Standard (80x52) World Map TSL

[Veneke]

Standard Sized Earth Maps

​

A standard sized world map (80x52) with upscaled Europe and Japan, all Civs and City States are as close to their real world locations as good gameplay will allow.

A note should be made about resource placement in this map. Resources are very localized, for instance there's no sugar outside of the Caribbean or cotton outside the southern United States. That's not entirely realistic, but it should help create some interesting situations and encourage long-range expansion and colonization (for the human players anyway). This is especially true for oil, uranium and aluminium which are confined to a limited number of areas and/or located in very small quantities in rather remote areas.

Civilizations (20/21):

• African: Carthage, Egypt, Ethiopia, Songhai.
• American: America, (Inca - only in DLC version), Iroqious, Maya.
• Asian: China, India, Japan, Mongolia.
• European: England, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Sweden.
• Middle-Eastern: Arabia, Byzantium, Persia.

City-States (17):

• African: Cape Town, Marakech.
• American: Cahokia, La Venta, Rio de Janeiro, Quebec City.
• Asian: Colombo, Hanoi, Jakarta,Kuala Lumpur, Lhasa, Manila, Singapore, Sydney.
• European: Vatican City.
• Middle-Eastern: Almaty, Jerusalem.

Limited Map: Civilizations and City-States:

• Europe: France, Russia, Vatican.
• Middle East: Byzantium, Almaty, Jerusalem.
• Africa: Egypt, Cape Town, Marakech.
• Asia: India, China, Lhasa, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Jakarta, Sydney, Colombo, Manila.
• America: America, Maya, Rio de Janerio, Quebec City, La Venta.

Brave New World: Civilizations and City States:

• Europe: England, France, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Russia. Vatican, Kiev.
• Middle East: Byzantium, Assyria, Arabia. Kabul, Samarkand, Jerusalem.
• Africa: Zulus, Egypt, Songhai, Carthage, Morocco. Mombasa, Mogadishu, Cape Town, M'Banza-Kongo, Antananarivo.
• Asia: India, China, Japan, Indonesia. Lhasa, Kyzyl, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Colombo, Manila, Singapore.
• Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne.
• America: America, Shoshone, Maya, Brazil. Panama City, Quebec City, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Cahokia.

Screenshots:

• Worldbuilder view of map
• England versus the Russian bear
• A very British Middle East

Installation Instructions

Extract to C:\Users\...\Sid_Meiers_Civilization_5\MODS
Load Civ 5
Navigate to the Mods section
Activate Vens Gods and Kings Standard Earth Map
Go to Set Up Game
Select the appropriate Map
Click Back
Select Load Scenario
Select Civilization and other settings
Enjoy!

To play with achievements

These Maps do not change any default settings and so it is possible to enable Steam achievements whilst playing.

As above but after the game has started:
Save game
Exit to Main Menu
Cick Single-Player
Load the saved game
Play as normal

Abbreviations:

V Earth 2 - Requires no DLC nor expansions to play.
VGK Earth - Requires Gods and Kings to play.
VGK Earth DLC - Requires Inca DLC to play. <-- This is considered to be the primary map.
VGK Earth Limited - Requires Gods and Kings to play. Has only 8 Civs and 16 City-States.
VBNW Earth - Requires Brave New World to play. Not yet included.


Changelog:

Brave New World:

Version 1.0 - Updated for BNW with hotfix for Panama City starting position.

Gods and Kings version:

Version 6.0 - Balancing pre-BNW. Expected to be the last update to the G&K maps.
Version 5.0 - Changed Map Pack name, added 'Limited' map and fixed Egyptian starting position in all maps.
Version 4.0 - Added Manila and La Venta, shifted Mayan starting position south and adjusted resources and terrain in central America. Minor adjustments elsewhere, see changelog for more information.
Version 3.0 - Variety of issues addressed relating to Victory conditions, starting positions and England.
Version 2.01 - Fixed issue with map names.
Version 2.0 - Added CSs, Civs and additional maps to cover DLC and advanced options.
Version 1.0 - Initial release.

