My suggestions for the new RFCDoC

[Nikas Kunitz]

Germany that is above all and below Scandinavia. Central Europe.
Changed many rivers to better fit real geography. As discussed in the post about France, Rhine was altered considerably and got Maas and Moselle tributaries, while Main was lenghened one tile to east (it can and kinda should be lengthened even more for Nürnberg to be on it, but I think 3 tile long Main looks not very good on this scale). Changed head waters of Danube to more realistic one and to make Rhine a bit longer. Not shown on maps below, but later also added not so necessary tributaries of Danube: Inn river (that roughly marks Germany-Austria border) and Morava river. Altered course of Elbe river and added major Saale confluent. Added major Weser river between Rhine and Elbe. Made Oder river more realistic and added major Warta tributary.
Added bunch of hills to represent various mountain ranges of Central Germany with northernmost Harz mountains, along with major mountainous watershed between Danube and Rhine rivers. Even more hills can be added, but I think current result is balanced well.
Moved and added some resources. By now I kinda forgot where many of them were initially. Wheat moved to north of Köln as its main food sources and to represent Westphalia and Lower Saxony being main farming region of Germany. Moved pig to the very center where it is reachable from Köln, Regensburg or another upper Danube city, and Magdeburg. Added cows in Alps to represent Swiss and upper German highland pastures. Another cow added in Lower Germany near Berlin and Magdeburg. Moved deer from well populated Halle plot in Upper Saxony to heavily forested Lausitz on border with Poland, for Berlin. Another deer added in densely forested Bavarian Forest mountains on border between Czechia, Austria and Bavaria. Moved salt from here to… Salzburg.

Germany with its mountainous terrain and complex geology is well known historically and currently for its mineral wealth. Moved coal one tile to west to make room for the wheat (still is in Ruhr area). Moved iron to hill east of Köln to represent historical iron mining in southern Westphalia. Added copper to represent diverse mining in Harz mountains, boosts well production for Hamburg or Berlin. Added silver in Ore mountains to represent largest silver mines in Europe for several centuries since Middle Ages (quite surprised silver wasn't added there before). Removed coal in Austria and added iron here - area was noted for iron mining and smithing since Antiquity (Noric steel) and, according to mining maps, iron is still mined here (and not coal), good for Austria and Vienna. Instead, added another coal in Upper Silesia, to represent coal mining in Czech Silesia. Moved copper and altered hills on border between Czechia and Silesia.

Not much resources spawn later in Central Europe. Wine spawns as added before on in Baded on upper Rhine (can be moved to Trier hill). Population of Germany grew considerably since XVIII century. Also, potato long became staple crop throughout all of Central Europe. Thus, potato will spawn around 1750-1800 near Köln to represent quick population growth in one of the most dense urban areas of Europe. Another potato spawns around 1750-1800 for Austria inbetween Vienna and Prague (and Regensburg/München on German side of the border) to boost growth of these major cities. Finally, potato or wheat should spawn to east of Berlin to represent agricultural region of eastern Brandenburg and to boost growth of Berlin. In this case, however, it might be considered too much along with already present deer and cow. On the other hand, we can assume Berlin to represent not only sparsely populatet Brandenburg, Mecklenburg and Pomeria, but also historically very densely populated Upper Saxony, in this case additional food resource might be considered fitting.

IMPORTANT: Spawn areas and cores.

On the third map you can see what I think should be core area for HRE before it turns into Austria - essentially the German kingdom + Prague with border along the Elbe. With lighter line birth flip area is marked.

Moved Prussian spawn plot of Berlin one tile to north. In my opinion, it fits better its real location (it really is somewhere on border between two tiles). Now, Berlin is not outright on the banks of Elbe, like Dresden, but touches it on the corner - representing that it stands not on Elbe itself, but is in its river basin. Also, it is better to have two tiles between Berlin and Prague and it fits better with new birth area.
Prussia flipping all of Germany from the very start always irritated me for ahistoricity, especially since uniting Germany was quite a hardwon achievement for real Prussia. In CivilizationsReborn I changed Prussia's birth area to include only Northern Germany (i.e. Hamburg, along with Danzig or Königsberg), as I think flipping culturally similar Protestant Northern Germany is more tolerable than seeing Catholic South becoming Prussian from the start.
With the scale of the new map, i think we can make it even more historically accurate. Now, human player of Prussia will flip area only around Berlin (historical Brandenburg) + all southern Baltic coast with Danzig and Königsberg (I implemented that and noticed that Prussia tends to found Königsberg if it wasn't founded before within newly flipped area). This will make becoming major power and uniting Germany much harder than it was for Prussian player, just like in real history, you should rule like real Frederick II and Bismarck, with wars and diplomacy. In compensation, I added two techs for Prussia at start: replaceable parts (I think having fusiliers from start is by all means better and more fitting than seeing arquebusiers in XVIIIth century) and urban planning. Also, I added two cuirassiers to Prussia's starting army. Computer Prussia player will also flip Protestant Northern Germany (Hamburg or Bremen) as well, but not Catholic West (Köln) or South (Regensburg or München). Despite not flipping all of Germany, in all of my autoplay tests Prussia perfomed very well, usually capturing Köln and Wroclaw by mid XVIIIth century.

On the fourth map, you can see Austrian core (it may or may not contain Slovenia and Croatian Zagreb) and Prussian flip/core areas. Additional Northern Germany flipping to computer Prussia is marked with grey line.

On the fifth map you can see modern Germany core area.

Spoiler Maps :

This is how human player's Prussia birth flip area looks ingame:

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

What even are these islands?..
Outermost Hebrides?

 

[AOS9001]

Brasil!

What I want to know is why is there a whale to the far north of Scotland that will never be able to be worked?

 

[Dracosolon]

I think it's supposed to be Rockall, which is very small compared to most other islands on the map.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Brasil!

What I want to know is why is there a whale to the far north of Scotland that will never be able to be worked?

Mythical island indeed.
Actually, whales in a middle of an ocean look nice as a decoration. Also, perhaps Faroe or Shetland islands could be added as proper tiles for this whale.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

I think it's supposed to be Rockall, which is very small compared to most other islands on the map.

