Campaign Map screenies

[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.

[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".

[Herkus]

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


CBR

But they were in personal union, which doesn't mean one state. At the same time king of GB was also elector of Hanover (the same personal union), but we can clearly see that GB and Hanover are seperate states in map.