If i had the skills...

[BarnicleBill1]

The colors were initially to represent religions or cultures. But I posted the one that wasn't labeled on accident. I have a labeled one. If I remember right m2tw has a limit of 10 religions? Or was it 7?


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[The Holy Pilgrim]

Nice work on the map, Bill!

As for the Religion and Culture restrictions, it's 10 and 7, respectively.

[BarnicleBill1]

Ok thanks. I have a bunch more maps. But as of an hour ago my desktop, laptop, and phone have all stopped working...


Edit:
A question, do you think the map should be like Thera, where all land is completed, continent like. Or should it be like vanilla where the map is mainly just a cut out, with areas beyond its scope? I say this because of the little part in the top right, should that be completed as another whole island or left as incomplete? Also what religions would you like to see, as of now I have Romano-Hellenic pantheon, Germanic pantheon, possibly Celtic, Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism.


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[The Holy Pilgrim]

I would love to see the whole world all at once. Thera did this wonderfully; a whole world of many different cultures and philosophies to explore. Sure, there could be much greater detail pumped into one region, but that tends to run into the issue of many factions just being one particular culture rather than a multitude.

[BarnicleBill1]

True, well once my computer is functional I'll draw up the rest of it! Any suggestions for geography of the additions?


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[The Holy Pilgrim]

Honestly, I'm not really sure. Haven't thought about it, haha

[Iron Aquilifer]

Without a clear modding leader (one who can actually create much of the mod itself - mapping, traits, unit etc) shouldn't aim too big. A good magnified shot of one or more continents would be far more manageable and would allow for release to be attainable.

Suggestion(s):
- Map: centred on the Christian/Islamic holy city of Eden/Harmony/Sayon (settlement name-change dependent on owners religion). This being a tangible callout to their respective beliefs in the city being the centre of the world.
- Pellam Range: mountain range so large that it divides a continent
- Scorched Sea: inhospitable/lightly inhabited desert which covers much of one of the continents. It is located unnaturally far north


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[BarnicleBill1]

I'm not sure how to accomplish any of this as of yet. But the eventual plan would be a developed mod similar to Thera in scope. Currently I'm just throwing ideas around. Once my computer is back up I'll draw up some more ideas and faction concepts, then go from there


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[BarnicleBill1]

Alright so here is my lastest idea for the map, come up with some general placement of cities or important markers if you'd like.
The planned religions as of now are...
Zoroastrianism
Hellenic-Roman Pantheon
Germanic
Celtic
Christian
Islam
I am open for suggestions on the remaining slots, same for cultures and faction ideas.

P.S.
This is currently how i have envisioned dividing up the world, I'm not sure what to put in the bottom right as of yet.
The darker red colors are the hellenic-roman factions, lighter reds are germanic, light green celtic, dark green zoroastrian, orange islamic, blue christian, brown is as of yet not determined, purple is hindu or something like that, the grey would be uruks.

[BarnicleBill1]

Sorry for the double post, but I have added in provinces. The different colors represent possibly factions I've thought up. the largest red one is styled after imperial rome, with the small yellowish bit at its eastern border being a legion that converted to islam. So far that's about all I've got. Post any ideas you have if you'd like, the map is paintable so adjust as you please!

[The Holy Pilgrim]

One thing that I would love to see are East Asian religions (though, I see you included Hinduism, which is cool). I think having them would help diversify the game a bit, and besides, I love learning about every mythology, not just European and Middle Eastern faiths.

[BarnicleBill1]

I was thinking about making the bottom right continent into a more eastern one, possibly china and japan, or possibly southeast asia Khmer or dai viet.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

That would work for me!

[Yo el Rey]

This is a rather fascinating concept.

