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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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I will break up my feedback into 2 replies: one that deals with The Russian Stuff, because there's a lot of it and it's its own topic, and one that deals with everything else. I'll start with the latter.

Would it not make more sense for the Nogai culture to be named Manghit this early in its history?

I'm glad you decided the get rid of the glaring anachronisms that were Odessa and Tiraspol, but you only got the job half done and then combined that step forward with a step back. Instead of renaming Odessa to the pre-1795 Khadjibey, you gave that name to the location to the north of it.

There's a location called S"ezžaja and another called Siberia tenteksor. No idea what those are meant to be.

Bokey is named after the Bukey Horde, a group of Kazakhs that settled between the Volga and Ural rivers in 1801 under the leadership of a man named Bukey. Neither the person nor the ethnic group even exist at this point.

Kalmyk is, of course, the name of a people, which could work as the name of a province but not so much a location, given how spread out the Kalmyks are. But the bigger problem is that it's anachronistic. The Kalmyks are Mongols of the western branch who moved to the lower Volga in the early 17th century. Imagine if we got a North America map in which the location of what is now Quebec City and the province around it were called French - it makes about as much sense.

The fact that Desht-i Kipchak is not an English-language name doesn't make it an endonym. It's actually a Persian name, and should be translated to the Kipchak Steppe.

The original, pre-Pugachev's Rebellion name of the Ural river is Yaik, not Yik. The typo should be corrected, and Lower Yik should be Lower Yaik.

Sloboda-Ukraine and Yedisan need to be renamed. Sloboda Ukraine is a name that was used during the 17th and 18th century East Slavic colonization of that portion of the Wild Fields. Yedisan, which I immediately looked for because it's a common anachronism, goes back to the Nogai settlement east of the Dniester; I'm not sure when that happened exactly, but it was certainly long after 1337.

As I mentioned in the Russia thread, Cherdyn was probably the capital of Great Perm, so it makes no sense to have the area of Perm exclude it. The location of that area seems to assume that Great Perm was centered on the modern-day city of Perm, when in fact that city was named in homage to Great Perm during Russian imperial times.

Finally, I will note my disappointment in there being no areas of Yugra and Karelia.

(Edited to remove capitalization.)
 
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Hmn...

I am happy to see the effort put into locations, with some corrections already being suggested by others.
However, since none have really talked about it too much, I would like to talk about the religious layout -
Even understanding full well that, as said, this is a work in progress.

After having written this, I have decided to underline my suggestions, so they are easier to read. They are at the end.

When we received the Caucasian maps, I was very glad to see the granular attention paid to a region that -
Many people are probably not likely to play, and peoples that are less likely to be seen on the greater world stage!

But.

This essentially throws out of the water the idea I'd assumed, that you were taking steps to homogenise areas, for gameplay's sake.
If you are going to add Caucasian indigenous religions, the situation in other peripheral areas should be treated with the same gravity and granularity.
Outside of my repetition that Estonia's religious map is fantasy, impossibly Catholic for the time, but that is not relevant to this post...

Lands of the Rus: Religiously most unified, but very softly.
Without knowing how religion is handled, I cannot give you good feedback as to what to do here.
There is no historical name for it, but I would recommend an intermediary religion for Eastern Slavs that adopts some religious rites of the Yoke.
It would convert very rapidly to Orthodox when/if the Golden Horde collapses, but might remain a distinct grouping if the Horde survives -
Or even convert to Islam/Tengrism depending on which emerges strongest there - including other options we will get to.
Depending on how religion works, rather than a religion, it could be represented as a modifier - but is probably no more than 2% of the population.

Much like Islam, Christianity (Eastern Orthodox) should be uniform in larger settlements, and a spotty mess elsewhere.
A frequent complaint of writers at the time was that there were many 'Bad Christians' in the lands of the Rus.
The conversion to Christianity and Islam were long, complicated processes -
I do not think, in what is trying to be a more historical game, we should pretend otherwise.

