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CKIII Dev Diary #25 - Map Features and Map Modes

Greetings everyone!

Today I’m here to talk a bit about the map. Building on top of our early map related DD#2 (if you have yet to read it, you can do so here), I’ll expand that discussion by outlining additional features, new information, and how you interact with the map itself!

Terrain
Let’s start with the terrain, which has a significant impact on several parts of the game. Different terrain types allow for different buildings to be constructed. For example, farmland allows for superior economy buildings, while mountainous terrain unlocks rather impressive defensive structures. They also have an effect on development, making development change faster or slower over time. Expect it to be a massive undertaking of developing the Sahara, while developing the fertile fields of India will be a much easier task.

As for combat, one of the most noticeable effects is that of combat width. When you are fielding a much larger army than your opponent, you will favour a high combat width, so you’ll want to seek to engage the enemy in plains or drylands. On the other hand, fighting in rough terrain like mountains or wetlands will restrict the number of units that can simultaneously engage the enemy, allowing small armies with powerful Men-at-Arms to truly excel. Terrain also affects army movement speed, along with the usual defensive bonus you would expect in rough terrain types, which is gained in the form of increased Advantage at the start of a battle.

The terrain types we have available are the following:
Farmlands - Has access to many different and powerful buildings, allowing you to easily customize your holding the way you want to. Paired with high development speed, farmland provinces are highly desirable to hold in your domain.
Floodplains - Another desirable terrain type used in certain areas, such as along the Nile. Similar in power to farmlands, but with some minor differences.
Plains - One of the most common terrain types, plains exist almost everywhere and provide a wide range of building options.
Drylands - A variant of plains with slightly different buildings available.
Desert - While deserts doesn’t offer a whole lot in terms of taxes, supply limit or development, it does have access to levies and a unique building chain increasing your number of available Knights.
Oasis - These exist only in certain areas. The terrain has access to similar buildings as desert, but without the penalties in supply limit or development.
Steppe - Mostly used by tribals on the wide steppe, this is where Horse Archers reign supreme. The steppe starts with low development, and has a significant penalty in development growth.
Forest - Has lower combat width and supply limit, but offers great buildings for improving archers and skirmishers.
Taiga - A variant found in the very northern parts of the map, with slightly lower combat width and supply limit than forest.
Jungle - Mainly found in India and offers even less combat width and supply limit. It does, however, have access to a unique building chain for improving your Knights and heavy cavalry.
Hills - Hills offers a small Advantage bonus in combat, and has access to both fortifications and decent tax buildings.
Mountains - Has access to great fortifications and defensive buildings, making it a long and risky business to siege down holdings.
Desert Mountains - Similar to mountains, but for desert areas (obviously), with lower supply limit, development growth, as well as a bonus that allows defending armies to take less casualties when retreating.
Wetlands - While wetlands still allow for some decent buildings, it’s a terrain type you don’t want to fight battles in if you can avoid it. Especially if there’s a risk of being on the losing side...

25_01_wetlands.jpg


25_01_farmlands.jpg


Context Sensitive Selection
We want it to be easy to gain information directly from the map. Whenever you change map modes, or have something “selected”, we update the map accordingly and allow you to often interact with the map itself. Clicking on the map on any given realm, will open that ruler’s character view. This in turn allows you to see rulers he is at war with, his allies, or direct vassals. All of this is shown directly on the map and is selectable, though you do not have to rely on finding it on the map; we still show relations and everything in the interface as well.

25_02_ruler_selection.jpg


This applies to everything we show on the map. Regardless of your map mode, you can always click to select the “entity” you are looking at. If you have the faith map mode active, you can click on a faith to open the interface for it, as well as seeing where its holy sites are located.

Realm Map Mode
Your bread and butter map mode is what we simply call the Realm map mode.
When zoomed in you’ll encounter what we call the detail level, and will see the map for what it is. Terrain of individual baronies, rivers, and holding graphics are all clearly visible.

25_03_realm_1.jpg


Zoom out a bit and you’ll transition into the Realms layer, your typical political map mode. Realms are clearly highlighted with their colour, allowing you to easily see all independent realms at a glance, while still showing the coat of arms of your direct vassals, to allow for easy realm management.

25_04_realm_2.jpg


Zoom out further and you’ll enter the paper map. This is the place to go for a rather fancy overview of the world (or excellent screenshots)! Only independent realms are shown, without any vassal breakdowns. For now, I’ll just tease you with a partial picture, as we’ll show the entire thing in a later DD. And yes, we got the mandatory sea monsters!

