ozqar
King
New thread for easy reference. Will perhaps upload changes in some other areas of the world
I'd like to propose the following map changes, they're mostly about giving more land area to certain civs and to a minor extent to improve the shape of landmasses.
I moved resources to adjacent tiles when their previous location became unavailable due to moving mountains or coastlines. I hope I counted correctly the number of tiles added/removed.
1) The Balkans
One of two regions that I think most needs these changes. Southeastern Europe is tiny in comparison with Western and Northern Europe, and this area has several civs that could use the space, Greeks/Byzantines/Turks, Austrians, Poles, Russians, even the Romans could be benefited.
- I expanded the Balkans west and east, adding two tiles in the Adriatic and four in the Black Sea. The Carpathians were expanded by one peak southwest to better shape the Transylvanian plateau. The Danube was reshaped a little.
- I put hills all along the Adriatic (the Dinaric Alps) and on the southern side of the Danube, and put plains in the Pannonian plain (Hungary) and on the northern side of the Danube. Byzantion/Constantinople/Istanbul moves one tile south.
- Greece loses two land tiles because it's ginormous at the time - the Sparta tile and 1N of Athens. While I appreciate the magnitude of ancient Greek history and why Greece was swollen to give more playing space, these two tiles offer little to the player (unless they move their capital to Corinth, but I don't think that's the point of it). Removing Mt. Olympus compensates for one of these tiles, and I added more island features in the Aegean to compensate for production.
- The one thing I still would like is to expand Anatolia one tile west, but I think that might be too much now.
Net land changes: +6 usable land tiles
2) South East Asia
The other region where I think these changes are most needed. All other East and South Asian regions are way oversized in comparison to SEA at the moment, making the continent look very disproportioned and leaving the Khmer, Thai and Indonesians with a very, very tight space that doesn't give room for much, nor can accommodate the vast populations that have always lived in this region.
- Expanded the Malay Peninsula one tile South (added one tile in total, pushing Sumatra one tile South in turn), Myanmar was also expanded with two tiles on the southern coast. The whole Vietnamese coast was expanded east and the Cambodian coast expanded South, adding in total 7 land tiles in the area. Can't remember if there were any mountains there, but I would suggest to avoid them altogether and use only hills.
- I had to remove Hainan to make room for this, and changed it for an island feature instead. Hainan wasn't really populated until late in the 20th Century, so I don't think it's as relevant as the area in SEA.
- Removed one peak each from Sumatra and Java, to give Indonesia more room, plus added some island features for Indonesia - the Riau and along the Maluku archipelago.
Net land changes: +13 usable land tiles
I would also move the Philippines one tile east, along with the Celebes and Papua (and possible reshape the Philippines, but I didn't get to this). Borneo is tiny compared to real life, and Sumatra could also be a bit bigger and be better in proportion. However, the real problem in Indonesia is lack of production and land for agriculture, part of this could be solved if the rainforests there became more productive and didn't have a food malus (as I was suggesting in a previous thread about ecosystems).
3) China
- Expanded the whole coastline one tile west - removed the Dalian peninsula, it's now just part of the mainland, to fit. Removed one tile from Taiwan - it's now closer to its correct size, but it could still have the two tiles if wanted, if the island moves east as well. Removed Okinawa as an island tile and changed it to an island feature. I didn't spend any time thinking about the exact shape of the country, because I know there's a group of Chinese players who already spent a lot of time redesigning this.
4) Iran
- Shifted the mountains in the center of the territory to the South, to their correct position as the Zagros Mountains. I also added two land tiles on the Persian gulf.
Net land changes: +2 usable land tiles
5) Mexico and Central America
- Removed two land tiles from the southern Pacific coast, but compensated for the land loss removing the three mountains that were around Guatemala - the region is hilly and there are indeed some peaks, but nothing even close to justify having three land tiles wasted as mountains.
- Moved one land tile west in the Gulf of Mexico. Added a land tile in the Gulf of California (in Sinaloa), but compensated expanding the Sierra Madre one tile South. Removed the three peaks in Central Mexico, as with Central America, the region is hilly and has peaks, but nothing to justify using land tiles as mountains, the whole area is very populated in real life.
Now the area looks way better.
Net land changes: +4 land tiles.
A dream request? Could it possible to move Tenochtitlan/Mexico City to the marked tile and to somehow remove sea access from the city? The tile I marked is the correct location of the city, the current one is far too north.
6) Argentina and Chile
- Moved the Patagonia one tile South (removed the ice to make room), I extended the Pampas region in central Argentina with the land gained.
- In Northern Argentina, I removed one tile of the Andes all the way from the copper in Chile to the eastern part of Bolivia. This gives the northern provinces of Argentina more room. The core area of Argentina should also be expanded North, currently it's marked only as Buenos Aires and south of that. To put this into perspective, Central Argentina (which in the map would be the row of Buenos Aires and two rows south) and Northern Argentina (the space north of BA) comprise 80% of the country's territory and 98% of its population in real life.
- Made Chile much more fertile (changed plains to grasslands) and removed a peak to give access to the northern region of the country (although I think this last thing is a scripted change anyway, I saw there were a couple of mountain tiles that had city names). Changed two mountain tiles to hills in the South.
Net land changes: +3 land tiles in Chile, + 7 or 8 in Argentina, +2 or so in Bolivia (not shown in the picture).
