unnamed map

**Seleukos** · February 04, 2007, 06:40 AM

So this is what I have right now. Suggestions are extremely welcome as I have been having problems with material for egypt, france, and the english regions. I tried to form borders, aliied situations, and power ratings based around 1080.

From what ive studied, the Byzantines will reamerge as the dominate mediteranean power later and hold it till the 1200's through Alexios and John Komnemnos, followed by Manuel. Some historical inacuracies ive fixed is that I gave them Caffa, Crete, Rhodes, and most of the baltic states. But took away Nicaea. In fact, Venice never got Crete in their posetion for another 100 years! So ive made the Byzantines more powerful so the Hungarians wont walk on them right off the bat.

Ive made the Rus Califate turks more powerful in the region and made the borders as accurate as possible. Balanced their power and made the Levant more important by adding Sidon, and Beirut. Ive felt that there isnt enough there for the Crasades to have any meaning or lasting effect.

The Sultantate of Cairo is one of my poor points. I got the borders right but dont have much of an idea of what cities to put in. Ive added Tinnis near Gaza but thats all.

Ive gave the Moors two more regions in africa so they can stand up to Spain as they werent kicked out of Iberia for a few hundred years.

The Italian states are numerous and all vieing for power, Ive added the powerful Pisa city state, and I was especially wondering why they were not even in at all considering for a long time they were rivaling Venice as the supreme merchant state. They defeated Genoa consistantly in numerous wars. Ive added Lucca and Amalfi as other city states in the region. Ive given Sicily the important port and crusader city of Messina.

Ive moved the bulk of France northward as shown in numerous maps ive studied. Determaning Frances territories that they controlled was difficult and im not 100% sure its correct. Same with the HRE.

Venice is the interesting one and im sure you will have a load of fun playing as them. All they controlled at this date was the city and close surrounding areas. I highly recommend you move on Verona at the start to open up trade to the HRE and follow it up with taking the nearby Pula to the east.

I havent touched Hungary, Poland, or Russia because as how its seen now they are pretty much accurate in territory and regions.

I will be playing at least one full campaign before I release this not only to test it but because its mine.

The dissapointing parts about this is that I have no access to the strat.txt or shared.txt so I cant properly change the names of the factions. Also the map.fe is weird so I cant make good starting menue maps for the factions.

I was also very careful with mountains and rivers to make the borderlines as clean as possible. So cosmetically it should be very good.

Heres some screens:

So this is what I have so far. This is by no means the finnished product so it is fully open to suggestions and changes. Now tell me what you think. Even down to what this should be called.

**Valentin the II** · February 04, 2007, 07:33 AM

More provinces in russia and nier poland would be welcome, and 1-2 aditional provinces betwin france and HRE.
Also france should start with fewer provinces.
And make major cities like Constantinople more diveloped.

**ZaPPPa** · February 04, 2007, 08:27 AM

Why don't you use BigMap to work with instead? With this many cities you need all the room you can get. A modified BigMap would look and play so much better.

**Goatbuster3000** · February 04, 2007, 09:02 AM

It looks pretty good :original: As ZaPPPa suggested, if you could make it with BigMap, I believe it would be even better.

**John I Tzimisces** · February 04, 2007, 04:36 PM

Although adana is a settlement in this period it is not the principal city in any regard, in Cilicia. Sis is the capital of this region, and also functions as a fortress. Just to the south of that is the fortress of Anazarba, and to the west the fortress of Barzaberd. Although, it is probably better to put the fortress of Vahka than these others...Sis makes sense as an administrative center later I guess...although all make sense if you use the bigmap as there is more space

As for armenia proper

Manzikert---> Malazgerd or Manazkert

Alternatively you can move the provincial capital south to Aghtamar...

or, alternatively, I can scan my map of the caucasus 1064...

**Lusted** · February 04, 2007, 04:43 PM

The dissapointing parts about this is that I have no access to the strat.txt or shared.txt so I cant properly change the names of the factions. Also the map.fe is weird so I cant make good starting menue maps for the factions.

You just need to edit expanded.txt, everything related to the faction names appears to be in there unlike in RTW(i believe you only needed to edit the expanded_bi.txt with Bi).

**Seleukos** · February 04, 2007, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by Lusted

You just need to edit expanded.txt, everything related to the faction names appears to be in there unlike in RTW(i believe you only needed to edit the expanded_bi.txt with Bi).

Oh, I looked closer into the file and I found what I thought would be in strat. The menue faction name, thats what I was talking about. Never mind on that part.

