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With all the current interest in creating a realistic world map, and all the arguments about accurate resource placement, I decided to scan these rather good maps that I have, which hopefully some might find useful in the creation of a realistic world map.
Most of the maps are between 300kb and 500kb and they're large enough for printing out. The whole lot add up to 3.1mb.
The extracts map shows where rubber is found.
The vegetation shown on the resource maps is current vegetation, not the original vegetation. The vegetation map shows the world's natural vegetation, ideal for a realistic starting world before any of the forests had been chopped down.
The vegetation map also shows the main mountain ranges very clearly, but not hills, which are usually covered by other vegetaion. There are an awful lot of hills in the world.
The physiography map shows plains, plateaus, hills and mountains. This is different to the "physical" map that you usually see, which simply shows the height of the land. It's common to mistake height for hilliness, forgetting that some land may be high but not hilly (plateaus). Tibet is a good example; not all of Tibet is mountainous. Note also the mountains in central and north-east Asia, often omitted in game maps.
One small but historically important point. Although iron isn't shown in Britain in the above maps, Britain does indeed have iron. Okay, it's not a major producer anymore, but the industrial revolution began in Britain, and one of the reasons that happened was because of iron and coal occurring in close proximity.
Merthyr in South Wales was once known as the iron capital of the world and the Dowlais ironworks was the largest in the world. Further reading if you're interested;
I think it's important to have both iron and coal in Britain to allow the historical possibility of the industrial revolution starting there, as it actually did.
Paul
Most of the maps are between 300kb and 500kb and they're large enough for printing out. The whole lot add up to 3.1mb.
The extracts map shows where rubber is found.
The vegetation shown on the resource maps is current vegetation, not the original vegetation. The vegetation map shows the world's natural vegetation, ideal for a realistic starting world before any of the forests had been chopped down.
The vegetation map also shows the main mountain ranges very clearly, but not hills, which are usually covered by other vegetaion. There are an awful lot of hills in the world.
The physiography map shows plains, plateaus, hills and mountains. This is different to the "physical" map that you usually see, which simply shows the height of the land. It's common to mistake height for hilliness, forgetting that some land may be high but not hilly (plateaus). Tibet is a good example; not all of Tibet is mountainous. Note also the mountains in central and north-east Asia, often omitted in game maps.
One small but historically important point. Although iron isn't shown in Britain in the above maps, Britain does indeed have iron. Okay, it's not a major producer anymore, but the industrial revolution began in Britain, and one of the reasons that happened was because of iron and coal occurring in close proximity.
Merthyr in South Wales was once known as the iron capital of the world and the Dowlais ironworks was the largest in the world. Further reading if you're interested;
I think it's important to have both iron and coal in Britain to allow the historical possibility of the industrial revolution starting there, as it actually did.
Paul