Should there be an ocean wasteland tile in the Bay of Bengal?

[Mindel]

One of the things I noticed in the maps DD was that the Bay of Bengal has a big impassable tile right in the center, unlike other areas of similar size such as the Caribbean, the South China Sea, etc.

Is there a historical or oceanographic reason for this wasteland to be there? I can't possibly imagine this area to be "unknown territory" to the locals.

 

[Blindbohemian]

In the same DD Johan stated that non-coastal ocean tiles were either impassable or ocean current tiles, meaning that they could be traversed only in one direction. I saw the same hole in the Bay of Bengal and assumed it's there because only being able to travel through the middle of the Bay of Bengal in one direction would be really janky. I have to admit the whole ocean current feature immediately made me scratch my head with reference to the Indian Ocean monsoon.

 

[Mindel]

In the same DD Johan stated that non-coastal ocean tiles were either impassable or ocean current tiles, meaning that they could be traversed only in one direction.

He didn't actually say this. He said that there were two layers of coastal sea tiles, and then ocean current tiles enable faster travel in one direction, but did not rule out traveling in the opposite direction.

In any event, we can see that these rules are broken for the Caribbean, for instance, where there looks to be more than two layers of non-current tiles. So it's really not clear to me where these rules apply.

 

[Johan]

Yeah, Carribean, Black Sea, Mediterranean and the Baltic are all divided in even chunks. There will be another pass of the map and revise seazones in some large bays to be ensure a more consistent approach around the world.

 

[Mindel]

Yeah, Carribean, Black Sea, Mediterranean and the Baltic are all divided in even chunks. There will be another pass of the map and revise seazones in some large bays to be ensure a more consistent approach around the world.

The Bay of Bengal stood out to me because that's the Ganges opens into, so it surely must have been an important trade region since forever. I find it hard to imagine there should be any impassable tiles in it unless there are some kind of extremely deadly ocean currents or weather patterns around.

The Arabian Sea also looks like another area that seems like it should be an important trade region with fewer impassable tiles than what it has right now.

 

[Mindel]

Here's a map of trade routes in the Bay of Bengal in the 1500s

They seem to criss-cross the Bay evenly, more or less. I think it would make sense not to have any impassable tiles in this area

 

[Mindel]

So it been 8 months, the India Tinto maps has come and gone, but still there are no plans to revise this?