Well, islands are way too much for this sea rock.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Scandinavia&Finland.
Geography. Scandinavia has a lot of rivers, so added several of them (going from south to north): Lagan in Southern Sweden. Made Glomma (longest river in Norway), east of Oslo, realistically long and added curved river west of Oslo to represent numerous rivers of this region. There are dozen of rivers in Sweden, of them added: major Dalälven river that goes into sea between Stockholm and Gävle. Added river between Sundsvall and Umeå representing Indalsälven or Umeälven. Slightly altered course of Luleälven. Added major Torne river that, along with its tributary Munio (merged into one river here) defines Swedish-Finnish border. Added short rivers in Northern Norway near Bodø to represent Saltfjorden and Ofotfjorden. Initially, also added river system around Vänern lake, but it seems to not looking good and too crowded.
Added a lot of hills in inland Sweden and Norway to better represent regional topology.
Moved and added some resources. Removed fish near Denmark and placed pig in Jutland instead - Denmark is major producer and exporter of pigs/pork and pig represent historical prevalence of Danish agriculture over that of Norway or Sweden. Moved fish from near Oslo to Bergen and added sheep here (sheepherding historically was major animal industry in Norway, and this is reflected in traditional cuisine). Added cow between Stockholm and Kalmar to represent atleast somewhat productive agriculture with special prevalence of cattle farming.
Moved some mineral resources around to more realistic location and to free up atleast some tiles for towns. Notably, moved rare earths to Skellefteå - looking on Swedish Wikipedia article on mining in Sweden showed that of rare metals only tellurium is mined (and quite recently) and that's around Skellefteå, not Gävle.
Only one resource may appear later - potato between Göteborg and Malmö around 1750. It is unreachable from Stockholm, Oslo or Copenhagen and is intended to boost southern Sweden cities and atleast somewhat represent significant role of potato in Scandinavian farming and cuisine.

Citylist is mostly based on existing one with some changes. Gameplaywise, only chnages in Northern Norway might be noted ingame (Vågan replaced with Bodø).

Enlargened core areas of Norse (Denmark-Norway) and Swden civs to include most of these countries territory (without historically contested areas). Swedish core may or may not expand later to include all of modern Sweden.
Changed Norse spawn plot to Roskilde - Denmark historically was main center of early development and urbanisation in Scandinavia.
Changed settler maps so now Norse can found Bodø and Swedes can found Uleåborg, and both have more freedom in founding cities in southern Sweden.

Spoiler Maps :

Some screenshots of how it plays out ingame: (some screenshots have previous unchanged mineral placement and lack uranium)

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Aradziem]

I think flipping Danzig in 1700 is ~70 years too early. Gdańsk wasn't Prussian until 1793, areas nearby until 1772.

That uranium in Silesia is as far as I know was very poor and is depleted now.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

I think flipping Danzig in 1700 is ~70 years too early. Gdańsk wasn't Prussian until 1793, areas nearby until 1772.

That uranium in Silesia is as far as I know was very poor and is depleted now.

This uranium is not in Silesia, but in Ore mountains in Bohemia and Saxony, representing uranium mining in Czechia. Uranium ore here was actually mined long before its nuclear application and even radioactivity were discovered, and used, if I remember correctly, to make green "glowing" crystal glass (quite radioctive, in fact).

Yes, Gdansk was part of the Kingdom of Poland before the Partitions. However, both on older DoC map and on the new, scale is too small to allow another Pomerian city (like Stettin or Kolberg) to exist and flip to Prussia, and for gameplay reasons Prussia flips Gdansk as its main second city, without which, if spawned with its exact historical territory in 1700, Prussia would definitely have only Berlin and be way too weak even for a secondary power.
There are some historical reasons that can be named to justify unhistorically flipping Gdansk to Prussia.
1) Gdansk-Danzig by XVIIIth century was long dominated by German population and culture, particularly adopting Lutheranism.
2) Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was decentralised state where feudal liberties and privilegies formed key part of its political structure. Gdansk had particularly strong autonomy and governed itself with minimal direct control from Cracow or Warsaw (that's the reason for flipping), only ensuring that Free City of Gdansk doesn't side with other countries against the Commonwealth in return for keeping its privileges.
3) After Saxon dynasty established itself on the Polish-Lithuanian throne and devastating Great Northern war at the beggining of the century, already decentralised Commonwealth practically lost strong central government during XVIIIth century, essentially dissolving into dozen of large feudal domains of magnates and various self-governing cities like Gdansk. Political structure of the Commonwealth served as main guarantee of this state of affairs under aspices of neighbouring centralised absolutist powers (who usually dealt with said magnates and free cities instead of the practically defunct central government with king residing and ruling in other country), until they decided to finally partition Poland-Lithuania.
This said, main reason for flipping Gdansk to Prussia is still gameplay, giving newborn Prussia stronger start.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

East Central Europe, Poland&Lithuania (Western Rus)
I think improvements to Poland went particularly well, especially rivers. Lengthened and slightly changed courses of the Oder and Vistula rivers, adding major tributaries of Warta and Western Bug (defines border between Poland and Belarus&Ukraine), respectively. Changed course of Neman river and added its main Vilia tributary (Wilno-Vilna-Vilnius stands on and is named after it). As you can see, river basins of Danube and Dnieper were notably improved, while major Southern Bug river was added in Ukraine, but this all will be discussed in following posts.
Added new land plot to better represent Pomerania (new Slupsk tile), while previous Slupsk tile got changed to a hill to represent Pomeranian upland (good for some production in Gdansk). Added and removed some hills here and there to better represent real topography. Notably changed eastern Carpathian mountains to be more realistic (they don't go as far east, with easternmost massif notably being straight north of Bucharest, and newly freed hills plots both have realistic locations of important cities of Iasi/Jassy and Halicz/Stanislawów). While most of Eastern Europe got more forests, central Poland has more open space, with line of plains going along Vistula river representing the eponymous terrain (fields) from which Poland got her name (plains also add some yield balance, giving a bit of production and less food due to more food resources added). Added marsh north-east of Warsaw to represent Masurian lakes and generally very smampy area here.
Moved and added some resources. Added pig between Silesia, Greater and Lesser Poland (pork is notable part of Polish diet/cuisine and there was no pig in Poland). Cow was moved to the Baltic coast to boost Gdansk or Königsberg (also, still reachable from Warsaw). Added horse north of Poznan to have horse in Polish core (I'm considering moving horse on Brest tile somewhere north, to Lithuania proper) and boost production in Poznan or Gdansk. Moved deer from populated Luck tile in Volhynia to border between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, to represent Bialowieża and other forests and traditional hunting in the region. Added pig in Western Ukraine to boost growth of this very populated region. (other changes to the east and south of Poland would be discussed in following posts).
Obviously, potato long became staple crop in the region, so some plots should spawn potatoes. Moved potato in Poland from Torun plot to Czestochowa plot between Kraków and Warsaw. to specifically boost one of these cities. (Also shown potatoes in Germany that were discussed above). Another potato spawns near Kiev and another probably should spawn somewhere in Baltics or Belarus. Also, corn can spawn in southern Podolia to boost growth of Odessa and to represent role of corn in Moldavian and Western Ukrainian cuisine (also, Ukraine is one of largest corn producers in the world).

