FreeCiv Maps
(FreeCiv is a clone of Civilisation games.
You can download it for free and learn a lot about it at
www.freeciv.org.)
The maps presented here are made by
Libor Behounek.
You are free to use them, distribute them, edit them etc. (complete copyleft).
Any feedback is welcome.
If you do not want to get spoiled, you can
download the maps devoid of any description.
N.B.: The maps are pretty old now;
to make them work with recent versions of FreeCiv,
you will need to tweak them.
Check the FreeCiv source or documentation for the requisite know how.
Contents
- Real Lands and Planets
- Fantasy Worlds
- Artificial Maps
- Maps at Other Sites
- Rulesets
Real Lands and Planets
This section contains maps of lands and planets that
(according to modern science)
existed in the past,
exist now or
are likely to exist in the future
of the real world,
namely the maps of the Earth and its parts in various geological eras
and maps based on the landscape of other planets in the Solar System.
The maps try to be as accurate as possible in respect of terrain
and topography, permitted of course the licence of rendering
uninhabitable environments as inhabitable Civilization terrain types.
The spherical surface of the planets is rendered on the cylinder
using the projection showing the accurate lengths in meridians
(thus every square on the map corresponds to a "square" between
equally distant - in the sense of lattitude and longitude -
parallels and meridians). This projection extremely deforms
(stretches horizontally) the northernmost and southernmost parts
of the planet; but since these parts are usually of little
interest for the play (being of an arctic climate), the benefits
of easy making outweigh the drawback of deformation.
Big Map of the World
|
Size: 180x90 (30 players)
More info
Download
Recommended rulesets:
Earthly nations
|
Small Map of the World
|
Size: 72x36 (15 players)
More info & Download
Recommended rulesets:
Small Earth nations
|
Big Map of the Ice Age World
|
Size: 180x90 (30 players)
More info & Download
Recommended rulesets:
Earthly nations
|
Maps to Come
These are the maps I plan to make some day:
- Parts of the world.
Some parts of the world (e.g., Australia, the Great Britain, etc.)
are isolated enough to allow making a nice large-scale FreeCiv
map which would not be affected much by its boundaries.
But even those lands which are surrounded by others
can be used for a good map, especially if they are
marked off with natural geographical or cultural boundaries.
Being a Czech, I want to make a large-scale map of
the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia)
in the first place. Other interesting lands are:
India, Kanaan, Japan, China, Egypt and many others.
A few such maps (Iberian Peninsula, the Great Britain)
can be found at other Freeciv sites.
- Fully developed empires.
Maps of some parts of the world (or the whole globe) with
cities and infrastructure already built according to some
factual historical stage.
- Historical Maps.
The maps that show what Civilization (the game, not the phenomenon!)
would look like if computer games were invented earlier than accurate maps.
Some medieval maps of the world are much conventionalized,
which may make the game quite different from that on the accurate map.
- Maps of past geological eras.
The shape of continents has changed a lot over past millions
of years. Many different maps of Earth in various geological
eras can be made, from Proterozoic to modern days. Since the
reconstructions are less definite, the maps should be smaller
(say, 90x45).
- Maps of future geological eras.
The drift of continents can be extrapolated into the
future, when Africa crashes with Europe,
raising the Mediterranean Mountains in the place of
the Mediterranean Sea, and even further to the time when the
continents form the Pangaea Ultima, the final supercontinent.
- Mars.
A few thousand million years ago, Mars had large oceans
and rainy weather. A map can test what a Martian civilization
could look like. Other maps inspired by Martian surface can be
made:
Mars according to popular beliefs of XIX century
(including the "canals"),
Mars "terraformed" etc.
(a Civ III scenario of "Mars terraformed"
can already be found on the web!).
A similar "Moon-inspired" maps are possible as well.
Fantasy Worlds
This section will contain maps of lands described in famous
fantasy books, most notably those by Tolkien, Pratchett
and others.
Currently, the section is empty;
see, however, the list of other sites
to find some maps of Tolkien's world.
Maps to Come
A non-comprehensive list of maps that really ought to be made:
- A variety of Tolkienian maps.
Tolkien himself, his son Christopher and several Tolkien experts
made many maps that deserve to be rendered as Freeciv maps.
Tolkien's early maps often differ much from those accompanying
the cannonical books (see for instance the maps associated with
the Ambarkanta, HoME IV).
For a few Tolkienian maps made by others see
the list of other Freeciv map sites.
- Map of the Discworld.
Two versions of the map (both following that drawn by Stephen Briggs)
should be made:
one simply copying the circle of the Discworld into the Freeciv grid,
the other projecting Discworld radial coordinates onto the orthogonal
coordinates of the Freeciv cylinder (so that the southern margin
of the Freeciv maps corresponds to the edge of the Discworld and
the northern margin to Cori Celesti).
Although the latter map might seem deformed,
it renders naturally the (inner and outer) borders of the Discworld
and its cardinal points (e.g. Clockwise corresponds to West).
Considering that the distortion will mostly be restricted to
unimportant terrains (mountains, ocean, deserts), the latter
map may be a better image of Discworld reality than the former
one (on which the Ramtop Mountains can be crossed by military
units too easily).
Artificial Maps
This section contains artificially made maps,
created with the purpose to make an interesting
game environment.
Plain Plain
|
Size: 40x25 (10 players)
More info & Download
|
Megaswamp
|
Size: 40x25 (15 players)
More info & Download
|
Vertical Stripes
|
Size: 42x25 (3 players)
More info & Download
|
Horizontal Stripes
|
Size: 42x25 (3 players)
More info & Download
|
Maps to Come
A few other types of maps that can be made:
- Simulated tectonics.
Maps created by a procedure that would simulate geological processes
(like folding or continental drift) as close to reality as possible.
- Other goals.
Maps made apt for competing for some special goal
(e.g. to conquer an appointed strong AI-controlled city:
whoever conquers the city is declared the winner).
- Recursive fractals.
A few maps with continents generated by some simple recursive procedures.
Apart from nice patterns,
some of them might bear a few reality-resembling features
(a fractal coastland, a fractal distribution of terrain types etc.).
The applicable recursive fractals are e.g. the Sierpinski gasket,
the snowflake (i.e., the interior of three adjacent Koch curves),
the Chinese dragon and many others.
Another type of fractal that could inspire a nice Freeciv map
is the Mandelbrot set.
Rulesets
Earthly Nations
The default nations.ruleset restricted to historical nations,
reordered and shortened to fit to the large-scale maps of the world presented here
(max. 30 players).
More info & Download
Small-Earth Nations
The default nations.ruleset restricted to historical nations,
reordered and shortened to fit to the small-scale maps of the world presented here
(max. 15 players).
More info & Download
See Also