Eurocentric Earth Map

[RichM]

Here's an Earth map I made with the Mediterrainian region, England and Japan exaggerated in size to accomodate the large concentration of European and Middle East civs. The resources should be in the right places as this is something I've researched quite a bit. The sacrifice for a large Mediterranian was that I had to squish Africa, but Africa is still functional.

edit: I have now added a few more resources to accomodate the way that the AI uses them. This is the final version.

[RichM]

One more thing,
I tailored the resources in such a way that civs in their proper starting locations could make their early game special units. I'm really hoping it will be possible to fix starting locations in the NEXT patch!

[RichM]

Oh good. I figured it out.

It looks like an ancient map doesn't it? cool.

[Falconius]

Looks good, Rich. I'm going to give it a try for my next game. Africa does look a little "funky", but that's okay.

[Solomyr]

one thing i have had a problem with is the size ratio of the pacific and atlantic ocean. the pacific is like twice the size of the atlantic in real life, but this fact seems to take a back seat to hanicapping the N. America - europe connection. especially in the WW&( senerio from civ2.

anyways, i do like your map rich, the europe is a definate improvment, and the fact that iceland is more than one square should be noted with pleasure. Bjork would probably have a word or two for sid and the gang if she saw the map they sent

[RichM]

Here's a couple of things I noticed in my playing of this map. I started as the Chinese(In Greece) and I fought the Japanese(In Italy) and pushed them out of Italy so that all they had was the Island of Malta and varius outposts around the world. He made his capital on that Island, and since it is only one square it is militarily unassailable, yet the massive culture they generate is a real problem for my cities in south Italy. I'll have trouble getting my ships out to sea if they build a coastal fortress there.

Another thing is that Southeast Asia has lots of spices, and almost every civ has towns on one of the Islands down there. Just like in history! neat.

It would sure be better if I could specify the starting positions of civs in the right place. Horses come from Asia, but even though I'm Chinese, I started in Italy and noone will trade me some horses so I can't build my special unit.

This also brings up another issue. I purposely made the strategic resources somewhat rare, like 10 - 12 each on the map, in hopes of increasing their importance. I've noticed though, that the AI civs are talking to each other every turn, and It's very rare for a trade to become available. Perhaps I should up the number to 16 so that each civ can have one who engages in proper diplomacy. Let me know what you think. If you decide to place more resources yourselves, I would suggest keeping them regional to encourage trade, rather than distributing them everywhere.

[RichM]

final version

Ok, the final version is up!