[Preview] Campaign Map

[Melooo182]

Hey guys there was something irking me about the Temperate Fertile tile textures, they look too repetitive and unnatural, so I did some adjustments and i think the result looks much better.

here are some screenies so you can judge by yourself

Spoiler for OLD: 

Spoiler for Edited: 

You can get the edited texture tiles here

[MWY]

Nice! That was one thing which actually always bothered me about the campaign textures. Thanks.

[rassouma]

hey guys can someone please tell me which program was used to draw the factions' borders

[MWY]

I used GIMP for it. Simply marked the faction controlled area, marked the whole content dark-yellow, painted the border yellow, painted some white over the borders where conflicts happened.

[rassouma]

it's really well done! can't wait for the next update!

[merc234]

What was the reasoning behind dropping or adding certain settlements? Such as making Corsica and Sardinia one province. Not a complaint, just wondering.

[Lifthrasir]

It depend on the population of that area at that time. Populated areas have several settlements. Non-populated areas have 1 or none.

[merc234]

Ah ok. I was puzzled why Rhodes wasn't there, but there's a tiny island next to Sweden that is. Was this a historical pirate base or something?

[Lifthrasir]

I guess that you're refering to Visby. The choice was made a long time ago and I'm not sure why Visby was kept. I have to check. But Rhodes wasn't that populated at that time. There are other areas more populated and not represented on the map unfortunately.

[MWY]

Visby was probably one of the biggest settlements in this region and according to german wiki the leading trading harbour in the baltic sea at this time. It became even more important later on.

[merc234]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, I had no idea Visby was an important settlement back then after reading the wiki. Very interesting.

[Byzantineboy]

Hello!
I can not guess which settlement strat map models are used here?
They seems different of the classic ones from agart.

[Lifthrasir]

They are "home" made by MWY.

[Byzantineboy]

Excellent!
They are without doubts the best strat maps models I have ever seen.
Congratulations, I spent most of my time working on BC but I am discovering all the work you have made on SS.
It is very impressive.

Did you already released these models?

[Lifthrasir]

Yes, they're in our current version and I'm sure that MWY will appreciate your compliment

[MWY]

Yep thank you. Although they're heavily based on agart ones, I mostly just adjusted the sizes and multiplied the houses and adjusted some colors.

[Cookiegod]

Hi,
I'd like to throw some things in:

1. Greek names

Although I appreciate the effort made to use the Greek transliterations for Byzantine cities, I don't feel that it is necessary. Amongst modern Anglosphere Byzantinists, it is generally better to use the conventional Anglicizations for well-known locations throughout the Empire. Plus, the names are already Latinized anyways, so I feel that we've already killed the "authenticity", and therefore have made it a moot point. Anyways, a few examples of these "conventional Anglicizations", that I think should be used:

I disagree strongly. This submod should not be anglocentric, nor anything else. Transliterations are standard procedure, and in EB for instance I very much enjoyed the native unit names, and latin alphabet is a compromise because 1) the game can't handle different anything else and 2) it still has to be readable.

I do understand that MWY does have to make some short cuts because it'd be way too much research for every region. That is where its up to everyone else to step in and help him with certain regions.

For constaninople, the german wiki says:
ancient greek: Konstantinoúpolis
in historical context: Constantinopolis

Since ancient greek wasn't used anymore, I figured I'd name it Constantinopolis. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I know wiki isn't the best source, but if you're adjusting names for 200 regions.. well it's enough most of the time.

I'd like to correct you on these ones, because you are wrong (sorry).

The correct greek names are Adrianoupolis and Konstantinoupolis, you are lacking the u, and that is a significant error because of the grammar.
Konstantinoupolis means city of Constantine, Konstantinou is genitive, and that hasn't changed through the ages until even modern greek, where the city is called Konstantinoupoli). The fact that they kept the ou tells a lot, because new greek is basically a different language than the old one.
So basically the difference between Konstantinoupolis and Konstantinopolis is the difference between "City of Constantine" and "Constantincity".
And even IF the pronounciation changed through the ages, the Byzantines were very strict and often oldfashioned, refering to northern neighbours often with the names of long gone tribes like the Dacians and Scythians.
Also, whilst the spelling of Θεσσαλονίκη remained the same, the letter η was a long "e", but has become an "i". So whilst historically it was pronounced Thessalonike, today it is called Thessaloniki.

So the correct spellings are Konstantinoupolis, Adrianoupolis, Trapezous, Thessalonike, Nikaia!

Source: I learned old greek when I was in school, I still know a bunch of greek monks for whatever that's worth.

2. Kiev:

In the game here you called Kiev Kyjev. That has to do with the evolution both in transliteration and in the cyrillic alphabet.
Old cyrillic was: Къıєвъ Modern cyrillic is: Киев
That has to do with the fact that the old cyrillic contained a lot of letters, and over the years more and more of them were taken out of it. The modern ukrainian Київ however dates back to a governmental decree from 1995, and even today most inhabitants of the city speak and write Russian rather than Ukrainian.
But let's get back to the Къıєвъ. The perfect transliteration here would be Kyev, it fits both pronounciation and the direct transliteration (ъı = y, no j).

So please call it Kyev.

3. Azov:
There were some early settlements (& the greek colony Tanais) on that site, later also the genoese and venezian colonies of Tana, while Azaq (meaning lowlands) simply was the name of the area. The fortress itself dates back to 1471. However, there's a much more interesting site for a region capital: Sarkel. It was a significant city and fortress built by the byzantines for the nomadic Khypchak who probably wanted it as a capital.
Although it was controlled by the Rus from 965 til the 12th century and renamed Белая Ве́жа (Belaya Vezha), the Rus were unable to control the area around it, and therefore it'd be appropriate enough for the capital to remain Cuman.
Source
So please replace Azaq with Sarkel.


Other than that I'd like to add that I'm really happy for your work.

[Lifthrasir]

Many thanks for your input. I'm sure that MWY will use it wisely

[MWY]

Yep, nice input!

I changed most of the stuff you pointed out. It's also nice to know the background info.

Altough concerning your point 3, sarkel already is in the game... called sharkil. Azaq is not really historically correct, so we would need something else..

[jurcek1987]

Your settlements indeed look great, easily the best looking ones that I've come across. One small suggestion. If it isn't too much work, it would be great if you could paint the walls of Greek settlements grey and add red lines, like this.