Initial vanilla version:

v3.00 - Minor map changes, see Readme for more details. Expected to be the last update for the Vanilla map.
v2.00 - Various map changes to the Vanilla version. DLC version added. Diplomacy mod added.
v1.00 - First release


Credits:

The initial map design was the Large world map done by Vadus, which can be found here: Vadus World Map. As it turned out I ended up placing every resource by hand but the initial map sculpting was Vadus' and I'm quite grateful for having such an excellent starting point.

Special thanks to markusbeutel as well for kindly allowing me to use the diplomacy component of his Nights mod with the Vanilla map.

Special thanks to bwoww78 for his valuable contributions to the map.

 

[MAGBaxter]

It looks pretty good !

 

[Lachlan]

Nice map !

But if you want creating scenarios with only the map file, using DLCs would be required...

In 1000 AD you must have Incan Empire, Danish Empire, Korean Empire and Spanish Empire, 4 DLCs at least...

 

[Veneke]

The plan is to avoid DLC if at all possible. As there's a need to add some city-states (current version has renamed CS's, but that doesn't appear to carry over to notifications arising from them), it may be that those Civs will be modded in.

At the moment, however, there appears to be a problem in that the small size of the map, coupled with the close border proximity, is making the AI even more volatile than it usually is. Hopefully a bit of modding will solve this (I'm thinking of the NiGHTS mod's diplomacy system).

 

[Veneke]

I've removed the offending City States and made some other minor changes to the map. A DLC version has been added and both now come packaged with the NiGHTS diplomacy system although its very easy to return to the Vanilla diplomacy system by moving/deleting a single folder.

The 1000 AD scenario is about half-way done, although the project has encountered a small hiccup. If anyone has any experience in combining Civilization packs into one mod I'd appreciate it if they could send me a message.

 

[Veneke]

The map pack has been updated. The scenarios, however, have been delayed because for some reason I can't figure out how to get the extra Civs to work with the map. The extra Civs load perfectly for a normal game, but don't display on the Civ selection screen when Load Scenario is picked on the Map. In fact, attempting to load the map causes the game to crash. If anyone knows why this is, or wants to help create scenarios for this map (those listed or otherwise) please feel free to message me.

 

[Flamegrape]

I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong or how it's supposed to work. I have tried to install this mod both manually and automatically through the in-game download. When setting up a new game, I cannot find any map or scenario titled "Standard World Map" or "Standard World Map DLC".

 

[Veneke]

Hmm... I'll walk you through the manual installation process, as that's the one least likely to produce a problem you can't overcome. Although it's odd that the Mod Browser failed to install it properly.

First step is to delete the Mod from ".../My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/Mods", just in case it's a single bad install that's throwing things out of kilter.

* Download zip file.
* Extract zip file to .../My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 5/Mods (Delete diplomacy folder if you want Vanilla Civ 5 diplomacy).
* Launch Civ 5.
* Open Mod Browser.
* Press Install Mods.
* Wait until completed.
* Go to Mods.
* Activate Vens Standard Mod Pack.
* In the Mods menu select Setup Game (Do not select advanced setup).
* Click Maps on the left hand side, Pangaea, Continents etc should display on the right.
* Scroll down on the list to the right hand side.
* Two versions of the same map (one using DLC, one not - the difference is marked in the name) should be visible, select the appropriate one.
* Click Load Scenario.
* Select Civ etc and play away.

I'm assuming that this isn't a common occurrence as this is the first I've heard of the mod failing to install properly. Then again, I've had very little feedback (none, to be precise) and perhaps that's because nobody has managed to get it to work. <.<

 

[Lachlan]

What are the news of 1000AD scenario ?

I'm currently playing your DLC version map :good job:

Your map is very nice, not too big...
And civs at theirs right locations...

Why not adding Korea in DLC version ?
Clash between China Japan and Korea would be nice to experiment

And Siam ?

Only one victory type possible ?