25_05_realm_3.jpg


Other Map Modes
Our other map modes remain consistent in the information they show as you zoom in and out, and do not have the level dependency of Realms. If you have the faith map mode open, you are gonna want to see faiths regardless of your zoom level. You’ll still get the spectacular paper map when you zoom further out, but the information shown on the map will remain the same.

De Jure - As you’d expect, we have dedicated map modes for showing the De Jure areas of duchies, kingdoms, and empires.

Faiths - Allows you to easily see what faiths are spread out around the world.

Cultures - For that nifty culture overview.

Houses - Since it’s a game about characters and dynasties, we want it to be easy to see which house is governing the different realms.

Counties - Highlights individual counties in their respective colour.

Terrain - Shows all terrain types in different colours, for that quick and easy overview of the dominant terrain in any given area. Very useful if you have several Men-at-Arms options available with different terrain bonuses.

Governments - The map mode for viewing what kind of government rulers have.

Development - Gives you an overview of what the development level is across the map.

25_06_house_map_mode.jpg


That’s it for today! I’ll be back next week with another map related entry. Where I plan to simply show you, well, everything regarding the scope of the map and how different parts of the world looks!
 
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After few times of reloading the forums, here I am...

Alright, this is looking cool... What does development do? And how does CK3 treat supply limit (will it be like I:R?)
 
Will the paper map be a toggleable option in the settings? I'm sure many people love the aesthetic and CK2 had popular mods for it but I'm really really not a fan personally.
 
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Awesome update, thank you!

I am surprised that Steppe is "starts with low development, and has a significant penalty in development growth.". Steppes are actually very fertile lands. Shouldn't they be similar to farmlands in the development?

Are they fertile? Even in the modern day they're not being used for that. Modern Mongolia still supports the same kind of nomads they always did, except now they use drones and bikes for corralling their animals
 
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What affects how castles, cities and monasteries look like? Owner's culture, province's culture, or just their position on map?
Do they develop over time and why? Is it development of the county or buildings in holdings?
 
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Awesome update, thank you!

I am surprised that Steppe is "starts with low development, and has a significant penalty in development growth.". Steppes are actually very fertile lands. Shouldn't they be similar to farmlands in the development?

While it is true that the soil in most regions described as steppe is very fertile, it's very hard to farm in steppe conditions. Steppes are the way they are because they tend to be very arid and have little in the way of rainfall, preventing the growth of larger vegetation such as trees or larger shrubs. Russian settlement of the steppes initially took place entirely near rivers, where irrigation could be used to increase the area in which crops could be grown. Steppe soil is also extremely hard and dense. It's very difficult to break up without more sophisticated sorts of plough than existed in CK2's game period. So while steppe soil is indeed fertile, little of this could be 'unlocked' during CK2's time period and it is correct to treat it as low development and with a penalty to development growth.
 
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I love the papermap! :eek:

But I hope we get a normal political mapmode as well. I'm not a fan of the Imperator type "standard" mapmode, where it changes the view and information based on zooming level. Blargh. Call me old fashioned, but I like my good old political map mode as the standard, no matter how zoomed in I am xD
But the paper map, that is glorious!
 
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The map looks beautifull , I love the Sea monster touch , but I am really begging to know if the map is expandable to include asia and China ... This is a must have ... I am waiting years for it to happen on CK II and I would like to know if an expansion may be can include finally the whole of Asia in the game !
 
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Alright, this is looking cool... What does development do? And how does CK3 treat supply limit (will it be like I:R?)
Development is a value representing the infrastructure and technological advancements of a county, increasing taxes, levies, and supply limit.
Supply limit is very similar to our other games. If you army is large enough to go above the supply limit, the army will lose supply. When the supply of the army is low, it will start to take attrition.

Regarding the map transitions, could we make them into switching modes with hotkeys instead of distance?
There's no option for doing it. Though I think the game should be moddable enough for you to be able switch out some of the behaviour.

Will the paper map be a toggleable option in the settings? I'm sure many people love the aesthetic and CK2 had popular mods for it but I'm really really not a fan personally.
We do not have an option for it, no. It should be fairly easy to mod it though, to replace it with something less fancy (and possibly less distracting), or just not have it show up at all.
 
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why only desert mountain and desert but no desert hill or coast
that the problem with old system
maybe give every province dry wet hot cold flat mountainous axis
that map are great
maybe there will be dragon at the edge of the map?
 
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Not surprised but still disappointed to see the Roman Empire being called the "Byzantine Empire". If the focus on character RPG is now bigger, how does it make sense to call yourself the Basileus of the Byzantine Empire?
 
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