New Map - HOI2 based Europe map, 700+ provinces

[whiplashomega]

Hey all,

Although I haven't gone to the arduous task of looking up the historical names of all of the provinces, (a task I find daunting and tedious due to the size of this map) I thought I would release this anyway. I've been working on it for the past several days, and haven't done a lot of play testing on it yet, so there may yet be errors. Anyway, I'm a big fan of Paradox Interactive's games, such as Europa Universalis, Victoria, and the work this map is based on Hearts of Iron (2). Anyway, one of the things I've missed since Dominions 1 was a map of the real world that really had an epic feel to it, really got to just how big the place is. So I downloaded a black and white version of the Hearts of Iron 2 map, and got to work editing it for Dominions 3. Unfortunately after I had colored and put in all my province marks, I discovered that Dominions 3 has a hard coded limit of 1500 provinces(the full map would have probably 2500), so anyway, so I cut out Europe instead and set that up for Dominions use by itself. What resulted is this 700 some province monster of a map. The graphical editing isn't great, and the provinces are kind of small compared to the number of pixels, but it is playable and huge.

**edit**
New version merges many of the provinces, as well as increasing the resolution. Some terrains have also been changed, neighbors, start sites reworked as necessary and to be more fitting of individual nations themes and cold/heat preferences. Something like 650 provinces now rather than 700+, and those ridiculously small provinces that are impossible to manage are now for the most part gone.(I think I got them all, but not sure)

**edit**
what is probably the final version of this (at least without further criticism and ideas) has been posted. Includes real world names for all the locations. Accuracy is not guaranteed, as the names were obtained from a variety of sources, including old maps, recent maps, my own memory, and the games Victoria and Hearts of Iron 2. Thus the names cross a variety of historical periods, and no historical accuracy was attempted. (Dominions is a fantasy game anyway) Enjoy

[rdonj]

That map is pretty huge. I wonder if some of those provinces aren't just a little too small though, I have the feeling some of them are going to look a bit weird with forts on them.

Have you considered doing preset starting locations for the different nations? In a map like this with huge swathes of the same terrain type, national survival bonuses are pretty significant and most nations are fairly obvious as to where they belong. Though there would probably be a lot of unused space on the eastern portion of that map.

[whiplashomega]

Most certainly considered it, especially as a veteran of the original Dominions with its great Europe map. Just haven't taken the time to figure it all out yet. I would most likely assign them thematically however rather than by where they would do best. Ulm would start in southern Germany, Tir'na'nog would be in Ireland, Vanheim & Jotunheim somewhere in scandinavia, Bogarus in Russia, Man in England, are what I can think of off hand. Perhaps such a version will come out with the dawning of 2009, we shall see.

[whiplashomega]

Now includes a second .map file europespecstart.map that gives every nation in the game a special start location. For MOST nations it is historically or thematically based, however, for some nations, such as Early/Middle Age Ti'en Chi, Jomon, Bandar Log, + others, it was done just to fill out the map, as these nations are traditionally from other parts of the world. See the .map file for specifics about where each nation was placed.

[rdonj]

You work fast, thanks This would be great for one of those all age games, now.

[whiplashomega]

New version posted, taking into account criticisms, see first post for updated attachment.

[whiplashomega]

You know what's mind numbing? typing out 600 some province names.

#landname ... over and over again... You know what's more mind numbing? Looking up names for all those provinces/locations in on-line atlases and such. I'm up to province 353 so far... I was hoping to have this done before I went to bed tonight, don't think I'll be that lucky though.

[rdonj]

Ouch. I know your pain, I have to hand-set 130 province garrisons for a dom3k map. And I wanted to organize somewhat based on planet what creatures were where. So yeah it's somewhat painful. At least I don't have to consult an atlas though. On the bright side, you're brushing up on your geography?

[whiplashomega]

New version posted, includes province names.