Gone mapping

[Quinn Inuit]

If anybody wonders where I've gone over the next couple of days, the answer is "mapping." I need to add some deserts to the map and handle the political end of the mapping now that the physical end is done. I made great progress this evening, and I think almost all of the regions are now in place (still putting the finishing touches on Margiana's* border-syncing it to the Oxus is a pain). Now it's just a matter of name and owner changing, flipping a couple of regions in India, and verifying that all of the resources are where they say the are in descr_strat. I know the last one isn't technically necessary, but proper commenting now could save me or someone else a lot of time down the road.


*Yes, Merv will now be in the proper place, not way the heck up past Sogdiana.

[Caligula Caesar]

Quinn, you may be interested to know that there is indeed one unused province. There are only four seas which use their own provinces, and they are The Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, the Red Sea and the Caspian. I suppose it is a bug everyone missed that the Persian Gulf is counted as the Mediterranean. I have proof. I created a new province (of no historical accuracy):

[Quinn Inuit]

Absolute visual proof that I'm completely wrong. I love it! You rock, thank you. I'm going to add another sea region right away.

Anyone have any other region adding requests? I don't think we need anything new to the east of the Caspian. They have several new provinces. And Iberia has one more, as does Dacia. Is anywhere else being slighted ATM?

[SiamWarrior]

Absolute visual proof that I'm completely wrong. I love it! You rock, thank you. I'm going to add another sea region right away.

Anyone have any other region adding requests? I don't think we need anything new to the east of the Caspian. They have several new provinces. And Iberia has one more, as does Dacia. Is anywhere else being slighted ATM?

you missed out China,Tibet and India ?

[Caligula Caesar]

Anyone have any other region adding requests?

Perhaps you could give Kirtha to the Numidians and give Carthage another city in Africa (perhaps Rusicade) Also, have you considered adding in the Red Sea canal (apparently they had one at that time). Finally, perhaps it is on purpose, but is there a reason why one port on the Red Sea isn't accessable on land and another is cut off from the rest of the province (i.e. there is not road to it)?

Edit: I almost forgot: Carthago Nova was established during the Carthaginian invasion of Iberia about 60 years after the game starts. Adana in Asia Minor was (and still is) actually near Tarsus, and Tarsus was the major city. Nicomedia was rebuilt in 264 BC, but I am not sure when it was destroyed. Also, was Arse called Arse or Saguntum at that point?

[Delvecchio1975]

Carthago Nova was established during the Carthaginian invasion of Iberia about 60 years after the game starts.

i believe that's the reason it's rebel controlled at the start of the game > it's not like you can found cities

[Delvecchio1975]

if the persian see can be counted as the mediterranean, isn't it then possible to count all seas as one province, giving us 4 extra land provinces?

[Quinn Inuit]

Yes, it is, but additional sea provinces help the AI with its sea pathfinding. Sea provinces are just like land provinces in that the AI gets confused if there are inaccessible regions or they're not convex.

[Caligula Caesar]

I have a question: How does one create sea regions? The normal regions are easy enough, but what about the sea regions? I ask this because at the moment I am creating my own map, and I have a province left over to create a new sea province with.

[Iskandar]

If Parthia already gets another region or does significantly better than 3.4, how about Argos or Delphi? I'm sure the increased income in the area can be dealt with, plus, there won't be the loyalty bonus from the Wonder anymore, so "Greece owner" will have a harder time stomping everyone else.

Also, did you make the Balkan regions' borders run along the Danube? I can't say off the top of my head how it was by that time, but in the later empire it was always a demarcation line.

Another good idea might be splitting the region north of the Alps in two - one of them being the Helveti and Sequani homelands; or splitting the Belgae homeland in two - especially if the superfaction idea is going to be implemented - these are excellent places for mini-factions.

EDIT: BTW, did you transfer the extra Cyprus province to Iberia? Cool.

[Caligula Caesar]

I haven't seen everything that has been done to Eastern Persia, but I don't think one extra province is enough.

[Pat89]

Arse = Saguntum in TIC

[Caligula Caesar]

I know. They are both the same place. The question is when the name changed.

[Pat89]

I meant that TIC has the City called Saguntum and not Arse...

[Quinn Inuit]

Perhaps you could give Kirtha to the Numidians and give Carthage another city in Africa (perhaps Rusicade) Also, have you considered adding in the Red Sea canal (apparently they had one at that time).

I did consider the canal, but I remember rejecting it. I don't remember why. I think it wasn't in use for enough time. Anyone have any canal thoughts?

