Campaign Map screenies

[Csargo]

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Not sure if this one is new or not.

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http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=186580

http://www.totalwar-zone.de/index2.php?g=etw&id=5

[Husar]

Those are looking pretty good, can't wait to see that myself.

[Mailman653]

Thats a very nice UI, I like the portraits as well.

[Ferret]

Ichi is god!

Everyone join his fan club now!

edit: and now I finally understand how they're weird map layout works, and I have to say it looks better than America in M2

[Sheogorath]

Austria and Poland look a bit...funny. I'm pretty sure Poland is quite a bit off.
Still, it looks like they did pretty well. I note that the Duchy of Courland is present and correct, for example :P

[Gustav II Adolf]

Hm, the map seems more simplistic and lower in quality than m2tw. I hope CA will work on it more and not get them selves lost in "age of sail". I remember that early screen shots from m2tw later turned out better so maybe it happens again.

Great with ability to appoint governors, if so. I really like the minimap too. Strange though, is the lands of England and Spain only one region?


G

[Csargo]

I think the map looks better honestly.

[Warmaster Horus]

Me too.
Gustav II Adolf, I think the provinces are "merged" on the mini-map. Not separated, that is. And it looks better that way, IMO.

[Discoman]

It looks really good and I'm kinda glad they dumbed down the campaign map so we don't have to deal with annoying terrain.

I'm not sure about the provinces being merged considering you can see lines in the Ottoman turk empire. I guess they represent nations of the era (Potential egypt and greek rebellion against the Turks?)

[Gustav II Adolf]

Well, this is not major for me but i just think there is an emty feel with less detail. The colors are a bit more cartoonish and cities seem not to be well integrated with their environment. I would love to get drawn into a vibrating alive environment also in the campignmap not just in battles. However, playability overrides everything. I don´t want clutter.


G

[TB666]

I just hope the empty province will provide less sieges and more field battles.

[Warmaster Horus]

Discoman, I think those lines represent lakes and bodies of water.

[Belgolas]

I am impressed. I like the idea of instead of having a province for easch city you kind of get more of a region province. Like London being the capital and smaller cities areound it. I like the new government system and hopefully a new trade system. I think there will be less armies so we don't have 20 stacks attacking a country. So now we might have 1 or 2 armies per region by the looks of it. I love the graphics and art style of the map. Hate the building pictures though.

[Sheogorath]

It looks really good and I'm kinda glad they dumbed down the campaign map so we don't have to deal with annoying terrain.

I'm not sure about the provinces being merged considering you can see lines in the Ottoman turk empire. I guess they represent nations of the era (Potential egypt and greek rebellion against the Turks?)

Might be interesting. They DID say that diplomacy would be more complex, so those lines might represent protectorates or something similar.
It'd be cool if you could annex nations while letting them retain a semi-seperate government.

[hundurinn]

Looks nice, but there is one thing missing from the map of Europe, Iceland .

[Sheogorath]

Looks nice, but there is one thing missing from the map of Europe, Iceland .

Well, it looks like most of the small German States got lumped together too, so don't feel TOO left out.

[Chaotix]

Actually, it's very difficult to see, but every nation has those lines on it. It's the most clear for the Ottomans, but I can definitely see province border-lines on the mini-map for Russia, Austria, Poland, and Sweden in particular. It may be difficult to see borders in England, France, and Spain because their faction colors are much brighter. I can just make out lines separating Britain into 4 territories.

[rajpoot]

Looks beautiful to me!
I see two pictures with India in it, and it makes me happy to see that they've done a good job with the provinces in there.

Edit;
I might be wrong, but it seems that we won't be able to take the overland route to India. Europe and the Indian subcontinent seem to exist on different maps, perhaps they're making the map in parts, Europe one, India two, American continents three and so on......

[Martok]

Marvelous find, Ichigo! Kudos.


Personally, I find no real faults with the map's appearance. For what it's worth, IMHO it does look somewhat better than in Medieval 2, although it doesn't really matter to me either way. (Also, it sounds as if the main differences with ETW's map will be functional, not visual.) I definitely applaud a return to the Shogun/MTW-style mini-map -- I've always found the RTW/M2TW-style mini-map (where you can see separate provinces) somewhat clunky & inelegant in appearance.

