Gigantic Accurate Earth Map (232 x 112)

Great map, my favorite so far, though I agree with Ryan above that between gigantic and huge would probably be the best size.

But, my question is this. The jungle in Equatorial S. America and Africa, like all earth maps, uses grassland beneath. Hence, once the jungle is cleared, this becomes the best land for farms in the world, and thus huge cities arise. Yet, isn't such land in reality quite poor for farming, almost to the point of long-term insustainability? Would it be more accurate to use plains or even tundra for some of these jungle areas? I have always wondered about this, and since your maps are so accurate, and thought I might ask here.
 
Laskaris, would you consider making a map that is in between the sizes of your 2 maps? I love your maps and think that from a gameplay perspective a size smaller that your gigantic map but larger than your standard map would be perfect. Cheers

I'm flattered by your request, as I like your maps a lot myself. And I will certainly consider it. But I've been very busy both with real life and with other games, so it would be a while.

It would be a lot of work, too. Not only would I have to draw the coastlines, mountains etc. from scratch, I would also have to re-calculate the worldwide resource distribution and placement for a map with a different number of plots.

But, my question is this. The jungle in Equatorial S. America and Africa, like all earth maps, uses grassland beneath. Hence, once the jungle is cleared, this becomes the best land for farms in the world, and thus huge cities arise. Yet, isn't such land in reality quite poor for farming, almost to the point of long-term insustainability? Would it be more accurate to use plains or even tundra for some of these jungle areas? I have always wondered about this, and since your maps are so accurate, and thought I might ask here.

You are absolutely right: the soil beneath tropical rainforests is very bad because the massive precipitation of the equatorial region renders it acidic and poor in nutrients. This is not well-represented in Civilization maps, including mine.

The problem is that Civilization only has "plains" and "grassland" to represent what in the real world are many different soil types from the tropics to the boreal climate zone. I could have used tundra or even desert to represent jungle soil, but I think it would have looked very ugly. So, in this case, despite the "Accurate Earth Map" design philosophy, I actually went with the aesthetic choice instead of the most realistic one. If you disagree with it, I can certainly respect that.

I've been thinking about creating my own mini-mod for future maps where I replace the vanilla terrain types with realistic soil types. That, in my view, would be the best solution.
 
I've been thinking about creating my own mini-mod for future maps where I replace the vanilla terrain types with realistic soil types. That, in my view, would be the best solution.
Wow - that would be awesome!
 
Laskaris, would you consider making a map that is in between the sizes of your 2 maps? I love your maps and think that from a gameplay perspective a size smaller that your gigantic map but larger than your standard map would be perfect. Cheers
That would be nice!
Also, is it possible to convert your maps into python script files? I would love to play a game with them with some settings (victory conditions, no vassals, etc.) modified.
 
Geoaraujo, what you want to do is edit the file with a text editor, Notepad, or better Notepad++ (free software).

For that, right-click the ...WBSave file and edit it. At the beginning, there is a section: BeginGame where you would put various options like:
Code:
	Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_VASSAL_STATES
	Option=GAMEOPTION_RAGING_BARBARIANS
	Victory=VICTORY_TIME
	Victory=VICTORY_CONQUEST

You'll find examples in CIV4GameOptionInfos.xml or in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml.

Tutorials here or here will help you too.
 
Geoaraujo, what you want to do is edit the file with a text editor, Notepad, or better Notepad++ (free software).

For that, right-click the ...WBSave file and edit it. At the beginning, there is a section: BeginGame where you would put various options like:
Code:
	Option=GAMEOPTION_NO_VASSAL_STATES
	Option=GAMEOPTION_RAGING_BARBARIANS
	Victory=VICTORY_TIME
	Victory=VICTORY_CONQUEST

You'll find examples in CIV4GameOptionInfos.xml or in CIV4VictoryInfo.xml.

Tutorials here or here will help you too.
Thank you!
 
Can I use this to edit in factions in their true locations?

Loving the map, missing my English and Romans though.
 