City list.
City list represents specifically Polish city list. That is, several names are Polish specific, especially on borders with Germany, Czechia and Slovakia. In Poland itself, city names may favour older cities than newer (that is, Leczyca over Lodz, Lomza over Bialystok and probably Cieszyn over Katowice), while across Belarus and Ukraine it sets newer contemprorary major cities that were founded and grew during Poland-Lithuania era, overshadowing some of older Rus cities (like, Stanislawów over Halicz), but Poland will just rename older cities prefounded by Rus (like, Galich/Halych to Halicz), so newer cities would appear only if west Rus city gets razed and refounded by Poland. Some names are of specific significance for Poland-Lithuania era (like Krewo, Bar, Braclaw, Czehryn).

Areas.
Polish core area is set to its definitive historical core of Greater Poland, Lesser Poland and Mazovia, leaving out Silesia, Pomerania and lands to the east of Bug. Thus, it leaves out Wroclaw tile, so human player will most likely favor founding Poznan.
Moved Warsaw tile to its real location and computer seems to have no problem with that, even though it is in fat cross of Krakow. Ingame, computer Poland quickly founds Krakow, Poznan or Wroclaw and/or Warszawa or Gdansk (three of the four spots with its starting settlers, and later Gdansk or Warszawa, Wilno and Ryga). A Western Ukrainian city like Lutsk is usually founded by Rus, so historically accurately it must captured by Poland later. Also, added Baltic coast and Livonia to Holy Roman settler map (specifically, Danzig, Königsberg and Riga, that should be to north of Daugava river) to represent Medieval German colonisation of the region. Thus, Gdansk/Danzig and Riga/Ryga are kinda contested between Poland and HRE (and later Prussia) in who will settle them first.
Also shown are birth/core areas of neighbouring civs, like Prussia and Austria. In the east, you can see Rus core in its smaller variant (it will be discussed in post about Rus), while also are shown birth/core areas of potential civs of Hungary and Lithuania (representing Eastern European history without them cannot be perfect).

Spoiler Maps :

Some ingame screenshots to show how it all plays out so far. While I was autoplay testing as America, I noticed Poland didn't spawn at all (so I asked above how can I make it to spawn always, as the civ is really necessary with the new map size). So I shifted to autoplay testing as Prussia, where Poland always spawns. So far, Poland always establishes itself well around its core area. However, without some rebalances so far, it managed to expand and become the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth only in some games, often firmly staying in its core (or founding only Wilno and/or Riga).

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Additional suggestions for Poland civ.
I think earlier starting date can be considered for Poland - 960/966, when unified Polish principality/duchy emerged under Mieszko of the Piast dynasty and adopted Catholic Christianity.
Yes, center of this early Polish state was in Greater Poland, in Gniezno and Poznan, but Krakow quickly became part of this Polish principality. I think we can ignore such historical precision (fitting more for RFCEurope level of attention to Europe) and let Poland start in 966 in Krakow. Moreover, even before Poland became kingdom in 1025 it already emerged as major power, waging far-fledged wars with HRE, Bohemia, Hungary and Rus during Boleslaw the Brave reign (Mieszko and Boleslaw both are completely left out with 1025 starting date). I think earlier starting date can help Poland establish itself better in its core, giving some more turns before facing stronger HRE threat. Also, if I'm not mistaken, 966 is widely seen as "starting year" of Poland by Poles themselfs.

Another suggestion: second unique unit for Poland.
There can be several consideration for second Polish UU. When thinking about Poland in my own potential mod, I actually came to good idea… Of course, Winged Hussars are the most iconic. However, with Winged Hussars replacing cuirassiers there's now… two units named hussar in Polish unit tree. To solve such a metaphysical problem, I came to what can be second Polish UU.
UU: Ulan replacing hussar. Ulans are quite iconic light cavalry for Poland (much more famous than hussars of this period), with Poland-Lithuania being the place of origin of both the name and tactic (likely adopting from Turkic oghlan). The characteristic ulan hat (rogatywka czapka) became iconic part of Polish military uniform. Main bonus for ulans in my opnion should be +20/25% combat strength inside owners cultural borders and maybe slightly lesser cost. As such, combat bonus represents heroic struggle for freedom of Poland during late XVIIIth-mid XIXth century (exactly when default hussar unit is used), while lesser cost represents how much and fast szlachta assembled into various insurgent regiments during rebellions.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Trianonland Carpatho-Danubian region and Europe's powder keg Balkans.
A fair bit of changes here. Altered course of middle Danube to make better Hungary. Added minor and unnecessary tributaries of Inn and Morava. Added major tributaries: Sava river going from the Alps to Belgrad, Tisza, the most Hungarian river, and Southern Morava in Serbia. Also, recently added Maritza river in Thrace.
Added bunch of hills to Balkan peninsula to better represent its numerous mountain ranges and hills. Now Balkan peninsula is really a hilly shield that is hard to pass and easy to defend. As noted in the post about Poland, altered eastern part of the Carpathian mountains, making it more realistic and providing space for some important towns. Altered terrain a bit, making Balkans greener (particularly, Illyria, where Dalmatian mountains catch most of precipitation allowing temperate rainforests in Bosnia and turning Hungarian plain into steppe).
Added horse, cow and wheat in Hungary to represent its thriving agriculture. Copper in Bosnia might be changed to salt or silver. Moved wine from Moldavia to Thrace. Another wine later spawns in Hungary.
Changed silk to spawn directly to Constantinople plot. Moved tobacco. Corn spawns in Romania in 1700. (Another corn spawns in southern Podolia in 1750 as noted in the post on Poland). Fish spawns in 1800 to boost Odessa or other northern Black sea port.

