Putting the pieces together

[CharlemagneXLII]

Since we are most likely the team who has done the most exploring, I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread synthesizing all of our ideas about the map. Once we get an exploring warrior on the mainland we can decide what to with him here. We can also post exploration related screenshots here. We should name land features to make things easier to understand.

First, the Facts:
1) Everyone is on an island.
2) There is a star-shaped main continent in the middle, with all of the islands in between spokes.
3) The locations of civs goes as follows (clockwise): Quatronia, Mavericks, Sirius, Amazon, Merlot, CDZ.
4) There are at least three channels or inlets running towards the centre of the continent, there is one inlet per team.
5) There are roughly 800 land tiles in the world.
6) It is possible for a canal to be built using forts/cities in the middle of the continent.

Resources:
1) Clams are distributed liberally and uniformly along the coast of the main continents (confirmed by Amazon.)
2) Teams control several of the following resources:
Quatronia: Wheat, silver, spices.
Mavericks: Rice, dyes, gems.
Sirius:Fish, Gold, Silk
Amazon: Silver, sheep, deer, furs.
Merlot:Wines, corn, gems.
CDZ: Crabs, sugar, gold.
3) Between us and CDZ are stone, bananas, copper, incense.
4) Between Sirius and Mavericks are stone, pigs, copper, incense.
5) Between Sirius and Amazon are likely bananas, marble, ivory, horses.

Now for some educated guesses:
Here is Galdarian's analysis of the known world, turn 57.

Spoiler :

1) The remaining food resources (pig, cow, bananas) are distributed on opposite peninsulas much the same way the mineral luxuries are.
2) There are likely no other islands besides the home islands and the mainland.
3) There is very likely at least one barbarian city on the continent.
4) Desert peninsulas contain ivory, horses, marble.
5) Plains peninsulas contain incense, copper, stone.

I'll update this as we learn more.

 

[Earthling]

I like keeping this thread around for general updates to our knowledge of the map - it's an important idea overall, and nice work. Hope you don't mind my second post here - I take it the OP could be edited though.

I certainly am very curious as the overall size of the main continent. Remember, we do have a rough estimate on the total size of the world - just around 800 land tiles. Given our Stonehenge centering and the map size there could be some little islands out in the ocean, possibly with important strategic resources though. But from the looks of things, maybe 90% of the total landmass is at least on each team's home continent + the mainland.

Canals certainly are possible - we already can see there are places where 1-2 tiles (city and fort) make a canal, so that is something to watch out for. I think some have pointed out we would prefer to get the canal spot between us and Vikings for ourselves though settling better cities first is also a priority.

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

Okay, we've launched our first galley with a crew of brave explorers. Here is the route Galdarian has suggeted, and I agree, as we'll be able to start at one end of the fog and avoid doubling back:

Spoiler :

It is worth noting that we've discovered barbarian warriors near Sirius, meaning there are more of them, and likely a city.

 

[RegentMan]

Are there barb cities this early? I'm inclined to just think a warrior or two have spawned.

 

[galdarian]

I have updated the known world this turn. I am concerned that there is a land discrepancy between the arms but it's early days in terms of what we know of the world. It's also possible that there are mountainous regions balancing out the land. Did we work out how many land tiles there should be / are?

 

[cav scout]

That's a pretty kick-ass analysis. I think the difference is because of square tiles (vs. hex) and that some arms are at a diagonal.

 

[galdarian]

Thanks. Me and the GIMP draw stuf good




Ingrish not so gud

 

[CharlemagneXLII]

Earthling said there should be roughly 800 land tiles. 90*6=540 40*6=240 and 540+240 is 780, which is about 800. I don't recall what that estimate of 800 is based on, but this means it is unlikely there are any small islands. I put your map (far better than my quick ones) in the first post.

 

[galdarian]

I would be pissed and amazed if all the home islands weren't exactly 40 tiles. I would assume that the arms of the central star are therefore averaging 90 and then you have the trapped barb city out there which probably makes up the difference.

 

[RegentMan]

Quatronia has earned the achievement [Realm First! Know Thy Neighbors].

lol Why too much WoW is bad...

 

[Earthling]

I only went on an estimate off of the "Percent of Land" from the F8 Victory screen - NOT the F9 Demographics screen of course, but it is useful. It matches directly to tiles though and we can count/correlate from F9 too if we need - so yes, I think about 800 land tiles sounds right, it was somewhere around there. Remember that does not really translate to cities though as on a water-heavy map like this many cities will have a large proportion of ocean/coast tiles.


What this does tell us, and our exploration kinda confirms, is that I do not expect any real significant "islands" or "New World" stuff out there - if there were there would simply be more total land and there isn't - I wouldn't be surprised if we even found pure ocean sailing around to circumnavigate eventually.

 

[galdarian]

The known world has been updated.

 

[galdarian]

The known world as it stands on T68

Spoiler :