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Tinto Maps #20 - 27th of September 2024 - The Steppes

Hello, and welcome one more week to the weekly encounter for map lovers! This week it’s also directed at horse lovers because we will be looking at the Eurasian Steppes, plus the Urals! So let’s start with the maps without further ado.

Countries:
Countries.jpg

Colored Wastelands.jpg

A glorious, Golden Horde! It is at its power peak, under the reign of Uzbeg Khan, so it's a much more menacing presence for its neighbors. However, it has its some internal issues that need to be managed, as you’ll notice in some of the maps, and in the future when we talk about the content for Hordes. The Golden Horde also heads its own IO, the Tatar Yoke, as shown in a previous Tinto Maps:

Tatar Yoke.jpg

We have already corrected the Ruthenian countries that are under the Horde’s Yoke, although we still have to correct the Russian principalities, which will be done in the corresponding Tinto Maps review. We’re also aware that we need to improve a bit the coloring of the IO, to mark not only the Golden Horde as the overlord of these countries, but also that Muscovy holds the title of the Grand Principality of Vladimir, which makes it the ‘enforcer’ of the Yoke. These fixes are also planned to be done in a few weeks.

Societies of Pops:
Societies of Pops.jpg

Societies of Pops 2.jpg .jpg

A bit up to the north, we have some Societies of Pops! This means that the territory of Western Siberia won’t be empty land, but will be populated by these people, which can be interacted with.

BTW, I’m not showing this week a dynasty map because, well, only the Borgijin dynasty rules over the lands of the Golden Horde, of course!


Locations:
Locations.jpg

Locations Western Siberia.jpg

Locations 3.jpg

Locations 4.jpg

Locations 5.jpg

Tons of locations today… You might notice that the density location is in a progression from west to east, from the most densely settled areas to the less settled ones. You may also notice that we’ve followed a design of ‘settler corridors’ in Western Siberia, setting those parts of the land that were habitable, usually on river valleys.

Provinces:
Provinces.jpg

Provinces 2.jpg


Areas:
Areas.jpg


Terrain:
Climate.jpg

Topography.jpg

Vegetation.jpg

The terrain is interesting here, as there are two main ecological areas. The first is the Steppes, Flatlands with Sparse and Grasslands vegetation, with either Cold Arid or Continental climates. And then we have the Siberian Arctics Forests, which are completely different, of course. On a note, the Urals were set as Hills, as they’re a quite settleable area, but we’ll probably make a review with your feedback, and add some mountains there.

Development:
Development.jpg

The whole region is not very developed, you might notice the difference with India, from last week’s Tinto Maps.

Harbors:
Harbors.jpg

There are some harbors in the Steppe region… In the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, of course! As usual, we’re open to feedback on this matter.

Cultures:
Cultures.jpg

Plenty of cultures! One note: Although we planned to work on the religious and cultural minorities of the region during the summer, we ended up not having enough time to add them. So what we’ll be doing today is showing the rough outline of ‘cultural spheres’, and then we’ll add the minorities during the review of the region. In that sense, feedback is very well received.

With that said the only note that needs to be made in terms of the cultural design is that we divided the Tatar cultural group into some differentiated regional cultures, being Crimean, Mishary, Kazani, and Astrakhani. We’re also aware that some of the cultures, as Mari and Chuvash, might be a bit displaced, as noted in the Russian Tinto Maps, so we’ll review and correct that with your feedback.


Religions:
Religions.jpg

Regarding Religions, the matter is a bit worse, as the big Sunni blob is just because the main religion of the Golden Horde is Islam, after the conversion of Uzbeg Khan, but that’s obviously incorrect. Also, as we have been able to forecast development time on how Pagan divisions will be during this autumn, we will make a comprehensive review of the region as well, to get a good distribution of ‘Shamanist’ Paganism, Tengrism, and Sunni Islam.

Raw Materials:
Raw Materials.jpg

Raw Materials 2.jpg

Raw Materials 3.jpg

Regarding the raw materials, the Steppes have plenty of Livestock and Horses, quite logically, although there are regions with some other goods. And up to the north, the main materials are Lumber and Fur. Apart from that, I want to mention the mineral hub in the Ural Mountains, with plenty of Copper, Iron, Gold, Lead, and Coal. That makes it a very mid and late-game interesting spot, and playing as Muscovy/Russia, I’ll tell you that you definitely want to expand into that region, as it will fulfill some of your material needs by that time.

