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CK2 Dev Diary #40: Visiting the Cartographer

Greetings everyone!

Today I’m here to talk about one of my favorite parts of our games (a very important one too) and something I’ve been working on. I’m going to talk about the map.

Looking at the work @Trin Tragula does for the map on EU4, I started thinking. Why don’t we do something similar to CK2? So I went looking at the map for various possible improvements. I have not added anything new in terms of provinces or areas. Instead, I wanted to focus on improving the existing map and give it some needed polish.

The CK2 map is not perfect, so there are a quite a few places to look at. But I wanted to start with the terrain and topology. As there several places on the map that, frankly, look out of place. As such, I swooped the map of the most hideous offenders. Several lakes and most major rivers are now much smoother, avoiding ugly and sharp edges. The Ural Mountains are now mostly impassable.

Below you can see a few examples.

Ural mountains:
ck2_ural_mountains.jpg


Lake Baikal, old and new:
ck2_baikal_old.png

ck2_baikal_new.png


The Ganges, old and new:
ck2_ganges_old.png

ck2_ganges_new.png



I also took this opportunity to make some smaller de jure adjustments (I know that not everyone will agree with me on these). These are done for gameplay reasons and considerations. The largest change will be for the kingdom of Cumania. Which I broke off slightly by giving the duchies of Itil and Sarkel to Khazaria, along with Crimea and Cherson (so Taurica no longer holds any de jure land).

A small shift in the kingdoms of the ERE. Greece is a very large kingdom, so I made it slightly smaller by moving Samos and Cibyrrhaeot to Anatolia, and in turn, made Anatolia stay close to the same size by making the duchies of Trebizond and Armeniacon de jure to the kingdom of Trebizond.

ck2_updated_de_jure.png



Last, and definitely not least. Let’s take a look at Hungary and the Danube. The first thing I did was to redraw parts of the Danube to make it more accurate (as we all know, the old Danube was not quite where it was supposed to be). It now flows much closer to its actual location. The counties along the river have been adjusted accordingly. Pecs, for example, is now located on the correct side of it. The rest of Hungary has also been adjusted so that the kingdom is placed within the Carpathians.

Instead of taking my word for it, you can see for yourself in the screenshot below, in which you can see the updated coast of Croatia as well.

ck2_danube_new.png


ck2_danube_old.png


Does this make the map perfect? No. But I do think it’s a step in the right direction and an improvement over the previous one.

Let me know what you think!

- The Ural mountains are now impassable
- Removed the duplicate island of Kolguyev, in the Barents Sea
- The most northern part of the Onega is now properly filled with water
- The mountains in southern Abyssinia no longer stretches onto the frame of the map
- Fixed an issue in the lower part of the river Don, where the river bed would go above water level
- Removed a bunch of trees that were placed in major rivers
- The terrain around lake Balkhash has been smoothed, to avoid sharp/rough edges
- The terrain around lake Baikal has also been smoothed, no longer will the steep cliffs surround the lake
- The Indus and the Ganges have both been cleaned up:
- The terrain now matches the actual river
- Smaller rivers no longer flow so far into the major rivers
- The borders of the rivers has been made smoother to avoid sharp/rough edges
- The Danube has been redrawn, to better represent its actual location (!)
- The county of Constantinople is now only located on the western side of the Bosphorus, merging the eastern side into the county of Nikaea, connected with a strait
- The duchies of Samos and Cibyrrhaeot are now de jure part of the kingdom of Anatolia, rather than Greece
- The duchies of Trebizond and Armeniacon is now de jure part of the kingdom of Trebizond, rather than Anatolia
- Removed the kingdom of Taurica
- The duchy of Crimea is now de jure kingdom of Khazaria
- The duchy of Cherson is now de jure kingdom of Khazaria
- The coastal counties of Croatia and Serbia have been adjusted and moved slightly to better represent their actual locations
- The eastern counties of Hungary and the surrounding area has been moved and adjusted in order to properly place the kingdom within the Carpathian mountains
- Changed the name of b_mirabel to "Majdal Yaba"
- b_mirabel will be named "Mirabel" if ruled by most European cultures
- b_mirabel will be named "Antipatris" if ruled by Byzantine cultures
- The county of Tobruk is now only located along the coast
- Moved the northern part of c_dalarna to c_herjedalen
- Moved k_venice to de jure e_italy
 
It would be nice to have a navigable Nile some day, especially since it is a bit odd that you don't get a major river penalty for crossing it at present (unless I misremember), but even without that the map changes are nice.
 
Greetings everyone!

Today I’m here to talk about one of my favorite parts of our games (a very important one too) and something I’ve been working on. I’m going to talk about the map.

Looking at the work @Trin Tragula does for the map on EU4, I started thinking. Why don’t we do something similar to CK2? So I went looking at the map for various possible improvements. I have not added anything new in terms of provinces or areas. Instead, I wanted to focus on improving the existing map and give it some needed polish.

