle the tips of the land and learn the seas may make contact with the Americas, actual trade and conflict is impossible without oceanfaring vessels.

- Resources all placed where a real-world source exists, with a balance between ancient and modern centres of production and a mind for on game balance.

- The geography aims not to give civs obvious great advantages if it's avoidable. Where civs are vulnerable to early rushes, hills and rivers are used to make Capitals a tough nut to crack.

- The map is crafted with aesthetics in mind, and with plenty of landmark tags to fill it with flavour and give players pride in their national geographical landmarks - and taunt rivals from whom they wrest control of natural wonders such as the Bering Strait, Mount Sinai, or the Devil's Mountain. (Teachers! My map has - admittedly specious at best - educational value!)

I look forward to any feedback that might help make the map more entertaining and balanced, and at some point making larger versions that follow the same design philosophy.

Credits:

Earth 18 Civs map for the basic forms of British Isles, Ireland and Japan.

Earth2 mapscript for doodling the basic shapes of continents.

WellMad for tech help and playtesting.

AmyColt for inventing Polynesia, persuading me to include England and France, and playtesting.

 

[lindsay40k]

Known issues:

- On my Mac version, the .py file is being difficult and refusing to load as a Scenario. I've uploaded the WorldBuilder file here; my BTS does seem to load it as a scenario. Funny way of doing things, but there you go.

- I couldn't add the correct äccénts on some landmarks as they seem to cause the WorldBuilder to corrupt the file when saving (160 or so lines missing at the end, bughunters).

- It generally turns out in most games that the pantheistic faiths dominate the New World, whilst monthotheism or Confucianism spread all over the Old World. I like this

- The AI seems pretty poor at handling an island economy, England is pretty boned without a human at the helm :/

 

[lindsay40k]

Yeah, I think both Inca and Maya have a broken axe rush when under a human player vs AI.

I'm going to put their Copper on flatlands to prevent pre-mining, and segregate them with a mountain to deny a conquerer a rapid stream of reinforcements. Also going to remove hills on Panama chokepoints to give the Aztecs a fair shot, and scatter more Horse throughout the Old World (should not be outnumbered by Ivory IMO).

Finally, going to expand the seas between the Old World and the New World & Australasia to four tiles. There will be no Work Boats zooming over and trading with everyone in the BC's; pre-Optics contact shall see a bit of talk with another civ, but no more pre-Astronomy imports of Horse and Ivory for Monty.

After that, I think I'll call it a day on this project and get cracking on a Large version, perhaps forgoing the Inuit in favour of Vikings. A fifth American civ was needed to choke Sitting Bull, but that can perhaps be achieved by overstating the northern tundras and permafrost instead.

 

[lindsay40k]

Update: Made the above changes, and added more Horse to the Old World; Japan has a native source, and there are no longer more Elephants than Hoss.

A possible Maya strategy to choke Inca has been suggested; going to playtest to see how feasible it is. Unless that turns out to be a major balance issue, I'm calling this project pretty much finished. Will probably post a variant for use in History Rewritten at some point, mind you

 

[lindsay40k]

Update: The Inca/Maya axe rush was a balance issue, which has been amended with big changes to Mesoamerica. Tinkered with various Old World locations, especially Rome, Carthage and Persia.

 

[lindsay40k]

Update: Removed some resources from horrifically overpowered second city location for Khmer. Made the location of Istanbul perfect for a port city joining the Mediterranean and Black seas. Added Clams to feed a city placed on Mecca's location. Gave Toku an extra goody hut to make up for no pre-Sailing exploration off Honshu.

No longer updating .py version of the Scenario, as other users reported similar issues and the .WB version seems to work just fine. The link in my sig is to the latest version.

And for a bonus, I made a 'Cold War' version of New Terra in which the American, Russian and Chinese Empires will battle for hegemony and everyone else will just keep their heads down and try not to draw the ire of the CIA, KGB or MSS. All the three big factions are Industrious, and the minor factions had better choose their sides wisely. The Americas are not lacking Iron or Horses in this version, and can trade with the Old World without Astronomy. Link's in my sig.

 

[lindsay40k]

> Istanbul

Or Constantinople

 

[lindsay40k]

Update: Moved some resources away from Moscow to rebalance. Made it easier for Egypt to get Copper and Horses online, to counter tendency for Rameses to build the Temple of Solomon and then get flattened by Swordsmen. Tweaked balance issues in central Europe. Reduced excessive food availability in northern Eurasia.

All updates are transferred to the Cold War version, which has also had some major Diplomacy bugs cleared up.

 

[Dumanios]

This looks like a great map!

 

[lindsay40k]

Thanks!

Update: I have made a dreadful, dreadful mistake.

I had the idea to delete all the Old World civilisations and have only indigenous American peoples playable.

Then I thought, why make it easy for an American nation with Astronomy to go and grab a supply of Horses, Iron and Elephants? So, I filled the Old World with Barbarian cities. And everything else that's not part of the Americas.

And put Holy Cities where they belong. You want organised religions, you go and get them.

