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Tinto Maps #28 - 29th of November 2024 - North America

Hello everybody, and welcome one more Friday to Tinto Maps, the place to be for map lovers! Today we will be looking at North America, which is very handy, as we can deliver some Thanksgiving turkey maps to our friends from the USA (and Canada)!

But before I get started, let me have a word on some (shameless) promotion. You may know that we in Paradox Tinto have also been in charge of Europa Universalis IV in the past few years. Well, I just want to let you know that there’s currently an ongoing sale on the game, with several discounts on diverse packages, of which outstands the hefty Ultimate Bundle, which includes all the DLCs developed and released by Tinto in the past 3 years (Leviathan, Origins, Lions of the North, Domination, King of Kings, and Winds of Change), and a whole bunch of the older ones. I’m saying this as you may want to support the ongoing development of Project Caesar this way! Here you may find more detailed information, and all the relevant links: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...toria-bundle-up-for-this-autumn-sale.1718042/

And now, let’s move from the Black Friday sales to proper Tinto Maps Friday!

Countries & Societies of Pops:
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For today’s Tinto Maps, we thought it would be a good idea to show both the land-owning countries and the SoPs. As I commented last week, we’re trying to follow consistent criteria to categorize countries and societies. This is our current proposal for North America, with Cahokia and some Pueblo people being the only regular countries in 1337, surrounded by numerous SoPs. I’m not bothering to share the Dynasty mapmode, as we don’t have any clue about them, and they’re auto-generated.

However, we have been reading and considering the feedback we received last week, in the Tinto Maps for Oceania, so we want to let you know that this is our current design proposal and that we want to hear from you what are your expectations regarding the countries that you would consider landed in 1337*, and also which countries you’d like to play with in this region, either as landed, or as a SoP.

As you may already know, our commitment is to make Project Caesar a great, fun game with your help, and we greatly appreciate the feedback we receive from you in that regard.

* This is already quite tricky, as most of our information only comes from post-1500s accounts when the native societies were already looking very different from two centuries ago. Eg.: The first reports made by Hernando de Soto about the Coosa Chiefom around 1540 points it out to be organized in a way that we’d consider it a Tribal land-owning tag, as confirmed by archaeology. However, that polity was not organized at that level of complexity in 1337, as there isn’t any contemporary data comparable to that of Cahokia. And some decades after the encounter with de Soto and some other European explorers, the mix of diseases had made the Chiefdom collapse, being more akin to what a SoP would be. This type of complex historical dynamism is what makes it so difficult to make the right call for the situation in 1337, and also for us to develop with our current game systems the proper mechanics that would be needed for SoPs to be fully playable (and not just barely half-baked).


Locations:
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Plenty of locations, at the end of the day, are a big sub-continent… You may notice that we’ve tried to use as many native names as possible, although sometimes, we’ve failed to achieve that. Any suggestions regarding equivalences of Native and Post-Colonial will be very much appreciated, as this is a huge task to do properly!

Provinces:
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Areas:
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Areas… And with them, an interesting question that we’d like you to answer: Which design and style do you prefer, that of the East Coast, more based on the Colonial and Post-Colonial borders? Or the one for the Midwest and the Pacific Coast, more based on geography, and less related to attached to modern states? Just let us know!

Terrain:
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Some comments:
  • Most climates are portrayed in NA, from Arctic to Arid.
  • The Rocky Mountains are rocky!
  • Regarding vegetation, we wanted to portray the forest cover in 1337, which is tricky, and that’s why some areas may look too homogeneous. Any suggestions are welcome!

Development:
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Not a very well-developed region in 1337…

Natural Harbors:
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Cultures:
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Lots of cultural diversity in NA!

Languages:
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And the languages of those cultures!

Religions:
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We have a mixed bag here: On the one hand, Eastern and Northern religions look more like the design we’re aiming to achieve, while on the other, to the south, you can find the splitter animist religions based on cultures that we now want to group into bigger religions, more akin to the northern areas.

Raw Materials:
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Wild Game, Fish, and Fur are king in this region! But we are also portraying the ‘three sisters’ (maize, beans, squash), the agricultural base for many of the native American societies, using Maize, Legumes (beans), and Fruit (squash). Cotton is also present in the south, as it was also native to the region (although the modern variant comes from a crossing with the ‘Old World’ one), and there are also mineral resources present here and there.

Markets:
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Two markets are present in 1337, one in Cahokia, and another in the Pueblo land.