Just wanted to share some thoughts on Thera as a mod. What makes the mod unique is more than just the multiple civs/eras from history. Everything in the mod is designed for a special gameplay experience. A lot of mods provide tons of new content but really neglect the gameplay to an extent. Thera is really the opposite. It runs like a horse with almost no bugs and doesn't utilize many scripts. Each faction has it's own playstyle, some just have better rosters than others depending on whether you want a hard campaign or want to steamroll over everyone. TFON was well known for refusing to add more factions just for the sake of adding more if it didn't add to the gameplay experience or if it would disrupt the balance of how the campaign start was set up. Everything is meant to maximize replayability. Which gets to my main point: the map itself. The Otherworld map is pretty different in that it's archipelago/narrow oceans mean you can expand anyway you want. It's kind of like advancing to different levels in that you conquer one island then move onto another, but get to choose your progression, until you get to the "boss" or that one faction that's just grown out of control. The map is what really gives a campaign depth throughout, even in the very late stages.

With that said, I may have picked a slightly different map structure, but I really like what you've done. One problem with the Otherworld map is that it didn't have a lot of detail. I love how you have all kinds of choke points from mountains, rivers, etc.
I would warn you against going too "eurocentric." Thera had this problem a bit, understandably since a lot was based on vanilla M2TW. But I think a lot of cultures got overlooked or should have been fleshed out a bit more. East Asian cultures were put in one faction, I would have liked an African-based faction. There's so many fascinating cultures like Native American, African, and East Asian that don't often get represented in mods. I'm also curious how much fantasy you want to put in. Thera had stuff to keep it low fantasy like realistic Uruks and Jotnarr. You could do you own thing like Undead Egyptians

The most important thing you have to do, though, is includes tons of references and easter eggs

[BarnicleBill1]

I was think that I would have an Islam African, and possibly "pagan" African faction. There are loads of units for those, the question of course is being allowed access to them. I'm torn on weather to keep the uruks, like in Thera, or to replace them with a more normal faction. That would open up a slot for more interesting factions. Like I said before the map isn't really how I want it yet, I like the geography but I might adjust everything else. Feel free to adjust anything you please. Also I agree with what you have said, I always liked how the campaigns progressed in Thera. I think this should provide for expansion that is fun. Though I may move things a little closer together. The outlying islands may get boring.

Also, one does not simply like their own map the first time around. Haha.
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[The Holy Pilgrim]

There's so many fascinating cultures like Native American, African, and East Asian that don't often get represented in mods. I'm also curious how much fantasy you want to put in. Thera had stuff to keep it low fantasy like realistic Uruks and Jotnarr. You could do you own thing like Undead Egyptians

This guy gets it!

[BarnicleBill1]

Should I keep them separated? So a continent of fantasyish things and then the others? A continent far separated full of mesoamericam tribes?


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[Yo el Rey]

The problem with the Uruks in Thera is that you have only one faction taking up one of the culture slots, so the Lao Che were made Middle Eastern. I'd say for cultures you could do 3 European (Classical, Medieval/Renaissance, Dark Age), Meso, African, Middle Eastern, Asian. That's 7 cultures there. So if you don't want to devote a culture slot to a fantasy faction, you could do something like where you have an Uruk faction but with human generals like a Romuli faction with Uruk slave soldiers. Or you could disperse fantasy elements throughout the factions, say by giving the Roman faction a couple of Uruk gladiator units or giving a Celtic faction druids that can cast fire balls like the Callisto priests.

I don't think you need to move the continents closer together, but maybe fill in the empty ocean in between with more continents or extensions of the existing continents. You shouldn't need to sail far to meet other cultures and I don't think any two cultures should be isolated by swathes of ocean. I like the idea of having at least one pretty big continent that could contain different biomes and cultures, it could provide some extra variety. I guess it depends on how much land you want to add, to much and the settlement density will be too low.

[BarnicleBill1]

Currently I think the density is alright, any more additions and it'll be too sparse. I will rearrange stuff, reprint it with those cultures in mind.


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[Torvus]

My biggest frustration with Thera has always been how each continent feels too self-contained until late game. If it were me, make more connection points between the various landmasses, don't keep them isolated. Tempt the AI to go in a direction they might not normally go. There was a point in time I thought about bringing up a submod about land bridges to TFON before he disappeared and my life got too busy to really devote time to it.