Cultural victory ? Scientific victory ? Diplomatic victory ?

 

[Veneke]

Thanks for the feedback. The reason why Korea is missing from the DLC map is because I don't have that DLC. I'm hoping to update it in the near future into a single map where no DLC is required and custom Civs are used. Unfortunately, Civ 5 doesn't appear to support that type of mod/scenario very well at all. The same thing applies for the limited victory conditions, you'd have to create several versions to account for the different possibilities.

Siam was left out though in order to fit three City-States into South-East Asia to try and recreate the dynamic feel of the region in a way that adding Siam would not.


Tthe 1000 AD scenario which has been much delayed due to the backwards way you have to design scenarios to get them to work with custom Civs.

* The good news is that the first release (Beta version) of the 1000 AD scenario has been completed and works.
* The bad news is that ModBuddy is refusing to allow me access to Online Services, so I'm unable to update the map already released or upload the 1000 AD scenario. It crashes after logging in, and creating a new account does not fix the problem.

 

[Veneke]

I've decided to discontinue support and updates for the vanilla version of this map unless there is strong support for the vanilla version to be updated.

The map itself now only uses the Gods and Kings DLC and has been updated to take into account the new Civs and resources. I've also buffed the European starting positions in comparison to the Vanilla map and made it slightly less difficult to obtain strategic resources like oil, uranium and aluminium.

Feedback and commentary welcome, as always. As well as being found here, it is also available on the Steam Workshop and the CivFanatics download centre.

 

[bwoww78]

The map itself now only uses the Gods and Kings DLC and has been updated to take into account the new Civs and resources.

one quick note: I see there are several "coastal" resources in lakes (i.e. Crabs near Iroquois start location). I haven't actually play tested this, but can cities on lakes NOT coasts (i.e. connected to ocean tiles) still produce work boats?

If they can't then, then all lake resources would be unattainable (in particular for AI who might not settle directly on the lake).


this looks like a great map and wanted to make sure you were aware

 

[Veneke]

Honestly I missed that. I'm not in a position to test right now but will check asap and fix if necessary.

Thanks for the feedback!

Edit: It would appear that you can't create work boats unless you have access to the ocean. I've added it to the list of things to be fixed in the next release (likely Thurs/Fri). Good catch.

 

[overkill9]

I was wondering if it might be possible for you to somehow make it so that we can win only through domination and diplomacy? Also, allowing saving policy and promotion would be great. Please let us know if both of these things are somehow achievable since as it stands now if you select load scenario you cannot adjust these things in advanced settings.

Edit: I seem to recall there have been TSL world maps that allows the user to not only adjust those things, but many other options such as participating civs, etc. ((yet another earth map mod). I was wondering since you have done a great job with this, if such options would be possible. Thank you.

 

[Veneke]

Overkill9 - You're quite right, the Yet Not Another Earth Map pack does give you these features. Unfortunately, I've never managed to get that particular mod to work and my attempt to replicate its functions failed spectacularly. However, I'll certainly have another look into it for the update as it is easily one of the best mod components for 'scenarios' like this one.

Because I'd hate to leave you empty-handed after you've taken the time to share feedback, here's how you can mod the map to suit your own particular preferences:
- Start the Civ 5 SDK (available through the Tools menu under View in Steam).
- Select Worldbuilder.
- Load Map and go to C:\\...\Mods\Vens Gods and Kings Standard Earth\GK Standard World Map. Click Open.
- Along the top of the screen you'll see a button called Scenario Editor.
- The options you want are in checkboxes along the top of the screen, select appropriately.
- Hit Save.
- When you load up the scenario again those options will be automatically available to you.

Far from ideal, I quite agree, and I'll see about getting the options interface screen to work asap.

 

[overkill9]

Thank you for your quick response Veneke. It seems that particular mod creator have stopped updating since last year, so I was at a loss. If it is too difficult to do it his way, how about just making a map that 1. large/standard earth w/ TSL (same size as the current one), 2. real resource placement, 3. scripted only for domination/diplomacy, 4. appropriate civ number (20 sounds fine) ?

