[Map] Westeros

[Zen]

This is a map of Westeros. The map is based upon George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

I plan to use this map for a full scenario. Any comments regarding the map, or input regarding creation of a scenario are welcome.

The map size is 58x138.

Hopefully everything is fairly obvious. There is a brief readme file attached.

-Zen Blade

[GeoModder]

Screenshot?

[Feet]

Good luck with your mod Zen, me and some others are doing a similar project (see my signiture).

I'm interested to see your take on Westeros compared to the one I did.

Also, I found that the Y axis could not be any greater than 127 plots otherwise when you zoom out the terrain just turns black... I wonder if you saw this on your map too since its 138 plots on the Y.

[Feet]

Having ha a quick peek at it using Mapview, I'm quite impressed. I reckon your version of Westeros is alot more accurate tha the one I did, as I had to make it smaller than I wanted due to the black texture corruption when zooming up above the cloud line (as I mentioned previously).

As such I had to resize my map several times and now I think it's a little "fat" compared to the maps you see in the books.

Also I used this jpg as my basis for the map, then used the BMP > WBS converter to make it, so there are quite a few details different on my map too.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/9120/westerosoriginal8og.jpg

All in all, I'm well impressed. Great job! Maybe we should work together for the scenario!

Post on our forums if you're interested. If not then no worries and best of luck with your mod.

[Martinus]

Good luck with your mod. I will surely play it.

[Zen]

Feet,

I will check on the world map view in a few minutes. I don't usually use that view personally, so it may not be working.

As for resizing+map construction, I orginally was going to go with 62x142, but the load time was very bad and I was able to condense it a bit.

construction: I used that map as a "rough" outline at first, but then used other maps (in the books+the one at westeros.org) to flesh out the image.

The 62x142 looked better (as far as fatness goes), but the load time seems to have come down by about ~20 seconds or so with the smaller version. It's not great, but I am hesitant to make the map much smaller.


As for your mod, what were you thinking, etc.... let me take a look at my map+get a picture, and then I will post again.

-Zen Blade

[Feet]

Essentially we are thinking of recreating the civil war in the land of Westeros. There will be 8 factions representing the 8 great houses (all playable) all with diplomatic relations already existing (for example war between Stark and Lannister and an Alliance between Tully and Stark. Etc etc) and then it's up to the player what goes on from there.

Stark - Leader: King Robb Stark
Lannister - Leader: King Joffrey Baratheon
Baratheon - Leader: King Stannis Baratheon
Aryn - Leader: Lisa Aryn
Tyrell - Leader: King Renly Baratheon
Martell - Leader: Oberyn Martell
Greyjoy - Leader: King Balon Greyjoy
Tully - Leader: Edmure Tully

We did consider only having 5 factions, one for each king, but this way there's more room for back stabbing and alliance shifting and stuff which the books have alot of. Some of these factions are fairly small but can make the difference between winning and losing...

I guess that gives you a general idea. There are tw of us working on it but, given the plans we have for it extra peeps involved would certainly be helpful, especially if you're any good at coding pythin\xml or art stuff. :P

I'm interested to know if you see the blackness problem as well, or whether it's just a preoblem with my PC.

[Zen]

Feet, you were right. Once you go to global (with clouds), the map is black.

However, I am not too worried about that since I don't ever use global. Hopefully this issue will be addressed in a future patch. I'll post about this issue... somewhere.

As for a screen shot, I took a shot of the minimap. I'm not sure how the size will look here.



apparently I am not wise enough to get the image to display directly in my post. The file is quite small though. If I figure out how to display directly, I will edit this post with the actual picture.

-Zen Blade

[Feet]

Ahhh. I guess it's good to see it's not just my PC that makes that error. I think the maximum will be 127 plots on the Y (since the plots start at 0). ANd yes hopefully they will fix it in a future patch.

Hang on I'll get a screenshot of my current map (which is no where near as detailed as yours) so you can see the problem with the fatness.

Also it has all the factions and their cities placed on the map too.

[Zen]

I have factions+cities in paintshop currently.

My main concern was developing a map first that I liked and was happy with. I've been using layers.

As for my plan, I am planning on having at least the following so far...

Stark
Bolton

Tully
Frey

Arryn
Littlefinger

Lannister

Tyrell
Redwyne

Stannis
Renly

Martell

[Night's Watch]
[Brotherhood without Banners]

The last two I am trying to think of how best to incorporate them.

