Map Blog 2 - France and Iceland

[Resurrection]

>>> Map blog no. 1 <<<

Map Blog 2

Since the last blog France, Iberia, Italy and Iceland have all been finished but maybe more importantly we have perfected our work on the map and speeded it up. Currently the HRE is being worked upon. Textures have been updated as well and our research mechanics have been also improved to comply with our aims.


Today, as requested in the poll, France and as a bonus Iceland will be shown to you as they have emerged from our fine-tuning process introduced in the first blog.


I am stressing this again: all images shown are WIP and may differ in final version of the mod. Also several features of the map have not been implemented yet such as resources, PSFs or historically correct armies etc.


France

Vanilla look


As mentioned in the previous blog the map has been entirely generated based on satellite data. That involved heightmap, ground types, climates, rivers etc. Fine tuning process then finishes such generated area to comply with historical data, gameplay and desired visual aspects. This is how France looked after being generated:






Northern France is our first stop in today's blog. Notice the cliffs on many of the coasts which will prove to be of exceptional strategic value. You may also notice the strange names of certain settlements. That is because they are named as they were in 1080 (in Breton and Medieval French) and we are currently implementing scripts to rename the settlements under certain conditions (faction ownership and dates). What is not very clearly visible on the screenshot is the farmland pattern used in France. In fact the farming areas were located solely around big rivers, and in between the rivers the land was often close to wilderness and rarely cultivated, and our map is representing that.

Summer


Winter



Southern France is quite different from northern and I believe the screenshot clearly shows that. For one, around the coast the Mediterranean climate area starts giving a different look to the land. Roads are placed in maybe unexpected locations; this is due to the fact that this is where the major roads actually were in Middle Ages. You may be wondering what the strange desert-like area in Aquitaine is. That area was for a long time subject to extensive sand drifts from the coast and quoting the contemporary source:

Crossing the moor was dreaded by pilgrims going to Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle; they reported that they could find no bread, no meat, no fountains. It was a flat ground of marshes.... with practically no paths, the pilgrims were often up to the knees in the invading sea sand.

The area has been largely forested since the 19th century to protect it from these sand drifts.

Overall farming in France might seem not to be very extensive and you are right. Of course the land was very rich, but the population of France in the past lived not only through farming but equally through fishing and hunting. In winter you can see the historical roads more clearly:

Summer


Winter



Iceland

Yes we are including this island in the very north west of our map. The real world look of Iceland is very distinct and we were trying our best to make it so in game as well. There are several large permanent glaciers over the Iceland as well as the black land as a result of ash from numerous volcanoes all over Iceland (many also included). The only really inhabitable area was in the south-west but there have also been Nordic settlements in the north and few on the south-eastern coast. Those will be represented via PSFs.

Original after the map has been generated (vanilla textures)


After fine-tuning and with new textures in summer...


Notice the black areas around the biggest glacier and very inhospitable lands in central Iceland with little to no vegetation.

...and in winter



New settlement models are from the minor mod: New Cities Strat Models, v 1.0 by Agart.


Thank you all for your attention and I hope you enjoyed this blog. Please vote on the subject of the next one!



Credits:

Mapping and the Blog: Resurrection, Coppernickers II

New Textures: Sumskilz

Research: SpaceEd, Brennas, Hross, Alkidas

Strat Map Models: Agart

[Cvetko]

Looks great, +rep.

[Space_Ed]

Iceland from space.

[Walkman810i]

Lovely

+rep whenever I can again

[Kyrre]

France in summer looks insanely great! + Rep

You might improve the winter map by creating a snow-texture for every summer texture. Like for the farms it might be just creating a gray scale of teh summer texture. Because the winter map still looks so vanilla and plain/empty. Also the Glaciers could still be improved. In the Alpes there are way too much. It looks like all of the Alpes is one single glacier.

Sorry, I do not want to sound disrespectful or unfankful. I only want to help you finding ways to make it better!

[Resurrection]

You might improve the winter map by creating a snow-texture for every summer texture.

As has been mentioned before all used textures are loaded into memory and thus we cannot create dozens of new textures for everything or else the map would become unplayable. However snow textures will be yet improved. However they definitely won't be as many as summer textures.

Also the Glaciers could still be improved.

How? Judging from the satellite screens they are just white. No idea how we could improve that look...

In the Alpes there are way too much. It looks like all of the Alpes is one single glacier.

That is very tricky thing in fact... However I might try to improve it.

[Space_Ed]

France in summer looks insanely great! + Rep

You might improve the winter map by creating a snow-texture for every summer texture. Like for the farms it might be just creating a gray scale of teh summer texture. Because the winter map still looks so vanilla and plain/empty. Also the Glaciers could still be improved. In the Alpes there are way too much. It looks like all of the Alpes is one single glacier.

Sorry, I do not want to sound disrespectful or unfankful. I only want to help you finding ways to make it better!

