Well, they look rather blocky to me, without the curves that would be very possible in a map of this size. I think that the major rivers (Danube, Rhine, Elbe, Volga, etc) should be the most refined, with smaller ones being less worked on. Also, I think the Vikings should start in the Norway region, as that is where most of them hailed from. Put some fjords in, and make it more habitable, and that would be a great step forward.
[WIP] 160x130 Europe map.
- Thread starter Jabarto
- Start date
Jabarto
Emperor
Noted, thanks.
A general question to all; how does the tech rate, city maintenance scaling, etc. feel in this map? It's much bigger than a Huge map, but still uses the Huge settings for determining those things.
Some other issues I noticed are that Scotland looks rather plain, and could have more islands and such, giving it a jagged coastline. Turkey is also rather small, and mountain regions could use work. This map has great potential, but still needs some work.
Jabarto
Emperor
I'm glad you think it has potential, and you're absolutely right that it could still use work. It was the first map I ever created, after all.
I've already done some work on prettying up the rivers and the Sinai area, as well as adding more flood plains to the Fertile Crescent. I think I'm going to keep going that route before adding in the new civs and whatnot.
Yes, the way I usually make my maps is to get them as geographically accurate as possible, and then balancing things out with bonuses and forests. A suggestion I might add regarding Mesopotamia is to make the areas between the rivers grassland or plain, so the cities built nearby aren't too unhealthy, while the edge of the rivers would be desert flood plains. I noticed how you wanted to expand it eastward, and I think it would be a great idea to at least bring it to the Caspian.
Oh, one more thing. The Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia combine before they empty into the Persian Gulf, so the lower reaches of those rivers need adjustment.
Oh, one more thing. The Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia combine before they empty into the Persian Gulf, so the lower reaches of those rivers need adjustment.
Jabarto
Emperor
Extending the map isn't actually that hard, thanks to MapView. See, when I made this map I originally made a Pic2Map generated Europe map of some ungodly dimensions (think 180x275 or thereabouts). I still have it on my machine, so I could use MapView's copy.paste function to match up this map (which is essentially a cutout) with the original, then use that to add 30 tiles or so to the east.
But maybe you already knew that. Whatever, I just think it's awesome that one can do that.
Well, I never used Mapview before. My method involves a lot of notepad and copy-pasting. Rather slow compared to Mapview I suppose. I think that 180 - 130 would be reasonable for this map. I would just have to put single unit units, and go a little lower res, and it would be fine.
Jabarto
Emperor
Alright, so I think I will extend the map once I finish touching it up, the reason being that i don't wnat to have to maintain two separate versions.
I do have some ideas about the future of this mod. I say mod, because it's beginning to become more of a mod than a simple map. I'm going to include my own 80x250 Eurasia map in here, as well as any other giant maps I make - I do have some ideas in that department. For example, I'm thinking of doing a Mediterranean map that would reach from the Straights of Gibraltar to the Indus Valley (think of an overlap between the territories covered by the Roman and Macedonian empires). It would be kept very short but very wide to keep it from getting too huge.
Another idea I had was to recreate a really awesome map I saw for Civ 3 a while back. It would essentially be what I described above, but would encompass all of southern Europe, India, and China, but would'nt include anything north of, say, France. This would allow for a very big, very detailed map without the enormous swathes of plains in Russia, etc. that unbalance the civs in that region. I'll try to post a picture later, to better convey what I'm describing.
I do have some ideas about the future of this mod. I say mod, because it's beginning to become more of a mod than a simple map. I'm going to include my own 80x250 Eurasia map in here, as well as any other giant maps I make - I do have some ideas in that department. For example, I'm thinking of doing a Mediterranean map that would reach from the Straights of Gibraltar to the Indus Valley (think of an overlap between the territories covered by the Roman and Macedonian empires). It would be kept very short but very wide to keep it from getting too huge.
Another idea I had was to recreate a really awesome map I saw for Civ 3 a while back. It would essentially be what I described above, but would encompass all of southern Europe, India, and China, but would'nt include anything north of, say, France. This would allow for a very big, very detailed map without the enormous swathes of plains in Russia, etc. that unbalance the civs in that region. I'll try to post a picture later, to better convey what I'm describing.
DMOC
Mathematician
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 5,594
I played as England on Emperor ( below my normal difficulty ) and got 5 cities, and had the Great Lighthouse. Several civs have already spawned from barbarians.
Quoted from my last message.
I played up until about 500 AD, then I got a memory allocation error. This confused me somewhat since I have a very powerful computer. I guess the new civs made the game run slower.
BTW the barbarian mod that turns barbarians into real civs gives them A LOT of troops to start with that it's imbalanced.
Jabarto
Emperor
Yes, that's a common complaint with BarbarianCiv. I'll cut the number in half for the next release (the Rise of Mankind mod did the same thing so it should be fairly balanced then).
Jabarto
Emperor
I didn't know there was one. I might poke around later and see if I can find it.
Jabarto
Emperor
Just a quick status update:
- The biggest change is that I've extended the map 20 tiles south and 20 tiles east. It's not a big deal to re-crop the map later, so if, when I release the next version, it runs too slowly, let me know. MapView makes it fairly easy to maintain several versions of the map, so I could keep the 160x130 version alongside the new 180x150.
- I've reworked Britain a little bit. Cornwall is slightly larger, and Wales has a more jagged coastline, making htem stand out a little more. The Hebrides have been fleshed out a bit and Orkney has been added.
- I've made the rivers curvier and (hopefully) prettier.
- Floodplains have been reintroduced to Mesopotamia.
I'm putting off civs and the like until later. I probably won't be able to include all 30 that I had planned, but I will try to fill up the ares of the map that need the most additions.
Also, I noted earlier that this map is becoming more of a mod by this point, so if anyone has any minor gameplay tweaks they'd like to see implemented, I'd like to hear about them. I've already increased road and ship movement.
- The biggest change is that I've extended the map 20 tiles south and 20 tiles east. It's not a big deal to re-crop the map later, so if, when I release the next version, it runs too slowly, let me know. MapView makes it fairly easy to maintain several versions of the map, so I could keep the 160x130 version alongside the new 180x150.
- I've reworked Britain a little bit. Cornwall is slightly larger, and Wales has a more jagged coastline, making htem stand out a little more. The Hebrides have been fleshed out a bit and Orkney has been added.
- I've made the rivers curvier and (hopefully) prettier.
- Floodplains have been reintroduced to Mesopotamia.
I'm putting off civs and the like until later. I probably won't be able to include all 30 that I had planned, but I will try to fill up the ares of the map that need the most additions.
Also, I noted earlier that this map is becoming more of a mod by this point, so if anyone has any minor gameplay tweaks they'd like to see implemented, I'd like to hear about them. I've already increased road and ship movement.
Jabarto
Emperor
I think so, I'll have to check. And I only expanded the map to the south (which is mostly desert anyway) and to the east, so yes, you're basically right.
If you feel that the Russians have too much land at their disposal, you could always add in the Mongolians to the Volga delta area. If you feel that the Egyptians do not have enough workable land available, one possibility would be to make two rivers running parallel to represent the Nile. I found that the cities of Egypt didn't have enough tiles to work. Lastly, I would really suggest that you bring the map 5 or so tiles to the north, so that places like St Petersburg, Bergen, and the like could be viable choices. After, St Petersburg was capital of Russia for quite a long time.
MotezumaMan
Warlord
Is this available for mac? if so where is it?
Jabarto
Emperor
Like I said, it's part of MapView. I don't know off-hand if it works on the Mac, but you should be able to find out in the Utilities forum.
