Dev Diary 44: Ukrainian map expansion
Salvete!
Today we'll be talking about a well-deserved map expansion in modern Ukraina and surrounding regions, as always for the map changes i'll hand you over to Shocky27.
Hello all! I'm Shocky27.
First let me thank the several people who helped in the process of creating all of this including @MattTheLegoman for beautiful physical terrain changes,
@Licarious for the navigable rivers, including extensions of the Don, Dnieper and addition of the Daugava River as the northern edge of the map (don’t forget to check out his more navigable rivers mod in the Steam Workshop), @BasileusBasileon for province crafting in several areas,
@Palando for historical sources and setup help, @OmegaCorps for heritages and help with historical sources/setup as well, and
@RetconCrisis for custom flags for nations such as Budini.
Now let’s look at a before and after shot:
As you can see, there are quite a few additions. Let’s start in the south where there are a few changes to the setup of existing nations. Scythia has gained much more land in correspondence to known archaeological sites in the area, and Tyrgetae moves a bit north to place the new Carpia tag along the Istros (Danube) River based on Pseudo-Scymnus. A number of new tags corresponding to named Scythian sub-tribes are present including Alizones, Aroteres and the Borysthenites. In game these three tribes will be dominated by Scythian peoples with many proto-Slavic slave pops to represent the Scythian ploughmen described by ancient sources. Archaeologically, both Scythian kurgans and burials relating to the final phase of the possibly proto-Slavic Chernoles culture are found in these areas, giving plausibility to the newly created setup. Additionally, the fierce Agathysi tribe as described by a number of ancient sources have also been added east of the Carpathians, with colonizable territories left to complete migration missions from German tribes as added to Invictus previously.
The unique Budini and Geloni have also been added. The Geloni are described by ancient sources as being a Helleno-Scythian population that facilitated trade and cultural exchange through the city of Gelon in the far north - the northernmost outpost of Greek culture. The modern archaeological site of Bilsk in modern eastern Ukraine is the likely remains of the city. The Geloni heritage gives a powerful bonus for integrated culture happiness, with Geloni, Budini and Scythian pops being accepted cultures at the start, corresponding to their unique multi-ethnic composition. Archaeological sources describe the Geloni as living among the far more numerous Budini tribe, another possible proto-Slavic tribe. Their placement corresponds to archaeological settlements found east, west and north of the Bilsk site. The Melanchlaeni tribe described by ancient sources is placed north of the Budini, corresponding to the Yukhnovo archaeological culture. Additionally, to keep the borders neat and to create migration space, uncolonized land has been added up the Don River, which has also been extended as a navigable river:
Finally, the Neuri tribe (teal color) as described by several ancient sources, and most commonly associated in archaeology with the likely proto-Slavic Milograd culture, is placed in the far north of the new territories, with uncolonized land belonging to Androphagi culture has been added north of them. The edge of the map is now the navigable Daugava River in the far north, with the navigable areas stretching close to extended navigable areas of the Dnieper. These river additions plus added river ports and crossings are meant to give some flair and gameplay options to an otherwise stale area:
Budini flag by
@RetconCrisis :
Next week we'll be talking about a very large set of mission trees for an unorthodox nation to play.