The idea of these minorities might be that they are bonfire-making reconstructionist pagans, or something similar.
But that is not how things were, or how we should divide them.
I would recommend two groupings: 'Folkloric' to represent Christianity with strong elements of prior pagan beliefs - and also Tengrist and Islamic influences.
Strong everywhere, stubbornly resistant to conversion, but if there are differences in tolerance, should be largely tolerated and give no penalties to EO powers until roughly the 1500s, which is when you start to see large-scale massive conversion efforts - esp. under Ivan IV (that Ivan).
I would place these as being 10-20% of the population, but almost entirely on the fringes of settlement.
Remember that the 17th, 18th, and 19th-century religious movements did not emerge from nowhere.

As to the other, Slavic Paganism was very much still present.
It, also, was heavily influenced by Christianity, Islam, Tengrism, etc.
I think this is where many people who go 'there could not possibly have been heathens in the Rus!' are tripped up.
Many of these people might well have conflated Dazhbog with Christ. (And please, no 'Rodnoverie...')
But their practises and their isolation did not change the fact that they existed - on the most peripheral settled areas not Societies of Population.
The Pomor, what would become Surgut etc are where we might find this group.
Perhaps 2-4% (but 10-20% in certain starting locations).
But likely to be converted very rapidly/assimilated into the dominant culture/religion of whomever controls the area.
Like the above, it should be very difficult for a player to revitalise this, but not unthinkable in 1337.

Eastern Orthodoxy itself is not the only power in the area. I am sure there are already touches of Roman Catholicism here and there.
But I am talking about, and it is a good place to change to...

The Golden Horde: Religiously disunited, but very softly.

One of the first things that must be mentioned is the Church of the East!
Yes, there should be that very pretty pink colour here, too.
Unfortunately, I cannot properly tell you how many people should still be following it; probably around 2-4%, with stronger location-based presences.
Much like the aforementioned Slavic Pagans, this is a fading, but not defunct religion in the region, and when the game is started, the opportunity for its fortunes to shift do so, too.

Similarly, Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy especially should be present; there were many Greek notables in Saray/Sarai.
Advisors, travellers, missionaries, scientists... Saray should probably have a recurring event on the nomination of a new manager of the yoke that allows for it to 'slow' development in a random area with higher development, in return for Saray itself gaining a development increase speed until it matches all possible targets with higher development.

This is not as simple as giving/taking development, nor (I think!) as powerful/potentially gamey.
Anyway.

Saray should be a religious melting pot - Özbeg Khan struggled with this his entire reign, not entirely successfully.
Much like the Christianisation of the Rus', the conversion of the steppes to Islam was a very slow, gradual process; with settled areas often being converted 'enough,' but still retaining religious minorities (Jews, Buddhists, Tengrists, Church of the East) and the peripheries... Not converting, not really.
Or converting just enough for the tax collector, and then paying it not a lot of mind. (A repeated theme.)

For the potential devotee of the Sunnah, the most powerful obstacle will be those same (Sakya?) Buddhist and Tengrist lords.
Stubbornly resistant to conversion, their feeling of threat under the pressure to convert was yet another pressure in the Horde's collapse.
It is hard to give one location because all of these religions were located across the Horde.
Rather than give you a percentage I will ask for time to see if I can find reliable sources so that I can give you a better idea.
Buddhists should be lower percentage of the population, but stronger in settled and (relatively) more developed areas.

Depending on how long the Khan lives, a re-conversion to Tengrism, Sakya or possibly other forms of Buddhism, adoption of the Church of the East or Eastern Catholicism, even conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy or Shia Islam should be possible. (And just as difficult. Golden Horde should be powerful and challenging, and I trust PC to get that unique balance right!)

Finally, I think if the divisions between Shia/Sunni Islam are re-examined as some of my colleagues who are more familiar with the internal divisions of Islam have suggested, I think it would be well-considered to have the steppes following a separate Sufism-inspired form, with a later ability to 'reconfirm' to a more unified Sunni whole, very rapidly converting population if an Islamic power has survived and thrived. (Or continuing to go their own way, of course.)

However, most important to me of all...