Areas.
Indicated core areas of Austria, Poland, Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire (Ottoman core may be expanded to include Selânik (Saloniki)).

Showed flip/core area of potential Hungary civ that could be very nice to see added one day. Hungary would be one core city civ like Netherlands and Portugal (not counting the islands), but this core would be very powerful. On this new map there's enough space for Hungary to expand and contest with neighbours over cities such as Belgrad, Spalato and Vienna.

Another potential (but less probable) civ to add - Bulgaria that for most of Middle Ages dominated inland Balkans and played crucial role in developing Slavic culture. Bulgarian spawn plot might be on historical, south bank of Danube, but that's really close to Constantinople. It actually can be ahistorically moved across Danube, to Bucharest plot. Reasons for that: during both the First and the Second Tsardom Bulgarians more or less controlled or dominated Wallachian plain, especially initially, when they were nomadic Bulgars; another reason is that historically Romanians formed large part of population of imperial Bulgaria (rulers of the Second Tsardom even used title Tsar of Bulgarians and Vlachs) and shared common Slavonic Orthodox culture well until westernisation from mid XIXth century.

Maps, including Greek (with different Ancient and Byzantine names in some cases), Hungarian and Slavo-Romanian (all smaller languages) city lists (all not final).
MAP ERROR: Bulgarian core should include Plovdiv (gold/tobacco) tile.

Spoiler Maps :

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Other suggestion: changing Ottoman starting date.
Currently Ottomans start in 1280. This date was inherited all they way from original RFC, from times when Byzantium was unplayable and uninteractable minor civ to be conquered by Turks. And 1280 is way too early for several reasons.
Firstly, just 20 years earlier, in 1261, Byzantine Empire got restored from one of its rump states - Empire of Nicaea, powerbase of which was in north-western Anatolia. As such, Byzantine Empire experienced its last period of prosperity (before civil wars), while in 1280 north-western Anatolia was still more or less under Byzantine control. Though, this control soon quickly deteriorated and by the end of century Byzantine power waned in inland areas, where numerous Turkish beyliks started to form and expand.
Secondly, even the very first date for Ottoman state, the emergence of the Ottoman beylik, is around 1299-1300. And this beylik for few first decades was just one of many such beyliks (originally more like an army camp than a state), many of which were bigger and more powerful. Of course, there's no way to historically flip all of Anatolia before late XVth century, but 1280 is definitely too early for that.
Thirdly, gameplay-wise Ottomans start with pretty powerful stack and usually capture Constantinople right from the start. That is, even before Ottoman beylik actually emerged. This also deprives Byzantium its last period of relative prosperity it had well until 1320s. Furthermore, Ottomans expand quickly and often in early XIVth century already control all or most of Balkans.
While small Ottoman beylik emerged in 1299, it was not until 1330s when it became notable power (atleast, leading among western Anatolian beyliks), when Ottomans captured and moved their capital first to Nicaea/Iznik (from 1331) and then to Proussa/Bursa (from 1336). Only by 1350s Ottomans conquered all of north-western Anatolia from Byzantine garrisons and defnitely became leading over other Turkish beyliks. Finally, in 1354 Ottomans captured Gallipoli, after an earthquake shattered the fortress, and established a foothold in Europe.
Thus, I propose changing Ottomans starting date. If as early as possible date is really necessary, it should be 1300, not 1280. But I think 1330 is better to mark Ottoman beylik definitely becoming an emerging empire with capital and government, not just a ghazi army host. Finally, the lattest date might be 1354 (if remember correctly, RFCEurope uses that date), and this aligns well with Ottomans flipping a bit of Thrace around Constantinople. Also by that date bulk of the remaining Byzantine territory in Balkans was completely in disarray after wars between them, Serbians and Bulgarians.

Personally, I prefer setting starting date to 1330, but 1354 (right a century before fall of Constantinople) would also be good. I think seeing rapid Ottoman expansion with cannons is much better and historical in second half of XIVth century, not at the end of XIIIth.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Before going to post(s) on suggestions for Eastern Europe and its civs, I would like to note one thing, especially because it concerns one of my real fields of interest.

As I can see, it was decided to switch to "normal" English transliteration of Russian and other Cyrillic city names and I fully understand why. This transliteration is widely used and due to predominance of English language is widely seen as a "default" way of rendering Russian Cyrillic names in Latin script. Even among most (younger than 40) Russians it is seen as the way our language should be rendered with Latin alphabet, because English usually is the only or main Latin-script language Russians are familiar with. Often the names of Latin letters themselfs are borrowed in its English pronunciation, despite existence of traditional Russian names for Latin letters (like, [vee] vs [ve] for v).

Still, I think I must note that the older transliteration system, for most part, was better from linguistic point of view, as a system not specifically intended for ease of reading for an English speaker, but as a more consistent and compact representation of Russian phonetics and spelling. Also, it was closer (in some important elements noted below) to Latin scripts of other Slavic languages, like Czech or Polish.
Namely, using c instead of ts for ц (like in Caricyn vs. Tsaritsyn);
j instead of y for "short i" sound/letter й (including at the end of words: Nizhnij vs Nizhny);
ja and ju instead of ya and yu for я and ю (both for starting sound cluster with short i sound as in Jaroslavl' vs Yaroslavl' and for palatisation as in Brjansk vs Bryansk). Also je instead of ye at the beginning of a word (unless plain e is preferred);
y is used only for specific Russian sound ы, like in Rybinsk, and not for short i sound that is rendered as j as noted above.
ë is used for ё instead of its pronunciation rendering yo, as in Orël vs Oryol, Olëkminsk vs Olyokminsk (in Russian, ё is really not the same as cluster yo, but is positional pronunciation of e, thus written as such).
Of course, optimal system for writing Russian in Latin script requires using letters such as č, š and ž for ч, ш and ж (like all Slavic Latin alphabets do, except "archaic" Polish system), but because Civ4 uses old ISO-8859-1 encoding system that adds only most vowels with common diacritics and some Western European languages letters (like ß ð þ ø æ), it is ok to substitue them with ch, sh and zh (digraphs English speakers are familiar with).
Main disadvantage of "default" English transliteration is conflation of completely different letters ы and й (along with я ю ё) into single letter y, even more so because they often can follow each other (usually at the end of words, this yy (yj), along with iy (ij), usually are simplified to y).

