New Map - Europa Imperialis (WIP)

**Cheexsta** · 24-07-2011 03:18

Update July 25th!

Massive thanks to Comontorios, RHKINC, Vanin and anyone else who has contributed so far. This wouldn't be possible without you guys!

The majority of the map is completed, but I'm currently working on adding sea provinces. Once that has been done and the localization has been added, we will be ready for our first alpha release

We are currently recruiting! I'm in dire need of anyone who can help with some of the legwork with any of the following:

Historical research
Coding (history files in particular)
Graphical editing

If you feel that you can contribute to any of the above, drop me a line and I'll add you to the team

Old first post:

Hello world!

Time to introduce my new (ish) labour of love: Europa Imperialis. This will be a fairly ambitious project, but for now I want to start with baby steps.

By which I mean a brand new map, built entirely from scratch.

Provinces map (these provinces are only temporary to give me a rough idea of what the overall map will look like!):

Europe (yes, I know Greece is a little malformed...ignore that):

Middle East:

India and the Himalayas:

Map data was sourced from NASA, though I had to change the projection to Braun Stereographic to give a better (IMHO) representation of the map with less distortion.

The map is currently 2700*1478px (a little smaller than the maximum size allowed by the game). By comparison, vanilla is only 1960*1228px.

And there you have it, the map as it stands! I'll keep this thread updated with my progress as I go.

All comments and criticism are welcome

**Wave** · 24-07-2011 09:48

Awaiting Pre-Roman Aboriginals, Incas etc. If you're going to make true whole world map

**Fu.Th.Sy.** · 24-07-2011 12:51

Omg, Rome II is released. Great work and good luck with further modding.

**Cheexsta** · 24-07-2011 13:33

Thanks fellas

Originally Posted by Wave

Awaiting Pre-Roman Aboriginals, Incas etc. If you're going to make true whole world map

It should be made clear that, despite the name ("Imperial Europe", which I just picked because it sounded good), this mod will only focus on what you see on the maps above. Ideally, it would have been something more like Imperia Europae ("Empires of Europe"), but I wanted the name to follow the Europa Universalis pattern.

In other news, I've fixed up Greece so it looks a little prettier and less deformed and have started populating Hispania with provinces.

**Hardradi** · 25-07-2011 12:36

Looks great Cheexsta, especially the topography that looks excellent - just look at the Dead Sea.

Some of the straits look really tight, most probably accurate - Bosphorus and Hellespont.

**Cheexsta** · 26-07-2011 02:07

Originally Posted by Hardradi

Looks great Cheexsta, especially the topography that looks excellent - just look at the Dead Sea.

Some of the straits look really tight, most probably accurate - Bosphorus and Hellespont.

Thanks, the topography files are awesome for this. I'm really glad NASA had the foresight to make something so useful

They're possibly a bit too bright around the coastlines (all the coasts look like cliffs!), but the mountains all look suitable dramatic

The straits haven't been separated yet

I've fixed them since taking this pic (when I fixed Greece as well), they're now about 2-3 pixels wide.

**Borne2Run** · 27-07-2011 04:56

Are you going to incorporate the Balearian Islands and Malta into the main Carthage province? That could solve a lot of Carthage Civil-War issues.

Also, will Britain & Ireland be included?

**JDMS** · 29-07-2011 06:48

Looks good.

**inertiatic** · 29-07-2011 12:55

This is really interesting - and great work so far. Do you mind if I ask you what your plans are for adding nations etc? What time period will you be focussing on and how will the eventual geopolitical layout differ from firstly, vanilla, and secondly, the Magna Terra mod?

This is exciting stuff though. I look forward to further updates.

**Camara** · 29-07-2011 14:04

Beautiful. That topology makes me cry.

**Lord Rellik** · 29-07-2011 19:50

Wow, thats awesome. Cant wait to play on it.

**Gabeed** · 29-07-2011 22:33

While I like the idea of this, I'm not understanding the need for some 15 provinces in the Arabian desert. Hopefully that amount will be lowered, significantly.

**Hardradi** · 30-07-2011 01:31

Originally Posted by Cheexsta

Thanks, the topography files are awesome for this. I'm really glad NASA had the foresight to make something so useful

They're possibly a bit too bright around the coastlines (all the coasts look like cliffs!), but the mountains all look suitable dramatic

The straits haven't been separated yet

I've fixed them since taking this pic (when I fixed Greece as well), they're now about 2-3 pixels wide.

Dropping the NASA terrain map over the top would probably look great as well.

I also think I have figured out a way to get the rivers to look better in the mountain regions. You just need to drop a transparent image with black coloured rivers onto the topography file and it will flatten out rivers valleys for you. I havent tried it yet but I am sure it will work.

**Cheexsta** · 30-07-2011 01:36

@Everyone: thanks again for all the comments

I'm more or less done adding provinces to Hispania and will post the results when I get the running in-game.

@Borne2Run: I hadn't considered that, actually. I'll keep the idea in mind, but in the long run I plan to change civil wars completely. And yes, Britain and Ireland will be included; the game just doesn't like islands with no water connecting them, and I haven't even started working on the water yet.

@inertiatic: for the moment, this map will just have vanilla starting dates and countries, but will certainly expand after that. I do have other plans for the timeline, though

@Camara: the topology map is the main reason I wanted to make this mod

@Gabeed: the provinces are very much temporary (I thought the wonky borders would be a dead giveaway on that); I wanted to see what the topology looked like, but the game doesn't like provinces that are too big. I'm still debating about whether to make the Arabian desert into PTI or just make them nigh-unconquerable provinces, though.

@Hardradi: that's a pretty good idea, I'll look into it when I start working on rivers

**Lofman** · 30-07-2011 07:52

Looks good. As for Arabian desert, having it as PTI is probably the best way, since even if you do everything you can to make them hard to conquer, it will not really make the ai less likely to try (and waste lots of resources for no real gain).