Markets:
Markets.jpg

Markets! Big region, with lots of markets, although you may noticed that we changed the coloring of the locations that have 0% market access, which is the case in several areas. In any case, the market centers are Kaffa, Astrakhan, Saray-Jük, Kunya Urgench, Samarkand, Almaty, and Chimgi Tura. BTW, these names are much easier to notice in the game’s UI, as they’re beside the market centers:

Markets 2.jpg


Population:
Population.jpg

This week we’re showing only the country population mapmode, as there are some location numbers here and there which are failing, due to the already known issue with our pop editor (and which are on the way to be fixed). In any case, the whole population of the region is around 6.5-7M, of which around 6.3M are part of the Golden Horde. As I said, it’s a menacing country…

And that’s all for today! This is going to be my last Tinto Maps in a while, as I’ll be on vacation for 3 weeks during October (you might have noticed that I didn’t have any during summer), so one of the Content Designers in the team, @Roger Corominas , will step in and be in charge of the next 4 Tinto Maps. It’s in good hands, as Roger is an Experienced CD, who has been working and focused on Project Caesar for more than 3 years, at this point (this is why you might not know him from EU4, as other CDs in our team). In any case, he will be starting with the regions of Xinjiang, mostly ruled by the Chagatai Khanate, and Tibet.

I’ll keep reading and answering you during next week, and then I’ll be back in a month from now. See you!
 
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Siberian Empire time?!

Also will you do a mini map showcasing all of Siberia in one go?
We will cover the rest of Siberia in another Tinto Maps, soon.
 
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Alright then, I have been waiting for this! Here's the continuation of all the Genoese(also some Venetian and Pisan) colonies, trading outposts, forts, etc...

First of all I wanna start with something that I forgot to mention in my previous post and that's the fact that the Genoese possession around the Balck Sea were not ruled directly by the republic from Italy but by a colonial goverment based in Caffa referred as "Gazaria" which I think should be rapresented as tag in P.C. due to its similar nature and organization to the Venetian colonies, from what I could find it seems that the colony(which behaved more like an autonomous region) officially controlled only the cities of the Crimean peninsula but de facto had control of the majority of the Genoese possessions in the Black sea(modern day Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Romania) besides the ones in Constantinople(which of course had its own administration due to its importance) and maybe Anatolia (I couldn't find much but they were probably controlled directly by Genoa due to their relatively close distance from Costantinople), so from now on when I refer to something belonging to Genoa I'm most likely talking of Gazaria.
Today's or native name/Genoese/Italian a.k.a. Tuscan(usually coincides with the Genoese one)

--In 1337 Genoa still controls or used to control:

--Abkhazia and Ajara(Georgia):
I decided to put this section here instead of the Iranian Tinto maps because I couldn't find much information about it

-Batumi/Lo Vati/Lo Bati(definitely the most important possession in the area, unfortunately I coudn't determine if they directly owned the city or if they had a trading post)
-Sukhumi/Savastopoli(they didn't directly own it but they had a trading post and a catholic bishopric)
-Anacopia/Nikoxia/Nikosia(used to be a Genoese colony it's not clear if they still control in in 1337)
-Pitsunda/Pezonda(in the 13th century it used to be a Genoese colony for a brief period)
Gudauta/Cavo di Buxo(situated between Anacopia and Pitsunda, not in the game atm but it seems they had some sort of presence in the town)
-Gagra/Chacari(not in the game but it was a major trading settlement for both Genoese and Venetians, most likely a Genoese trading post)
-Alakhadzi/Santa Sofia(not much know, probably similar to Gagra but smaller)

--Crimean peninsula:

-Feodosia/Caffa(built on the ruins of the ancient city of Theodosia it was the Genoese capital of Gazaria and the balck sea at large, at the time it had one of Europe's biggest slave market, it also had a catholic diocese and Ibn Battuta even described it as a grat city with a great fortress and a great harbour of which the majority of inhabitants were Genoese Christians and it was the biggest city in the region before the plague hit it)
-Sevastopol/Sarsona/Chersoneso(in the past the city with the best harbour in the black sea was de facto controlled by Genoa but in 1337 the city was officially and thr facto owned by the Principality of Theodoro which was a vassal of Trebizond, the presence that Genoa has is unclear since thet were in conflict with Venice who also wanted to control its great harbour which caused the town to go in decline, Gazaria should probably have a core on the location)
-Sudak/Soldaia(it was previously owned by Genoa but in 1337 they should only have a core since it was under Venetian control)
-Staryj krym/Surcati(never owned by Genoa but they had a trading post to commerce with Crimeans)
-Kerč̣/Cerchio/Vosporo(important harbour to control the sea of Azov)
-Chimmero(couldn't find much about it exept that it was a Genoese controlled settlement south of Kerč based on the ancient city of Kimmerikon)

Although not in Crimea other important outposts Genoa had at the time were the castles of Ginestra and Lerici, the first one located located in the Odessa of today while the second one in Očakiv(I can't read the loaction names), in 1337 they were used to protect the Genoese city of Maurocastro(today's Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyj) together with other forts along the Dniester river from the Mongols, I didn't mention this in the Balkan tinto maps because although close Odessa is not part of it.