Despite writing all this, I understand why most other players likely prefer using default English transliteration, so I will use it further. But if community would find using older system (with some minor adjustments) preferable, I'm ready to (re)write all of Russian city list.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Eastern Europe. Rus&Russia.
Disclaimer: for most part, Russian city names would be used as default in following posts, both due to traditional historical sense, and because almost all of these cities would be found and/or usually controlled by Russia civ ingame. Such usage should not be taken as political statement of any kind in ongoing real conflicts that usually also affect perception of history, including historical names. Also, when there's historical and gameplay sense, other names would/could be used as will be described further, mostly, in regards to Rus civ and Turkic cities.

Eastern Europe is a vast land (around half of Europe), defined by basins of many great rivers, like Volga and Dnieper. As I noticed, mapmakers often get lost in all these vast spaces, and usually end up with some rough general sketch of this land, lacking detail that is usually bestowed upon lands to the west and south. Eastern Europe on the new DoC map, however, is quite good, with major places, spaces and rivers defined well. So all involved in making it rightfully deserve respect and credit (just as for the whole new map)! However, there's still a lot of things that can be improved, both in regards to terrain, city placement and gameplay. I consider my improvement for Eastern Europe to be most important among all other regions in previous posts.

Geography. If just looking on the screenshots for how map looks is enough for you, you can skip this part.
Rivers.
As noted in the post on Poland, made course of Neman river more realistic and added major Vilia/Neris tributary.
Most importantly, improved course of Dnieper river to make it as much realistic as possible with this map scale, with regards to some cities. Dnieper bending very west to north of Kiev was quite curious, but it needed to be fixed. The great bend of Dnieper moved one tile to west, as it is not as far east as it was. Added one more land tile near Dnieper estuary to optimally represent so called Tauric peninsula north of Crimea, along with lower course of Dnieper. This new land tile has marsh feaure on it to represent lower bank of the river partly covered with marshland, and also to keep Crimea narrowly connected to the mainland as before. Added major tributaries of Dnieper: long swampy Pripyat with its uppermost tile shifted one tile to south to represent both its upper course relative to Pinsk and Brest, along with Horyn and other Volhynian rivers (to provide fresh water for Lutsk). Added major and historically important Desna tributary to the east (cities like Chernigov and Bryansk stand on it, while Kursk is on its unmarked tributary Seym). Added major Southern Bug river (largest river entirely within Ukraine, also defines region of Podolia) emptying into Dnieper estuary. Finally, added Berezina river in Belarus (largest river entirely within Belarus, ingame provides fresh water for Minsk, though IRL it stands on another river, still in Dnieper basin). Upper part of Dnieper (with Smolensk being here) goes as up as possible with regard to other rivers.
Don. While course of Don itself was perfect as I remember it, it looked lacking without its major tributaries. With course of Dnieper made realistic, there's now room for major and important tributary of Don, Seversky Donets (upper half of which defines historical region of Sloboda Ukraine, with such cities as Kharkov, Belgorod and Lugansk standing on it or close by in its basin). Also added major Khopyor tributary to north-east of Don river course. Don basin now looks perfect.
Volga. The largest river in Europe also needed some improvements. Made course of upper Volga and Oka rivers as realistic as possible, especially in relation to newly improvemed neighbouring rivers. On upper Volga, added river to represent its northern Mologa and Sheksna tributaries (Belozersk and Cherepovets stand on it). With Moscow plot realistically moved one tile east, it became possible to optimally change Oka river course, also added its southern Tsna tributary (Tambov stands on it). On first screenshots of all the map I posted initially week ago, one could see the most realistic Oka river course as projected on this map. However, to better represent Nizhny Novgorod's position in relation to Oka and Volga rivers, I decided to make Oka turn north one tile to east of its real turn, so Nizhny Novgorod (its historical center around its kremlin, the city expanded to west of Oka only in late XIXth-XXth centuries) now stands directly on eastern bank of Oka, as it is in reality (also, Murom now is on correct side of Oka). Farther, on Middle Volga, added tributaries of Vetluga to the north and Sura to south. While only Sura is important geoeconomically (city of Penza stands on it) as well-populated region is around it, both forested swampy Vetluga and Sura historically are important as they defined easternmost point of Slavic Rus(sian) colonisation along the Volga for centuries, until the conquest of Kazan in XVIth century. Farther downstream, while Kama river itself needed no improvement, its Belaya tributary (defines Bashkiria region with Ufa city) was slightly elongated in interestingly shaped upper course, and major important Vyatka tributary of Kama was added (that defines eponymous region with eponymous city). Downstream of Kama, Volga was perfect and needed no improvement.
Northern Dvina remained unchanged in its lower course, but two rivers that form it were improved. Major Sukhona river was slightly elongated and altered, especially in relation to Volga and Sheksna courses, with city of Vologda now standing in proper location. Vychegda river was slightly altered, its excessive twist was removed as it joins Sukhona/Northern Dvina in northern part of the great bend, thus city of Kotlas now is in right spot relative to both rivers.
Finally, added Usa tributary of Pechora river, to mark position of Vorkuta city in its basin, not really on coast as it is ingame gameplay-wise. Added Kem river in Karelia, with eponymous historically important garrison town of Kem standing on it, and added Tuloma river on which another historic garrison town of Kola and modern port city of Murmansk stand.