Ill think about expanding this map myself like that. But not that big, its too big, maybe half. Besides, the only crowded area is Italy, which I am testing as Venice and dont think is that much of a problem. Might remove

Ive heard that that map has very high turn times, is that true?

**The Walrus** · February 04, 2007, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by Seleukos

Oh, I looked closer into the file and I found what I thought would be in strat. The menue faction name, thats what I was talking about. Never mind on that part.

Ill think about expanding this map myself like that. But not that big, its too big, maybe half. Besides, the only crowded area is Italy, which I am testing as Venice and dont think is that much of a problem. Might remove

Ive heard that that map has very high turn times, is that true?

I don't remember vanilla exactly. IIRC it was 1 turn = 1 year? I know you can mod this though.

**Seleukos** · February 04, 2007, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by Sir Dinadan

I don't remember vanilla exactly. IIRC it was 1 turn = 1 year? I know you can mod this though.

Naw I meant didnt it take that map a few minutes to complete a round of turn?

**Slaxx Hatmen** · February 04, 2007, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by Seleukos

Naw I meant didnt it take that map a few minutes to complete a round of turn?

Yeah it idid. Too much stuff on screen like forests and Desert textures and the like. I think it should stay it's current size since the vanilla map is pretty big itself.
BTW I don't see Adrianopolis. Hopefully that city will get added yes?

And I'll try to find some maps for Egypt since I know there should be some towns around Cairo.:hmmm:

Okey, sofar I've got Fayoum(http://lexicorient.com/e.o/atlas/index.htm) and Fustat.(Old Cairo, just a few miles north of Cairo.)

**legionari** · February 07, 2007, 11:23 AM

Seleukos have you tested it?

**Seleukos** · February 07, 2007, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by legionari

Seleukos have you tested it?

I have played as the Byzantines but couldnt finish it. I was at war with everyone, litterally, two allies umong a massive war. Couldnt make a defensive position as they even attacked from the sea. I kept losing territories. It was too difficult. I couldnt test it thoroughly. Going to try again as someone else.

**Pnutmaster** · February 07, 2007, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by Seleukos

I have played as the Byzantines but couldnt finish it. I was at war with everyone, litterally, two allies umong a massive war. Couldnt make a defensive position as they even attacked from the sea. I kept losing territories. It was too difficult. I couldnt test it thoroughly. Going to try again as someone else.

Test it using the latest version of Ultimate AI or Shaba Wangy's AI mod. I wouldn't play on vanilla campaign AI settings even if you transferred me a fully functional ZoR system for M2TW

**zhumin1978** · February 07, 2007, 08:38 PM

Kerak, maybe?

**MunichRules** · February 10, 2007, 10:45 AM

Hi there ,

some suggestion from my side:

Italy: The south you could add Tarent ( prinicpality of Staufer) or Bari and even Castel del monte. In the north i would propose Ravenna. Even Siena .

Middle East:
Ajlun was a muslimic fortification. South east from Akkon on the other side of the little sea.
Do you have Mekka and Medina in the South of Arab ?

In the norht at the coast of black ocean you could add: Samsun Sinope and Amastris ( from est to west). First an dlast one were under controll of Genua in 14th/15th century.

Iberian Peninsula:
Tanja = Tanger ?
Cueata = Ceuta ? If yes Ceuta is totally wrong located ( it is next to Tanger) , there could be Oran and more east Melilla. North of Marakesh i would propose Fes and more east Tahert and south of Tunis also at the coast Kairuan.

Ok thanks for your attention

**Soulghast** · February 10, 2007, 10:58 AM

Why don't you expand the map a bit in to the east?

**Seleukos** · February 11, 2007, 05:37 AM

Dont have that kind of time.

MunichRules: Good suggestions and points. Will make a few changes. Except Italy. Its a bit too crowded right now.

**Ahiga** · February 11, 2007, 06:23 AM

As for size, is it possible to increase it but not to the extent of bigmap? Something like Mundus Magus was, except perhaps a little smaller.

**selenius4tsd** · February 11, 2007, 07:03 AM

You could just use MM itself - Spurius made a DIY map, but no one has bothered to add regions to it yet.

**Agrippa Postumas** · February 11, 2007, 08:30 AM

I think your map is looking great. Perhaps add Castel del Monte and Syracuse in Siciliy. When done, I'd suggest making Florence and Genoa independant factions at start. If your starting year is around 1100, give Crete to the Byzantine Empire.

One of the things that the Vanilla game does not adequately represent is the economic power of certain nations. The Italian city states, although small, were very powerful economically. I wonder if its possible to give the tiny Italian states some buildings at start and a special building tree that conceptually represents the trade power of those states (gives trade bonuses, increased trade fleets, etc.).