[WIP] 160x130 Europe map.

[Jabarto]

I've been thinking of making a map like this for a long time, and today, I sat down and did it. Using Mapview 2.0, I set out to make the largest Europe map yet seen for Civ 4. I'll admit to cheating and using the Pic2Map plugin to create the basic outline; all I did was add terrain, civs and resources. But it's the results that count, right?

Anyway, I'm posting this because I'd like people to help beta test it, so to speak. I plan to keep improving it based on people's suggestions. For now, I'm most interested in geographical suggestions, but if you can spot errors in balance, I'd love to hear those, too.

Just a note; I just finished this a little while ago, so it's probabay rough as all getout around the edges. That's why I'm asking people to beta test it, see? But I need honest feedback. So if you think it sucks, don't be afraid to say so, just so long as you can tell me *why* it sucks.

Screenshot


Things on my 'to do' list

Fix the rivers in East Europe and France. (I got lazy and rushed them a bit ,so they're not up to par).
Add more resources and hills.
Add city names to the new civs.

Change Log

0.1 Initial Release
0.2 Fixed Vikings Start location
0.3 Added more hills and resources. Fixed a few rivers
0.4 Added more hills and resources. Added Scottish, Hungarian and Polish civs.
0.5 Updated for BTS 3.19

Download Here

http://files.filefront.com/160x130+Europe+Mapzip/;13932347;/fileinfo.html

 

[Wessel V1]

Thank you so much I've been waiting for this!!
One question though: are there lots of resources? One thing I didn't like about the original map was that there were absolutely no resources in Russia.

On the geography: most things look fine, but I'd put some plains in France and the Balkans, some forrests in the Ukraine, and some plains in Mesopotamia. And, Denmark might be a little too wide, just as the Crim area, Greece could be wider since it is rather small, and there could be some more islands......

Lol, just kidding, I'm going to test the map!

EDIT: Oh, and just another thing, does it work with a 40 civ DLL? I imagine that would be absolutely awesome.

 

[Jabarto]

Thank you so much I've been waiting for this!!
One question though: are there lots of resources? One thing I didn't like about the original map was that there were absolutely no resources in Russia.

On the geography: most things look fine, but I'd put some plains in France and the Balkans, some forrests in the Ukraine, and some plains in Mesopotamia. And, Denmark might be a little too wide, just as the Crim area, Greece could be wider since it is rather small, and there could be some more islands......

Lol, just kidding, I'm going to test the map!

EDIT: Oh, and just another thing, does it work with a 40 civ DLL? I imagine that would be absolutely awesome.

THanks for the positive response.

Since there's so much room to expand, I tried to keep the map relatively resource scarce, and Russia in particular. That said, they do have a lot of mineral resources toward the eastern edge of the map. I try to be at least plausible with my resource placement, as well.

It won't work with a 40 civ .dll as is, but that's a fairly easy change to make.

Also, I realized from looking at the screenshot that I made a rather silly mistake of not placing the Vikings properly. First post updated with that fix.

 

[Skaithak]

Ok, it's pretty cool to have a map of Europe in this much detail, and I can't critique the actual geography of the map, as I don't have any specific knowledge on the topic.

However, resources are SPARSE! I mean, really really really sparse. I don't know if that's just for Ragnar, but my capital had 5 in it's BFC, and each city after that was lucky to have one. And the size of the map makes it pretty much only for marathon, possibly epic, but normal is far too quick for it. The distances between civs is just too huge for that speed. I mean, it took me 23 turns to get my Galleys with movement speed 3 from Nidaros to London, and in that time I was seriously afraid Elizabeth would have upgraded her Longbowmen to Muskets. This was only on Noble too.

Balance wise, if I didn't have the massive amount of forests that were around, I had absolutely no production. I don't think I saw a single hill in Scandinavia. I don't know whether this is intended for geographical accuracy or not, but it made me extremely reliant on slavery to get enough beserkers and galleys together for an invasion.

I think this map would be best on Epic speed in conjunction with a mod that either boosts movement speed of units or increases the length of research time. And needs quite a bit more in the way of resources to liven it up. I really don't like placing cities with zero or even one resource in their BFC, but I seemed to have to go a real distance to avoid that.