Terrain.
Starting from the north. Notably changed the shape of Kola peninsula by expanding it one tile to east (to its more proper location relative to opposite southern White sea coast. City plot of Kola/Murmansk moved one tile east as well), while removing one land tile to north of Arkhangelsk that was pointing into sea (it looked kinda unnessary, as there's no such pointy peninsula and coast relatively gently curves northward, especially regarding map's more packed map projection). Another reason for changing Kola peninsula shape was to make more realistic position of Khibiny mountains here. Before that, mountains were placed off to the west, somewhere on border with Finland, while in reality they are right to the north of Kandalaksha bay, with peculiar lake system (too small to represent), cities, and major Murmansk railroad going in valley between these mountains. Another mountain was added in Norwegian Finnmark as the map of Scandinavia I use indicates mountain range with two prominent peaks (1139 and 1067 metres high) here. Finally, topography was made as realistic as possible, often switching hills and flatlands.
Along the arctic coast of Russia added several marsh features in tundra, as terrain, especially near coast, is very marshy here (similar to southern and western Hudson bay coast in Canada). Added and moved some other marsh features to more proper locations. Most prominently, added long stretch of marshes on northern bank of Volga between Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan to represent very swampy terrain here (as you could notice, I'm from Yoshkar-Ola, known as Tsarevokokshaysk before Soviet time, that is, right on the plot to north-west of Kazan on this map. And yes, forested swamps to north of Volga, that cover 2/3 of my region, Mari El Republic, are probably the most major geographic feature my region should be represented by on such global map with such scale). These swamps historically made lands to the north of them, between basins of Northern Dvina and Vyatka, mostly isolated and unconnected to major populated regions to south, west and east. Another interesting marsh plot is to north-east-east of Novgorod, west of Cherepovets. This area is extremely wet and swampy, and many tributaries of Volga (mostly through Mologa and Sheksna) originate here, quickly making Volga such a large river. And yet, despite it being so swampy, it historically played important part in Russian economic history. As you might know, historically main source of iron often was not mined ore, but bog iron ore. And these swamps were abundant with it, with town of Ustyuzhna (with title of Zheleznopolskaya, "ironfield") becoming major blacksmithing center in XIV-XVIIth centuries, before losing importance to other metallurgical centres. Ingame, this is represented by iron on this marsh tile, used by Novgorod (also representing modern steel industry of Cherepovets). Workers, including computer player, have no problem in building mine right in the swamp.
Other than altering terrain in Kola, added and moved bunch of hills. Added hills to east of Onega lake to represent hilly terrain of upper Sukhona/Northern Dvina basin, showing why it flows eastwards. Added hills on watershed between Northern Dvina, Pechora and Volga, there's very hilly (even low mountainous) terrain here. Slightly altered shape of Valdai-Central Russian uplands. Moved hill from Don river to Azov coast and placed another coal here to properly represent Donetsk upland range. Turned hills to flatlands west of Kiev to better represent flat, evenly sloped terrain of Volhynia in contrast to Podolian upland south of it. And altering of the Carpathians was already noted twice in posts above.
With new terrain types climatic-biome landscape now can be made much more realistic. Removed random plots and patches of wrong terrain, now terraintypes change one another more gradually. Tundra is where tundra is, in completely uncultivable northern lands. It changes to moorland in areas where agriculture is possible, but not very productive (like around Northern Dvina) and land is populated, but not densely. Then goes grassland zone, historically main population zone in Russia, between taiga and tundra in the north and steppe with raiding nomads in the south, with many historic cities and midsize towns. To south, it changes to plains that partially represent transion forest-steppe zone and steppe zone, that are agricultural areas (intended for building farms here) with several major cities growing here in XVIII-XIXth centuries, often without much of smaller towns around. Finally, semidesert and desert are on fringes of Eastern Europe, in areas where agriculture is nearly impossible.

Resources.
Changed and moved some resource for more historical locations and gameplay, with nearly all of resources having precise real regional basis (particular example, cows). In XVIII-XIXth centuries, several wheat resources should spawn in steppe zone and potatoes in forest zone to represet population growth of respective areas, with some resources placed as such to be contested by several major cities intended to be founded. Also, tobacco probably should spawn in 1750-1800 to represent Ukraine being biggest/one of largest tobacco producers and exporters in Europe during XIXth century. Also, probably, gems (diamonds) should spawn around 1900 to north of Arkhangelsk to represent biggest diamond mine in Europe, and petroleum near Kazan should spawn only in 1950 to stress vital importance of Caucasus oil during WWII.

Civ and city maps coming next…

Spoiler Screenshots :

 

[AOS9001]

I wish you'd been around when Leoreth was working on the map, some of these changes are really good.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

I wish you'd been around when Leoreth was working on the map, some of these changes are really good.

Wait, is the map really closed to changes? I hope that changes I propose, some of them being really important, would be included eventually, as much sa possible. Though, I'll continue this thread regardless, posting all of changed gamefiles upon completion for other players to try, and, if changes would be deemed unneeded to include in RFCDoC by default, I'll turn this into a modmod. Still, I hope for inclusion of my propositions (so I won't need to maintain a modmod for next versions). I suppose, I'll need to post brief summary of suggestions in respective threads for proper consideration.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

City lists and areas.
Of course, existing city list was used as basis, with many key cities placed in correct locations and as such used as points of relation for other cities.
First, main Russian city list. Not going into details over every city, this city map was based on several historical maps, with thought on how it should play out in game (what cities actually will be found and where). In general, if there was a choice, this city list favors older and historically important cities over newer, especially found/grown in XXth century (essentially, city map of Russian Empire era is used as main basis, with some historic cities being included for pre-imperial significance). This way, every city name plot was examined, being changed or not. City plots that change name indicated as [old city]->[new city], like Azov->Rostov-na-Donu, Kholmogory->Arkhangelsk (even though these two are neighbouring, but different cities, Kholmogory was main regional center before Arkhangelsk, thus this sequence) and Kola->Murmansk. If there are two, more or less equally important cities contesting one tile, they are indicated with /, like Shuya/Ivanovo (Shuya was main city in this plot before Ivanovo-Voznesensk developed as textile industry center in XIXth-XXth centuries). Handful of city names are placed on wrong side of river they stand on (hello, Köln), but none of crucial cities that would be found ingame. Namely, Volsk and Khvalynsk on Volga, near Saratov, all located on western bank of the river, but because there's not enough space, historically regionally important cities of Volsk and Khvalynsk were placed on eastern bank of Volga on this map, that lacked such important large cities before XXth century (when Balakovo and Volga German Porkovsk-Engels properly established themself) in this part of the river. Any dubious city names are indicated as such. Mostly, this includes many transliterated names of German and Swedish cities in the Baltics and Finland, that probably should stay ingame as they are written in these languages, as transliterating them twice (from Latin-script Swedish/German to Russian and then back from Russian to Latin-script, like Nyslott->Neuschlott->Нейшлот->Neyshlot or Sankt-Michel->Санкт-Михель->Sankt-Mikhel') is quite illogical, even if curious.
Finally, I think city renaming from era-to-era should be avoided for most part (this doesn't include numerous communist renamings), especially for not important cities that won't be found.

