Recently we got to know the entire map in Project Caesar, as Tinto Map Talks have already covered the entire world. The level of detail compared to previous games is great - we will be able to discover even distant wastelands like Bouvet Island etc. However, on the released maps, it can be seen that there are still a few islands/archipelagos missing, which I would like to draw your attention to and analyze together with you.
First of all, it should be noted that most of the missing islands discussed in this thread would only play a cosmetic role, as they are too small, or uninhabited to this day due to their inhospitability. Such islands would be just decorative wastelands, simply a background element. However, there are also a few that are inhabited and played some role in history, so perhaps they could be considered additional locations. Some of the missing islands are coastal islands, which, although not very important, can be added to the neighboring locations on the mainland to improve the depiction of the coastline.
This thread is therefore used to search for missing islands, understood as land masses replaced by water in the game, which can be considered an inconsistency on the part of the developers. Whereas, this thread is not intended to list islands that are already represented in the game and you have seen them in released screenshots, but you would like them to be a separate location, etc. This is a completely different issue.
I am not sure if we know the exact scale of the map in Project Caesar and how much we will be able to zoom in. However, some of the released screenshots allow us to determine how small islands can be represented in the game at the adopted scale. As an example, we can give the Niua Islands in northern Tonga, which consist of three main islands of different sizes. The smallest of them is only 3 km² and is still visible on the game map (although due to its small size it is part of a single location with a neighboring larger island). Fun fact - there is also something that is not even an island, but only a sea shoal. This example gives us some idea of how small islands can be visible in the game after zooming in, as well as what can be considered a separate location and what should not.
In many other screenshots we can confirm the presence of many other islands below 10 km² that are visible on the game map, some well-known like Pitcairn Island (4 km²), others completely useless and decorative, like Saint Paul Island (8 km²) in the southern Indian Ocean. Some small but recognizable and more important islands may also be slightly enlarged, which is not a new practice in PDX games.
Of course, it is difficult to expect every rock in the sea to be present in the game, so I tried to choose only such missing islands that seem to make some sense from a gameplay perspective, or despite their only decorative function, seem to be large enough that they should also be consistently added, since similarly sized or even smaller islands already exist in the game. This is a list (WIP):
If you see any more missing islands, share them in the comments. In my spare time I will update the list with the most interesting suggestions that meet some minimum criteria. As a reference point you can use probably the best map ever created for the PDX game, the E3 Map Project mod for Darkest Hour, made by @mumia (blank map attached below).
First of all, it should be noted that most of the missing islands discussed in this thread would only play a cosmetic role, as they are too small, or uninhabited to this day due to their inhospitability. Such islands would be just decorative wastelands, simply a background element. However, there are also a few that are inhabited and played some role in history, so perhaps they could be considered additional locations. Some of the missing islands are coastal islands, which, although not very important, can be added to the neighboring locations on the mainland to improve the depiction of the coastline.
This thread is therefore used to search for missing islands, understood as land masses replaced by water in the game, which can be considered an inconsistency on the part of the developers. Whereas, this thread is not intended to list islands that are already represented in the game and you have seen them in released screenshots, but you would like them to be a separate location, etc. This is a completely different issue.
I am not sure if we know the exact scale of the map in Project Caesar and how much we will be able to zoom in. However, some of the released screenshots allow us to determine how small islands can be represented in the game at the adopted scale. As an example, we can give the Niua Islands in northern Tonga, which consist of three main islands of different sizes. The smallest of them is only 3 km² and is still visible on the game map (although due to its small size it is part of a single location with a neighboring larger island). Fun fact - there is also something that is not even an island, but only a sea shoal. This example gives us some idea of how small islands can be visible in the game after zooming in, as well as what can be considered a separate location and what should not.
In many other screenshots we can confirm the presence of many other islands below 10 km² that are visible on the game map, some well-known like Pitcairn Island (4 km²), others completely useless and decorative, like Saint Paul Island (8 km²) in the southern Indian Ocean. Some small but recognizable and more important islands may also be slightly enlarged, which is not a new practice in PDX games.
