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Version 6.0 now ready -- much lower on resources, other improvements
Here it is, after a lot of hard work, my response to the very unsatisfying World Map that came with Civilization III. It is, I hope, a dramatic improvement. Some of the things changed:
- Japan is now in East Asia, as opposed to South East Asia, and is now four islands rather than two.
- Hawaii and Alaska have been greatly reduced in size.
- New Zealand exists, as does Taiwan.
- The Arabian pennisula is now well defined.
- Europe is far larger, with room for several major powers, and is also much better defined. Italy is no longer the flaccid penis of Europe, but a well defined boot. Ireland is more than three forest squares criptically misplaced due North of England. France and Spain don't suck quite so much. Greece has it's own presence and is not connected to Asia Minor. The Mediteranean now has islands; Sicily, Corsica, Crete, Sardina.
- The Milddle East is completely reworked.
-South Africa, which before was a bizarrely sharpened edge to the contininent, is now appropriately round.
- Mexico and Central America have been redone; the Carribean is now more or less accurate.
- North America is larger and more, well, interesting. The Rockies no longer extend to the Pacific Coast, so that western cities such as LA, Seattle and the Bay area are possible. The Northeast is both large enough and resource-filled enough to allow for several major cities. Florida is no longer quite as hideously ugly, I even sort of have a Okechobe eye in Florida.
- South East Asia, likewise, is better defined, and the archipeligo of Indonesia is much better off.
- North Africa (above the Sahara) is now habitable land
- all the starting locations are accurate. That is not to say that the right civilization will be in the right place, but the sixteen starting places reflect the sixteen civilizations (this was not possible in the earlier map in which England, Italy and Japan barely existed). No Civilizations will start in Australia, for example, or South America. This creates a contrast between areas that will logically have major civilizations and areas that probably will go through most of the game without being controlled, simply because nobody is near them. As a result, a colonial period seems logical, if the game plays out the way I suspect it will, particularly in Indonesia, South America, and Australia.
- Many of the strategic resources have been rearranged to encourage colonialism (for example, most of the spice and rubber is away from any major civilization, so that overseas colonies are a necessity). Almost all the oil outside the middle east has been removed, to force the importance of that area. Also, many goods suchs as wheat or cattle have been arranged not in an attempt to make the map geographically accurate, but rather to encourage large historically accurate cities in major city areas such as New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc.
-Large numbers of barbarian villages have been placed in areas where famous or particularly devastating invading hordes came from, such as Mongolia and Central Asia. All worthwhile potential colonial possessions (such as Indonesia) now have a barbarian village to represent the indigenous population of those areas.
To do this, I had to do some somewhat geographically unrealistic things. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are both considerably smaller than they once were (although neither is big enough to cross without an oceanworthy vessel, except at the Bering Straight, which is all that matters gameplay-wise). Europe and North Africa has probably been elongated in order to allow civ games to be historically accurate (if not literally geographically accurate). Furthermore, Central Asia has been sort of squashed between the dramatically rebuilt continents of Europe and Asia.
Likewise, because of other elements of gameplay or just design flaws, there are a few other mistakes I know of. Japan is positioned correctly relative to Korea, but is now incorrect relative to the United States -- it's too far North, and the prospect of moving all of Eurasia south was just too much to bother with that mistake. Australia is now directly South of Papua New Guinea, as opposed to Southeast, and New Zealand is a tad confusing -- it's on the other side of the map from Australia. The Iriquois starting space is farther west than it should be, but their real starting space is too close to Washington DC in my mind.
But also, a lot of the issues beyond coastline, for example, where jungles, forests and grasslands should be on the map I was quite unsure of, especially in India, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and Australia. So those of you who know more about those areas, your input would be greatly appreciated. Still, I hope you'll find this to be what I've designed it to be: the map most conducive to a historically accurate game of Civilization.
I'm really hoping to get some feedback from others on this map, to see how well it plays and how accurate these things are. So send me a line to give me your thoughts to satyanotwar@aol.com. Thanks a lot, and enjoy the map.
