Speculations about map

[Dead Moroz]

All the text and pictures below are just my thoughts on how MTW2 map will look like according to current information about project and what it means for gameplay.

According to current set of factions it's logical to assume that the map will be stretched from Mexico (territory of Aztec empire) on the west to city of Samarkand (capital of Tumurids) on the east. Maybe CA will squeeze Atlantic ocean to make map look more compact. The southern edge of the map will be Northern Sahara, I suppose. The northern edge will be central Sweden and southern Finland, 'coz the land to the north of it are hard for life and war and always were out of main medieval wars. But it's possible that CA won't expand map so much east and north. Maybe they make it end on Caspian sea at the east and garble the situation of Tumurids factions as they do it with Parthia in RTW.

Though we don't know if CA plans to make 3 eras system in MTW2 (like in MTW1), many of us hopes that this feature will be included in the game. I suspect there will be these time periods:
1. 1080-1200 (Romanesque)
2. 1200-1400 (Gothic)
3. 1400-1530 (Renaissance)

So there are possible maps of these periods in game. I don't mention America, 'coz it's too small information to talk about it now, plus America will be available only in late periods of game so won't participate in most part of action.








You can see that there may be almost the same map of Europe as in previous TW game (personally I think that CA don't plan to expand map to east enough). The number of factions is quite small even on smaller (traditional) version of map. Many regions will belong to rebels, so they will be just source for quick building of super empires. You can notice another dangerous tendency: there are lots of small countries (many of them are just one region states) clamped between large empires. These countries risks to be conquered by their stronger neighbors in first 20-30 turns, especially if AI will the same as in RTW. So there will be even smaller number of "players" on map and gameplay will became more predictable and boring.

I suspect that CA will unite some of historically scattered states into solid factions in game: HRE, later Poland (as Polish-Lithuanian union) and Russia (as collective image of all former Rus states, or just some part of them maybe).

Another dangerous things are cultural/religious and geographical inequalities in set of factions. There will be 13 catholic, 4 muslim, 2 orthodox and 2 pagan factions. (Btw, I wonder how CA will handle question of Mongol's religion: in early period they were pagan, but later the majority of Mongols in Europe were muslims.) The majority of factions are catholic and most of factions are situated in western part of map while eastern part is almost empty.

So the things gonna be imho and if CA won't change their plans on this game we'll get almost the same gameplay as in RTW.

I suggest to make map larger enough to represent declared factions (*cough**Tumurids**cough*) more historically correct and to bring something new in traditional RTW/MTW gameplay. That's why I support idea about America, but don't think it will be enough, 'coz this part of map will be closed for players during major game action. Plus we need more factions to have more opponents and to distribute factions more equally in geographical and cultural aspects. It's also will be great if CA will make a set of emerging factions, so we will be able to play against "later" factions even if we start in early period.

Imho the proper map should look like this:

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I would hope a Crusader States faction might be in the game somewhere, maybe Kiev, the Cumans, Bulgaria, Genoa especially i personally think Milan will change and it will be the Genoese, maybe the Norse if there is an early period, maybe Flanders in the late period. An Irish faction or a welsh princedom would be great to see but it is doubtful. An Armenian faction at some period would also be sweet.

Nice looking map though and i would like to see the proper map you suggested. It would be great to see that many factions on the screen

[Anti-hero]

Man, these maps look apocalyptic. I hope you turn out wrong.

I'll comment on the second map of the second three:
~1200 - ~1400

First, I'm against this starting year (1200). Just four years later (1204) The Latin Empire was established in Constantinopole. What remained of Byzantium was the Nicea Empire and the Epir State (called Epir Despot-dom, its ruler was known as the Despot of Epir). I can't help but mention the absence of Bulgaria on any of the three maps - a laughable fact, as anyone with knowledge of Balkans' history will agree. I'm sure many other people will say the same for their own states, reduced to "owned by rebels" territories. And they will all be right.

Something CA has to understand is, that Medieval Europe is not 16th century Japan and we're not playing Shogun anymore, and there are no territories that are just "owned by the rebels". The map has to be completely coloured if this game is to have a finished look.

But, of course, this will not happen. Then it will be up to us modders, to do what CA should have done - tighten the scale, make a map encompassing central and eastern europe (for example), but this time every little faction will have its little province. "Unfortunetly" ;) this will take away the opportunity for the player to conquer Norway with the Turks. What a nice side effect if you ask me.

Let's just hope things won't turn out as bad as you're predicting. It will be very disappointing to play a fantasy campaingn where you can't tell for certain wether "all similiarities with actual states and leaders are completely unintended and accidental".

[Prince Cobra]

Good points Anti-hero (another Bulgarian )!!! Welcome to the org. !!!
I didn't like the absence of Bulgaria and some other factions too. And I didn't like the periods. And believe me that is not because we are from one country. I agree 1204/1205 is good. And I want to comment the Late period. In that version Byzantium (one of my favourite factions) is too weak and I think 1321 is a better start (and it is challenging too).

[Prince Cobra]

Oh, I missed to put that in. Well, IMHO the separating of the map is not very good. The fight for the Medieval wold is what you think of when you hear Medieval Total War.

[King Yngvar]

Even if there is not going to be no Norway or Sweden in the game, I think they should make the map stretch at least up north to the botnia bay (between Finland and Sweden) to make a land passage between Sweden and Finland, which will perhaps prevent Russia from automatically being the controller of Finland every time.

[Anti-hero]

Oh, I missed to put that in. Well, IMHO the separating of the map is not very good. The fight for the Medieval wold is what you think of when you hear Medieval Total War.

Separating the map doesn't mean factions from outside the area will not be able to affect things in the area. For example if I'm Byzantium, you're Bulgaria, I'd conclude an alliance with the Kievan Russians to attack you even though they're from outside the map.
Just a thought.

If CA can't fill the whole map with playable factions (in the way Knights of Honour did) due to technical limitations, then the next best thing, in my opinion, is to separate the map into regions. It's also more realistic but from what I see, this is of lowest priority for the developers.