Sure you can. You either pre-place a settler on the plot of your choice (and whatever other unit you want) or you give the coordinates you want in the BeginPlayer sections like this:
Code:
StartingX=70, StartingY=6

Look at the Tutorials to learn how to replace a faction by another one. You can also add a dll that would authorize you to play with more than 18 Civs. Again, the Tutorials will tell you how to fill in all the slots even with empty information (like playing with 25 factions with a 34 Civs-dll).

@ geoaraujo: I just remembered that you can also start the map through the "Customize a Scenario" (or similar) entry in the menu :). But if you always want to play with certain settings then it is better to write them in the file directly.
 
Have you made this GAEM (pronounced "gem") any bigger? I wish I'd play on a 256x256 but I guess this is the biggest I could find so far.

If only there was a utility I could find and download that'll let me choose any size I'd like.

Edit: WHERE ARE YOUR TRIBAL HUTS?
 
Anyone have any idea how much RAM the computer would actually need to play a BTS game?

It is a 32 bit game. So uses no more than 3.5mb RAM. Regardless of which OP system you use and how much RAM it has. But more graphics memory can help with mods that use lots of extra units (graphic intensive) etc. :)
 
Excelent map! At first I wanted to play on Carter's huge map, but, just like you, I'm a little annoyed by the big size of Europe compared to other regions, so gave this one a go. I have been playing on a slightly modified version of this map (by me) ever since, and the only thing bothering me is the huge time and distance to reach the Zulus ... but then, it's only one civilization havng this "problem", so ...

As someone else said on this thread, the Lambert projection would have been closer to the "idea" that we have about how Earth looks like, but there would have been inconveniences on that projection too (the very "long" Russia which would make Genghis Khan invasions to the west quite unlikely, the big distance between Europe and the Far East, the big width of the Atlantic Ocean which would make Columbus journey somewhat unrealistic to "reproduce", etc).

Personally, I think a projection somewhere in between this one and the Lambert one would have been ideal. But you can't have it all, and in the end, as I said, the advantages are way more significant than the disadvantages, plus ... I guess I'm the only one emphasizing this, but the accuracy in resource placement, forest amount and reproduction of climate vegetation and features in this one is unmatched.

Great work - and thank you!
 
Thank you. This is probably the best map I've ever downloaded. Thank you for the many hours you must have put into this.
 
accurate_earth_232x112_smallpreview_6U6.jpg


Download the Gigantic Accurate Earth Map

Warning: This truly is a gigantic map in size and will strain your PC. At 232 x 112 = 25984 plots, it is significantly bigger than Genghis Kai's Giant Earth Map (210 x 90 = 18900 plots) and slightly bigger than Carter's Earth Map (192 x 120 = 23040 plots). In other words, you will need a good amount of RAM to run this map!

About this map:

The Gigantic Accurate Earth Map has the same design philosophy as my older, smaller Accurate Earth Map. It uses a cylindrical equal-area projection to represent all the continents and oceans with their correct size relative to each other, and I spent a great amount of time placing the terrains, rivers and resources as accurately as possible. The bigger size of this map, 232 x 112 plots compared to "only" 132 x 64 of the old one, allowed for an even finer scale. Here is a bigger screenshot for a closer look at the Gigantic Accurate Earth Map:

Spoiler :
attachment.php


Obviously, it is impossible to make a perfectly accurate Earth map for Civilization. The Earth is a globe, so any representation of its surface on a plane is a compromise of one form or another, accurately representing some of the properties of the Earth's surface at the expense of distorting others. That is why geographers have invented various different map projections for different purposes.

Rather than a boast of perfect accuracy, calling my maps "Accurate Earth Maps" is simply a declaration of intention and design philosophy. Unlike many other Earth maps for Civilization IV (including the official one), mine do not feature an artificially enlarged Europe and Japan or an artificially reduced Pacific ocean. Instead, I went for as much geographical accuracy as possible, within the limitations of the game. The result are some Earth maps that, in my view, are very interesting and unique. And while they don't allow you to cram half a dozen civilizations into Europe, they make for a great game in other ways.

