WHEN CAN WE PLAY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is the maximum size map you can play on???

IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The map is complete to the point of my satisfaction. Rivers on small scale (entire world) may be a problem and I have a small set of river tiles that I could add if people want it, but as for placing on the map I choose not to since the maps I used included rivers which I coloured the shallow water blue. The map is finished and measures 21600x10800 @ 8bit bmp with total size of 233,291,776 bytes... so don't be thinking that you're going to find it on apolyton anytime soon at the full resolution... though I may post it later on my new website which has yet to be constructed but will hold 1Gig+ of data. Anyway back to the map, here is the listing of the sites and maps that I used, more information on the maps can be found at the sites and I have the data sets if anyone is interested.

Platte-Carre Landcover Map

Website: http://gaia.umiacs.umd.edu:8811/landcover/index.html
Map format: Long-Lat Projection BSQ @ 1km resolution
Download Size: 32.3Mb compressed in GZip - decompressed = 550Mb+

Information about the map: The maps came as continents and were reassembled according to small areas of simliarity and with the help of the topographical map for alignment. The dataset was 32.3Mb large in Gzip format expanding to over 550Mb. The dataset covered 13 ground cover types which I had to decide which would represent what in the final map using the limited tile types provided by CTP2. I still have the original and am up to creating a resource/tile rich map if there is a way to create new tile types. Only major problem was the lack of Hawaii on the map but this was remedied later in the project. All urban types were replaced with grassland to facilitate the growth of major cities in real major city locations.

Ground Cover types:
0 WATER (and Goode's interrupted space)
1 EVERGREEN NEEDLELEAF FOREST
2 EVERGREEN BROADLEAF FOREST
3 DECIDUOUS NEEDLELEAF FOREST
4 DECIDUOUS BROADLEAF FOREST
5 MIXED FOREST
6 WOODLAND
7 WOODED GRASSLAND
8 CLOSED SHRUBLAND
9 OPEN SHRUBLAND
10 GRASSLAND
11 CROPLAND
12 BARE GROUND
13 URBAN AND BUILT-UP

Topographical Ocean Dataset

Website: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minrelief.html
Map Format: Surface of the Earth, 2 minute color relief images
Download Size: 95Mb in jpg formats

Information about the map: This map while having the data for land I decided to use it primarily for the ocean information. The colour conversion was more difficult than I first thought since all the colours were from a very similar set(blue ) I really wanted to use three levels of ocean and ended up using the shallow, deep and the ridge tiles. The ridge tile were used to represent the techtonic plate ridges in the ocean which I cross referenced in my atlas. They were a good approx and so they were used. It may appear as if there are too many ridges on the map but I stuck with the choice.

Topographical Land Dataset

Website: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/topo/gltiles.shtml
Project: The Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE) Project
Download Size: 287Mb compressed in GZip - decompressed = 1.6Gig+

Information about the map: This map was the greatest find for topographical data since it matched the land cover data for resolution. While there was no ocean data the land data was great. The set was tried in the program Wilbur but I could never get it to work properly so I gave up on a slope format for Mountain/Hill levels also there is the lack of Plateau and mountainous terrain types since I know the Rockies are hilly even after the initial elevation change. If plateaus and such are available further down the road then I may have another shot at Wilbur.

Satellite Photos

Website: http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth
Download Size: 14.2Mb in jpg format

Information about the photos: These were great for a guide to guarantee that the ocean levels decreased at approx the right spots and for checks on land tile choices, even though satellite data can be misleading.

So after 25 days the project is complete. All that is left is to start making maps. One warning is that the map doesn't have beach tiles included since I couldn't find a good way to put beach along the land/water interfaces without decreasing accuracy of the land. This means a little touch up work for the mapmaker. All that I need now is a test location to show the map off.... I could make a map at full size which would be able to be run on CTP2 but it would be dam slow... but I will hope that this will be useful in the future as the computers get faster...

All that's left is what most people reading this are waiting for and that's the image of the final product... Well I can't disappoint my fellow civers...

The map has been offered to Firaxis for Civ III but I am doubtful they will want it but I will wait until I hear from them before I post it on the web in full and half size formats. This has been fun and now I think it's time to focus again on school... can't be a doctor without studying now can we

I've created some maps of various locations and since I don't have all the time in the world, I thought maybe some people would like to finish them. They are txt maps which you just need to import and clean up the ocean/shallow water interfaces. If you desire you can add the rivers too, but I haven't added guides to the maps yet.

The maps are all 210x210 txt files including:

Japan/Korea
Western Europe
Ontario and Eastern USA (1812 battle?) ----> Completed March 2 @ 11:45pmEST
Africa ----> Completed March 3 @ 4:55pmEST
Middle East
Middle East (closer view of Egypt and Israel Area) ----> Completed March 2 @ 11:35pmEST
South America
United Kingdom ----> Completed March 3 @ 5:30pmEST

Those were the areas that I thought of first. Any takers???
EDIT: Note that the completed ones are without rivers...