Population:
Broken map! But as this is an interesting topic to discuss, these are the current numbers we’ve got in the region:
  • Continent:
    • 20.487M in America (continent)
  • Sub-continents:
    • 10.265M in North and Central America (we have a pending task to divide them into two different sub-continents)
    • 10.222M in South America
  • Regions (roughly 1.5M):
    • 162K in Canada
    • 1.135M in the East Coast
    • 142K in Louisiana
    • 154K in the West Coast
    • 43,260 in Alaska

And that’s all for today! There won't be a Tinto Maps next week, as it's a bank holiday in Spain (as I was kindly reminded in a feedback post, you're great, people!), so the next one will be Central America on December 13th. But, before that, we will post the Tinto Maps Feedback review for Russia on Monday, December 9th. Cheers!
 
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I would love geografical borders for areas while playing a native american, but I would prefer colonial borders iI'm to play a colonial power. Can't you make it a setup option?
 
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@Pavía

Tagging again since I'm not sure if edited-in tags notify people in the forum. Apologies if it's repeated.

A friend of mine from Alaska who did research on the region in anticipation for this DD asked me to point this out. I included it on my first post:

"Please make the North Slope flatland. The Brooks Range doesn't extend that far north. Local groups are Utkiavigmiut. And add Wainwright (Ulguniq or Kuuku) as a safe harbor."

1732896500532.png
 
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I'm on the "no colonial borders" team.

Who knows which borders will dynamically be traced during a campaign anyway?
 
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Alright so I have no idea whatsoever about the nature of flora in Alaska so this is an honest question. What's with the grasslands in the middle of the taiga there? Is that an actual thing?
 
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I don't know much about Native Americans and if they had already known and measured the shape of the earth and thus were able to partition their lands based on latitude and longitude lines or not, but I imagine a Native American country would probably have their border (or lack thereof) based on cultural or natural borders like rivers, mountains, drainage basins, similar to Europe and parts of Asia (not entirely, but you get my idea) instead of a wobbly compromise version of straight lines that was drawn by the British colonizers who didn't care about natural borders or ethnic group populations.

So if my assumption above was correct, what if there are two versions of borders?

Version 1: Based on natural and cultural borders, available for natives by default and foreign colonizers by choice (Europeans, or whatever country that can circumnavigate the earth first in a single game run)
Version 2: Based on (colonial) historical borders with those straight lines, available for foreign colonizers by default, based on latitude and longitude lines as it was drawn by them

This way we could have an interesting dynamics between a Native American country with its natural borders being in a competition with a European country (or whatever country who has figured out the meridian lines) who is trying to impose their version of straight borders in North America. And with that being said, perhaps the same could also be applied in Africa, parts of Asia, Australia, or anywhere with those straight lines?

These are merely suggestions though, I know it's way too difficult to code and balance because this game has fixed locations instead of "free world" that can later on be separated into different regions like drawing a district in Cities Skylines
Decoupling administrative areas and colonial areas is a great idea!
 
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I feel like St.Johns, Newfoundland should be a natural harbour. I was there a couple years ago, and to me it definitely should be more than what it is on the current map. Thanks, and can't wait to actually play the game
 
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In EU4, Canada was by far the worst part of the map to colonize. Alaska at least had gold, while colonizing the US would not only get you resources more valuable than fur, but would even get you more fur per province as well, because of the higher dev fur provinces and the natives becoming goods bonuses.

Do these problems still exist? Is there an incentive to actually colonize Canada, aside from just grabbing Newfoundland for the fish?
 
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Yes! And we'd also welcome suggestions regarding this!
I'm joining here now to create some proposals for polish names.

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1. Nowa Wielkopolska
2. Nowa Częstochowszczyzna
3. Zamorze Przednie
4. Nowe Kujawy
5. Śródlądek
6. Misisipia
7. Nowe Mazowsze
8. Ziemia Bogurodzicy
9. Góry Dziewanny
10. Piastowszczyzna
11. Nowa Ruś
12. Nowa Małopolska
13. Mieszkowszczyzna
14. Ziemia Lecha

Some city names:
1. New York - Nowe Gniezno
2. Los Angeles - Święta Górka
3. Chicago - Szikago
4. Houston - Błądek Tejazski
5. Philadelphia - Brać Słowiańska
6. Dallas - Grodek nad Trójeczką
7. San Jose - Józefowo
8. Austin - Nowy Zamość
9. San Francisco - Franciszkowo
10. Seattle - Górski Dok
11. Washington, D.C. - Kościuszków Trybunalski
12. Baltimore - Bogurodzicowo
13. Boston - Nowy Płock
14. Detroit - Nowa Łódź
15. Las Vegas - Dzikie Pole
16. Milwaukee - Mułoki
17. New Orleans - Nowy Kazimierz
18. Atlanta - Nowa Bydgoszcz
19. Miami - Majami
20. Richmond - Bogata Górka
21. Sacramento - Sakramentowizna
22. Salem - Jeruzal

23. Salt Lake City - Grodek nad Jeziorem Słonym
24. Indianapolis - Lenapowizna
25. Columbus - Ochajowizna
26. Charlotte - Aldonów
27. Charleston - Jadwigowo
28. Memphis - Tenezowizna
29. St. John - Nowa Arkona
30. Montreal - Królewska Górka
31. Ottawa - Ottawów
32. Toronto - Huronów
 
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Please let´s not pretend that there were no trade centers in North America besides the Pueblo villages and Cahokia.