-Satya
Here it is, after a lot of hard work, my response to the very unsatisfying World Map that came with Civilization III. It is, I hope, a dramatic improvement. Some of the things changed:
- Japan is now in East Asia, as opposed to South East Asia, and is now four islands rather than two.
- Hawaii and Alaska have been greatly reduced in size.
- New Zealand exists, as does Taiwan.
- The Arabian pennisula is now well defined.
- Europe is far larger, with room for several major powers, and is also much better defined. Italy is no longer the flaccid penis of Europe, but a well defined boot. Ireland is more than three forest squares criptically misplaced due North of England. France and Spain don't suck quite so much. Greece has it's own presence and is not connected to Asia Minor. The Mediteranean now has islands; Sicily, Corsica, Crete, Sardina.
- The Milddle East is completely reworked.
-South Africa, which before was a bizarrely sharpened edge to the contininent, is now appropriately round.
- Mexico and Central America have been redone; the Carribean is now more or less accurate.
- North America is larger and more, well, interesting. The Rockies no longer extend to the Pacific Coast, so that western cities such as LA, Seattle and the Bay area are possible. The Northeast is both large enough and resource-filled enough to allow for several major cities. Florida is no longer quite as hideously ugly, I even sort of have a Okechobe eye in Florida.
- South East Asia, likewise, is better defined, and the archipeligo of Indonesia is much better off.
- North Africa (above the Sahara) is now habitable land
- all the starting locations are accurate. That is not to say that the right civilization will be in the right place, but the sixteen starting places reflect the sixteen civilizations (this was not possible in the earlier map in which England, Italy and Japan barely existed). No Civilizations will start in Australia, for example, or South America. This creates a contrast between areas that will logically have major civilizations and areas that probably will go through most of the game without being controlled, simply because nobody is near them. As a result, a colonial period seems logical, if the game plays out the way I suspect it will, particularly in Indonesia, South America, and Australia.
- Many of the strategic resources have been rearranged to encourage colonialism (for example, most of the spice and rubber is away from any major civilization, so that overseas colonies are a necessity). Almost all the oil outside the middle east has been removed, to force the importance of that area. Also, many goods suchs as wheat or cattle have been arranged not in an attempt to make the map geographically accurate, but rather to encourage large historically accurate cities in major city areas such as New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc.
-Large numbers of barbarian villages have been placed in areas where famous or particularly devastating invading hordes came from, such as Mongolia and Central Asia. All worthwhile potential colonial possessions (such as Indonesia) now have a barbarian village to represent the indigenous population of those areas.
To do this, I had to do some somewhat geographically unrealistic things. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are both considerably smaller than they once were (although neither is big enough to cross without an oceanworthy vessel, except at the Bering Straight, which is all that matters gameplay-wise). Europe and North Africa has probably been elongated in order to allow civ games to be historically accurate (if not literally geographically accurate). Furthermore, Central Asia has been sort of squashed between the dramatically rebuilt continents of Europe and Asia.
Likewise, because of other elements of gameplay or just design flaws, there are a few other mistakes I know of. Japan is positioned correctly relative to Korea, but is now incorrect relative to the United States -- it's too far North, and the prospect of moving all of Eurasia south was just too much to bother with that mistake. Australia is now directly South of Papua New Guinea, as opposed to Southeast, and New Zealand is a tad confusing -- it's on the other side of the map from Australia. The Iriquois starting space is farther west than it should be, but their real starting space is too close to Washington DC in my mind.
But also, a lot of the issues beyond coastline, for example, where jungles, forests and grasslands should be on the map I was quite unsure of, especially in India, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and Australia. So those of you who know more about those areas, your input would be greatly appreciated. Still, I hope you'll find this to be what I've designed it to be: the map most conducive to a historically accurate game of Civilization.
I'm really hoping to get some feedback from others on this map, to see how well it plays and how accurate these things are. So send me a line to give me your thoughts to satyanotwar@aol.com. Thanks a lot, and enjoy the map.
-Satya
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