There are some glaring blank spaces in the current map of Asia that are just begging to be filled in as well as many inconsistencies that should be fixed. Something similar to the map below would remedy many of the issues and fill in gaps like southern China, Siam, Philippines, and Moluccas.
Settlements - Shaolin Fauna - Deer and Serow on land and Giant Salamanders in the river Features - Sheer mountains run along the course of the river providing shelter in the valleys. The inspiration for this map was the Wuyi Mountains shown below:
The Asia map is inconsistent compared to the map of the Americas. The Americas are done in the style of the maps of the period with all the inaccuracy that comes with. This makes the accurate and modern Asia map look very out of place by comparison.
My proposed layout is based off the 1799 map by Laurie and Whittle pictured below which is mostly accurate but still rough enough to fit with the style of the Americas map.
There are also errors in the modern map due to changes in geography since the game’s time period. For example, for the vast majority of the game’s time period, the Yellow River flowed south of the Shandong Peninsula, yet it is depicted in the modern location.
Poor placement of minor factions. Sufi in Mongolia and Zen in Ceylon are too much of a stretch. Adding more maps could allow more minor factions than just religious orders to occupy the map. Factions like Ainu, Afghans, Malay, Mongols, Tamils, and more could fill out many of the maps and provide more variety.
Im always impressed with your well designed maps and attention to detail. Good stuff. wish you could pair with the developers and implement some of these.
I left off trade routes because I thought the map was a little bit too congested but it could possibly be sandwiched between the mountains and river. The river would be too narrow to turn around, but a route that fades away at the shoals or continues straight through might be an option.
Settlements - Shaolin or Zen Flora & Fauna - Similar to other Chinese maps like Yellow River and Central Plain Terrain - A mountainous ridge encloses a central valley, just like the actual Sichuan basin Features - Capturable Villages besieged by bandits
Villages provide 10 population space like a house but also increase the population cap by 5. Capturing all the villages could let a player get to a 215 population maximum. They could be modelled after Haka villages like the villages in AoE4. However, these villages are mostly found in Fujian and Southern China so a more generic depiction of a cluster of houses might be more accurate for Sichuan.
Why do you want to add Zen Buddhism to the map of Sichuan? I don’t think it is very suitable. Plus Tengri is more suitable than Zen, and Tengri includes Tibetan Buddhism.
By the way, to correct one of your mistakes, this picture of yours is actually the tulou in Fujian, they are very famous in Fujian, not in Sichuan
Do you envision those cliffs as big as the ones in Bahia or thin as the ones in Colorado?
Want do you think of having two trading routes? One accompanying the Superior cliff and the other the inferior cliff? Both trading routes having two TPs each: one by the entrance to the left side of the map and one in the far right of the map (exactly in between the current two TPs stand).
Zen is somewhat plausible for Sichuan so I included it for the sake of variety. Just Shaolin on Sichuan would also be good, and Fujian could be the one with a Shaolin/Zen mix.
I don’t think Tengri is at all a good fit for there.
It should be a fairly wide plateau on top so there’s room to move around. Elevation should be moderate enough that the inclines to the cliffs aren’t too extreme.
I think it’s time to add a new religious holy place to the Chinese, Taoism, Sichuan is actually the birthplace of Taoism, I think this 100% more suitable for the map of Sichuan than the Zen of Japanese culture
I would adore getting a Changjiang map, a Jiangdong, Zhu River delta, Sichuan of course, Xinjiang would also be nice. But I am horribly biased towards ANYTHING Chinese so lol.
