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[Lysabild]

'Insert World Name Here' Universalis

For what must be years I've been trying to get down on paper(Unto a image file) a finished world map that I could use for conworlding and be happy with.

Never succeeded.

One of the things I've wanted to do with such a conworld is do a Europa Universalis mod, which this thread is about.

So basically, looking for people interested in such a project, I can code EU3 events/decision, mod all with map and I know how to re-skin(Although terrible at it) In general, I'm good with everything but the graphics.

Progress on 'Insert World Name Here' Universalis:

Worldbuilding
Coast lines(map) 50%
River map 0%
Terrain map 0%
Province map 0%
Races 0%
Cultures and Religions 0%

Gamemaking
Nations 0%
Events and Decisions 0%
Graphics of any sorts 0%

When map is done, I will release it for those who may want to do a High Fantasy mod.

My approach however is fantasy ruled by science and realism, to form a world that makes sense without using the explanation "MAGIX" once. However, I could compromise to do something more Tolkien-esque with the magic.

[RF]

On the topic of low / high fantasy, can we at least have undead? Pleeeease?

I can do the "drudge work" (editting history files and probably events / decisions too) but can't do little more than that.

I like the second map quite a lot, to be honest. It's got shades of the real world without being exactly the same. What did you use to make it?

EDIT: Just thinking how to do undead: Their own tech group, very little skill etc but they have unlimited morale or something along those lines. You'd have to destroy all of them before you could get anywhere.

[Dsarker]

Hmmm. Another idea. They have unlimited morale as long as a general (necromancer) was with them. If he gets killed in the fighting, the army is destroyed.

[RedKing]

Yay worldbuilding! Yay modding! 

On the maps:

#1 isn't bad, but a single landmass removes a lot of strategy and functionality from the game. Navies might still be useful, but nowhere near as much as armies. Unless you have natural barriers (wasteland provinces, lots of desert, mountain, jungle, etc.) walling off a section, which could be interesting. Sort of encourages the development of a thalassocracy in the isolated area.

#2 is far more interesting, but....no offense, I look at it and my first thought is "Yup, there's Europe, there's China, there's the Arabian Peninsula, okay he broke Africa into pieces..." There's nothing necessarily wrong with that approach (it worked for Howard and Tolkien) but it's kind of cliched.

I don't have the links on me right now, but I can suggest lots of software and websites to help with mapping.


As far as undead, I'd think they'd be best handled either as very aggressive natives (if you just want them to hinder expansion) or as a province modifier that massively raises the revolt risk and generates a rebel type of "undead" that cannot be negotiated with. Or alternately, can be negotiated with but their demands are to change the government type to "Necroarchy" or something, where the necromancers rule. Could have serious negative population modifiers but other kinds of bonuses to compensate. Could be fun if you wind up with AI necromancer kingdoms, or find yourself intervening to save a neighboring country from hordes of undead so that you don't have a Necroarchy on your borders.

Or duh....if we're talking the full expansions, they could be handled as a Horde.

I have a conworld I've been working on for a couple of decades that I might try to do this with someday. Especially since it's a relatively low-fantasy, low-magic setting (although a big part of the Impending Doom is the brewing conflict with the high-fantasy, high-magic empire on the other side of the planet).

[Rakonas]

Personally I think breaking the first one in half or more, with some island chains and the like, would be a good way to go. The second is far too much like the already existing map for my tastes.
I think that having undead handled as a horde would be one of the best ways to go.
The way I see it, you could have various races with a combination of religion, government type, and some modifiers triggered by having a specific state culture. There could be a some kind of necromancy religion that gives various bonuses to represent undead. On top of that could be a kind of Magocracy form of government or whatnot.
Additionally, it would be interesting to break up religions into Evil, Neutral, and Good to get some blocs of alliances going.
A lot depends on just how low-fantasy you want the setting to be, as tech trees could mostly stay the same if it's a kind of low-fantasy where it's similar to europa universalis with various fantasy races, or it could go in a ton of other directions.

[Dsarker]

You could do the religions as D&D style alignments, which would allow for different blocs. For example, the horde of undead might be just a bunch of necromancers out to rule the world. CE. So they wouldn't ally with anyone else. Or you might have the 'nation' of Robin Hoods, who would ally themselves with good people against evil, or chaotic good and neutral against those law enforcers, etc.