Spoiler Russian city list :

Rus city list&Turkic cities in the steppes.
Additionally, there's city list for Rus, that includes both the same cities as in Russian one (Smolensk, Novgorod etc), same cities with old Rus form of the name (Luchesk for Lutsk, Mensk for Minsk, Debryansk for Bryansk, Suzhdal' for Suzdal' etc. Notably, Volodimer (aka Volodymyr) in Volhynia and Vladimir in central Russia are differentiated, though both are Volodimer in Old East Slavic) and cities that were important in Rus era but lost importance to newer cities in the same plot (Galich (aka Halych) vs Stanislavov (Ivano-Frankivsk), Terebovl vs Tarnopol etc). Additionally, in cursive several Rus cities with unprecise or dubious locations are indicated in plot they usually are associated with (like, not very important Donets that usually is though to be somewhere nearby Kharkov and the main city of southern Ulichi tribe, Peresechen, that has really unprecise localisation). Rus city list is generally contagious with Rus historical area, so you can easily see where that is.
Also, Rus city names use transliteration that is somewhat of a compromise between proper Old East Slavic names (that are not very well transilterable from Cyrillic in general, and impossible with Civ4 encoding) and rendition of these names in modern Russian orthography (that is most conservative, preserving many of these city names all along from Rus era, than other modern East Slavic languages, like Ukrainian or Belarussian). Notably, Kiev is still named Kiev, as such form of the name is among the early used and attested ones. More properly, if the older transliteration (the "Jelec for Yelets" one) was used as noted in the post above, Kiev should be Kyjev in Old East Slavic, that would yield not very good looking ambigous Kyyev with current transliteration system, so I think using Kiev is better. Again, without any political connotations, for purely historical reason, Ukrainian and Belarussian city names should not be used, as they hadn't had set orthographies until mid XIXth century. Particularly, phonetical spelling Kyiv appeared only in second half of XIXth century (before that even Ukrainian writers used older etymological spelling even if pronouncing it as Kyiv) and was not widely used well until XXth century. Actually, switching to Ukrainian and Belarussian names can be used alongside other languages in communist name switch (like Obdorsk to Salekhard, Ust'-Sysolsk to Syktyvkar and Tsarevokokshaysk to Yoshkar-Ola and also Vilna to Vilnius, Revel to Tallinn and even Helsingfors to Helsinki) to represent the policy of korenizatsia (indigenisation/nativisation) and swift rise of usage and education in Ukrainian and other local languages during Soviet era.
If Lithuania civ be added, another West Rus, or Slavo-Lithuanian (aka Ruthenian) city list can be made, that is slightly different from both Russian and Rus city names (and modern Ukrainian and Belarusian names, along with the Baltic Lithuanian language), because this language was the main laguage in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before being gradually supplanted by Polish in late XVIth-XVIIth century.
Both Rus and Lithuania city lists can be added as separate citylists (like there was German and Prussian or English and American citylists), or as set of changes based on Russian city list.

Other than Rus cities, various Turkic cities, around Volga and Don are indicated, to be founded by the Turks civ, as independents (like Kazan currently does) or for desirable potential Volga Turkic civ (Khazars->Kipchaks->Tatars) to oppose too early south-eastward expansion of Russia.
What cities and how they will be found will be described in areas and gameplay section below.

Spoiler Rus&Turkic cities :

 

[AOS9001]

Wait, is the map really closed to changes? I hope that changes I propose, some of them being really important, would be included eventually, as much sa possible. Though, I'll continue this thread regardless, posting all of changed gamefiles upon completion for other players to try, and, if changes would be deemed unneeded to include in RFCDoC by default, I'll turn this into a modmod. Still, I hope for inclusion of my propositions (so I won't need to maintain a modmod for next versions). I suppose, I'll need to post brief summary of suggestions in respective threads for proper consideration.

I wouldn’t say it’s closed to changes (though on the first page of this thread Leoreth said he probably wouldn’t be changing the shape of any landmasses). But changes to the map are likely a low priority for the foreseeable future, the priority right now is game balance and city names. Besides some resource changes and jungles/taigas being removed from resource tiles I don’t think the map has been touched.

There is a map suggestion thread but I would not be surprised of any of your suggested changes aren’t implented for months. I think you should keep posting though, there’s a lot of good ideas here.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

Areas and gameplay.
On the map you can see core/birth areas of Poland (partly, in the west) and of potential civ of Lithuania, as desrcibed in the post about Poland.

There are two ways of defining Rus core area. You can see the bigger core area, stretching along the Varangian trade route with such crucial Rus cities as Kiev, Novgorod, Smolensk and Polotsk. Rus birth area is generally the same, extending a bit to north, south and to east. Bigger core area makes Rus very stable. Also, you can see smaller core area - square centered on Kiev. There are two factors that should be considered in favour of the smaller core for Rus. Firstly, historically, alongside Rus as the name for entire region divided into several principalities, there also was region of Rus "proper" (compare to Ile de France in France) on the middle Dnieper, that included Principality of Kiev and cities of Chernigov and Pereyaslavl. More localised usage of term Rus for this region was especially common in XII-XIIIth centuries (attested in documents, alongside the broad usage for all principalities), when whole Rus desintegrated into several warring principalities, and name Rus was used for original domain of the Kievan grand princes. Another reason is gameplay. Historically, Rus was early feudal state (that is, feudals had full power in their domains, while ongoing land colonisation and development inevitably led to emergence of more and more local domains based in these lands), that had strong decentralizing tendencies that resulted in its desintegration into several major principalities in second half of XIth century. Rus civ represents both Kievan and all of its successor principalities. However, bigger core makes Rus too stable, while it should easily collapse with Mongol invasion, making space for Polish (and possibly Lithuanian) expansion-conquest in the west, and later also Russian expansion in the north-east. Alongside Kievan Rus and its successor principalities, Rus civ also represents another of these successor states - Novgorod republic, that existed well until late XVth century, setting control over all of Northern Russia for its fur trade. It can be represented by mechanic that makes Rus, if it loses its capital and only core city of Kiev, to move capital to Novgorod with Rus core area changing into square (or 5x3 space, to include more resources around) centered on Novgorod. However, it should be noted, that Novgorod was most independent among Kievan Rus successors and generally Novgorodians didn't regard themself as part of Rus in relation to its southern and eastern neighbours.

