New Map: Faerun - The Forgotten Realms

Edi · #1 May 21st, 2004, 09:04 PM

Hello all! A few weeks ago somebody posted a thread asking about a map for the Forgotten Realms setting (also known as Faerun) and if anybody had created one. I took it upon myself to do that, and the fruits of that labor are now available for all.

The map is a really huge one, with 424 provinces and all of the nations on the map. I've tried to make the map as faithfully to the FR setting as is possible within the framework of Dominions, a task that was surprisingly easy.

A brief overview:

All nations start from fixed special start locations determined by what their role in the world is according to my vision of what made the most sense, and each nation has plenty of expansion options.

The map contains a lot of special provinces which will have strategic and or other significant value (e.g. hard to find mages you can recruit). Most of these special provinces are also heavily defended, so beware of trying with too few forces. If the defenses are not heavy, it might be the special feature is thematic (e.g. places like Spider Swamp, Lizard Marsh or Spiderhaunt Peaks).

Anyways, this info and everything else that is relevant can be found in the readme.txt file that is included in the zip along with the map and tga files. Currently it can be found at Gandalf Parker's site in the location www.dom2minions.com/~tmpspace, as Faerun.zip. He will move it elsewhere when he deems it fit, and it is clear that there is no more need for major patches to the map file. I don't expect much more than minor tweaks to be necessary, as terrains and borders should be all okay. The map isn't playtested, though, so something can always come up.

Now, get cracking, there's a whole world waiting for you to explore it!

You can send any feedback you want to give to esko_halttunen@yahoo.com.

Edi

[ May 21, 2004, 20:17: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Daynarr · #2 May 21st, 2004, 09:18 PM

I would love to try your map, but the link you provided is not working.

Edit: Never mind, it seems to be working now.

[ May 21, 2004, 20:22: Message edited by: Daynarr ]

Gandalf Parker · #3 May 21st, 2004, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Daynarr:
I would love to try your map, but the link you provided is not working.

Edit: Never mind, it seems to be working now.

Yeah I caught it. Had a comma at the end of the link

NTJedi · #4 May 21st, 2004, 09:42 PM

THANKS EDI !! This is larger then the world map from Illwinter... you are the new champ !

Defintely looking forward to trying this map !

Cheezeninja · #5 May 21st, 2004, 09:47 PM

It was I that posted asking if there was one, or if anyone was doing one. And thank you very much. =)

NTJedi · #6 May 21st, 2004, 10:21 PM

Hopefully with Dominions_III gamers will have even larger maps which can be made. Right now I believe the limitation is 500 provinces.

Norfleet · #7 May 21st, 2004, 10:31 PM

The problem with both maps is that the actual sane limit on provinces is less than the maximum hardcoded limit: The Nation Ovwrview display will go nuts if you have too many provinces, and become truncated, at a point which falls short of the actual, hardcoded province max.

Gandalf Parker · #8 May 21st, 2004, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:
Hopefully with Dominions_III gamers will have even larger maps which can be made. Right now I believe the limitation is 500 provinces.

Ahhh another giant map lover. I was beginning to get convinced that I was alone but my logs show that the Epic maps (500 province) get downloaded the most from my site. www.dom2minions.com

NTJedi · #9 May 22nd, 2004, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Ahhh another giant map lover. I was beginning to get convinced that I was alone but my logs show that the Epic maps (500 province) get downloaded the most from my site. www.dom2minions.com

Definitely Huge Maps are the best!

If you ever owned an Amiga computer and played Settlers_2 you might have been able to see the World-Size_8 maps. Gamers would build their civilization for a few days and not run into any opponents. (days as in human days... where I was playing 5 hours a day.)

[ May 21, 2004, 23:43: Message edited by: NTJedi ]

Edi · #10 May 22nd, 2004, 09:51 PM

Thanks, Daynarr.

The no borders thing is out of necessity. There are so many ways of defining what areas belong to which province and how to draw the borders that it was just not viable to do it. Besides, I'd still be drawing them on the map if I had done it that way and the project would never have gotten finished.

Besides, the current tga file is easier to modify now. If you want a map with fewer provinces, just fill in the white pixels and put new ones where you want them and you'll get a whole different map. In fact, I might be inclined to do one if time permits and there is interest for one.

The reason why this one is so huge is that I'm a fan of gigantic maps myself, and of the Forgotten Realms as well, so it was rather natural to go for an epic map.

Edi