This is probably going to work horribly badly. I've no idea how Barbarians will tech when they have dozens and dozens of cities in prime locations. Montezuma will probably kick everyone's heads in whilst they desperately chase religions that aren't available. Just be glad the Wonders aren't all baggsied by Alexandria, Babylon, Paris and so on.

If Huayna Capac turns out to be a monster on his fortunate geography, I may tinker to add the Tupi at the Amazon delta to fill South America a little more.

Civs present: Inuit, Barbarians, Sioux, Barbarians, Aztecs, Barbarians, Mayans, Barbarians, Incans, Barbarians. Did I mention Barbarians?

Old Terra's in my sig. Make of it what you will.

Oh, and I did some more bughunting on the Cold War version, and renamed some civs on it for flavour.

 

[lindsay40k]

Right.

I was tinkering with a larger version, and flipping maps from Bing to Google to Apple (they're dead good for rivers and lakes), when it occurred to me; why not just stitch together a map in Photoshop?

See, I'm not aiming for a particular projection. What I want with New Terra is land masses that fit fairly well to their real-life counterparts when viewed overhead. I can squeeze and stretch oceans and tundra to hammer things to fit a flat projection.

And then, with a map that's showing things as I'd like them to be, I can now simply scale it to 1 pixel = 1 tile, and rapidly transfer the shapes of continents and then get busy with relief, mineral, river and agricultural maps to flesh them out.

So, then. Here's my starting point. I've tracked down loads of interesting islands and depicted them as blobs that'll show up as pixels on a thumbnail. Likewise inland lakes; going to do a bit more work on North America in regard to them, mind. There's some strips of shallow ocean that'll be done as Coastal water, enabling interesting exploration.

Main concern right now is that Europe's so relatively wee. I've made an alt map with an upscaled area; I'm not keen on western centrism, but let's face it, from the Punic Wars to WWII there's a lot of stuff that people will want to do with the Civ 4 factions in that area.

Well, we'll see how things go.

 

[lindsay40k]

Update: rejigged things on all existing New Terra maps. The Incan start area was way off, geographically, and the Chinese, Persian and English start areas all needed work. The location of St. Petersburg is now a highly viable alternative start area for Russia, and the Old Terra holy sites have been consolidated into four cities.

 

[lindsay40k]

Well, Old Terra is... interesting.

By the time my Inuit made landfall in Japan, there were dozens of Axemen on Honshu alone. Just about managed to seize the island, and with it Iron.

My first landfall in Seoul lasted less than ten turns before being swamped in a human wave assault of Macemen.

Second landfall in Beijing had to be evacuated due to the same. Culled about 80 units, then got back on the Galleons.

Third landfall in Shanghai encountered some Horse Archers in the endless waves. Again, scores of barbarians fell retaking the city.

Fourth landfall in Beijing finally got to the bottom of the hordes and hordes and hordes.

After that, there were three Riflemen on every mainland city, with ten Spearmen hanging out in Qufu for reasons unknown.

Next step: instead of leaving religions to spread themselves, I'm going to put them in cities by hand. Also pre-deploy some UUs and GGs. Going to try a variant with Wonders pre-built where they belong, too; this will add value to capturing the European area, plus AI Indigenous American civs don't know to put GPros in the bank and target China, India and the Middle East for Holy Cities.

 

[lindsay40k]

I've made a larger 128x80 map to the same philosophy as New Terra. It's bigger! The geography is smexier than before! The sides of the map are properly aligned to the International Date Line! Polynesia can start in Hawaii, Samoa or New Zealand (if you muck around with Worldbuilder)! The Inca have a counterpart in Brazil to stop them completely pwning South America! Russia's geography is much cooler! And Japan and the British Isles are properly designed from scratch!

Link's in my sig. Whilst you were reading this, someone else could have downloaded it already! Quick, get it now! Before the heat death of the universe!

 

[Brennus.Quigley]

Gorgeous map! Lots of fun to zoom in on.

 

[lindsay40k]

Gorgeous map! Lots of fun to zoom in on.

Thanks!

Update: added some food for where Rio de Janeiro would be, fixed Polynesia start, and made an actual Great Barrier Reef.

 

[spqrbol]

Thanks so much for your map! Please keep it updated

 

[lindsay40k]

Thanks so much for your map! Please keep it updated

Alrighty, then.

I've taken Terra Nova and:

- improved geographical accuracy in SE Asia, S America, Polynesia

- added the Azores

- minor rogue resource clearups

- gave Egypt a better chance by replacing Hatshepsut with Ramesses and improving access to military resources, after PM'd feedback indicated that the surrounding AI classify her as an easy target

- added an alternative version (included in the zipped download) in which the American and Oceanic civs have their historical late starts suggested at by having to deal with superabundant wildlife. Any unit leaving the safety of inhabited land will be best by hordes of Grizzly Bears, Tasmanian Tigers and Jaguar until such time as Homo sapiens becomes the dominant species. Likewise, the settlement on Hawai'i is not alone - hostile Galleys await any attempt to spread across the Pacific!

Have fun

 

[spqrbol]

It's a great map! Some updates ? For exemple possibility to choose a leader ? That would be nice !

 

[lindsay40k]

Thank you very much! Custom leaders list would require a mod. Can you choose one of the eighteen preset leaders?