Magna Mundi Developer's Diary #2 - THE MAP: LOOKING BACK FIVE CENTURIES

[ubik]

Respect to him !!! Great looking map, one of the best ever seen in Wargame imo. What's the next DD about ? Or is it too soon to ask ?

Glad you like it, Mattias.


Well... I think you can fetch the whole Dev Diary menu from someplace!

[Graaf van Gelre]

I think it would look better if the black coast borders would be removed. Alternativly they could have a beach colour, but I don't really like black. Other than that I think the map looks incredibly awesome ofcourse

[jordanjay29]

Hot DAMN, that map looks AMAZING. It looks like you guys put a lot of real effort, thought and time into this. Great job. Now it not only looks "cool" but also accurate.

Now if only there was a way to start from 1453 and conquer the world under the Minnesota Empire! :P

[Arbus]

Another thing, since you used hydrographic data, and we can see light and dark blue waters, how does that translate in gameplay? Since we have different types of terrain (mountains, forest, jungle, desert, etc), what will be the different types of sea (deep waters, shallow waters, artic waters, coast, etc)? And since there will be climate regions (tropical, temperate, dry and boreal) will they also apply to the sea? Also, will there be winds? I mean if in a specific route it will be faster to sail from east to west, rather than west to east?

[jetfx]

This is perhaps the most beautiful game map I've yet seen. Very excellent job.

I do have some questions about the map Ubik, like where did you get the data, especially the land cover? Is it freely available or proprietary? And what software did you use to make the map? I ask this as a student cartographer who makes strategy game maps for boardgames in my spare time. I'm currently working on one related to WWI, and looking for landcover that does not involve me tracing it off low detail period maps.

[Dawkins]

Only problem I have with this is that I spend virtually no time looking at the map in terrain mode, surely I'm not the only one?

[Strannik]

I'm going to nitpick on The Netherlands.

Then you are probably going to be happy. The Netherlands is one of the few places where we know for sure that the land has changed so much that it received special attention.

Now if only there was a way to start from 1453 and conquer the world under the Minnesota Empire! :P

That's what modding is all about! Maybe you get so many fans that it becomes a stand alone

Another thing, since you used hydrographic data, and we can see light and dark blue waters, how does that translate in gameplay?

The color of the water is purely artistic.

This is perhaps the most beautiful game map I've yet seen. Very excellent job.

I do have some questions about the map Ubik, like where did you get the data, especially the land cover?

Land Cover: http://www.glcf.umd.edu/data/

Only problem I have with this is that I spend virtually no time looking at the map in terrain mode, surely I'm not the only one?

You are not. I'm exactly like you. All terrain will be visible on the other mapmodes and the colors get shaded by the brightness of the land color.

Pfft, that's nothing. Get Indonesia right pixel for pixel and I'll be impressed

Well, let's see. How does this look?

[TeutonburgerW]

Hailing from Sweden... I feel this is the first time I've seen Scandinavia properly modelled; the mountainous Norway, the long-streched Sweden with so many different terrain types, the thousand lakes land Finland. Impressed x 10!

[JacktheJumper]

Well, let's see. How does this look?

It's so beautiful it's impossible!

[Xesan]

Beautiful!
Can we see an image of the Caribbean and far east Asia?

[aldriq]

Terrific work, Andrés. You've set the bar very high for any games coming after this one.

[Swedish Steel!]

Beautiful!
Can we see an image of the Caribbean and far east Asia?

Ah yes... my precious China will look better than ever as a vassalised part of the empire

[Dominatus]

Very beautiful, even the map is educational in the great magna mundi

[gabor]

I'm lost for words; it looks so good! You're right each of us knows their region better than far-away places, and I have to say you paid attention to even small details, like back then Hel Peninsula, and Vistula and Curonian Spits being rather chains of islands than peninsulas. I can't wait to get more delicious MM morsels.

[Namm]

Nice!

[Modestus]

Still don't like the sea., you should be able to come up with a much better wave pattern that looks good zoomed in and not so repetitive zoomed out. Mind you looking at the screen of Portugal on your web page it looks OK zoomed in.

http://www.magnamundi.com/media/screenshots/

And I like those trees.

[Delta107]

That is one of the finest maps from the artistic point of view that I saw it is wonderful it is just nice! Well distortions exist because this is a projection so I don't mind about this as long as it is not game-breaking

[CJL78]

You... are so.... beautiful..... to meeee.....

[Strannik]

It's so nice to see that people like it. Thanks for your comments!

[von Sachsen]

You... are so.... beautiful..... to meeee.....

My reaction exactly. My only complaint on a closer look is that you can see squares in the sea.