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?
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?
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