[Johnfalcon99977]

You could do the religions as D&D style alignments, which would allow for different blocs. For example, the horde of undead might be just a bunch of necromancers out to rule the world. CE. So they wouldn't ally with anyone else. Or you might have the 'nation' of Robin Hoods, who would ally themselves with good people against evil, or chaotic good and neutral against those law enforcers, etc.

Thats.... Extremely Boring. I don't like simple "Good and Evil" alignments. Or people and Nations that are straight up good or evil. I think Alignments should just be thrown out the window for this.

Edit: I support the Second Map, but you should break it up more, and perhaps add some more outcroppings. Make it seem less like Earth. For example, you could cut up the Middle Eastern looking bit and make it an island chain, or cut off Sibera from the "Aisa" Continent. Maybe you could even put a Gaint Lake in the Middle of Eurasia. The Lower part of the map is also very Empty, try putting a Another Gaint Continent there, perferably not near or not looking similar to australia. On this field I would really recommend combining the two maps. It would make things far more interesting.

[Lysabild]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On the topic of low / high fantasy, can we at least have undead? Pleeeease?

I can do the "drudge work" (editting history files and probably events / decisions too) but can't do little more than that.

I like the second map quite a lot, to be honest. It's got shades of the real world without being exactly the same. What did you use to make it?

EDIT: Just thinking how to do undead: Their own tech group, very little skill etc but they have unlimited morale or something along those lines. You'd have to destroy all of them before you could get anywhere.

The second world is made by filling and painting over a EU3 mods provinces map it was made to look Europe, mainly with Warhammer as inspiration.

On the subject of undead I'm honestly not interested personally, but I can very easily imagine a way for them to both be there and not through a few extra files easily addable.

Yay worldbuilding! Yay modding! 

#1 isn't bad, but a single landmass removes a lot of strategy and functionality from the game. Navies might still be useful, but nowhere near as much as armies. Unless you have natural barriers (wasteland provinces, lots of desert, mountain, jungle, etc.) walling off a section, which could be interesting. Sort of encourages the development of a thalassocracy in the isolated area.

It's only a sketch meant to be filled and have added island and so on, no reason to work on that when I can't be happy with the landmass So I totally agree with you.

#2 is far more interesting, but....no offense, I look at it and my first thought is "Yup, there's Europe, there's China, there's the Arabian Peninsula, okay he broke Africa into pieces..." There's nothing necessarily wrong with that approach (it worked for Howard and Tolkien) but it's kind of cliched.

That was 100% my point with this approach, so no offence taken, in fact it just proves to do what I wanted it to do, be familiar instantly yet different.

I don't have the links on me right now, but I can suggest lots of software and websites to help with mapping.

That'd be nice

As far as undead, I'd think they'd be best handled either as very aggressive natives (if you just want them to hinder expansion) or as a province modifier that massively raises the revolt risk and generates a rebel type of "undead" that cannot be negotiated with. Or alternately, can be negotiated with but their demands are to change the government type to "Necroarchy" or something, where the necromancers rule. Could have serious negative population modifiers but other kinds of bonuses to compensate. Could be fun if you wind up with AI necromancer kingdoms, or find yourself intervening to save a neighboring country from hordes of undead so that you don't have a Necroarchy on your borders.

I will talk about undeads at the end of this post.

Or duh....if we're talking the full expansions, they could be handled as a Horde.

Full expansions with latest beta patch, sorry if you're without

I have a conworld I've been working on for a couple of decades that I might try to do this with someday. Especially since it's a relatively low-fantasy, low-magic setting (although a big part of the Impending Doom is the brewing conflict with the high-fantasy, high-magic empire on the other side of the planet).

My opinion on magic is that if it should exist it should be rare and special, actually meaning something and have a breath of sense and science to it. Fireball flinging is old and boring imo. I'd love sharing work with you and helping you with such a mod though.

Personally I think breaking the first one in half or more, with some island chains and the like, would be a good way to go. The second is far too much like the already existing map for my tastes.

Please remember either is in no way complete, hence I made sure to include the word sketch Personally I like the slight earth look, though I also recognize it is far too heavy in the second map.

I think that having undead handled as a horde would be one of the best ways to go.

Probably

The way I see it, you could have various races with a combination of religion, government type, and some modifiers triggered by having a specific state culture. There could be a some kind of necromancy religion that gives various bonuses to represent undead. On top of that could be a kind of Magocracy form of government or whatnot.

Now that races are brought up, a thing I find highly one of the most interesting parts of conworlding, my approach is to have it all explained through evolution. Undead for later.