 

[Wessel V1]

I think we should use the movement rates from the GEM (Giant Earth Map), and ship movement from RFC. I'd also like to see more resources, 2 or 3 per city is reasonable, perhaps less in Russia. And, since this map is so huge, you might want to consider to place some extra resources, like potatoes, on the map, to weaken certain corporations.

 

[Jabarto]

Ok, it's pretty cool to have a map of Europe in this much detail, and I can't critique the actual geography of the map, as I don't have any specific knowledge on the topic.

However, resources are SPARSE! I mean, really really really sparse. I don't know if that's just for Ragnar, but my capital had 5 in it's BFC, and each city after that was lucky to have one. And the size of the map makes it pretty much only for marathon, possibly epic, but normal is far too quick for it. The distances between civs is just too huge for that speed. I mean, it took me 23 turns to get my Galleys with movement speed 3 from Nidaros to London, and in that time I was seriously afraid Elizabeth would have upgraded her Longbowmen to Muskets. This was only on Noble too.

Balance wise, if I didn't have the massive amount of forests that were around, I had absolutely no production. I don't think I saw a single hill in Scandinavia. I don't know whether this is intended for geographical accuracy or not, but it made me extremely reliant on slavery to get enough beserkers and galleys together for an invasion.

I think this map would be best on Epic speed in conjunction with a mod that either boosts movement speed of units or increases the length of research time. And needs quite a bit more in the way of resources to liven it up. I really don't like placing cities with zero or even one resource in their BFC, but I seemed to have to go a real distance to avoid that.

I think we should use the movement rates from the GEM (Giant Earth Map), and ship movement from RFC. I'd also like to see more resources, 2 or 3 per city is reasonable, perhaps less in Russia. And, since this map is so huge, you might want to consider to place some extra resources, like potatoes, on the map, to weaken certain corporations.

Well, the resource scarcity was partially intended to counterbalance the enormous amount of expansion room in the map, but I've reviewed the map ans I think you're right about there being too few. I'll look into adding more.

Adding the improved movement from GEM would require makng this into a mod, but I think it's a good idea, so I will. You could always extract the map and use it with vanilla, after all.

I'm not too keen on adding resources. However, if you can link some premade ones (i.e. ones for which someone else has made graphics, etc.), then I"ll consider adding them, but no promises.

EDIT: Okay, I merged it with REVDCM with all options off by default, so it'll just be vanilla BTS with Better AI and BUG, unless you want the extra features, in which case it's easy to turn them on. I also added the road movement rates from GEM and increased all naval units' speed by 2. Sound good?

 

[Skaithak]

Upload it and I'll give it another run as Ragnar and test the difference

 

[Jabarto]

Upload it and I'll give it another run as Ragnar and test the difference

Done. I've already made some changes to the map and will continue to do so. For now, I think you'll find Scandinavia in particualr a more comfortable place to settle.

 

[mago barca]

this map is great but what is this the max size 0f the map and where do i install anyway thanks for all that effort

 

[Jabarto]

this map is great but what is this the max size 0f the map and where do i install anyway thanks for all that effort

Extract the contents of the ZIP to your Civilization 4/Beyond the Sword/Mods folder. And thank you.

 

[Gr3yHound]

That's great ..

How long did you work on it? I'm really interessted in how helpful MapView is. I would love if you could make a guess of how long it would have taken to create that without mapview ;D Or what things are not that good yet.

Thanks a lot, and glad to seem to feel comfortable with my little program.

Edit: You're still the only dude that actually make some replacements for MapView. Did you do any more? Or improve them? I'd host them in the main thread again.

 

[Jabarto]

That's great ..

How long did you work on it? I'm really interessted in how helpful MapView is. I would love if you could make a guess of how long it would have taken to create that without mapview ;D Or what things are not that good yet.

Thanks a lot, and glad to seem to feel comfortable with my little program.

Edit: You're still the only dude that actually make some replacements for MapView. Did you do any more? Or improve them? I'd host them in the main thread again.

Well, I made several attempts at it. I once tried drawing the map totally by hand, and that turned out to be mediocre in the end, so I gave up on it. This time, I just sat down and got it done in about 3 hours.

