Im trying both to share my thinking at this stage of the map/BIQ development and provoke some brainstorming on the next steps we can take
Terrain
Blue Monkey said:
I think I left too much of South Asia (India) open grassland. I'll be adjusting that on the next go around to include more Plains, and covering more of the grassland with forest/jungle.
timerover51 said:
Manchuria should be a combination of plain, mountains, with steppe in the northwest corner, actually borderline desert. You have near tropical conditions in the south, near the present Vietnam border.
7ronin said:
I just have never considered them to be mountains. They certainly aren't anywhere near as tall as what really passes for mountains on the map.
The next version of the map will have a lot more forest / jungle. Based on playing the map a bit with random resource distribution and standard Conquest civs it looks like everyone is growing too fast. The Western Ghats are going to see more hills, fewer mountains.
Blue Monkey said:
I'd like the "passes" to need to be discovered ... we can use its LM slot (and reset the movement, shield, etc. values) with mountain graphics to portray the passes ... using the Mountain/SnowCapped Mt. graphics that already exist.
Ill also be introducing the use of LM Hills with Mountain graphics for the passable Mountain terrain. The standard Mountains will become impassable.
I want to introduce LM Grassland (no changed graphics at present), with a lower food rating to simulate the lower fertility of the steppes in Central / Western Asia. Im also thinking about using the LM Sea to simulate in some fashion the deep trenches near the Philippines and south of Indonesia.
Sword_Of_Geddon said:
I could use some help tracking down that bamboo resource someone made...it is from that that the bamboo forest terrain will be made from...
What youre looking for may be here:
Casus Belli's Edited Resource Compilation I could use help (TimeRover?) knowing where to place the base forest that will be Bamboo, and whereto use LM Forest for the standard forest that can be cut down to plant bamboo.
We need to consider if we want to use a terrain mod, such as that used in Rhyes or TAM from which to base our revisions. In particular I like the Mountains in
Rhyes and the terrain He calls Plateau, which I would consider substituting for the standard Hills.
TAM uses a similar set; in particular I like the
lotuses in the swamp which I would use in place of the Marsh. Both Mods also have a lot of resources that would be worth looking at.
Resources
timerover51 said:
Blue Monkey, I will try to get you the resource list by Saturday. ...Do you have a map set that shows biomes for the jungle? Otherwise, I will dig out what I have and pass it on to you.
Im still waiting for this info. As soon as I get access to some decent resource maps, and some indication of what changes we want to make from the standard set I can add resources to the map.
Tribal Placement
7ronin said:
Since we're not doing units yet, there's no reason no to put in all the civs as selected by our leader.
Sword_Of_Geddon said:
I think its time to start assembling a basic biq toghether with east asian civs. That means Japan, Korea, China type civs, that way we can eliminate having to worry about flavor units at this point.
I can at least place a starting crew (settler/warrior?) based on Shirous culture map (
post #21 ). Sword of G: Ive never done this before; are you suggesting we start by reduplicating the Asian civs graphics, renaming them as we go? Or do we start by placing civs with similar characteristics, then changing graphics, etc.? On that note look at this little chart:
Shirous map has 4 civs not in his master list, all in locations that need a civ at start for competitions sake. 7Ronin gave us a good start at Civ-specific abilities in
post #127 (Bold is for named Civs, italics is the standard civ with a matching attribute set). We need to broaden the assigned attributes. Comparing to
LoneWolf5050s chart (page 10 in the pdf) our 20-24 civs are only using 10 of the 28 possible 2 attribute combinations.
If I can get some guidance on the issues Ive raised, so I know how to attack the next set of objectives, we can shortly have a BIQ with LM Terrain, a first stab at resources, and a set of at least placeholder civs.
Future Map Tutorial
7ronin said:
How did you go about constructing the map?
Based on the several compliments/inquiries Ive received Im planning on starting a mapping tutorial thread, after this Mod project is beyond the need for major attention. Ill draw together what Ive learned about LM Terrain, Resources, as well as how I build a map. It would be premature to do so now, since Im still learning too much to write something coherent.