Additionally, it would be interesting to break up religions into Evil, Neutral, and Good to get some blocs of alliances going.
A lot depends on just how low-fantasy you want the setting to be, as tech trees could mostly stay the same if it's a kind of low-fantasy where it's similar to europa universalis with various fantasy races, or it could go in a ton of other directions.

Sorry, but I really don't like Evil/good/neutral stereotypes, at all. I don't want evil villains, black and white. I'll mention a Song of Fire and Ice again as a main inspiration even though I only watched the first season and never read it.
The Techtree will be changed, most likely drastically, though it will still span a 14th century to 19th century timeline.

You could do the religions as D&D style alignments, which would allow for different blocs. For example, the horde of undead might be just a bunch of necromancers out to rule the world. CE. So they wouldn't ally with anyone else. Or you might have the 'nation' of Robin Hoods, who would ally themselves with good people against evil, or chaotic good and neutral against those law enforcers, etc.

Same as above, I don't like black/white scenarios.




Now, since undead seems to be wildly loved I'll give you this as a possible example = A "Plague!" event that starts a plague through a country that then depending on choices in the chain can end up either as a fanatic theocracy or a undead state. Upon losing to the plague, the country would change culture, religion, tech group and government. The Techgroup would most likely feature shitty soldiers, but the government would give huge bonus to morale, forcing strong shock/fire and make undeads stronger earlier in the game.

This'd be doable with files I could personally remove, but again, even though this is fantasy I still prefer science and realism, plausibility and so on

[Johnfalcon99977]

And what about my Map Suggestions?

[anzki4]

Kinda shitty map I made based on the second one:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Interesting idea by the way.

[Johnfalcon99977]

You should Connect the North Eastern and North Western Continents, and put the South Eastern Continent futher from the others. I have a feeling it will be much better like that.

Edit: I Modified that Map you made into something I think is better:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[SeaBee]

I really would play the hell out of a "Song of Ice and Fire"-ish fantasy EU 3 mod. I keep thinking Paradox should have released a fantasy setting as an optional expansion.

Crusader Kings 2 sounds good for this as well.

I'll need to get back into EU 3, I spend all my time with Hearts of Iron 3 lately.

[Johnfalcon99977]

Perhaps Species could replace Cultures? And different Races could replace Sub-Culture?

[RF]

I really like John's map, by the by. It just needs some more lakes and a few island chains dotted along certain coast lines and it'll be perfect. Maybe a lot more work on the east, too. It just seems a bit rough over there.

@Lysa: You've got to remember that a lot of the attraction of a fantasy mod is the idea that it's high fantasy. You're fucking about with magic and the like. That's what would make it fun. Low fantasy, low magic is basically like vanilla EU3 but in a made up setting.

Cool, weird cultures should be the primary goal here, with vastly differing playstyles depending on who you choose.

The undead are servants of a civilization of humans who've found a way of raising the dead. They use no others in their armies (except humans for cannons or something and we give them hella low morale cannons) but they are weak and relatively expensive (mark up value of 20-30%, I say). Of course, it means that the civilization has no (if it's possible to do for ONLY troop death) war exhaustion and the army never tires nor gets attrition.

Stuff like that. It's interesting, it changes gameplay completely and it makes a formidable warlike civilization with key weaknesses. The only issue is the 1v10 instant death rule, but I think we should probably try to find a way to turn that off if it isn't hardcoded.

I like your idea a lot, of course, but it has issues of it's own. Namely that knowing the laws of probability, EVERY civilization would end up like that and it wouldn't be cool anymore. Nevermind the fact that the player probably won't be happy if it happens to them.

Final Words (for this post): How about a HRE style state that starts off as the Roman Empire (as in set in our pseudo-Europe) but slowly degrades into warring medieval duchies under a decentralised power? It's fairly low magic and low fantasy but the further you get away from this "central arena" the more fantastical the setting gets. In the east, elves live in woods, waiting to reunite with their lost kin, fighting off the hordes of undead that come pouring out of fantasy china, in the west the pseudo-Aztecs summon dark servants (with a sacrifice of population) and use them to ritually war against the other city states, in the south the cold winds blow and the eskimo wannabes grow weary of the warm lands of the northern men and are preparing to freeze the rest of the world in an eternal winter.

How does that sound to everyone?

[anzki4]

Perhaps Species could replace Cultures? And different Races could replace Sub-Culture?

I would say that races replaces cultures and cultures replace cultures. That way you can have different cultures inside races.