I'm not sure about changing the cities in North Africa. Carthage has enough cities in that region, I think, and I'm not sure I want to make life any easier for the Numidians. I'm seriously considering just folding them into a superfaction.

Finally, perhaps it is on purpose, but is there a reason why one port on the Red Sea isn't accessable on land and another is cut off from the rest of the province (i.e. there is not road to it)?

Would you mind posting a screenshot of that? I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'd like to fix it.

Edit: I almost forgot: Carthago Nova was established during the Carthaginian invasion of Iberia about 60 years after the game starts. Adana in Asia Minor was (and still is) actually near Tarsus, and Tarsus was the major city. Nicomedia was rebuilt in 264 BC, but I am not sure when it was destroyed. Also, was Arse called Arse or Saguntum at that point?

Well, I wanted something there for Carthago Nova, so I just have to leave it there. If there's a pre-existing settlement, though, I'll change the name.

Hmmm, I'll reexamine that area of Asia Minor.

Arse was still Arse then. It doesn't become Saguntum for awhile.

I have a question: How does one create sea regions? The normal regions are easy enough, but what about the sea regions? I ask this because at the moment I am creating my own map, and I have a province left over to create a new sea province with.

Not quite sure. I think you just color it differently in map_regions. The sea colors are 41,140,233-7. I'll let you know if I run into any obstacles there.

If Parthia already gets another region or does significantly better than 3.4, how about Argos or Delphi? I'm sure the increased income in the area can be dealt with, plus, there won't be the loyalty bonus from the Wonder anymore, so "Greece owner" will have a harder time stomping everyone else.

That's a good idea. I'm just not sure there's room in Greece, though. Things are pretty cramped as is.

Also, did you make the Balkan regions' borders run along the Danube? I can't say off the top of my head how it was by that time, but in the later empire it was always a demarcation line.

Yes, I worked with PatricianS and Arbasces on the Dacia map. I'm pretty happy with it now.

Another good idea might be splitting the region north of the Alps in two - one of them being the Helveti and Sequani homelands; or splitting the Belgae homeland in two - especially if the superfaction idea is going to be implemented - these are excellent places for mini-factions.

Those are excellent ideas. It'd be nice to buff out Europe a bit.

EDIT: BTW, did you transfer the extra Cyprus province to Iberia? Cool.

Yep, I did. I think that'll work out well in every respect.

I haven't seen everything that has been done to Eastern Persia, but I don't think one extra province is enough.

I'm pretty sure there is >1 new province in Eastern Persia. I'm not positive. I've got all the major cities covered now, and I'm actually quite content with the layout now from a gameplay perspective. (It'll need to be tested, of course.)

The key is that the way the cities and regions are laid out will funnel traffic around the Iranian desert. I'm trying to make gameplay track real life, so my goal is to have armies traveling around the desert rather than through. This means that I can't have too many more regions on the Iranian Plateau. I could probably do another one in Bactria, but I don't want to overbalance that area with regions. Four (Bactria-Baktra, Margiana-Merv, Sogdiana-Maracanda, and Ferghana-Alexandria Eschate) is quite enough IMO.

[Caligula Caesar]

Would you mind posting a screenshot of that? I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'd like to fix it.

This is what I mean:



As you can see, one port is inaccessable and the other cannot be reached from its province without crossing another province, which means no road is made to it. I don't know how this affects trade (I never play as the Ptolies)

[Pat89]

Quinn:
Regarding CC's find... I think I've fixed that already in my map changes...
Though I'm not sure if that was in the first version (which got lost) or the second...

[Quinn Inuit]

It was probably in the first version. I've just checked and it needed a bit of work. I think it's good to go now.

btw, just spent an hour or so wringing 8 slots out of the DMB. Got rid of the Early Imperial units for 5, then collapsed some elephant riders into one entry from three. AFAIK, the only real loss there is that Bactria no longer has distinct elephant riders. I couldn't justify that given what else I need to add in, though.

[pdanders]

tI think just one unit for all indian elephants is totally fine

[Quinn Inuit]

Cool. I'm with you. I'd love to be able to offer people lots of individually done elephant archers, but at this point I can't bring myself to choose those over, say, a Levantine javelin unit or Median cavalry, both of which I think we really need.

btw, today I learned how to use regular expressions. I had to so I could do a batch replace on all of the building requirements for the cavalry and missile units, since they're being folded into the main recruitment building now. Yay! That would have been a pain in the neck to do by hand.