The Alps aren't finished. New winter textures are planned. How could the glaciers be improved?

[Space_Ed]

Here is the UK this winter and Iceland covered in snow. You are presumably from Norway (I worked with you on the Norwegian names didn't I?) so you are probably more familiar with snow than I am but I think generally when the land is covered with snow it does look 'plain/empty'

[Alexandros I.]

Amazing!! +rep

[Meister Röhrich]

Absolutely beautiful, great job! +rep

[Vardan the Great]

M great!

[Blackhawk!]

Best maps ever and Iceland looks great Will you change the sea?

[Kyrre]

Yes that was me, Space_Ed

Sorry! I did not want to offend you!
I know that it is a hard and time consuming work.

Concidering summer:

The permanently snowy mountain tops might get a certain pattern on them with crickles and some uncovered spots. I mean something like on Europa Barbarorum map. That would at least be some more pleasing to the eye than just a big white spot. The glaciers themselves are more difficult since their center is really very white but their edges aren't. This might be partly resolved by giving the edges another, less snowy texture.

On winter:

You also do neither see rivers nor trees nor cities from above so if you can see these colossal elements on our game map in summer you would also see them in Winter. For the simple fact that most time there is only a thin layer of snow. Also wind and sun help uncovering the texture of the land under the snow. Like fences and different ground surfaces. But I understand that in the very end playability is a stronger argument.


Greetings!

[Space_Ed]

Concidering summer:

The permanently snowy mountain tops might get a certain pattern on them with crickles and some uncovered spots. I mean something like on Europa Barbarorum map. That would at least be some more pleasing to the eye than just a big white spot. The glaciers themselves are more difficult since their center is really very white but their edges aren't. This might be partly resolved by giving the edges another, less snowy texture.

Greetings!

Well I agree with you about the appearance of the Alps as that area isn't finished. I'm not sure if I agree with you about the glaciers actually. I have been to Iceland and been on one of the glaciers although it was a while ago. I can see what you are saying but I know that often the borders of glaciers are just a sheer white wall. I'm not massively convinced that your proposed change is all that necessary. Can you provide any evidence to support this?

[Resurrection]

Best maps ever and Iceland looks great Will you change the sea?

It was significantly changed already. Don't you see the difference from the vanilla / previous looks? In fact current sea look is very close to how it actually looks in real (along with greenish coasts) from above so not really planning on changing it.

Yes that was me, Space_EdThe glaciers themselves are more difficult since their center is really very white but their edges aren't. This might be partly resolved by giving the edges another, less snowy texture.

That is not true. See the image Space_Ed has posted. The glaciers end very sharply and there is virtually no transition of not-so-white edges. At some places the glacier gently change but that applies only for very limited areas of main Iceland's glacier. We just can't make dozen variations of each texture to represent all its various changes...

On winter:

You also do neither see rivers nor trees nor cities from above so if you can see these colossal elements on our game map in summer you would also see them in Winter. For the simple fact that most time there is only a thin layer of snow. Also wind and sun help uncovering the texture of the land under the snow. Like fences and different ground surfaces. But I understand that in the very end playability is a stronger argument.

Sorry to say that but now you are dreaming. Two things I'd like to point out though. In Middle Ages cities were extremely small and no industry in them meant that the cities were not very different in snow cover from surrounding landscape (= no significant difference from above, judging from the winter pic by Space_Ed it is not very distinct even today!). And secondly this is a game, all relevant features (i.e. settlements, towns (PSFs), castles (PSFs), rivers, forests etc.) ARE visible in the winter just the same as in summer, so I really don't understand your point here... And in order not to get confused, under the snow texture is no summer texture. Snow texture is replacing the summer texture in winter so if we were to do dozens of winter textures each summer variant would need to have its full winter counterpart, which is insane imho both memory-wise and work-needed-wise.


However not to be so negative about your comments I understand the Alpes argument and I am working on improving on that. Those mountains shouldn't be all snowy in summer.

Thanks for the concern anyway!

[Space_Ed]

Best maps ever and Iceland looks great Will you change the sea?

Thank you If you compare the Vanilla images and the DotS ones you will sea that the appearance of the sea has been changed. We think it now looks more realistic. It is a dark bluey-green instead of the light blue before. Do you think our sea could be improved in any way?

[Blackhawk!]

Yes yes! Now I see greenish coasts. Beauty! Thanx and sorry mates...

[Horatius Flaccus]

Very good!

+rep

[sumskilz]

Thanks everyone!

Regarding winter textures, they are still vanilla. I haven't worked on them yet. They will be more varied than vanilla textures but not to the degree that the summer textures are for reasons already mentioned by Ed and Res.

EDIT: Also, I think that the mountain tops can be improved. I haven't really worked on them yet either. What you are seeing now is a mixture of vanilla and some textures that were alternate ideas for the glaciers.

[IIGaneshaII]

What use will Iceland have without a settlement? I mean the AI wont try to attack it then right?