I'd like to propose the following map changes, they're mostly about giving more land area to certain civs and to a minor extent to improve the shape of landmasses.
I moved resources to adjacent tiles when their previous location became unavailable due to moving mountains or coastlines. I hope I counted correctly the number of tiles added/removed.
1) The Balkans
One of two regions that I think most needs these changes. Southeastern Europe is tiny in comparison with Western and Northern Europe, and this area has several civs that could use the space, Greeks/Byzantines/Turks, Austrians, Poles, Russians, even the Romans could be benefited.
- I expanded the Balkans west and east, adding two tiles in the Adriatic and four in the Black Sea. The Carpathians were expanded by one peak southwest to better shape the Transylvanian plateau. The Danube was reshaped a little.
- I put hills all along the Adriatic (the Dinaric Alps) and on the southern side of the Danube, and put plains in the Pannonian plain (Hungary) and on the northern side of the Danube. Byzantion/Constantinople/Istanbul moves one tile south.
- Greece loses two land tiles because it's ginormous at the time - the Sparta tile and 1N of Athens. While I appreciate the magnitude of ancient Greek history and why Greece was swollen to give more playing space, these two tiles offer little to the player (unless they move their capital to Corinth, but I don't think that's the point of it). Removing Mt. Olympus compensates for one of these tiles, and I added more island features in the Aegean to compensate for production.
- The one thing I still would like is to expand Anatolia one tile west, but I think that might be too much now.
Net land changes: +6 usable land tiles
Spoiler :
2) South East Asia
The other region where I think these changes are most needed. All other East and South Asian regions are way oversized in comparison to SEA at the moment, making the continent look very disproportioned and leaving the Khmer, Thai and Indonesians with a very, very tight space that doesn't give room for much, nor can accommodate the vast populations that have always lived in this region.
- Expanded the Malay Peninsula one tile South (added one tile in total, pushing Sumatra one tile South in turn), Myanmar was also expanded with two tiles on the southern coast. The whole Vietnamese coast was expanded east and the Cambodian coast expanded South, adding in total 7 land tiles in the area. Can't remember if there were any mountains there, but I would suggest to avoid them altogether and use only hills.
- I had to remove Hainan to make room for this, and changed it for an island feature instead. Hainan wasn't really populated until late in the 20th Century, so I don't think it's as relevant as the area in SEA.
- Removed one peak each from Sumatra and Java, to give Indonesia more room, plus added some island features for Indonesia - the Riau and along the Maluku archipelago.
Net land changes: +13 usable land tiles
I would also move the Philippines one tile east, along with the Celebes and Papua (and possible reshape the Philippines, but I didn't get to this). Borneo is tiny compared to real life, and Sumatra could also be a bit bigger and be better in proportion. However, the real problem in Indonesia is lack of production and land for agriculture, part of this could be solved if the rainforests there became more productive and didn't have a food malus (as I was suggesting in a previous thread about ecosystems).
Spoiler :
3) China
- Expanded the whole coastline one tile west - removed the Dalian peninsula, it's now just part of the mainland, to fit. Removed one tile from Taiwan - it's now closer to its correct size, but it could still have the two tiles if wanted, if the island moves east as well. Removed Okinawa as an island tile and changed it to an island feature. I didn't spend any time thinking about the exact shape of the country, because I know there's a group of Chinese players who already spent a lot of time redesigning this.
Spoiler :
4) Iran
- Shifted the mountains in the center of the territory to the South, to their correct position as the Zagros Mountains. I also added two land tiles on the Persian gulf.
Net land changes: +2 usable land tiles
Spoiler :
5) Mexico and Central America
- Removed two land tiles from the southern Pacific coast, but compensated for the land loss removing the three mountains that were around Guatemala - the region is hilly and there are indeed some peaks, but nothing even close to justify having three land tiles wasted as mountains.
- Moved one land tile west in the Gulf of Mexico. Added a land tile in the Gulf of California (in Sinaloa), but compensated expanding the Sierra Madre one tile South. Removed the three peaks in Central Mexico, as with Central America, the region is hilly and has peaks, but nothing to justify using land tiles as mountains, the whole area is very populated in real life.
Now the area looks way better.
Net land changes: +4 land tiles.
A dream request? Could it possible to move Tenochtitlan/Mexico City to the marked tile and to somehow remove sea access from the city? The tile I marked is the correct location of the city, the current one is far too north.
Spoiler :
6) Argentina and Chile
- Moved the Patagonia one tile South (removed the ice to make room), I extended the Pampas region in central Argentina with the land gained.
- In Northern Argentina, I removed one tile of the Andes all the way from the copper in Chile to the eastern part of Bolivia. This gives the northern provinces of Argentina more room. The core area of Argentina should also be expanded North, currently it's marked only as Buenos Aires and south of that. To put this into perspective, Central Argentina (which in the map would be the row of Buenos Aires and two rows south) and Northern Argentina (the space north of BA) comprise 80% of the country's territory and 98% of its population in real life.
- Made Chile much more fertile (changed plains to grasslands) and removed a peak to give access to the northern region of the country (although I think this last thing is a scripted change anyway, I saw there were a couple of mountain tiles that had city names). Changed two mountain tiles to hills in the South.
Net land changes: +3 land tiles in Chile, + 7 or 8 in Argentina, +2 or so in Bolivia (not shown in the picture).
Spoiler :
