Earth (217x119) (Huge)

[kurt-roges]

EDIT 9 Nov 07 - map tested and found compatible with BtS v3.13

EDIT 4 May 06 - latest version is now 1.2

changes:
- updated Chinese civ to work with 1.61 patch


EDIT 23 February 06 - version 1.1

changes:
- fixed Russian starting position
- fixed a problem where some Civs didn't start off with any techs
- added rivers to Australia (oops!)
- adjusted strength of some barbarian cities
- added a few more mountains
- added more water resources (thanks again for everyone's comments)
- minor forest and terrain updates

---

Hi everyone,

Here's my first stab at a Civ4 map. It's really big, and I dunno how many people have systems that can handle it too well (I know mine can't), but I wanted to try making it anyway. I figured I'd share it in case anyone else wanted to see if they can run it, or would like a big world map to build a scenario on.

Here's a MapView screenshot (links to a bigger version):


if anyone can tell me a better way to get screenshots of the entire map, please let me know and I'll post more.

Map

I started off with a regular physical map (from here), cropped it, ran it through the 'spherize' filter (vertical only) in Photoshop to squish the poles and enlarge the equatorial and temperate regions, then adjusted the aspect ratio so it matched that of the Earth map which shipped with Civ4 (124x68 tiles, or about 1.82:1). Downloaded kswoll's map maker (CFC thread here), and used the handy-dandy image trace feature to lay out continents and oceans.
Initial terrain types were placed with the help of the map at Blue Planet Biomes; rivers and elevation info were found at the University of Texas' Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Resource placement and fine-tuning were done in WorldBuilder.

217x119 = 25823 tiles in this map, which makes it about three times larger than the regular Civ4 Earth map.

Civs

All 18 standard Civs are present. I would advise removing some before starting a game (by opening the WBS file in notepad and deleting everything between, and including, BeginPlayer and EndPlayer), or else your game will slow down really quickly.

Resources

Accurate mineral resources were placed with the help of mineral maps found on the USGS' Web site. Incidentally, I didn't come across a lot of stone on those maps so the Cement resource was used in its place.

All other resources (aka the edible ones) were either placed with the help of vegetation and land usage maps provided by the UT site, or dropped on the map more or less arbitrarily (fish).

Barbarians

Barbarian cities have authentic names and locations. Emphasis was given to barbarian placement which would stop some civs from expanding too quickly (Mongols), act as a partial buffer between two civs (Mali and Egypt, India and Persia), or simply to take up space and make it harder to land-grab (Australia, southern Africa).

I don't think there's too many single barb units running around, but the ample amount of unexplored and fog-of-war territory should take care of that, heh.

Known Issues

There's not a whole lot of fish or whales on the map; I couldn't find any good information on major breeding or fishing grounds. Also, I haven't tested too much with any civ that starts in the Americas so the Americans/Incas/Aztec might be excessively strong or weak.


Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll see if I can answer them.

- Dan

 

[Boyinabox]

I wish I could play that map as it looks fantastic (damn my crummy pc).
If you need any ideas for fish and whale placement I'd reccomend placing a lot of fish around the north east of Australia and whales by South Africa (as ones by the poles wouldn't be too useful).

Keep up the good work!

 

[Nightravn]

Kudo's to you.... this looks awesome.... I have a 3500+ with 2 gigs of Ram so I will fire it up and sees how it goes. I also want to thank you for posting your sources as it is hard to find good refrence material to make good maps.

 

[I_batman]

Hi everyone,

Here's my first stab at a Civ4 map. It's really big, and I dunno how many people have systems that can handle it too well (I know mine can't), but I wanted to try making it anyway. I figured I'd share it in case anyone else wanted to see if they can run it, or would like a big world map to build a scenario on.

Map

I started off with a regular physical map (from here), cropped it, ran it through the 'spherize' filter (vertical only) in Photoshop to squish the poles and enlarge the equatorial and temperate regions, then adjusted the aspect ratio so it matched that of the Earth map which shipped with Civ4 (124x68 tiles, or about 1.82:1). Downloaded kswoll's map maker (CFC thread here), and used the handy-dandy image trace feature to lay out continents and oceans.
Initial terrain types were placed with the help of the map at Blue Planet Biomes; rivers and elevation info were found at the University of Texas' Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Resource placement and fine-tuning were done in WorldBuilder.

217x119 = 25823 tiles in this map, which makes it about three times larger than the regular Civ4 Earth map.

- Dan

Looks really impressive.

One question/comment: Is there a passage through the Canadian Arctic from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans a la North West Passage?
I don't think I see such a opening on the map screenshot you posted.

 

[Angus Khan]

Excellent map!

One good thing about huge maps like these are that you can use portions of the map to make your own "playable" maps (with appropriate citations). I have already taken an inset from the "Huge European Map (107 x 87)" with the Casalus Civ4 Editor to make a Southeastern Europe Map (70 x 42).