 

[Veneke]

Well, it would be fairly easy to include a dozen or so of the same maps just with different victory conditions. It'll be a lot of repitition but won't be too much of a hassle. If I can't figure it out by the weekend I'll update the pack with a diplo/domination VC variant (and any other combination that is requested).

Civ numbers could be more complicated, so until I can figure out how to implement a setup screen these are going to have to remain static. It has been pointed out that 20 Civs and 10 City States is quite a large number to have on a standard sized map. I have considered a more typical 8 Civ/16 City State combination that focuses on the older civilizations (Iroqouis, Mayan, Egypt, India, China, Japan, Russia, Rome, Byzantium with the existing City States plus Valetta, Lisbon, Quebec, Jerusalem, Edinburgh and Antwerp) which I think could make for an interesting game but frankly there are quite a number of variations.

Like the Victory Conditions these are easy to implement but there will very quickly be a huge number of variants of the same map (especially so if different VCs are added on top of the different Civs) which could all be easily solved if the custom screen works out. On the other hand, that is a very big if.

 

[overkill9]

Of course. The VC would be the first priority really. As for civ numbers, I personally do not have much problem with it but if reducing them is your goal, perhaps 14 or 15 would better fit a standard size map?

Anyway, thanks for working on this - if you can get the same map with TSL and diplo/domination conditions only soon, I think many will greatly appreciate you efforts.

Edit: Is allowing policy/promotion saving similarly simple? If so, you could include that as well. Also, is it possible to choose which civs will be included in a particular game? I personally try to include all the major historical players (US, Rome, Arabia, Russia, China, India, Egypt, etc) whenever I play earth games, and try to include appropriate number of civs in each regions so that runaway civ situation is not present in my games. If this is not as easy, I understand.

 

[Veneke]

I'm actually perfectly happy with the current number of Civs and City-States but I do appreciate that there are large number of them.

Policy/promotion saving and, indeed, Civs are all pretty simple. The problem is that you'd probably need to include 3 maps just to cover the VC variations (all, diplo/dom, culture/science/time). If you add in policy/promotion saving you're up to 6 at a minimum (3 with and 3 without), then if you try and vary the Civs you're up to at least 12 (the aforementioned 6 with one group of Civs and another 6 with a different group of Civs). This is the major problem I have with it - there'll be a huge map pack of some 20+ different maps that are all exactly the same map just with some differences in settings.

The sickening thing is that it's actually all very easy to do and for the life of me I cannot figure out why it has been designed in this fashion. The only solutions I can see is to implement a whole new screen yourself (which is what YNAEMP does), ask people to fiddle around with the map themselves in the SDK (which kinda defeats the purpose) or else publish a huge number of maps that are little more than setting variations.

I have contacted Gedemon and a few other modders to see if anyone knows of a solution that isn't immediately clear but working under the assumption that it will take a small bit before a settings screen is available for this map I think we're stuck with option 3 and I'll take requests to include various different settings on the map.

At the moment I'm planning on the initial 6 I described above (VCs and promo/policy saving) with the existing Civ and city placement due for release sometime tomorrow. If you've any particular requests (Civs, City States, other options) I'll tailor each map setting to the request. This will, hopefully, be a temporary solution just to cover it until a screen can be added to allow players to alter the advanced settings on the map themselves.

 

[bwoww78]

Honestly I missed that. I'm not in a position to test right now but will check asap and fix if necessary.

Thanks for the feedback!

Of course! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate such a well made TSL earth map that can function in the late game on a non-super-computer (like mine)

If you've any particular requests (Civs, City States, other options) I'll tailor each map setting to the request. This will, hopefully, be a temporary solution just to cover it until a screen can be added to allow players to alter the advanced settings on the map themselves.

I did some personal edits to the GK map in WB last night (some terrain, but mostly changes to Civs & and added a few City States), which I'd be happy to post here for your reference or future use in this process.