I can't say how long it would taken had I not had MapView. Probably at least twice as long if I planned on getting things as accurate as they are; I can't overstate the usfeulness of that pic2map plugin. The one thing, though, is that I used WB a lot, too, because the lack of a grid in MapView makes it tricky to judge distance sometimes.

Oh, and i haven't done any more graphics for Mapview lately. I might give it another try, though.

 

[mago barca]

sorry to be anoying but my game cashes upon loading grahpics entering custom scenario and thanks for your replys

 

[Jabarto]

sorry to be anoying but my game cashes upon loading grahpics entering custom scenario and thanks for your replys

No problem, I don't mind fielding questions.

I haven't had any such crashes. Are you patched up to BTS 3.17? Has anyone else had crashes?

 

[Jeff1787]

I am currently playing a game in the year 640 BC and having no problems.

 

[mago barca]

No problem, I don't mind fielding questions.

I haven't had any such crashes. Are you patched up to BTS 3.17? Has anyone else had crashes?

i am not patched to 3.17 i tried to but update errors and can't leave screen so i downloaded strait from sight thanks for all your help

 

[pesgores]

Looks great, but Portugal is missing. Also, you could add the Celts as Irish, and Arabs, and Charlemagne as Austria and Switzerland (if you have the appropriate expansions).

 

[Jabarto]

Looks great, but Portugal is missing. Also, you could add the Celts as Irish, and Arabs, and Charlemagne as Austria and Switzerland (if you have the appropriate expansions).

Addid Portugal would make the Iberian peninsula too crowded, but I've been toying with the idea of adding a Balkan civ for a while. I think I'll make Charlemagne into Lithuania, Celts into Irish, and Byzantium as Hungary.

By the way, I realize that Egypt and Sumeria are sorely lacking in production and health, so I decided to change them from desert floodplains to combinations of grassland and regular plains. Time will tell if that was a good idea or not.

Also, I've been adding resources and hills as promised. I'll try to have the next version of the map (and an updated screenshot) up later tonight.

Finally, how it the increased road/naval movement working out? This map is bigger than GEM and contains more land, so I'm willing to increase it further if needed.

EDIT: Okay, I added Byzantium as Hungary, Holy ROme as Poland, and the Celts as Scotland. You can check it out in the newly uploaded screenshot in post #1.

 

[mago barca]

Addid Portugal would make the Iberian peninsula too crowded, but I've been toying with the idea of adding a Balkan civ for a while. I think I'll make Charlemagne into Lithuania, Celts into Irish, and Byzantium as Hungary.

By the way, I realize that Egypt and Sumeria are sorely lacking in production and health, so I decided to change them from desert floodplains to combinations of grassland and regular plains. Time will tell if that was a good idea or not.

Also, I've been adding resources and hills as promised. I'll try to have the next version of the map (and an updated screenshot) up later tonight.

Finally, how it the increased road/naval movement working out? This map is bigger than GEM and contains more land, so I'm willing to increase it further if needed.

EDIT: Okay, I added Byzantium as Hungary, Holy ROme as Poland, and the Celts as Scotland. You can check it out in the newly uploaded screenshot in post #1.

anyway to reduce barbarians as they all are non stop i don't won't to get rid of them otherwise you first thing to build is the great wall it's especailly bad in carthage but the map is nice and big i like it might have to play no barbs though kepp up the good work

 

[Jabarto]

anyway to reduce barbarians as they all are non stop i don't won't to get rid of them otherwise you first thing to build is the great wall it's especailly bad in carthage but the map is nice and big i like it might have to play no barbs though kepp up the good work

I might be able to tweak that in the mod's settings. I'll look into it.

Anyway, the moe astute among you may have noticed that the Netherlands is no longer in the new screenshot. That's because I was too careless to remember to add them. That will be fixed, have no doubt.

Anyway, I gave this map a whirl as the English (actually my first time of playing it) and wow, what a mess this it was. I've added far more hills to the map to make it more productive in all areas, and I'll continue to add more resources. It'll take longer than I thought, but I hopw the result is worth it.