Middle Earth ++

[jomateix]

CURRENT VERSION: 1.6

Well, my #1 experience with the world builder in Civ 5. IMHO by far better than the one in Civ 4.

So I made this map:

- Huge map of Middle Earth + Numenor + Aman
- Width: 128, Height: 75
- 15 civilizations, 28 city-states
- Made using Firaxis official world builder only
- Two flavours: "random" starting and "defined" starting
- Civilizations starting points are unbalanced, so "Mordor" will have more bonuses than "The Shire"

Notes to Tolkien purists:

- It is in the 3rd age, I know that Numenor is already in the bottom of the ocean and Aman is unreachable, but they make the naval units less useless.
- The city-states in Aman represents cities of elves, the ones in Númenor are for representing the small kingdoms that were there.

Flavour 1 - Random civilizations in defined starting points:

Please note that you'll always start in Umbar, the reason? Ask Firaxis . Also you have to increase the players to 15 and the city-states to 28.

File: arda_random.rar
Go here to download it: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=15594

- AMAN: Valar.

- NÚMENOR: Númenor.

- MIDDLE EARTH: Mordor, Rohan, Gondor, Isengard, The Shire, Lindon, Umbar, Khand, Rhun, Lothlorien, Rivendell, Iron Mountains, Mirkwood.

Flavour 2 - Defined civilizations in defined starting points:

If you avoid the "Load Scenario" in the set-up screen you can manage the advanced options an select the amount of civilizations plus other options BUT then the starting points are ignored and everything is messed up!

File: arda_starting.rar
Go here to download it: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=15595

- AMAN:
Valar = Siamese

- NÚMENOR:
Númenor = Aztecs

- MIDDLE EARTH:
Mordor = Germans
Rohan = Persians
Gondor = French
Isengard = Greeks
The Shire = Ottomans
Lindon = English
Umbar = Arabs
Khand = Songhai
Rhun = Japanese
Lothlorien = Indians
Rivendell = Romans
Iron Mountains = Chinese
Mirkwood = Russians

City-States:

The city-states are linked by a free road network just to emule the roads already present in the books.

- AMAN : Araman (2 cities), Avathar (3 cities), Tol Eressëa (1), Sea of Lorellin (2 cities).

- NÚMENOR: 3 cities.

- MIDDLE EARTH: Sea of Rhûn (2 cities), Mordor (2 cities), Harondor (1 city), Paths of the Dead (1 city), Fangorn (1 city), Evendim (1 city), Minhiriath (3 cities), Bree (1 city), Dol Guldur (1 city), Moria (1 city), Angmar (1 city), Forochel (1 city).

Installation:

1.- It is in a compressed folder, you'll need WinRAR, to get it visit: http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

2.- Put the uncompressed file (not the folder) in: \Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\Maps

3.- Then start the game, select "Mods" and set up the game.

4.- You'll see the map in the list of avaible maps.

Changelog:

- Solved problem with looping rivers (game crash).
- Solved rivers that were cut.
- Added the "defined start" map to solve the problem of always starting in Umbar.
- Rivendell now can go to Rhovanion.
- Solved the barbarian problem in Aman and Middle Earth by adding ancient ruins, especially in the starting points where I find underdeveloped civilizations.
- Lothlórien forest now is yellow like in the books.
- Changed India for England, english are more sea-oriented than indians.
- Solved unbalancing problems in Gondor and Lothlórien.
- Moved Lindon city-state to Forochel to enhace the ocupation of Forlindon. Also with that Forochel is something more than a Barbarian heaven.
- Map files moved to the file directory, so no longer attached here. Check the links in the explanation of each "flavour".
- Solved problem of unbalancing effects in Mirkwood.
- Removed the city-state in southern Rhun and moved to Aman.

 

[Baleur]

Just loaded it up ingame and, wow.... Its beautiful O_o
I love how you have forests near many mountainranges, makes them appear higher somehow, and great hill placement, Numenor is beautiful, the different continent variations of civ5 really shows the potential here, beautiful hotspots here and there that makes your mind wander off to the fantasy mods of Civ5's future

 

[Omega124]

Anyway to make the starts defined, but the civs starting at each point random? I'd love to play as Gondor, but not as the French.

 

[jomateix]

Anyway to make the starts defined, but the civs starting at each point random? I'd love to play as Gondor, but not as the French.

The problem is the following:

Option A: Map + random start point = you always start at the "#1 random starting point put in the map"*, and is Umbar. I think that Firaxis should solve that.

*I'm not sure at this, probably is the one nearest to the lower-right or lower-left corner?

Option B: Map + defined start - load scenario = starting points are defined by the computer, but you can select your civilization and other options.

Option C: Map + defined start + load scenario = you can select the starting point by choosing a specific civ, but you can't change the civ.

These are the only 3 options avaible using the World Builder, no more, no less.

A D option is having defined civilizations (like transforming France into Gondor just changing names) and all is seemingly ok but needs extra time and probably this weekend will try to do this.

Another option is that Firaxis should understand that for starting points the best solution is:

1.- Random civ, random place

2.- Random civ, the place has a name and can be selected (i.e.: Start in "Gondor") in the player setup

3.- Selected civ, random place

4.- Selected civ, selectable place

5.- Selected civ, fixed place

Also there's the possibility that some starting points MUST be filled before others, so an ordinal importance could be great too. Just imagine a map with only 5 civs and no one in Aman and Númenor, one near the coast and the other 4 near the sea of Rhun: no fair play.

 

[jomateix]

Just loaded it up ingame and, wow.... Its beautiful O_o
I love how you have forests near many mountainranges, makes them appear higher somehow, and great hill placement, Numenor is beautiful, the different continent variations of civ5 really shows the potential here, beautiful hotspots here and there that makes your mind wander off to the fantasy mods of Civ5's future

Thank you! Yeah, the american forests are especially my fav, so "autumnish". I just changed the trees to american continent in Lothlórien following the Mallorn descriptions in the book

 

[interlider]

No more updates? I'm looking forward to this, will test in the morning.

~IntEr

 

[jomateix]

No more updates? I'm looking forward to this, will test in the morning.

~IntEr

I'm testing the map, currently in a game at maximum difficult level playing as Valar. With the changes in the recent patch and future ones probably I'll have to tweak quite this map.

About the modification of the civilizations to make them more tolkienish I'm reding the modification manuals to know how to do it well and make civilization as unique as possible.

Reply to cudfather:

Mordor is green because is played by humans. If we want a dangerous and powerful enemy here they need food .