Because cities and the plots they occupy are in many ways the core of the game, I decided that preserving area was the most important aspect of geographical accuracy in Civilization, rather than preserving shape or distance. I used a cylindrical equal-area projection with standard parallels at 37.3 degrees north and south of the equator (sometimes known as the "Hobo-Dyer projection"). All continents and oceans are depicted with their correct areas relative to each other. Australia really is three quarters the size of Europe, Africa really is 14 times the size of Greenland, and so on.

I did a lot of research on terrain, river and natural resources placement. I used a vegetation map from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for the biomes, and The World Ultras Homepage for a list of all the mountains with a prominence of more than 1500 meters (which in my map became mountains instead of mere hills). For resources, I used essays like Forecasting Coal Production Until 2100 by Evans and Mohr to get figures of worldwide coal reserves at the beginning of the industrial age, and then distributed that resource accordingly. I placed oases at geographically appropriate locations like Tafilalt in Morocco or (a bit of an inside joke, but accurate nonetheless) Las Vegas in the US.

I created the map using Civ 4 Map Editor and MapView 2.0. As a basis for the map, I primarily used the maps from the Natural Earth III website, which I converted to the cylindrical equal-area projection with a map projection program called Geocart 3 and overlayed one on top of the other with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

As you can see, a lot of work went into this map. I hope that you like the result. Have fun, and don't hesitate to send feedback and comments!

Inside the .zip archive:
There are nine maps inside the .rar archive. Three for basic Civilization IV, three for the Warlords expansion, and three for the Beyond the Sword expansion. For each version of the game, there is one "blank" map with no civilizations set, one that has 18 civilizations already set up around the globe, and one that has 12 civilizations already set up in Eurasia and North Africa, but none in sub-Saharan Africa or the Americas, to give you more of a new world to explore and more of that Guns, Germs and Steel feeling.

Most of the civilizations start out in their historically accurate starting locations. For the maps for basic Civilization and Warlords, I also had to place some in non-accurate starting locations to get a better distribution, like the English in South Africa or the French in Indochina. The 18 civilization version for Beyond the Sword has the following civilizations, all in their accurate starting locations: Arabian, Aztec, Babylonian, Carthaginian, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Greek, Incan, Indian, Japanese, Khmer, Malinese, Mayan, Mongolian, Native American, and Zulu. The 12 civilization version for Beyond the Sword has: Arabian, Babylonian, Carthaginian, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Japanese, Khmer, Mongolian, and Ottoman (the Ottomans start out in Central Asia, which actually makes sense for a Turkic civilization).

To use the maps, you need to extract the appropriate files to the appropriate PublicMaps folder. For basic Civilization IV, extract the *.Civ4WorldBuilderSave files to the PublicMaps folder inside your Civilization IV directory. For Warlords, extract the *.CivWarlordsWBSave files to the Warlords\PublicMaps folder. For Beyond the Sword, extract the *.CivBeyondSwordWBSave files to the Beyond the Sword\Public Maps folder.
Dear Comrade Laskaris,

We express much respect & gratitude for you for taking initiative to spread the truth that Equal Area Projections (Hobo-Dyer or Gall-Peters or Behrmann) are the ONLY true & scientifically correct way to project a sphere on a rectangle, & spending significant time to conduct such great job to develop Gigantic Equal Area highly accurate Earth map, this is the best map I have ever seen for Civilization games! But, there are still some missing important points regarding accuracy & realism, and I have also spent time & continued your honorable work by heavily improving your great & true map to make it even better, even more accurate & representative, to avoid repeating myself the Explanation what & why was improved is here:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...-equal-area-hobo-dyer-gall-peters-map.691472/
Could you please help me promoting this significant major accuracy & realism improvement upgrade of your Hobo-Dyer Accurate Earth Gigantic Map, for example by attaching it to the first message which most people see?
I don't care much who gets the credit, I most want maximal number of people to know & experience & learn the TRUTH about actual Earth continents sizes & the only TRUE & SCIENTIFICALLY correct way to project a sphere on a rectangle, because surface determines productivity population everything. Thank you very much, and regardless your help with promoting the upgrade - I anyhow highly appreciate all work you have done. Best luck with everything, Comrade Laskaris, keep spreading the truth!

Best regards,
Expansist
Accurate_Earth_Equatorial_Islands_232x112_18civs.png
 

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