All the rest: First, let's discuss 'Tengrism.'
It's not as bad as 'Shamanism,' but it is still an umbrella for a huge diversity of beliefs.
Is Tengri the skyfather, the skymother, or a completely uncreated deity/deities?
Well, that varies depending on who you ask in both traditions living and defunct.
I do not think Tengrism should be split further!
But I do think that as a still-important religion, having diversities within it like what you may be planning to do with Hinduism would make a great deal of sense.

What we think to do with Tengri and Eke is dominant all across the Steppe.
Some might reverse (or remove) the roles of Tengri and Eke, and Turkic Mongols may well venerate the old Turkic Pantheon.
Eventually, Tanri will become little more than a local name for God, however.
And many of the small local groups classified as Tengrist... Might not be.
Rather, the idea that Tengri is the supreme deity is not shared universally, or that Tengri even is a deity.

But for now, let's look carefully at the blob that is 'Shamanist.'

Looking at the Caucauses map, I would recommend the following divisions along similar lines:
Udmurtic, Komi, Nenetsian etc. This follows what we have seen in the prior map.
I am making the assumption that most religions will be very bare-bones; existing to show historical belief and add options.
However, having flavour events between them, even just one or two, would be nice.
Being able to ask an Udmurtic shaman for a revelatory dance, or an heir travelling with Reindeer Herders as a rite of passage in Nenets faith.

What matters here most is that, even if the fundamental building blocks of these faiths were similar -
Emphasis placed on local shamans and miracleworkers, the small supernatural world and its many mysteries -
They were not a single bloc of belief, and did not regard one another as being interchangable.
(Which of course could be utilised by larger, more unified powers.)

One more note: I can't help but see that you have the Erzyan people as animist.
I am glad to see that the nonsense about them converting very early on isn't present here.
My recommendation would to be have their religion and that of the Finnic Bjarms be similar -

Even if styled as 'Erzyan' and 'Bjarmic,' respectively.

Whew!
That was quite a lot, and I understand that there may not be time to take everything in.
So, for your convenience, here they are as short as possible.

  • Eastern Slavic population should be only just religiously united.
  • A population of Eastern Slavic 'conversos,' who do not convert in the early game, but convert rapidly post-independence.
  • A population of Eastern Slavic pagans, who stubbornly resist conversion but are likely assimilated into the dominant religion/culture as population moves in.
  • Some presence of Roman Catholicism and Judaism.

  • Golden Horde very disunited, but not necessarily fragmented because of it. Division is uniform, with Saray more developed.
  • Church of the East, Judaism, Roman Catholicism present. Buddhist and Tengrist power blocs that can challenge initial ruler.
  • Ability to convert to a different faith on ruler death; disappears if ruler successively converts (historical option).
  • Tengrism having internal mechanics like Hinduism has been hinted to have, with small to moderate variances based on culture and location.
  • Potential to separate Steppe Sunni to represent the periphery of Islam.

  • Shamanism divided using similar themes as the Caucasian map.
  • Each religion should be based around culture or culture grouping, but not locked from conversion.
  • The mechanics can be quite barebones; I would rather see the diversity of the area represented, even if they all play the same -
  • Then see an area that appears to be monolithic, but had many different groups even if their beliefs were similar.
  • Some groups should be paired with Tengri, Suomic, Sámi beliefs etc, over whatever Shamanism represents currently.

  • Thank you very much for reading this far! I will try to organise sources in a timely fashion. c:

Editing to try to remove inconsistent bolding I can't remember using, aha...
 
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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:
View attachment 1193513
View attachment 1194073
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:

View attachment 1194074
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:
View attachment 1193514
View attachment 1194158
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:
View attachment 1194075
View attachment 1194076

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:
View attachment 1194081
View attachment 1194082

Areas:
View attachment 1194083

Terrain:
View attachment 1194084
View attachment 1194085
View attachment 1194086
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:
View attachment 1194087
The whole region is not very developed, you might notice the difference with India, from last week’s Tinto Maps.

Harbors:
View attachment 1194088
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:
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.