 

[Elhoim]

Great map! But it seems a little scarce in the peak department...

 

[Mrop]

Looks really good! Although I won't have a chance to play it as my computer is below minimum requirements (go me!). Fishes could be placed in Sea of Japan, Outside New Foundland and in the sorrounding waters of Norway. I think you should think about which resources that existed at 4000 BC, but it's probably no big deal really.

 

[racerx007]

this map looks really good, i'm pretty sure that my seup can handle it, as i can already play the huge maps, as for the fish, whale, clam and crab, a lot of that can be arbitary, but if you want the realism that so many are trying to go for, then fish should definately be placed around Nova Scotia, Pacific Northwest to Alaska, Sea of Japan and also close to Korea, around Scandinavia and in the Mediterranean. Whale should be placed around Alaska, Japan, Australia, and again Nova Scotia to account for northern and southern breeding grounds. Clam should be placed in more temperate waters, so you're looking at the Mediterranean, coast of Africa, and in the Carribean. Crab is going to be around Alaska, Mid-Atlantic region of N. America, and possibly around Nova Scotia. other than that, place where you want it to be for game balance.

 

[Tyranausaurus]

Go NS.
(this message is too short. BLAH BLAH BLAH)

 

[kurt-roges]

cool, thanks for all the comments re: fish and whales. I found a couple of other problems with the map besides those, so I'll probably upload a newer version in a day or two.

Looks really impressive.

One question/comment: Is there a passage through the Canadian Arctic from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans a la North West Passage?
I don't think I see such a opening on the map screenshot you posted.

There is not. Well, technically I think there might be, but it's covered in impassable ice.

 

[Pckering]

Don't forget fish off the Gulf Coast, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana. Big Shrimp industry there. You could use Clams and Crabs to Sub for the Shrimp. Quite a bit of fish in that area too. Also fish off the Yucatan Penninsula.

Nice map. I'll try it out tonight.

 

[C-Kompii]

Hi there, thanks for the great map as I really enjoy playing earth maps and this one being the biggest one so far I also like how accurately the map was drawn which add a lot to realism of gameplay.

Just a couple of suggestions regarding resource placement around Asia & Pacific regions.

You might want to add pigs and horses in China, since it has the most number of them now and also during the ancient times. You might also want to add horses to a few other places also, since it appears to be quite rare on the map in some places where horses are common.

Japan could use some gold resources since it was the largest producer of gold in the 15th century. More sea resouces could also be added around the China coast and Taiwan all the way up to the Okinawa islands since there are none on the map now, as they represent a major diet for the hundred of millions of people who live around those costal areas.

There also appear to be no oil resource in China when it has being self-reliant on oil until the early 90s. Oil could be placed around the mid-west area of China, west of Beijing.

Last but not least, a major river in the Murray-Darling running through Australian States of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. It is Australia's largest and most extensive fresh water resource.

Thanks again for your time and hope you can take these into consideration when updating your map.

-G'day-

 

[I_batman]

cool, thanks for all the comments re: fish and whales. I found a couple of other problems with the map besides those, so I'll probably upload a newer version in a day or two.



There is not. Well, technically I think there might be, but it's covered in impassable ice.

Well, I think that a few explorers may have something to say about there not being a North West Passage.
Granted, it is frozen over most of the time, but it is navigable in the summer months.
Plus, anyone wanting to use this for a modern day scenario would surely want to be able to move subs through the Arctic.

http://www.athropolis.com/map9.htm#

 

[doronron]

Neat map. Giving it a shot on my install. Looks like there's a real reason to have scouts now!

 

[Brave Jay]

Love the map, but i know i won't have a shot at playing it w/my pc.

 

[doronron]

3GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, GFX Card has 256MB onboard. I've got roughly 10 seconds turn around early on. I'm curious to see what it'll be like by the time I hit modern tech.

 

[Michael Nemo]

Looks fun-tastic, but I think Alaska is a bit too big. It is almost half the size of the entire United States, which is because the image you based the map from has it (and other places) incorrectly scaled.

 

[Houman]

I like it very much, but shouldn't there be more mountain in Afghanistan and Iran? Even the green around Caspian Sea is missing. There is very humid and much Forest avaiable too.

In general the whole map has almost no mountains. Earth isn't that flat.

Keep up good work,
Cheers
Houman

 

[kurt-roges]

I've posted a new version incorporating most issues raised in the comments here (and some that weren't). click here to download the file, or take a look at the first comment in this thread for more information.

thanks for all the comments, and hope you enjoy it.

 

[pokeravi]

Thanks A LOT for this map. The ingame map was too small for Europe. This helps A LOT. Thank you again. However I don't know if this is true but shouldn't India be a little bigger? But nevertheless great job! Now if only my system can load it faster.