The CK2 map is not perfect, so there are a quite a few places to look at. But I wanted to start with the terrain and topology. As there several places on the map that, frankly, look out of place. As such, I swooped the map of the most hideous offenders. Several lakes and most major rivers are now much smoother, avoiding ugly and sharp edges. The Ural Mountains are now mostly impassable.

Below you can see a few examples.

Ural mountains:
View attachment 239377

Lake Baikal, old and new:
View attachment 239378
View attachment 239379

The Ganges, old and new:
View attachment 239381
View attachment 239382


I also took this opportunity to make some smaller de jure adjustments (I know that not everyone will agree with me on these). These are done for gameplay reasons and considerations. The largest change will be for the kingdom of Cumania. Which I broke off slightly by giving the duchies of Itil and Sarkel to Khazaria, along with Crimea and Cherson (so Taurica no longer holds any de jure land).

A small shift in the kingdoms of the ERE. Greece is a very large kingdom, so I made it slightly smaller by moving Samos and Cibyrrhaeot to Anatolia, and in turn, made Anatolia stay close to the same size by making the duchies of Trebizond and Armeniacon de jure to the kingdom of Trebizond.

View attachment 239383


Last, and definitely not least. Let’s take a look at Hungary and the Danube. The first thing I did was to redraw parts of the Danube to make it more accurate (as we all know, the old Danube was not quite where it was supposed to be). It now flows much closer to its actual location. The counties along the river have been adjusted accordingly. Pecs, for example, is now located on the correct side of it. The rest of Hungary has also been adjusted so that the kingdom is placed within the Carpathians.

Instead of taking my word for it, you can see for yourself in the screenshot below, in which you can see the updated coast of Croatia as well.

View attachment 239386



Does this make the map perfect? No. But I do think it’s a step in the right direction and an improvement over the previous one.

Let me know what you think!

- The Ural mountains are now impassable
- Removed the duplicate island of Kolguyev, in the Barents Sea
- The most northern part of the Onega is now properly filled with water
- The mountains in southern Abyssinia no longer stretches onto the frame of the map
- Fixed an issue in the lower part of the river Don, where the river bed would go above water level
- Removed a bunch of trees that were placed in major rivers
- The terrain around lake Balkhash has been smoothed, to avoid sharp/rough edges
- The terrain around lake Baikal has also been smoothed, no longer will the steep cliffs surround the lake
- The Indus and the Ganges have both been cleaned up:
- The terrain now matches the actual river
- Smaller rivers no longer flow so far into the major rivers
- The borders of the rivers has been made smoother to avoid sharp/rough edges
- The Danube has been redrawn, to better represent its actual location (!)
- The county of Constantinople is now only located on the western side of the Bosphorus, merging the eastern side into the county of Nikaea, connected with a strait
- The duchies of Samos and Cibyrrhaeot are now de jure part of the kingdom of Anatolia, rather than Greece
- The duchies of Trebizond and Armeniacon is now de jure part of the kingdom of Trebizond, rather than Anatolia
- Removed the kingdom of Taurica
- The duchy of Crimea is now de jure kingdom of Khazaria
- The duchy of Cherson is now de jure kingdom of Khazaria
- The coastal counties of Croatia and Serbia have been adjusted and moved slightly to better represent their actual locations
- The eastern counties of Hungary and the surrounding area has been moved and adjusted in order to properly place the kingdom within the Carpathian mountains
- Changed the name of b_mirabel to "Majdal Yaba"
- b_mirabel will be named "Mirabel" if ruled by most European cultures
- b_mirabel will be named "Antipatris" if ruled by Byzantine cultures
- The county of Tobruk is now only located along the coast
- Moved the northern part of c_dalarna to c_herjedalen
- Moved k_venice to de jure e_italy
Does that me Khazaria's requirements of being Jewish or Khazar will be AI only? Also will Taurica be still in the game as a titular kingdom?
 
Oh thank god, there were so many things that I noticed and you seem to have fixed. Thank you so much for the Ural mountains. I always questioned why such a prominent mountain range was never properly displayed on the in game map. Nice edits to Lake Baikal, it is just prettier to look at now. Thank you so much for splitting up Anatolia and Greece, and adding in Trebizond.
 
Hello everyone,
I don't know if that belongs here, but as I am coming from cologne I always wondered why province and city are placed on the wrong side of the Rhine! Is there any specifc reason for it?
just curious ... anyway great work, thanks a lot
 
Southern Germany is also a mess with Fuerstenberg being where Wuertemberg is supposed to be and the latter somehow ending up in Bavaria (the modern state)

And as for river adjustments. The Main river needs to be further north and flow through Wuerzburg and Bamberg
 
Very good my friend! Finally! Could I ask you something else? Could you tweak Slovakia borders and Uzhorod (subcarpathian rus) ? So it looks like on google maps if you check. Back then it was Upper Hungary with Uzhorod. It looked nice when Uzhorod part was connected with Slovakia. Then it was cut out and taken by Ukrainians. Take a look. I also would ask for making Slovenia borders and maybe make Slovenia duchy and making Slovakia a normal makeable duchy (not titular anymore)? And make Znojmo a subholding in Hradec? Thanks in advance. If you would make it, many people will be happy including me.

