The map

[Ramashan]

OK, back again for another Ramble. It seems like people are actually reading these things, which makes me happy. Its good to do things that make me happy and I hope that I am also doing something that other people are enjoying. Right then, onto my thoughts.

More Map_Heights

I’ve had a chance to do a lot of thinking since my last post on this subject of map heights, especially on the use of satellite imagery to create them. I am currently banging my head on my desk trying to get the rivers and the city locations just right and this has sort of lead me to a better answer as to why I didn’t use satellite imagery. Basically, it comes down to perspective versus functionality.

What the heck does that mean Rama?

Well, I’ll tell ya. By using Satellite imagery your getting a great perspective on the land mass that you are mapping from way up high. From sort of the same distance we are looking at the map we are creating. If anyone has ever looked at a satellite image or a large map of South America they will notice two things right away, a large flat area of the Amazon and a long multi-hued brown and white line which is the Andes.

By trying to exactly replicate this in the TW engine as I would by using satellite imagery, it would never functionally work. This truth never hit so hard as it did the first time I loaded the map into the TIME map editor and saw a field of jagged line with teetering cities all over the place. The point was further driven home when I tried adding the rivers.

From several thousand feet up, river courses look like thin lines on the ground. If draw these lines exactly and try to place a river in them using the TW engine, suddenly you have these amazing waterways running sideways along mountains.

I looked at the map preview in Diadochi TW, specifically that for the Hinukusch and saw how to do it right. Nice wide river valleys to allow for the TW engines ungainly rivers that need to be wavy to run at angles.

If I was to stick with the satellite imagery, I would never get the rivers to work right, so I compromise. There in lies the functionality portion of my statement. The most important thing we must remember when designing a map for TW is the playability of that map. If it looks exactly like the area your trying to represent but has soldiers seeming to walk from mountaintop to mountaintop, it really isn’t a very functional map, now is it?

It seems like most mappers I’ve encountered here get that. I say this because I have seen nothing but amazing maps come out of the mods I’ve scanned over. However, as I said in my first Ramble, I’m a noob and am still making these critical discoveries.

Approaching the map with this idea of functionality but wanting to make it as authentic as possible, I chose to highlight several areas that the South American continent is known for. Tenochtitlan, called the Venice of the new world for its canal system.



OMG!!! Screenshots! Yes, I was aware people were waiting ever patiently for these. The only request I make is, these are not final nor are they textured, this is just a taste of what we are working on. Having said that, lets continue.

The Terraced landscape iconic of the pre-columbian Andean cultures, some of which is still farmed today using the same irrigation systems built by the Inca. (amongst other cultures.)



If you read my reply to Cherryfunk you will notice the radar map in this screenshot. Also, the Interface is not final, this was just one of the many ideas we’ve been playing with.

And I’m determined to remain true to the South American landscape;


Rio Magdelena


Larga Maracaibo


Lake Titicaca

Well, that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s more I can say about map_heights, and perhaps they’ll be a third or fourth or even a fifth installment. But that’s for some future time. Remember, questions are appreciated.

Until next time

Mod Well
Ramashan

[Caius]

Delete this reply, please.

[Ramashan]

Research

Most of us that enjoy playing the Total War games do so because we enjoy the historical aspect of the game. Well, at least many of us do. Or the creators would not have spent so much time researching the units and the style of armies they placed in the game. And those who took that game would not have spent hours and hours to build upon that research and add to the historical accuracy of the games.

With every historical mod, and non-historical for that matter, the creators must research not only the era, the uniforms, the buildings, but, since I am doing the map, I must say, the geography of the world in which they wish to present to us. Some mods build upon pre-existing historical periods. So what they have to do is add to that period. Show us, the gamer, somethings we did not know about time period, and make it more alive in what we see the units wearing, how the buildings are modeled, and even creating land scapes that reflect what we see on maps.

Now, doing the first mod for South American cultures we on INCA: Total War team have to research everything. Its been said in other threads and posts in the Inca mod section, but trying to finmd reliable information for the cultures we want to include in our game is very difficult. Most of what we are relying on is second hand accounts and what ever else we can dig up in the library or online. Most of these cultures were completely wiped out. We have very few artist rendering or books to look at since there was no real written language in these cultures. But you know what? That's what our wonderful researchers and historians are for. And they've done a phenominal job. Anyone who plays the mod will know that we have gathered perhaps the most cohesive collection of pre-columbian military information all in place then you will find anywhere on the internet.

Wow, that just hit me as I was writing this. And its true. Go ahead? Check for yourself. If you do find a treasure trove of information, please, link it to us, we'll add it to our mod and make my statement above even more true.

Anyway, what I was getting at is, my research as the mapper is a little bit easier. I just go out, or go online, and find every map for the area I can get my grubby paws on. Its a good thing I've been planning a dream backpacking trip through Bolivia to Equador which meant that I had many maps and was familiar with much of the terrain. Although we humans do tend to deforest the land and fill in the waters, the main features of the landscape don't change all that much. This helps when trying to create a map_heights file that not only is familiar to modern day viewers, but is also fairly true to how the land was five to six hundred years ago.

Here are some examples;


The Atacama Valley. Or The Atacama Desert. One of the driest places on earth.


Altiplano, a high flat plane sitting atop the Andes. Also where Lake Titicaca is located.

Neither of these are textured, I try to get the basic form to my liking before I experiment with texture as you can see here;



As I approach the detail work on the map_heights map, I talk to those members of the mod team who are most familiar with the region, I refer to all my maps, I google the country and research travel guides to get the key features that people travel to that part of the world for.

When the researchers give me the locations of the pre-columbian cities we are going to include, I must begin to research the geography of those regions. This all goes back to my previous ramble where I said that we must balance authenticity with game play. If a city is nestled high in the mountains and in some valley, well, how do I represent this? Well, I guess you'll just have to see.

As usual I start intending to write a great essay and I slowly lose my train of thought as time goes by. I hope I made some clear comments above about the research we are doing in an attempt to bring you an authentic South American experience.

Hope you enjoyed my ramble. As usual questions and comments are appreciated and welcome.

Until Next Time

Mod Well
Ramashan