I may include one or two more houses. I realize it will be unlikely to ever get more than 5 or 6 people to play a single game, but I would rather create it all with human players in mind, and then simply add diplomatic limitations later, for for some of the smaller houses.

-Zen Blade

[Feet]

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/6249/feetwesteros5af.jpg

There we go. You can see the world map in the corner and in the main part The Vale, Riverlands and Kings Landing. Putting in all the rivers was an absolute nightmare.

Also it seems your scenario will be quite a bit different to the one we have planned (different factions and so on) which is good. I look forward to seeing more of it.

Having the Freys as a seperate playable faction was something I considered too but in the end playing them would be pretty boring what with only being able to control 1 city, even if it is choc full of knights and armies and what not.

[Zen]

Feet,

I like your world view... the fact that you can see so much of the map at once is nice.


It almost makes me want to make the map smaller... but not quite!

as for different scenarios, I agree. However, if we are both working on the same themes... ASOIAF---then it stands to reason we will have some similar needs: units, etc...

We should definitely communicate and share ideas/resources either of us may come across/find.

One thing I have decided upon is using "religion" as a spy tool as well as a practical tool in the game.

Obviously you have a few religions in ASOIAF, but for my purposes, Littlefinger (LF) will also have a religion---for spies. And I want to work out something with the Maesters of Oldtown--spies.
--and, some units requiring adherence to the religion to be recruited: Stannis's armies in particular, but also the Greyjoys.

What's the current status of your project?

-Zen Blade

[Feet]

We're still in very preliminary stages right now. Lots of ideas that sound cool but we really have no idea if they are realistically do-able or not. The map and factions (the easy bits) are pretty much done and just need tweaking (city size etc).

Loads of coding to be done due to the ideas we have that are going to change the gameplay immensly, but we hope to have a playable version of one kind or another (with or without some of these gameplay changes) by the end of January.

Just to whet your appitite though, one of the changes we hope to implement is Hero Units. Apart from being more uber than Unique units (which we will also have), they have an army morale modifier assigned to them. If one of these units dies in battle the morale modifier affects all the units in that faction (like, say, -50% power with no chance to withdraw). So if Rob Stark is killed in battle then the whole army is affected.

Very similar to the morale system in Rome: Total War really so it's not a new idea strictly speaking.

It'll certainly make waging war that much more strategic.

We definately need another python coder, lets put it that way.

[Zen]

About playing a one city civ: I don't know if you ever played the AMAZING LotR scenario by ????--I should remember this name-- for Civ II, but that scenario was amazing.
One of the fun parts was the ability to play as elves or Saruman as much lesser forces. You could still influence events, but you mainly just went around doing whatever you wanted, knowing that evil would likely triumph--but you could have fun.
--I would like my scenario to import this basic idea. You can play as a house who has no role in what is happening, you can stay out of everything and just decide to do whatever the heck you want. You want to make the Iron Isles into a utopian society, you go for it.


As for each of our scenario/mods....
I don't code.

I am great at finding "stuff" and figuring out how someone did "something" and then adapting it to suit my needs. So, I won't be able to help much.

What I am considering is to have an event tag of some sort that allows "taking of prisoners".

For example, you defeat Jaime Lannister... well, it would suck if he's dead. Instead, a "captured" unit is created. If it is "retaken", after negotiation--or just through battle, then the original unit can be restored. I know this was more or less do-able in Civ II. I am not sure how to do it (yet) in Civ IV.
Also, I think I am going to increase the % withdrawal chance.

Additionally, I think most of my "production" in the game will focus on "recruiting" instead of producing. Drafting unit types as opposed to just building so many knights every few turns. I need to look at this a bit more though once I understand that mechanic a bit better.

My guess is you will have a scenario/mod finished before I can get half my ideas working.

-Zen Blade

[Feet]

Woah I love the hostages idea! Very interesting idea indeed. Hmm, wouldn't mind stealing it really, but I won't if you don't want us too. You thought of it so it's your baby and I respect that, as a fellow modder.

We have a similar-ish "recruiting" idea but instead of replacing production it will be replacing Science (believe it or not). Not gonna reveal the details as we're still working it out still.

I'm very similar to you Zen, I don't code (basic XML) so I'll be relying on my partner and other peoples mods for any kind of python coding.

Anyway it sounds like you have loads of great ideas