View attachment 239396 View attachment 239397 View attachment 239398 View attachment 239399 View attachment 239400

You are referring to maps from the EU4 timeline, not the part of history that CKII covers. The thing with the border between "Znojmo" county (it should be called Krems IMO) and Pozsony is that the Morava River wasn't always the border during that times. The Magyars frequently held parts of the land west of it. So, the river should be moved to where you drew the border, but I'm not sure whether it's good to move the county borders as well.


Would it be possible to edit the placement of the provinces of Aquileia, Carniola and Carinthia? Their borders are very inaccurate - Carinthia is in totally the wrong place.

Yeah, please fix Slovenia. Carinthia and its holdings are in an awefully wrong place.
 
- Changed the name of b_mirabel to "Majdal Yaba"
- b_mirabel will be named "Mirabel" if ruled by most European cultures
- b_mirabel will be named "Antipatris" if ruled by Byzantine cultures
HUZZAH!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
This is awesome! I've been waiting so long for this!
:D :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D




(Also, I hate to seem greedy and ask for more, but I'm wondering if there's a chance that some adjustments might be in the pipes for Iberia, to help keep the northern Christian Iberian countries from getting swallowed up by the Muslims in the Charlemagne and Viking Age starts, in the same way Venice's de jure change is meant to help protect it from always being swallowed by the Byzantines?)

Again, THANK YOU! :D
 
While style might be subjective, graphic quality is not.
The importance of these things however is.

It would be nice to have a navigable Nile some day, especially since it is a bit odd that you don't get a major river penalty for crossing it at present (unless I misremember), but even without that the map changes are nice.
Yeah definitely, especially if as I asked for earlier everyone could get to sue rivers, at least to some extent. Would be a huge buff to egypt if they could raise people from around the nile and the use boats to get them where they needed to go.
 
Why respond in the first place if you don't care?
Because I do care. The ck2 map is a lot nicer to look at than the eu4 map. If that's artstyle or graphics is not very relevant to me.
 
Because I do care. The ck2 map is a lot nicer to look at than the eu4 map. If that's artstyle or graphics is not very relevant to me.

The textures in CK2 are noticeably worse compared to EU4 and that doesn't have anything to do with the art style. After playing 500 hours of EU4 I find the CK2 map to be gritty, even if it's kinda cosy in its design. The colours seems paler to me, it's like watching a film on an old CTR monitor, which also makes it all seem kinda blurry in comparison to newer pdx titles.

Not sure how what they can do about it though, it might not be worth giving a 4 year old game a texture overhaul, and perhaps the old engine puts a limit to these sort of things.
 
Last edited:
You lot are never going to fix Iran, are you? :p.

Great work, either way. The Greece/Anatolia division has been bugging me for years, and the Ural change is very welcome.
 
Ural mountains:
index.php
The northern mountain wasteland doesn't block movement between any provinces as far as I can see. I thought that purely cosmetic wastelands were bad engine wise.
Anyway looks really good; and I'm glad you included that cosmetic wasteland---merely surprised.

Moved the northern part of c_dalarna to c_herjedalen
Now this is really great news. No more ugly Norwegian Swedish border!


Also speaking of de jure titles could you then perhaps make Amalfi de jure k_sicily again, since otherwise your vassals always annihilates it with de jure wars.
 
Beautiful work on Danube!

In the upper left corner of the screenshot you can see the lands of Bohemia that are regretfully topografically way too off. I know that nobody but Czech players won't care but I would love so much (and you personally) if you could redraw that part a little bit closer to reality as well.

Simple map of the Czech Republic:
36933316-Czech-Republic-Political-Map-with-capital-Prague-national-borders-important-cities-rivers-and-lakes--Stock-Vector.jpg

In-game map of Central Europe
Zsw36uh.jpg

You can see, that the navigable Elbe (Labe) is supposed to flow north of Prague and the Moldau (Vltava) river springs in Southern Bohemia (not Austria) and then goes through Central Bohemia and Prague. The lands around Moldau and Elbe rivers in the screenshots were always part of Bohemia, so it really is just a misplaced graphics.

I know that there are bzillions of areas of the map that could use more polish, I'm just throwing my five cents in here.
 
I know that nobody but Czech players won't care
Don't be too sure of that. We're some who care about the map being more accurate and realistic everywhere and hence supports all improvements. Though you're right that there's many areas which could be improved so this might well be far down the list.
Can't remember which, but there's also a province around Bohemia, Silesia, or Brandenburg (including Neumark) which looks weird compared to at least how it looked in the early modern are (and later); though I don't know whether it changed appearance back then and as mentioned I can't remember which province it is at the moment.