Looking at the map, I suggest adding the following trade centers:
(1) The Dalles Trade Center to cover the entire current areas of "Pomo", "Columbia Interior", Yukon and Alaska, as well as "Western Arctic"
(2) Shoshone Rendezvous to cover the Great Basin and "Rockies" areas.
(3) Pomo appears to be a reasonable trade center for California, though may or may not be included separately
(4) The Arikara trade center or the Mandan/Hidatsa could be around the northern Great Plains
(5) Kadohacho in the Caddo country for the southern Great Plains.
thatś it reagarding the western half of the continent, I m sure there are plenty resource for the eastern half as well
 
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I think this will help make the argument for more Mississippian settled tribes. Cambridge article. From 1200-1400 there is evidence Mississippi civilizations in the Midwest and southeast built and maintained fortifications in this period due to the large amount of warfare between mound cities.
 
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American here. I personally prefer the post colonial state borders(east coast). I like to recreate modern borders in my games and that would just impossible to do with the “west coast” layout. Trying to recreate the US/Canada borders in Eu4 is nauseating and doomed from the start. If yall go with the west coast layout then I’d ask to at least allow conquest on a location by location basis that could still allow for modern borders.

I’m fine with the lack of landed nations in NA but would like to see a few more so the colonizers have people to ally and use in their fights against each other. Thinking of French and Indian wars. Generated nations would be fine enough if that’s needed.

The Great Plains boast the largest amount of contiguous farmland in the world. I like how maize covers that to a degree but I’m disappointed to not see as much farmland, even if it didn’t start out as that and had to be deforested.

Last thing: I know waterways and rivers aren’t playing a key role in PC, but we NEED the Mississippi. The Mississippi River is akin to the Rhine and equally as important. It’s what made the USA into the powerhouse it became and that should be represented in some fashion. It’s important from a strategic standpoint as many borders were created to follow its path. It’s important from a population standpoint as many large cities sprung up along its banks (New Orleans, St Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc). The river and its tributaries were and still are the water highways of America.
 
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Decoupling administrative areas and colonial areas is a great idea!
Thanks for giving it a name. I support this at the expense of everyone's graphics cards. But then, all countries who get to become colonizers would have the ability to arbitrarily draw borders based on funny lines. I imagine having a colony called Okinawan West Europe and the borders look like two circles and a rectangle
 
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The Lakȟóta are Lakȟóta, not Lahkota.

the next one will be Central America
Skipping Mexico? I'll comment on what I can see:

Giving the Yaqui this level of prominence is anachronistic. They're a small group which in pre-colonial times occupied the region between the Río Mayo and the Río Yaqui. You've given them land far beyond their historical range which they only came to (partially) occupy much later as part of the Jesuit efforts to expand northwards into Sonora. Half or more of the land you've given them was actually Pima or Tepehuán.

Meanwhile the land you've given to the Yoreme (Mayo) is even worse. The Mayo actually lived around the Río Mayo and Río Fuerte. This is a very small area. Both the Yaqui and the Mayo (together with the Sinaloa, Ocoroni, Zuaque, and Tehueco) belonged to the Cahita Confederation, which would make a lot more sense as a SoP replacing both Yoreme and Yaqui, and occupying the area between the Río Mocorito and the Río Yaqui.

I understand why you've done it, and it's a reliance on records from the late 1800s and early 1900s and a complete failure to carry out research on earlier periods.

Southern Sinaloa should be primarily divided between the Totorames and the Tahues. Or you can give it all to the Tahues since these were a larger and more sophisticated group, which I argue meets the criteria of a landed nation. There were other groups in the area, notably the Xiximes and Acaxees, but also the Achires and Guasaves, but I understand that you might not want to include this much detail. I'm going to quote extensively from Historia breve de Sinaloa by Sergio Ortega Noriega. My apologies for not translating it, I'm bilingual but translation is a specific skill which I can't guarantee that I can do well. As a Spanish studio, however, I hope that you can understand:

Grupo Totorame
Los indígenas totorames ocuparon la faja costera al sur del Río Piaxtla y también se extendían por el territorio que hoy pertenece al estado de Nayarit. Su lengua era una variante del cora nayarita y, como casi todas las lenguas habladas en la región que estudiamos, pertenecía a la familia yuto-azteca.