Religions:
View attachment 1194092
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:
View attachment 1194093
View attachment 1194094
View attachment 1194095
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:
View attachment 1194096
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:

View attachment 1194101

Population:
View attachment 1194103
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
Why mstislavl principality not a subject of Golden Horde? I think every principality should be unless vassalised by Lithuania or Moskow.
Also I think it is too early to portray Rzhev as a vassal of Lithuania. I can find only the conquest date being 1370+. Right now there should be constant fights over it. I think it’s better to make it independent and give to first conqueror.
 
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Why mstislavl principality not a subject of Golden Horde? I think every principality should be unless vassalised by Lithuania or Moskow.
Also I think it is too early to portray Rzhev as a vassal of Lithuania. I can find only the conquest date being 1370+. Right now there should be constant fights over it. I think it’s better to make it independent and give to first conqueror.
I think they just haven't updated the IO for any adjustments they've made so far in Russia, and won't until the feedback thread is posted.
 
Cool! One question, though-- is there a reason why fur and lumber provinces seem to alternate in Siberia? It seems too regular to be accidental.
The devs made the unfortunate decision to limit raw materials to one per location, even when the location is larger than some of the smaller provinces. So instead of the Eurasian taiga allowing you to extract both furs and lumber (or, at worst, giving you a choice between the 2), you have this weird situation where no forest in the world can simultaneously contain animals that you can hunt for their furs and trees that you can cut down for their lumber. It makes no sense.
 
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The devs made the unfortunate decision to limit raw materials to one per location, even when the location is larger than some of the smaller provinces. So instead of the Eurasian taiga allowing you to extract both furs and lumber (or, at worst, giving you a choice between the 2), you have this weird situation where no forest in the world can simultaneously contain animals that you can hunt for their furs and trees that you can cut down for their lumber. It makes no sense.
RGOs are limited to one per location, but raw resources are not. There are buildings that produce raw resources at a cost of inputs goods, but RGO output is "free" (insomuch that it only costs labor). Presumably you can build a "logging" building in every forested location in the world that will produce lumber at the cost of, say, tools.
 
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RGOs are limited to one per location, but raw resources are not. There are buildings that produce raw resources at a cost of inputs goods, but RGO output is "free" (insomuch that it only costs labor). Presumably you can build a "logging" building in every forested location in the world that will produce lumber at the cost of, say, tools.
But then why is lumber listed as a raw material, the same as furs? It's literally all over a map that has one raw material per location.
 
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But then why is lumber listed as a raw material, the same as furs? It's literally all over a map that has one raw material per location.
RGOs exist to "bootstrap" the economy (avoiding the whole thing being cyclic and the economy crashing). They also represent "unique" resources that need to be tracked (specific mines or uniquely-produced goods specific to only so many locations on the map, like gold or dates).
 
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Mishars, it would be more correct to Meshchera and Chuvashes.
And they would belong to the Finno-Ugric cultural group - together with the Udmurts and Mari.

The Islamization of the Golden Horde was very superficial even by the end of the 14th century.
Cities - yes. Because they were originally populated from Central Asia.
But the steppes are de facto pagan.
As are the territories of the Finno-Ugric tribes.

I hope the borders of the principalities of northeastern Rus' will be adjusted (the forum participants gave a lot of material in the previous topic).

It would be more correct to rename Sloboda Ukraine as a region to Kurshina (Kursk), after the pre-Mongol principality in that region.
 
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Your Karamergen is well off from where it should be. The purple dot with the label is the coordinates listed on the UNESCO World Heritage listing. The red cross are the coordinates from Google Maps (confirmed with satellite view). And this isn't a problem with my georeference, since the lake location is basically perfect and your location is also visually too far west of the curve of the lake compared to Google Maps. The location should probably be centered to the right, before the curve of the lake, and then stretch west to connect with Kyzylsay.

1727508165815.png
 
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The Great Kiev Principality is not entirely correct, since it includes territories of part of the Chernigov region and the Pereyaslavl Principality.
Here it is worth adding at least the Glukhov Principality and the Rylsko-Putivl Principality as vassals of the Horde.
It is more correct to reduce the territory of the Kyiv Principality from the south in favor of direct control by the Horde. Since there were already nomadic camps of the Horde there after the conquest, due to the suitable relief (forest-steppe).
 