Austria and Poland look a bit...funny. I'm pretty sure Poland is quite a bit off.
Still, it looks like they did pretty well. I note that the Duchy of Courland is present and correct, for example :P

I agree that Poland-Lithuania appears to be somewhat off. Specifically, most of Lithuania looks like it's Russian territory for some reason. Austria actually looks about right, aside from perhaps Silesia having been ceded to P-L in the game.

The colors are a bit more cartoonish and cities seem not to be well integrated with their environment. I would love to get drawn into a vibrating alive environment also in the campignmap not just in battles. However, playability overrides everything. I don´t want clutter.

I'm rather sympathetic to your feelings here -- I too wish cities and ports looked a little more natural instead of just plunked down onto the map -- but I also agree with you in that gameplay is an overriding concern in this regard. Better to able to clearly see stuff on the campaign map than having to search for it because it blends in too well with its surroundings.

Edit;
I might be wrong, but it seems that we won't be able to take the overland route to India. Europe and the Indian subcontinent seem to exist on different maps, perhaps they're making the map in parts, Europe one, India two, American continents three and so on......

I sincerely hope that's not the case, as separating the regions like that would almost certainly partially nullify the usefulness & relevance of the game's naval aspect. If you can't interdict/destroy enemy shipping when it's en route from one continent to another, then what's the point of having vessels in the first place? The only thing I can think of that might work would be if a fleet leaves the "edge" of one map, that then it appears at the edge of the next one.

Of course, how that would work when sailing to India, I have no idea. Unless of course CA is including a map of the coast of Africa, but they've given absolutely no indication they're doing that.

[Sheogorath]

Found a map of Europe for 1700:
http://www.euratlas.net/PHA/history_...e_map_1700.jpg

Poland is very definitely looking a bit odd.
I guess Austria looking odd is mostly just due to its being a bit stretched out...perspective, rather than actual fault.

I'd HOPE there would be an overland route to India. The period towards the end of the game was the start of the 'Great Game' period between Russia and the UK.
Besides, it looks like Persia is split between the two maps. It'd be sort of inconvenient if they had two separate 'sides' to their empire that couldn't interact despite being right next to each other.

[Praxil]

I just don't get it, what is it whit the bloom effect? I thought that trend was gone. Most unrealistic graphical effect ever. It is ridiculous, even black color glows. That screenshot of battle almost hurts my eyes.

[Sheogorath]

Needs more brown ;)

[ThePianist]

Map looks great. I may sound like a history buff (very knowledgeable), but my readings are actually very superficial and shallow. I only know in-depth on a few topics, and my overall history is rather ignorant. So I wish I could make some complex comments about geography like some of the posters here did, but I actually don't know much about the time era. I do know a little about Poland Lithuania and my impression was that its geographical shape was more like France (i.e. one chunk) rather than the letter "Y". The other countries look great (and many that I can't even name).

Some comments about the campaign map, not the overall continental map, but the clickable map. The map landscape looks great, though the cities look like they were drawn by crayon, so does the water.

The possibilities are:

-The developers are trying to go for a Renaissance Rembrandt/Renoir style of painting, and different from the previous games in the series to show a completely new way of game design, including the map interface's look.

-The developers are making a lot more regions this time, and rendering the map in the same way as RTW/M2TW would make the campaign map lag.

Probably the former, and perhaps a combination of both. The cities on the campaign map probably look better if they were more like in the last screenshot. Either way, RTW had 103 regions, and maximum was 200 regions, because of the 255 RGB values possible with a type of image file. I actually don't understand how (but probably would with a little bit of explanation). Perhaps it goes by base 2 factorial, so the next RGB value would be 512. It'd be great if ETW had 500 maximum available regions. And this is not indirectly asking for any in-campaign regions, the developers decide on that with the best use of limited time and resources, I am merely asking for the maximum number of available regions be raised from the previous engine. In other words, it'd be great if the developers used a different kind of image file with higher RGB value, so the maximum regions could be more. Teams like EB and RTR would be ecstatic.