Rus city placement.
Rus starts in 882 in Kiev (it can actually be changed to 862. While Rurik was famously invited to rule in Novgorod, two of his commanders, Askold and Dir, sailed south and established their principality in Kiev, later to be conquered by Oleg in 882. Anyway, it is generally agreed that some polity already existed by 862 in Kiev. Changing starting date to 862 will give Rus a bit more of so much needed turns). Already in my first playtests I noticed that Rus is not really eager to settle Novgorod, so, due to such historical significance (P(le)skov and Ladoga are also historically important, but still overshadowed by Novgorod), Novgorod spawns as minor city in 862, to be quickly flipped to Rus. With Kiev and flipped Novgorod, Rus has 2 more settlers at start (one more than was before). Settling map was made so it most likely settles Smolensk between Kiev and Novgorod. Smolensk also is a crucial city in Eastern European/Russian history. For centuries it was the largest city between Kiev and Novgorod and later Moscow and Wilno (and, according to some historians, the largest among all these cities in first half of XIVth century), right in the middle of Rus lands. Important regional center, it served as capital of one of major Rus principalities and later was focal point of territorial conflicts between Lithuania&Poland and Muscovite Russia, with major fortress built here. Since XVIIIth century its global importance gradually diminished, but it still remained important regional and cultural center just as before. Sometimes, instead of (or rarely along with) Smolensk Rus settles Kursk - another historically important city in Russian history, that always was important regional center, with major WWII battle of Kursk fought in this region. Other historically important cities Rus civ is incentivised to settle early are Minsk, that also always remained important regional center and currently is the capital of Belarus, and Polotsk (Polish: Polock), the oldest and most important Rus era city in modern day Belarus, capital of major principality and later important city in G.D. of Lithuania, before its importance greatly diminished by late XVIIth century due to devastating wars between Poland-Lithuania and Russia. Also, Rus civ usually settles a city in modern day Western Ukraine with its starting settler. This city is usually Lutsk (Polish:Luck), that has optimal position between Warsaw and Kiev. Lutsk also always was very important city, soon becoming main city in the region of Volhynia. Other than Lutsk, Rus often founds Lvov (Lviv, Polish:Lwów) to south-west on border with Polish core area. Though Lvov was founded only in XIIIth century (before that, most important city on this plot was Zvenigorod), it quickly became capital of Galicia region and important center of Ruthenian and Polish culture. Other city to be found in this region is Terebovl (Polish:Trembowla), one of most important, oldest and largest cities in South-Western Rus, capital of one of first principalities that later merged with Galicia. Terebovl remained important regional center until it diminished in XVIth-XVIIth centuries due to Tatar raids and Cossack rebellions, with Tarnopol (Ternopil) superseding it as main city on this plot. Also, among cities west of Kiev Rus can found Volodimer (Vladimir-Volynsky, Volodymyr, Polish:Wlodzimierz) the largest and most important city west of Kiev in Rus era, capital of principality of Volhynia, important regional city until XVI-XVIIth centuries. Finally, south of Lvov Galich (Halych, Polish: Halicz) can be found, important city and capital of eponymous principality of Galicia, another important regional center until XVIIth century, later superseded by Stanislavov (Ivano-Frankivsk, Polish:Stanislawów) in this plot. Another region with several important cities of Rus is in north-east, in Volga-Oka basin, which later served as center of new Muscovite Russia. Oldest cities and principalities here are Rostov and Murom, that were followed by Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Ryazan and Vladimir. Rus is incentivised to found any of them (Murom a bit less, due to Nizhny Novgorod), but all of these cities would be removed with Russia spawning in Moscow, except Yaroslavl (that kept and keeps being most important of all these cities in following centuries as part of Muscovite Russian state. So Russia will keep Yaroslavl as closest city to Moscow ingame) and possibly Murom. Farther north, Rus (now mostly representing Novgorod republic) can found Ustyug, Kholmogory (that later becomes Arkhangelsk), Vologda or Totma, and also possibly Kem and Khlynov (Vyatka), maybe even Kola (->Murmansk) and Pustozersk (even though founded in Muscovite times in 1499, for centuries it was the most important city on Pechora river. With Soviet renaming it can become neighbouring Naryan-Mar).

As noted above, another civ would be nice to have to represent various Turkic nomadic peoples and states in the Volga, Don and Dnieper steppes. Main problem here is the fact that there's no single universal name all of them can be called (perhaps the most universal would be Tartary, as this region and people were called by Russians, other Europeans and in Middle East, but this names is not applicable for pre-Mongol Cumans and Khazars). Regardless of the name, general things about this civ are pretty clear. This civ shoulw start around 650 in Itil/Atil (later (on entering Medieval era?) renamed Saqsin for Kipchaks and Hajjitarkhan/Astrakhan for Tatars. Lower Volga always remained the center of power of nomadic empire in Pontic-Caspian steppes) to represent the first major of Turkic empires in the region - Khazar Khaganate. This civ should settle such cities as Bolghar or Qazan (Kazan) in Volga-Kama confluence and Azaq (Azov) or Tamatarkha/Samkarsh in Don delta to, together with military raids, prevent Rus and especially Russia from easy and early expansion to steppes and Volga. After Khazars diminished in X-XIth century, this civ should represent Kipchaks (aka Cumans and Polovtsy) with capital renamed to Saqsin. While Kipchaks lacked established state being divided into numerous clans, they were powerful force before Mongol conquest. Moreover, even after the Mongol conquest, Kipchak language became lingua franca and basis for written Turkic language used from Carpathians to Altay. It is not clear how relations of this civ to Mongols should be set. Should Mongols conquer it, with this civ respawning as Golden Horde (or, more properly called, Ulus Jochi), or somehow vassalise it? Ulus Jochi clearly should be represented by this civ as heyday of the imperial power in European steppes. Last great nomadic people to be represented by this civ should be Nogai, who dominated these steppes in XVI-XVIIth centuries.

Muscovite Russia coming up next…

Spoiler Rus cities :