Map Making Questions

[Gandalf Parker]

Ahhh so it runs thru that routine when it creates the game? Good.

[Kaljamaha]

Thanks for the responses everybody. However, I still am not clear on the pop thing. So, lets say a that a province has x population if it is plains, 1.5x if it is farm lands. How much does it have if it is both? 1, 1,5 or something in between?


K.

[Arralen]

"farm" means (IIRC) 1,5x pop, 0,5x ressources. "Plains" is just that - plain - it's the base for everything else, you can't have "Plains & Farmland".

All terrain modifiers add up, though. (Or mayb they even multiply. I'll have to do all the number checking some day, unless the devs tell us). That means, creating a province that is both farm land and mountain does not make any sense, as the boni cancel each other out (mostly. In fact, I found this combo to suck most - no pop, but no ressources either.)

So I recommend for mapmakers is to use special terrain and "small" provinces sparingly. Going overboard with these will result in a map that lets everyone move only 1 prov/turn everywhere - with 'armies' not bigger than 50 Inf because there isn't either sufficient money nor supplies for more units.

Do not draw provinces first, and then check what terrain they have ("ok - it's mountains to the left, tick it, grass in the north, tick it, it's small, ok, oh, and here's a swamp, just another tick in the editor .."). Draw your map, then place the borders at the edges of terrain features (as it's done with the original Illwinter maps).

[Kaljamaha]

Arralen said:
"farm" means (IIRC) 1,5x pop, 0,5x ressources. "Plains" is just that - plain - it's the base for everything else, you can't have "Plains & Farmland".

Right, poor example, however the other terrain types are stackable. You can have a "mountain forest waste swamp with fresh water" province.

All terrain modifiers add up, though. (Or mayb they even multiply. I'll have to do all the number checking some day, unless the devs tell us). That means, creating a province that is both farm land and mountain does not make any sense, as the boni cancel each other out (mostly. In fact, I found this combo to suck most - no pop, but no ressources either.)

This is what I was asking. If the site frequency is always the best of the terrain types, I was wondering how population is determined.

So I recommend for mapmakers is to use special terrain and "small" provinces sparingly. Going overboard with these will result in a map that lets everyone move only 1 prov/turn everywhere - with 'armies' not bigger than 50 Inf because there isn't either sufficient money nor supplies for more units.

Do not draw provinces first, and then check what terrain they have ("ok - it's mountains to the left, tick it, grass in the north, tick it, it's small, ok, oh, and here's a swamp, just another tick in the editor .."). Draw your map, then place the borders at the edges of terrain features (as it's done with the original Illwinter maps).

Well what I did was first draw the general contours of the terrain an terrain types and then lay the borders on it. But not to worry, the map won't have more than a handful, I'd estimate some five to ten provinces with dual terrain type. I was just wondering how it affected everything.


K.

[Gandalf Parker]

I think DomMap does a good job of such things. I have taken to having it set so that there is more breakup of the terrains so that I dont get a huge home territory of only mountains, or only forest, where the player cant possibly gain any other terrain for quite awhile. The program also does a great job (now, thanks to Lintman) of tracing the edges of terrains when it decides provinces.

It does have a dual terrain of mountain-waste which the original programmer put in and called "Tundra". Im not thrilled with it. But rather than pull it Im wondering if it wouldnt be best watered-down abit with other duals.

What stacked terrains do you feel would be good adds?

[Edi]

Forest/mountain and Forest/Plains (represents lightly forested areas instead of dense forests.

Edi