I find the Victorian/Renaissance (there are many centuries of difference between these eras, and my history is more or less rather blurred because I didn't read much in this time period, nor know that much about it) graphic design of the building/recruiting interface to be very well made, very attractive. Perhaps slight bit more graphics. Or perhaps it varies a bit depending on the form of government. If aristocratic then very baroque. If republic then very Greek/Roman. Again, that's just eye candy and would detract from game mechanics. If there is time, then perhaps different styles of user interface depending on government type (or even culture type). Otherwise, just one user interface.

[rajpoot]

The only thing I can think of that might work would be if a fleet leaves the "edge" of one map, that then it appears at the edge of the next one.

That'll have to happen.
The maps are most certainly separate, I checked the other forum thread, and that is what I've understood from there.

Of course, how that would work when sailing to India, I have no idea.

I remember CA saying right since the begining that the sea-route to India would be something different; Not what might be expected......

[PBI]

My first thoughts:

I can see what people mean that the campaign map looks a bit empty. All in all though, that's not surprising since people complained that the M2TW map was too cluttered with agents, and there were too many sieges. The lower number of provinces will increase the number of field battles and will free up more provinces to use on the new world and India, as ThePianist says. It certainly looks to me as though Spain is a single province, England and Scotland are the only two province in mainland Britain; I guess the faint lines on Russia and the Ottoman Empire mean they get more provinces. I suppose it makes some sense having one province per faction (at least for Spain, France etc) since my understanding of warfare in this period is that if you lost your capital, you lost the war (except Russia of course).

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised at sheer number of factions, I count 27 just in Europe. Looks like those hoping to play as some of the smaller factions like Switzerland will get their wish. EDIT: Make that 28, am I right in thinking Malta is there?

I note the screenshot in which England has two ports, makes sense I suppose since it would be a bit odd for one-province Spain to just have one port in the Med and none on the Atlantic.

Interesting to see the separate Europe and India maps. Regarding the overland route, if you can sail your ships to the edge of the map and have them appear in the Indian Ocean, I wonder if you can march to the edge of Persia on the map and have your army appear in Persia on the Indian map?

Graphics look fine to me, maybe a bit simpler than M2TW but that's fine with me. Not expecting the campaign map to provide eyecandy, it's supposed to be the more cerebral part of the game.

I wonder who the non-soldier guys hanging around on the map are, given that diplomacy, espionage etc will supposedly be handled by menu rather than agents? Great figures, perhaps?

Interesting that there are separate tabs for "construction" and "infrastructure". Infrastructure would be what, roads, farms, mines and ports? Maybe canals and railways also, this being Empire.

I had forgotten that, aside from being the Age of Sail, this was also the Age of Silly Wigs. Tee hee. Maybe a "wigmaker" ancillary? That shot of the "government" screen is intriguing though.

[pevergreen]

pevergreen dances with excitement

I love it. That's all.

pevergreen has stopped dancing and is now waving a massive fanboy flag

[Ignoramus]

Maybe that odd Polish province is Saxony? If you think about it, the colours of Switzerland and Poland are very similar, so maybe they forgot to distinguish the colours? I can't for the life of me understand why they'd give Saxony to Poland.

[CBR]

At that time the elector of Saxony was also king of Poland.


CBR

[Monk]

Provincial outlines seem to have been done away with on the minimap making it look a lot better - much easier to see the expanse of domains and empires now. The entire map seems to have been cleaned up and uncluttered from M2TW's - I like it. There's plenty of space between cities now which means much more field battles, and more opportunities for CA's new AI to shine (hopefully) and less sieges which I found fun in M2, but could also get very boring if that was all you were doing.

I definitely applaud a return to the Shogun/MTW-style mini-map

I agree. Something about having no provincial lines just makes your map look so much more... I can't think of a better word, so i'll use "authentic".

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It's hard being a mud-slinging cynic sometimes.