Beautiful maps of SSHIP: let's visit Iran

[karasis]

Following my previous post about the map change (see a couple a posts above), here are some more previews of Persian map:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Turkmenistan Border:

This part should be more or less in its final version.

- North Persia:
Current Map:


Next version's Map:

This part should be more or less ok too. A few more trees along the mountains may be (to be confirmed).

- West Persia:
Current Map:


Next version's Map:



For this part, I will probably add some more trees. I just need to do a bit of more research.

Note: I've messed up a bit the part around Tabriz but I've started to correct my mistake

Comments?

İt looks beatiful indeed.Thanks for your great work.

[bigdaddy1204]

My goodness! I never thought I'd see the day. Great job, Lifthrasir! This looks wonderful. Much better map! Well done.

The work you have done is actually so good, I can't think of any major changes. In my opinion, these screenshots are near perfect. I'd say it's ready for release.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I suppose the only minor question I have is whether fighting a battle in these areas would also show greener scenery?

To celebrate, I share two pictures of Lorestan region and also one picture of Ilam province, in southwest Iran:

[Lifthrasir]

Thanks Mate.
The battle maps for these areas should look like some in Spain or in Anatolia. There's not much I can do about that. The vegetation models depend on the climate and that's what I've changed mostly. Originaly (current map), the climate is semi-arid or rocky desert. I've change it to mediterranean for these "green" areas according to a climate map I've found and to the one posted on the 1st page of this thread.
I'm on the region around Tabriz now. I don't have much info but I guess it should be more mixed than it actually is (mostly montaneous and semi-arid climate). I'm just mixing them plus the mediterranean one depending on the heights and to reflect a kind of transition from one to another.
I hope to post pics soon.

[bigdaddy1204]

Brilliant! That sounds great. A battle terrain similar to those should be fine. Good work!

[Lifthrasir]

If you're interested, I've made some more changes on the map that you can see here and here

I think I'm done with that part of the map. I'll post more pics in the thread linked above tomorrow. Next step will be to correct the river in South of Sinope (which is going up on the mountain ) and then will adjust some heights along the rivers in mountaneous areas. That should be it for the map.

[bigdaddy1204]

Great - looking forward to the release. Time to pwn some enemies with my Seljuk/Abbasid/Zengid armies

[Lifthrasir]

Below, the final version of Persia for the next release:

• Turkmenistan Border:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current version:

Next version:

• North Persia:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current version:

Next version:

• West Persia:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current version:

Next version:

• North-West Persia:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current version:

Next version:

• Tabriz Region:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Current version (summer):

Next version (summer):

Current version (winter):

Next version (winter):

Next step: correct the river in South of Sinope in Anatolia. It goes up on a mountain
Then, correct the heights in some areas to remove these unuseable battle fields (where you can't deploy properly).

[MWY]

That is way too much green in my opinion. Atleast for Isfahan-Shiraz. For the Ray-Region aswell. I mean just looking at the google maps satellite view of iran, or pictures of places there like ray and alamut, theres such a difference...

[Lifthrasir]

Once again, don't trust these satellite pics. They don't reflect reality. I've based my changes on researches and according to inputs in that thread.
Also, obviously, the lands appearance changes a lot depending on the season.
For info and as examples, see pics below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Luristan province, West Iran:


Closer to the Zagros mountains, province of Ilam:



Mosabiad region (near Isfahan):



Isfahan:





Fars province ( below in South of Shiraz):



Near Persepolis (Naqsh-e Rostam):



Yadz province (East of Isfahan and not touched in the update), between Shiraz and Abarqu:



North Iran (Elbourz mountains):

As you can see, that's not a desert. It's dry in some areas but definitively not a desert. Also, note that I've only changed the climate, not the ground type. So, if an area was "dry" before, it will still appear "dry". No trees added, no fertile grounds added, nothing like that.

Finally, the only way to be sure it is fine will be to test it on battle maps to see how they look. These changes can be easily reversed if needed (have made a save of the previous version )

[bigdaddy1204]

I'm in agreement with Lifthrasir on this. I can post thousands of pictures/maps/graphs to support the choices Lifth has made (and he made his own research).

@MWY, I noticed satellite view (I have used it myself) can be very misleading from zoomed out level (for example, central Spain a desert? I don't think so). It is better to use photographs taken by people walking in each location.