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The eastern part of the Golden Horde (beyond the Ural river) - Nogai and Kazakhstan - was a separate ulus within the Golden Horde, with its own dynasty (not descendants of Batu Khan). The same goes for Siberia. It would be better to split the huge Horde into vassals.
 
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The Nogai majority in Khorezm is a bit strange. The Turkic Khorezmians were still present in their Khorezmian homeland and I don't think the Nogais had much presence there. I'd think that Khorezm would be a mix of Turkic Khorezmians, Turkmen, and maybe Kipchaks along with a minority of Mongol nobles/tribes and some Persians. The Turkmen should also have a strong presence in Mangystau/Mangyshlak.

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As for Khongorai, I'm a bit skeptical of the information on the Russian Wikipedia. There's not that many sources on it with most of it coming from one scholar. I'd appreciate a second opinion on this. Also the -ian or -er suffixes for the SoPs aren't really necessary when it comes to groups in this area, with the sorta exeception of the Altaians.

I always love seeing how Central Asia and North Asia are depicted in games, keep up the good work!
 

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And now, The Russian Stuff.

There is an abundance of modern Russian toponyms in parts of the map that were not under the rule of any Rus' country at this time.

You have the especially ridiculous communist ones:
  • Pervomayskoye (named after May Day)
  • Proletarsk (after the proletariat)

You have the slightly less ridiculous 18th century philhellenic ones:
  • Kherson (named after Chersonesus)
  • Mariupol
  • Melitopol
  • Stavropol (Russian pol is just the Greek polis)

You have the religious/military ones that could have been given at any point during tsarist rule but not before:
  • Borisoglebsk (named after Saints Boris and Gleb)
  • Nikolaev (after St. Nicholas)
  • Severskaya (after a Severian regiment in the Russian Imperial Army)
  • Tbilisskaya (after a Georgian regiment, originally Tiflisskaya, renamed in 1936 when Tiflis stopped being the official Russian-language name of Tbilisi)
  • Troitsko Pechorsk (should be Troitsko-Pechorsk, named after the Trinity)

You have the ones that even I, who only know a few dozen Russian words and names, can immediately spot as Russian (or Ukrainian):
  • Alexandrov Gay
  • Belaya Glina
  • Belgorod
  • Belogorye
  • Beloretsk
  • Bolshaya Laptyuga
  • Bol'shoy Balyk
  • Bolshoy Uluy (note the inconsistent Romanization)
  • Bol'shoy Uran
  • Bol'shoy Yugan
  • Chernyye Zemli
  • Grigoropolisskaya
  • Kamensk
  • Kamenskaya
  • Krasnoyarsk
  • Krasny Yar
  • Kuznetsk
  • Levaya khetta (not fully capitalized for some reason)
  • Malaya Sos'va (yet the Sos'va river is Sosva elsewhere)
  • Malye derbety (also not fully capitalized)
  • Malyy Uran
  • Mikhaylovka
  • Nazarovo
  • Nizhny Tagil
  • Novaya Lyalya
  • Novopavlovsk
  • Novosyolovo
  • Pavlohrad
  • Petrovskoye
  • Pyatigorsk (and Beshtau was right there, looming over it)
  • Selo Yartsevo
  • Semikarakorsk
  • Starominskaya
  • Stepanevka
  • Tavdinsky Sloboda
  • Uspenskoye
  • Velyka Novosilka
  • Zelenokumsk
And finally, there's the ones that are just settlements named after rivers, so just use the name of the river if there's no indigenous one available:
  • Donetsk
  • Omsk
  • Tobolsk
  • Tomsk
  • Yeniseysk

Now you might object that for the great majority of these I don't have any replacement names to ofer. That's true; I leave that work to others, because I would find it neither intellectually nor financially rewarding. Inevitably, for some locations, there will be no good alternative to the Russian name. For those cases, I'll quote a reply I made in another thread:
Some locations, provinces and areas should simply be left nameless. The idea is that they wouldn't stay that way forever, with the first country to conquer a location given the right to name it from a culturally and contextually relevant list (or use their gray matter to come up with something original, if they're not an AI player). In the case of provinces, the naming rights should go to the first country to conquer a location or a percentage of the locations within it; in the case of areas, something analogous. In the case of uninhabited locations that can be settled (such as Madeira or Réunion or St. Helena), naming rights should probably go to the discoverer. I'm not sure what to do about sea locations, because it's not obvious to me whether or not they all already have names by default.

