Quote Originally Posted by WImPyTjeH
The color is darker because they edited the water surface file to make it more realistic - they just made the middle ocean impassible. Try it out yourself, you can even make the sea red :)

W
That water_surface.tga you are talking about - I know that - been making maps for quite some time now, thanks.

I meant changing RGB values 64 0 0 (deep ocean) and 128 0 0 (medium, just for good measure, not really necessary IIRC) to 196 0 0 (shallow sea) in map_groundtypes.tga. This removes the barrier to sail to America right from the start of the game.

You know, you can make faces in the landscape, or write your logo with mountains, or have a woodpanel landscape everywhere. But changing the watercolour is fun, too... :)