Lets talk abot West Africa

[wingren013]

So the current situation in West Africa is pretty awful. The provinces are massive (in terms of actual size without map distortion, some of them are larger than France) and the map does an awful job of having reasonable travel times for crossing them. Worse, the culture and religion setup is ridiculously bad. Monolithic blocks of cultures and religions dominate the region, leaving little diversity. In addition, Yoruba religion and Akan culture are found far beyond where they could reasonably be even in an alt history. West Africa is represented as being completely tribal which is just wrong (the Hausa, Yoruba, Mande, and many other African cultures had a long history of large walled cities). The area is also bland, both geographically and in terms of variety.

Another issue is that the coast is ahistorically navigable, allowing weird naval invasions of Mauretania and Spain from a powerful West African state.

I'd like to improve this area of the map and will probably make a submod to do so. I want to collect people's thoughts here.

Suggestions to improve/fix:

Cut up the provinces to make new ones, this can be done without creating a wholly new map and should help fix a lot of the terrain issues.

Create wastelands to represent impassable areas of jungle and create a barrier that prevents naval travel past the Sahara wasteland.

Add some more cultures and religions in the new provinces. Possibly some other lost Mediterranean travelers like the Phoenician and Persians already there. And maybe some blending between those cultures and African cultures.

Add a unique African government to represent the region's political workings better.

Add mechanics for the gold trade (while we're at it, East Africa could also use mechanics for trade stuff)

Make the Niger and Volta navigable.

Maybe add some Coastal stuff for the Congo.


What are people's thoughts?

 

[tsf4]

Hey, these are cool ideas. I am all for this! As long as stay close to the central Lux idea of being kinda crazy with alt history and the lore of an area.

I think we would need to discuss this alot, you can PM me on Discord if thats easier.

I am working on a Armenia area name overhaul, so basically if people want to delve into a region I am game for sure, but still want final say.

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

I never really liked the expansion of the map so far towards the south, but maybe an improvement of the area will breath new life into it.

I'm currently finishing up my remake of Egypt and Arabia. If I haven't messed up too much, maybe I can give Africa a go, but I know next to nothing about pre-1900 Africa.

 

[tsf4]

New stuff down there should help it out. It was always an area I wanted to add to anyways, especially for more provs.

You can give it a go if you want, you and Wingren can work together.

 

[wingren013]

Hey, these are cool ideas. I am all for this! As long as stay close to the central Lux idea of being kinda crazy with alt history and the lore of an area.

I think we would need to discuss this alot, you can PM me on Discord if thats easier.

I am working on a Armenia area name overhaul, so basically if people want to delve into a region I am game for sure, but still want final say.

Thanks. I don't think I'm in the discord. Could I have a link?

I never really liked the expansion of the map so far towards the south, but maybe an improvement of the area will breath new life into it.

I'm currently finishing up my remake of Egypt and Arabia. If I haven't messed up too much, maybe I can give Africa a go, but I know next to nothing about pre-1900 Africa.

I know a decent amount. I'm not an expert on everything because hey it's larger the USA but I know what the various cultures and religions should be as well as the basics of how it all worked.


Tenative plan so far:

Move Kambra to the Canarias

Have an Afro-Phoenician city state where Kambra used to be as well some more Afro-Phoenician city states around the coast.

Add some more lost people (thinking Norse, Roman, and Greek) to have various city states.

Get rid of Fula culture on the map in most spots and put it where it should actually be (the Fula are nomads who live across large parts of West Africa but they aren't a majority in most places)

Mali is no longer tribal

Add a Traditional African Monarchy government to reflect the different role that African monarchs had compared to European ones.

Add various missing cultures such as Hausa.

Add some funky LI religions for everybody.

Revamp the map so West Africa is harder to invade from the east and the north.

Fix distances so you can no longer cross the equivalent of the continental US in a few months.

 

[tsf4]

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