What sorts of maps do we need?

[Stryke11]

I like maps that have lots of fun geographical stuff like impassible barriers (mountains, rivers), port cities that can take you many provinces away, lots of choke points, etc. I'm excited to see the thematic maps currently in production. The Faerun (forgotten realms) map for Dom2 was really cool, but it was so big after many turns I got a bit lost in it. Definitely a victory point map

The Europa map is also excellent. I am currently in a game as LA Man, and have having a heck of a time against the giants in scandinavia and Ermor in Italy.

Some ideas for maps, and might just only require good scanning skills: Westeros, a la George R.R. Martin. Shannara a la Terry Brooks. These wouldn't work thematically, but neither did Faerun, and it was still awesome. Someone who has the skills could port a lot of the Dom2 maps into Dom3 (I heard they sorta work, but some things were out of whack). A map of California would be fun.

Cradle of Dominion style maps rule all the rest though. Absolute excellently designed map.

[HoneyBadger]

I'd like to see a truly gigantic map (atleast 540 provinces, and more would be welcome) with 90% oceans, just a scattering of islands here and there, maybe a very few minor land-masses, and lots and lots of special sites to keep things interesting. It would be early age only and have only 5 nations-Aboleths, Vanheim, Pale Ones, Basalt Kings, and Triton Kings. I think it would be a challenge for a good map-maker to keep a map that's almost all water interesting, and to create an ocean that has several different environments (deep rifts, shallow seas, impassible coral reefs instead of mountains, arctic waters, hot volcanic vents, sargasso seas, the list goes on, and then all the interesting things that could be done with the islands, like pirates, and cannibals, and giant fetishes, and giant fetishes ruling over cannibalistic pirates.). A lot could be done, mod-wise, with a really good ocean map.

[Endoperez]

540 provinces and 5 nations would leave 100 provinces for everyone. There could well be 10 provinces between all players. MP games on such a map won't work (the turns will slow down to once per 48 hours or so BEFORE players meet each other). A 54 or 108 province map made mostly of water could work.

[Cainehill]

Something that would be really nice would be if map-makers would go through their maps and #nostart most of the provinces, only allowing ones with 4 or more neighbors (of appropriate type - water doesn't help most land nations), and ensuring adequate distance between all start positions.

[HoneyBadger]

48 hour turns...I might get something done...

Actually, Endoperez, I was just thinking single player only, along the lines of Glory of the Gods. A multi-player version would be very nice, but you're right, a 108 province multiplayer would be perfect, possibly a zoomed-in archipelago version that would cut out some of the outlying ocean areas, but feature the land areas in more detail, with more land-provinces resulting.