--Taman Peninsula and north sea of Azov:

-Azov/Tana(rebuilt by the Venetians on the ruins of the ancient city of Tanais south of the river Don it was the second most important city and harbour in the region after Caffa due to the concessions of the khan of the golden horde, by 1337 the city was both a colony of the Venetian and Genoese who divided in 2 quraters, I think a goid way to rapresent this would be to have the Genoese control the location since they control the strait that leads to the city and have a Venetian trading outpost in it, another important fact about Tana is the Pisan port that was situated outside the city on the opposite side of the Don river which has worse natural harbour)
-Slavyansk-na-Kubani/Copa/Coparia(like many other settlement in the region it was directly owned by De Ghisolfi family which ruled on behalf of the Gazaria colony)
-Anapa/Mapa/Anapa(strategically important but it had a sandy harbour)
-Novorossiysk/Batario(called Susaco in the game derived by the english refugees, has a great port also owned by the De Ghisolfi in 1337)
-Khosta/Costa(a district of the modern city of Sochi owned by the Genoese in 1337)
-Adler/Layso(same as Khosta)
-Yeysk/Bacinaci/Balzimachi(a minor Genoese colony and port used to load up bigger cargo ships through smaller boats due to bad quality of its harbour)
-Taganrog/Cobardi(same as Yeysk)

I found some more minor coastal settlements and ports in the area but they were all too very small and irrelevant to write down but if anything they show that by 1337 Genoa had great control of the north-east coast of the sea of Azov going from the nowdays city of Berdiansk to the town of Dolzhanskaya


--Settlements that in 1337 were controlled by Trebizond or their vassal Theodoro but that Genoa(Gazaria) will own in the future:

-Balaklava/Cembalo
-Alupka(I found no translation)
-Yalta/Caulita
-Alušta/Lusta
-Tmutarakan/Matrega(modern Taman)

And that's it, I've taken the vast majority of these information from old Genoese papers kept in the city archives like the "Liber Gazarie" that describes their possesions and even how they ran their colonies including their government and traded goods in the region.
 
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Can you please revert the change for Markets, Materials, Terrains, and Locations maps? There were a lot of arguments against them. For me for example it is impossible to read the borders of locations as they all have gradients which blur them into one single mess. It places a big stress on my eyes which previous location maps didn't do.
There has been some internal discussion regarding this feedback, and yes, we plan to make some adjustments.
 
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Cultures:
View attachment 1194089
Plenty of cultures! One note: Although we planned to work on the religious and cultural minorities of the region during the summer, we ended up not having enough time to add them. So what we’ll be doing today is showing the rough outline of ‘cultural spheres’, and then we’ll add the minorities during the review of the region. In that sense, feedback is very well received.

With that said the only note that needs to be made in terms of the cultural design is that we divided the Tatar cultural group into some differentiated regional cultures, being Crimean, Mishary, Kazani, and Astrakhani. We’re also aware that some of the cultures, as Mari and Chuvash, might be a bit displaced, as noted in the Russian Tinto Maps, so we’ll review and correct that with your feedback.
@Pavía I would really love your input on the tread I recently created about cultures.

It highlights the wrongness of the unspecified "consistency" you have said about in Polish TM. For example, now Crimean culture doesn't look so consistent with the West. Should it be split up more? Nor does Uzbek, Muscovite.
 
Oh, and could we please get a closer look at the locations of the Black sea coast and the Don region? I can't discern some of the names, and I might want to do a thread with better naming suggestions someday.
Have you already checked the more detailed location maps, under the Spoiler button?
 
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1727442878560.png

Good to see Suomi (Finland) getting filled with suo (swamp). Also, the wasteland in east karelia seems gone. Scandinavia (Nordics…) map review already appears to be progressing nicely.
 
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Even with colored wastelands turned on, idk how I feel about the chagtai being given control of the central wasteland here, just because they control the majority of the bordering locations. It creates a long border between the Chagtai and Golden Horde where there was just desert that the Chagtai didn't control, which even for gameplay purposes gives a skewed perspective on the region.

I'd personally prefer if the colouring requirements were a little stricter, perhaps like controlling all, or 90% of bordering locations.

1727442825774.png
 
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Will the Golden Horde split into Western and Eastern (Blue and White Hordes) if it gets too weak?
The Golden Horde can split, but not necessarily into those.
 
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Say you are fucked without saying you are fucked:
Screenshot_20240927_151602_Chrome.jpg

Also is that a green Yuan?!? I kinda like it...but it has a similar colour to Dehli also their Eu4 colour is way better
 
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What are the majority and minority culture in Theodoro? I can't understand them from the culture map. Maybe for next times, a zoomed culture map would be better too
 
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