Los totorames eran sedentarios. Sus principales asentamientos estaban en Aztatlán, Sentispac y Chametla, este último sobre el Río Baluarte y los dos primeros en territorio nayarita. Este Aztatlán es el mismo del que tomó su nombre el Complejo Aztatlán, al que ya nos referimos, pero esta cultura había dejado atrás su época de esplendor
(that is to say, they had in 1530, when we first have written records of them). Los totorames eran agricultores y cultivaban maíz, frijol, calabaza, chile y algodón. Consumían productos del mar como camarón, ostión y pescados; recolectaban sal de los depósitos naturales para su propio consumo y para el comercio con otros grupos. Cosechaban miel de colmenas silvestres y también las cultivaban. Elaboraban objetos de cerámica, tejían el algodón, labraban la cosecha y trabajaban el cuero de venado. Fueron diestros artesanos que fabricaban adornos de plumas, concha, perlas y caracoles.

In other words, a sophisticated agricultural society engaged in international trade.

Los totorames no eran agresivos, aunque tenían que defenderse de los xiximes de la sierra, que eran muy belicosos; conocieron el arco y la flecha, la macana, la rodela y el dardo arrojadizo. Construyeron sus caseríos al descubierto, donde podían precaverse de las inundaciones, pero estaban muy expuestos a los ataques de grupos enemigos.

No conocieron la vida urbana como la de los indios del Altiplano, y sus poblados eran conglomerados de chozas dispersas en amplios espacios. Tampoco tuvieron formas avanzadas de organización política, aunque reconocían cierta preeminencia en algunos caciques. De sus creencias y prácticas religiosas casi nada se sabe.


In other words, they would be a SoP rather than a landed nation. They were much less sophisticated than:

Grupo tahue
Los indígenas del grupo tahue ocuparon las tierras bajas comprendidas aproximadamente entre los ríos Piaxtla y Mocorito. Desde el punto de vista cultural, eran muy semejantes a sus vecinos totorames, pero en algunos aspectos los superaron. Los tahues vivían agrupados en aldeas cercanas a sus campos de cultivo, y es posible que tuvieron cierta organización interna, porque algunos testimonios de los españoles indican que había pueblos divididos en barrios. El principal de estos poblados fue Culiacán, que se encontraba en un sitio ubicado al poniente de donde hoy se asienta la capital de nuestro estado. Estos indígenas construían sus casas con varas trenzadas recubiertas de lodo y techos de palma, muy adecuados para el riguroso calor de la tierra y quizá parecidas a las casa rústicas (chinames) que podemos ver en algunas rancherías sinaloenses del presente.

Entre los tahues había una diferenciación de estratos sociales y organización política. En culiacán existía un cacicazgo hereditario; el cacique dominaba sobre un buen número de aldeas y concentraba el poder político y económico. También hubo caudillos militares, aunque, como sus vecinos totorames, eran gente pacífica y sólo practicaban la guerra defensiva. Sus armas eran el arco, la flecha con punta endurecida al fuego, el dardo arrojadizo con punta de obsidiana, la macana con navjas de obsidiana y el escudo de piel de lagarto.

Los tahues eran agricultores; cultivaron maíz, frijol, calabaza, chile, algodón, guayaba y ciruela; recolectaban frutos silvestres, como la tuna, la pitahaya y la péchita (semilla de mezquite). Pescaban en los ríos y en el mar, donde obtenían gran variedad de pescados y mariscos que constituían una parte importante de su alimentación. Recolectaban sal de los numerosos depósitos naturales que se forman en el litoral. Los tahues hilaban y tejían el algodón para confeccionar mantas y otras prendas de vestir, que estampaban con vivos colores obtenidos de plantas silvestres, como el índigo, que abunda en la región. Estos indígenas se caracterizaron por ser diestros alfareros, que producían piezas de cerámica bellamente decoradas y de gran resistencia para el uso doméstico.


There's a little paragraph after this talking about how they played pelota and produced alcohol, but it's not all that significant. Hopefully this will give an indication about trade goods for the region also. I honestly didn't really look at what you have for trade goods there currently, but effectively there should be plenty of crops, salt, and fish around the coast with some dyes around Culiacán, and there's quite a lot of silver in the inland parts of the state. No political groupings should cross the border between Sinaloa and Durango across Acaxee and Xixime territory because none did. The Acaxee and Xixime were both extremely hostile to the groups around the coast, and there was no significant relationship between those coastal groups and groups like the Tepehuán in Durango, though the Acaxees and Xiximes both had wide territories (much larger than the Yoreme/Mayo and Yaqui...) in both Sinaloa and Durango.
 
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I prefer geographic borders; in EU4 I wasn’t thinking so much about my constituent states, so what did it matter if Ohio was a single unit? Locations are so small, you could practically hide modern borders among them for use in peace deals.

It would be amazing if Areas could have their constituency or borders changed by event; but I imagine that’s impossible even in the new engine.
 
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