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Johan

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Hello, and welcome back to the Sengoku development diary series. I'm Johan, the Producer of Sengoku. Today we'll talk a bit about the map of Sengoku and how we wanted it made. I think you'll all agree with me when I say that maps are among the coolest things that exist, and that we play and make these games because we all love maps. There is this thing with depicting the world and dividing it in different shapes, and then paint it in your own color.

When we first took a look at how to play and enjoy Sengoku we went back to our previous games, and the amount of provinces you can reasonably handle as a major empire while still enjoying the game as a smaller nation. Tying this together with the goal of the game being to conquer the entire map, we had a base number of provinces we thought the map could be divided into. When designing the map we wanted to use a historical setup of kunis from around the time the Sengoku period starts. To avoid having a third of Japan divided into only two kuni, we took the liberty of dividing Dewa and Mutsu into a few smaller ones, using a later date map. We also included a couple of islands not typically perceived as kunis. Each kuni was then divided into smaller provinces - kori - giving us a total of about 350 provinces.

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With Sengoku we wanted to create a graphical feel to the map that was distinctly different from other Paradox games - something that gives a unique Japanese feeling to the game - and when you saw it, you would know that this is something new. Adding post effects to our engine allowed us to really do this, and we created a style with something like a sun bleached photograph, which not only made it feel very eastern, but also made the game feel a lot more historical. For the interface we went for a very clean and simple look reminiscent of Japanese architecture. With thin wood frames, paper surfaces and rice carpets, we achieved a look that is very Japanese. With just Japan as the scope, we could also focus on creating a detailed look for the islands, where we have everything from the deep sea to running rivers, rice fields to deep forests.

One thing you may notice in these screenshots is the flags on the map. As you can see here, they have different sizes, all depending on relative rank of the ruler inside the daimyo. As you notice, we do not have any sea zones, and there is no naval aspect to the game.

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Of course, the game is soon approaching alpha, but we still have other things for the map planned. Those things include names on the provinces and good looking border textures amongst other things.

Hope you stick around following this game, and next week I'll be back with more information about the game.
 

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The map is puuuurty!
So no navies at all? not even transport? I'm pretty sure they had some boats...

Also, how is the political map going to look? I hope they develop the one introduced in Divine Wind more, just so long as it doesn't look too harsh and cluttered thanks to the large number of separate clans
 
Pretty cool, I have to say I really like what you've done with the graphics here, it's coming on leaps and bounds! :)
 
Also, how is the political map going to look? I hope they develop the one introduced in Divine Wind more, just so long as it doesn't look too harsh and cluttered thanks to the large number of separate clans
I've been wondering that too. But this might actually be the first game I'm going to play on terrain map. It just looks so gorgeous.

I'm a tad disappointed that there's not going to be navies, sure they weren't all that important, but they did exist and there were some important naval battles as well. But hopefully that means extra effort is put on modeling the land warfare then.
 
So how do you get to these islands if there is no navy?

Naval transports and such have been abstracted away as straits. Most straits haven't been scripted into the game yet, thus you cannot see them in the screen shots, but when scripted, they show up as dotted lines on the map.
 
But, won't this map actually ask for a lot from a computer to be able to run it without lag?

As we're working tightly with the CKII team with the map technology, we'll probably have the same low-end mode as they're planning, with a much simpler map for old (or simply bad) computers.
 
No navies at all seems to be a little bit harsh. Although I feel Shogun 2 Total War on the other hand exaggerates the importance of ships in these conflicts.
 
My understanding is that in this period, the Japanese basically ignored naval combat (which was one reason why the Koreans defeated their invasion, since Korea did have a good navy). So, not a serious omission. Also, putting ships and sea areas on the map would lead to more demands from players to include Korea and Hokkaido in the game, which presumably is not part of the plan. :) (Though has any thought been given to at least including a hazy dark shape on the map where the bordering lands would be, rather than having immersion-breaking empty ocean?) And is Okinawa in the game?

On the other hand, the lack of naval transport seems like it could be more of a problem. If my enemy is based in Kyushu, for example, will I be forced to attack him across a single narrow strait? Or will I be able to ferry my troops using some notional, abstracted naval transport to a province futher down the coast?
 
And is Okinawa in the game?

No.

On the other hand, the lack of naval transport seems like it could be more of a problem. If my enemy is based in Kyushu, for example, will I be forced to attack him across a single narrow strait? Or will I be able to ferry my troops using some notional, abstracted naval transport to a province futher down the coast?

Straits will be very important stategic locations in Sengoku. But remember that most places, like Kyushu, can be reached by at least two straits.
 
Also, putting ships and sea areas on the map would lead to more demands from players to include Korea and Hokkaido in the game, which presumably is not part of the plan. :)

That´s another aspect. Leaving ships out means that a "Korean Invasion" add on will most likely never be.