Of course, it is difficult to expect every rock in the sea to be present in the game, so I tried to choose only such missing islands that seem to make some sense from a gameplay perspective, or despite their only decorative function, seem to be large enough that they should also be consistently added, since similarly sized or even smaller islands already exist in the game. This is a list (WIP):
| Name | Area | Location | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell Islands | 113 km² | Southern Pacific Ocean | As the main island of the archipelago covers 112 km² (what is more than twice the size of the whole Pitcairn Islands - 47 km²) it is strange that it has not been added yet. It could be a pair island for the neighboring Auckland Island, which we can see on the map. The island lies next to an existing sea lane, so access should not be a problem. | ||
| Antipodes Islands | 21 km² | Southern Pacific Ocean | Located outside existing sea lanes, so it could be an unreachable wasteland (like Jan Mayen seems to be). The main island covers 20 km², which is almost as much as the Nauru Island (21 km²). | ||
| Kermadec Islands | 33 km² | Southern Pacific Ocean | The islands, though uninhabited, were visited many times by the Polynesians, who called them Rangitāhua (lit. "the stopping-off place"), which aptly reflects their potential in-game purpose as a halfway point on a new sea lane directly connecting the Tonga islands with New Zealand. Most of the archipelago area consists of one island - Raoul Island (29 km²). | ||
| Fatu Hiva | 85 km² | Central Pacific Ocean | One of the main islands of the Marquesas, omitted for unknown reasons. Since the entire archipelago is likely to be one location, this would be just another of its component islands, slightly changing the layout of the surrounding sea locations. | ||
| Clipperton Island | 8 km² | Eastern Pacific Ocean | A small, uninhabited atoll, in the past used as a temporary base for pirates and privateers. A bit far from existing sea lanes, it could be an unreachable wasteland, or serve as a blind branch of coastal waters connected to the nearest sea lane. | ||
| Cocos Island | 23 km² | Eastern Pacific Ocean | Since its discovery in the 16th century, the island has remained uninhabited, but for centuries it was a refuge for pirates and buccaneers because of the abundance of fresh water, wood, fishing, and coconuts. Because of this, many legends have arisen about treasures hidden on the island. The island does not appear to exist in the game, although it is conveniently located at the junction of one of the sea lanes with coastal waters. | ||
| Gorgona Island | 26 km² | Eastern Pacific Ocean | A coastal island in Colombia. It may be attached to one of the locations on the mainland, as we can see in other regions that similarly sized coastal islands are included in the game. | ||
| Desventuradas Islands | 5 km² | Eastern Pacific Ocean | The name itself (lit. "Unfortunate Islands") suggests that the best option for them would be to become another wasteland. Their presence would, however, slightly change the shape of the local coastal waters, adding an additional area north of the Juan Fernández Islands already present in the game. | ||
| San Andrés and Providencia | 52 km² | Caribbean Sea | An archipelago of several islands, the largest of which are San Andrés Island (26 km²) and Providencia Island (17 km²). The islands are inhabited and are still the subject of a territorial dispute. In the past, they have changed allegiance many times, belonging to Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, and often to pirates, including the famous Henry Morgan, who used it as his base. For these reasons, they can be added as a new location, or possibly attached to one of the nearby locations on the mainland. Also known as the Raizal islands. | ||
| Sable Island | 31 km² | Northern Atlantic Ocean | Sable Island is famous for its large number of shipwrecks, as it is located in the middle of the main transatlantic shipping route. An estimated 350 vessels are believed to have fallen victim to the island's sand bars. There's probably no need to make it a separate province, but it could be attached to some coastal province on the mainland, while the main change would be to adjust the sea provinces around the island to accommodate the need to bypass it, rather than pretend there's nothing there but water. | ||
| Anholt | 22 km² | Baltic Sea | One of the two main islands in the Kattegat strait. While the larger of the two, Læsø (101 km²), is present in the game, this one has been ignored, even though many smaller islands in the area are included. Since in the game Læsø is part of a nearby province on the mainland, the same should be true for Anholt. | ||
| Fernando de Noronha | 26 km² | Central Atlantic Ocean | The main island (18 km²) is inhabited, with the main settlement of Vila dos Remedios and a population of around 3,000. Since its discovery in the early 16th century, the archipelago has changed hands several times, to the British, the French, the Dutch and finally the Portuguese, who fortified the main island. It also has access to a sea lane that is already in the game. | ||
| Trindade and Martim Vaz | 10 km² | Southern Atlantic Ocean |
| ||
| Agaléga Islands | 24 km² | Western Indian Ocean | The archipelago consists of two islands, the North Island (14 km²) and the South Island (10 km²). Both are inhabited, the largest settlement is Vingt Cinq. The islands lie just on the sea lane already existing in the game. | ||
| Cocos Islands | 14 km² | Eastern Indian Ocean | These islands are available and colonizable in EU4, but in Project Caesar they disappeared underwater. Situated between several sea lanes, they could be connected to one of them. | ||
| Daitō Islands | 44 km² | Philippine Sea | An archipelago of three isolated islands located southeast of Okinawa. The largest of these are Minamidaitōjima (30 km²) and Kitadaitōjima (11 km²). Since they were settled late (19th century) by the Japanese, they could be a wasteland in the game, the coastal waters of which would be an additional sea area east of Okinawa. | ||
| Moneron Island | 16 km² | Sea of Japan | A small island west of Sakhalin. In the past inhabited by the Ainu, so it could be attached to one of the coastal locations on Sakhalin, as is already the case with similar islands off the coast of nearby Hokkaido and Honshu. |
If you see any more missing islands, share them in the comments. In my spare time I will update the list with the most interesting suggestions that meet some minimum criteria. As a reference point you can use probably the best map ever created for the PDX game, the E3 Map Project mod for Darkest Hour, made by @mumia (blank map attached below).
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