Anyway one should also bear in mind that many other mods such as EBII went further than even what Lifthrasir is proposing. Personally, I think the changes are pretty conservative.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You mentioned Alamut. Here is a photo of the village of Gazor Khan, immediately below Alamut castle. The castle is just 850 metres further up the road, to the right.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also you mentioned Rayy, here is a photo taken in Rayy in April 2016:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Here's one of Isfahan from the Marbin fortress, looking towards the Zeyandeh river:



And here are two pictures of the Zayandeh river valley in the countryside outside Isfahan:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And one of Shiraz (which by the way is known as 'city of gardens'):

[MWY]

Satellite views are literally THE most neutral source. Even if they are misleading in comparison to a close view, they still represent the general look of the landscape from a distance. I don't doubt that certain areas, especially close to cities are green. But in SSHIP, we see the landscape from a distance, with those changes, the user gets the impression that LARGE areas of iran are looking like for example italy.

http://www.made-in-italy.com/files/i...ills-vista.jpg

You HAVE to see the difference between this and for example the alamut region. Again I'm not saying it's a desert, but there's a lot more rocks/dirt/sand compared to central italy.

[bigdaddy1204]

Correct (re Italy). But the green doesn't extend much south of the mountains in Lifth's version anyway. Working within the limits of the Medieval 2 Total War engine, there's always going to be some element of compromise to get the best out of imperfect tools. This is especially so when dealing with a climate that is somewhere between the Mediterranean and steppe classifications in some areas, desert in some areas and dense jungle in others.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Lifthrasir]

^^ That's one of the doc I've used

Anyway, to answer to MWY, in that case, following your argument, we have to re-do most of the West and South part of Anatolia as well because that's basically the same problem. The engine uses the same climate (mediterranean) but West and South of Anatolia doesn't look like Italy either.

Edit: a compromise could be to reduce slightly the green area around Shiraz and put back all the small mountains between Isfahan and Shiraz in semi-arid climate as previously. That should make that area looking less green while keeping the accuracy about the vegetation.

[bigdaddy1204]

Edit: a compromise could be to reduce slightly the green area around Shiraz and put back all the small mountains between Isfahan and Shiraz in semi-arid climate as previously. That should make that area looking less green while keeping the accuracy about the vegetation.

Yes that could be acceptable. I agree it's safe to reduce slightly the green to the east of the city. But please don't remove green from area directly between Isfahan and Shiraz.
Perhaps to compromise, a bit more trees close to Shiraz (that area was known for oak trees).

I hope you can forgive me, I made a picture to suggest how it could look:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I suggest if you want to remove green area, it's better to remove the area inside the red circle. Please not the area between Isfahan-Shiraz as there is a modern road that goes there and it's quite green


The road from Shiraz to Yasuj (between Shiraz and Isfahan)

[Lifthrasir]

That helps. Thanks Mate

[Lifthrasir]

Below, the West Persia corrected:



I've tried to put more trees in South of Shiraz but they don't appear. So I think it will stay that way.

Edit: I've played a few turns to be able to fight in that area. Here is some pics, in the spoiler, of the battlefield located here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Note: Unfortunately, I fought during a rainy day As the pics were quite dark, I've made them slightly brighter for a better view.
Also, I really hate these white flowers in SS6.4 and I always dlete the new_vegetation folder to get ride of them. So, if you keep that folder, it might look slightly different

I honestly think that we should be quite close to the reality. Thoughts?

[bigdaddy1204]

Great work, Lifthrasir. This honestly looks pretty close to perfect for me as well. Well done.

Looking forward to play

[gazastripclub]

Wow guys this is really awesome. Thanks for your work put in! Stainless Steel is great but I thought the detail on eastern side of SS world map, particularly Russia/steppes was garbage (though Volga region not too bad). That really is crappy with the hardcoded limits but I do agree having those 3 settlements in far east so close together is a waste of the finite amount of settlements. Really good looking world map though, even if you did have to axe Portugal. Has there been more progress made on getting CA to patch M2TW? Or will we be forced into more microtransactions?

[Jurand of Cracow]

Actually, I like the hardcoded limit in the M2TW - otherwise all modders would endlessly squabble to multiply the number of the provinces in the regions they like. I can think of 20 regions in Poland and I'd claim it plausible . Any Georgian would get to 20 around Georgia as well . The Portuguese guys could easily get another 20 (don't mention axing!).

I haven't heard of any CA work on patching M2TW.

[Slaytaninc]

There is no CA work on patching M2TW and it probably can't be done within the game's structure anyway.