Just to be clear, this isn't me forgetting about the dynamic naming scheme and reinventing the wheel. The game wouldn't have a predetermined notion of what to call a Dutch settlement on the unnamed shore of Table Bay, like it would have for a Dutch Lille (Rijsel), only a long list of options for the player to pick from (one of which would be Kaapstad, a name that can be given to any settlement established near a cape).

Say I'm playing as a colonial-focused Brittany under the House of Valois and with a Francophone court. I should have a list of names such as Assomption, Brest des Indes, Fort-Valois, Îles Malouines, Mer de Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Nouvelle-Rennes, Nova Armorica, Port-au-Duc, Saint-Judicaël, and Terre de Pâques that I can bestow upon unnamed places.

After all, if so many of the toponyms on our map were made up post-1337, why not actively put the player in the role of name-giver? It opens up a whole new aspect of the history-making experience, and just so happens to greatly reduce your research workload. It's an easy way to add more locations where the list of available indigenous place-names in the historical record can't keep up with the geographical expanse you need to cover, like Tasmania, Zambia or the East Coast of the United States.
My examples there were Breton, but Rus' options can easily be thought up... by other people.

(Edited to correct misspelling.)
 
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RGOs exist to "bootstrap" the economy (avoiding the whole thing being cyclic and the economy crashing). They also represent "unique" resources that need to be tracked (specific mines or uniquely-produced goods specific to only so many locations on the map, like gold or dates).
Please explain this to me like the previous explanation flew over my head, because it did: Can you extract lumber from a forest location that doesn't have lumber as its unique raw material? If yes, what is the point of lumber being the unique raw material in other locations?
 
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Please explain this to me like the previous explanation flew over my head, because it did: Can you extract lumber from a forest location that doesn't have lumber as its unique raw material? If yes, what is the point of lumber being the unique raw material in other locations?
You can; lumber being the unique raw material has the benefit of the fact that it doesn't actually cost anything to acquire in that location. An RGO is free; you just need to supply it with people. Buildings are not, and require goods.

A lumber RGO provides lumber for free. A lumber-producing building does not, and requires input goods (such as tools). That is the difference. Lumber RGOs need to exist because the way the market of the game is designed requires there to be some "free" supply of some fundamental base goods, or else the market will literally exhaust every good in the world and cease to function (what would happen to your lumber-producing buildings if you used up all the tools, and producing tools required lumber?).
 
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View attachment 1194144

Man, such a huge area and nothing but nigh-continuous cows, horses and sheep. Almost makes me want to fence the whole area into some kind of 'Bahrn-ate'
Actually i do have a question regarding this, for example in todays date most of these lands are no longer steppe and are farmlands for producing wheat and other crops to my knowledge , i think this process at the very least started if not was almost complete by the end date of PC's timeline, will there be a possibility this will be portrayed? Steppe lands being transitioned towards farmland and the corresponding changes in goods production by location?
 
You can; lumber being the unique raw material has the benefit of the fact that it doesn't actually cost anything to acquire in that location. An RGO is free; you just need to supply it with people. Buildings are not, and require goods.

A lumber RGO provides lumber for free. A lumber-producing building does not, and requires input goods (such as tools). That is the difference. Lumber RGOs need to exist because the way the market of the game is designed requires there to be some "free" supply of some fundamental base goods, or else the market will literally exhaust every good in the world and cease to function (what would happen to your lumber-producing buildings if you used up all the tools, and producing tools required lumber?).
So one forest produces lumber on its own and another produces lumber only if you build a logging camp there? That makes no sense. Especially since lumber is processed wood by definition. And that still leaves you in the unrealistic position where a location can provide just one fundamental base good, regardless of its size. And regardless of whether or not there's some fundamental trade-off between extracting one and extracting another (which there often isn't).
 
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