Arduria map + a new one in the works

[Crandaeolon]

Many neighbohor provinces weren't connected

That's odd. I didn't expect more than one or two connection "bugs". Could you list the provinces involved?

In many cases where provinces share a short border with a terrain feature on it, they're not supposed to be considered "connected". Same thing with lakes that are too small to have a water-dwelling population (the larger "lakes" are actually inner seas.)

some starting places were many times better than others.

This is by design, since the map is based on a pseudo-realistic world. This means that not everyone's lot is equal. I have a strong personal dislike for symmetrical maps where everyone has equal resources in the vicinity and are equidistant from each other...

That "many times better" sounds a bit worrisome, though. Did you consider just the starting income and not, for example, the availability of magic sites which can translate into income via alchemy? The mountain regions should have much more magic sites than the richer farmlands.

I started on the grey place at south, and all provinces had income 2-10 so I had almost 20 useless coastal provinces and I lost immiadately when atlantis attacked because my income was only 200, and 100 came from the capital.

Hm. The poor area around province #16 (your starting location, I believe) is fairly low-income, but should be rich in magic sites. Some fairly rich provinces are pretty near in the west. In one of my test games, I started from the same location and expanded west- and northwards. I also began systematic magic site searching early and alchemized gems to gold whenever I needed money in a pinch. Won the game, but it was by far the hardest. Perhaps I could add some mines into the mountain regions to make 'em more worthwhile.

The sea nations can be a balance problem, since there are so many sea provinces. I'll look into it some more.