@topsecret I know how real life tends to derail projects, even passion projects like these (I myself am suffering from Long Covid- part of the reason I have time to comment here occasionally, as I am too sick to work or do much outside the house... Look it up: it's a disease that's being ignored and very little money spent on curing...)
But, if you do find time to log on here again sometime, I hope you'll see this message! And, know I am actively playing your mod (and hope to for quite a while into the future) and really love it!
Anyhow, aside from big, RFC-style features, I thought I'd share some much simpler insights/suggestions: problems/possibilities for the map.
It's quite good overall, but I see a couple problems with it: the distribution of marine resources (Tolkien, of course, didn't map out where the fishing was best- or for that matter even where the respective continental shelves dropped off... Though we can expect "coastal" waters and better fishing probably extended much further out from shore in certain places: like near the Gray Havens, and the huge areas that used to be Beleriand before the great flood/submersion of large parts of the continent...) and the Far North.
The northernmost parts of Tolkien's early maps were, of course, often shown in very little detail as almost nothing was known of them to the Mannish peoples (the only inhabitants being small tribes of Orcs from when Morgoth's followers fled there among other places, and a few Dwarven outposts...) but it can be understood they were likely MUCH, MUCH more rugged and mountainous than they are now. They were simply shown as featureless white in many of Tolkien's maps as they were unimportant to the main story and little was known about them...
I suggest adding more mountains and hills (all of the Snow/Artic terrain type, still- just more hilly and mountainous) in the Far North. This both matches with references in Tolkien's writings, as well as entirely non-canonical stuff like the glimpses we have of the region in the Rings of Power TV series... (the ruggedness of the terrain at least helps explain why it was not settled, and how small pockets of Orcs could hide out in the region so easily...)
Maybe also a Stone resource or two, near some of the biggest concentrations of Mountains- to represent potentially usable Stone for construction (especially in the hands of Dwarves...) in some of these Mountains...
This will also, from a gameplay perspective, make the region marginally more useful to Angmar (who start out close enough to spread this way) and especially the Dwarves (who get yields from Mountain tiles)- though it will still be impossible even for the Dwarves ever to support more than size 4 cities there with a Well AND a Feasting Hall in a city working nothing but Mountain tiles (and pragmatically, most players and the AI would likely want size 2 cities mining a couple Hills at higher tech levels, anyways: especially as this gives a very, very low chance of eventually striking mineral resources like Gold or Iron...) and generally unprofitable to do even this without HEAVY investment in city infrastructure (Courts, Messenger Halls, Merchant Houses, etc. such as to generate enough Commerce just to cover City Maintenance costs, and the Opportunity Costs of building cities there rather than other investments...)
For a good example of the Far North done well, I recommend looking at map of the Fourth Age: Total War mod for Rome: Total War:
wiki.twcenter.net
Anyways, aside from the Far North being too flat (which not only makes it boring, and impossible even to mine and live below ground in for the Dwarves- but also makes it far too easy for Cavalry based armies to quickly sweep across the region such as to attack foes on the other side of the region... More rugged terrain, dominated mostly by Mountains and Hills with narrow passes of Hills in the Mountain Ranges, would also make it easier to guard chokepoints with Spearmen and make the region harder to avoid the occasional Barbarians in...) the coastal resources could also use a bit of work.
I suggest, in particular, a couple more Fish resources in and around the Bay of Belfalas, the area west of the Gray Havens, and off the far northwest coast of Middle Earth (giving the tiny 1-tile island there a Fish in the 2nd layer of its Big Fat Cross makes particular sense, as in real ecosystems it is actually POLAR and Sub-Artic waters that are the most productive fisheries on the planet and have the most Fish.)
Warm waters, in real life, actually tend towards being "wet deserts" with relatively little marine life: except near the outlets of rivers and right against more mountainous coasts on occasion, where runoff and rivers can add nutrients and Oxygen mixing to waters... Also, where deep ocean currents are thrust into shallow warmer waters by a sudden rise in the seafloor: such as off the coasts of Peru and Chile- which are unusually VERY productive fisheries for latitudes so close the Equator...
So, it makes a lot of sense to add Fish resources, and Coastal Tiles further from shore, furthest north (as well as places like near the Lindons, where waters would be calmer and easier to fish). This is something map-designers of Civ4 mods ALMOST ALWAYS get precisely wrong, as your typical ecologically ignorant gamers have absolutely no clue that there is an INVERSE relationship between water temperature and the amount of marine life (Tropical waters tend to be relatively barren, except in very specific locations and near Coral Reefs. Whereas colder waters tend to be MUCH more productive and have far more and bigger fish even than waters near these features are...) and precisely wrongly assume you find the most fish in warmer waters...
The general trend of both these changes would be to slightly strengthen the northernmost civs- Arnor, Angmar, the Dwarves, and the Lindons to a small degree (by making the waters near the Lindons have more Fish or Coastal tiles), which is probably a good thing- civilization didn't generally collapse in the North in Tolkien's world (at least later, in the Third Age) due to a lack of natural resources- but instead due to fierce wars between Angmar (which probably needs to be more aggressive, and strengthened a bit: maybe an additional -1 to base diplomatic opinion and an extra Stone resource near its starting location for the bonus yields? Or some Pigs- which seem thematic food for Orcs to eat...) and Arnor and the Elves, as well as the end of the line of kings of Arnor; and of course due to Smaug ravaging the Kingdoms of Dale and the Dwarves...
A human-controlled Dwarven Kingdom, in particular, could really have some fun with a more realistically mountainous/hilly Far North... (by eventually peppering the area with a few Forts at chokepoints and some very small Mining Cities that might eventually strike metals or gems...)
