Interesting Views on the CK2+ map

[LordPeter]

Greetings,
so I just wanted to post a new thread to share some screenshots taken on several layers of the CK2+ map, that I think provide an interesting insight on things that aren't obvious most of the time.
There will be new posts when I have time to look on a new layer, and also adjusted when the map undergoes significant changes (and I have time).

The first one is "Terrain".
Pretty obvious, and quite important, but most of the time it's hard to tell from looking at the map which terrain a province actually has. So here, "simplified" terrain:

Legend:
White - Arctic
Light Grey - Mountain
Brown - Hills
Dark Green - Forest
Turquoise - Jungle
Light Green - Plains
Yellow - Steppe
Sandy - Desert
Yellow-Green - Savanna

As you can see, there are actually a few oddities currently:
For example, why is southern Finland considered to be "Farmland"? Similarly, why is the coastline of modern Eritrea/Djibouti (where the Red Sea begins) considered Plains, when indeed it can be considered semi-arid a best, and more likely a desert?
Things might have changed since the Middle Ages, but at least I do not know about them. If anyone has insight on some major ecological changes since then, I'd be happy to know


Next up is "Climate".
It's a bit more visible because of the snow layer, but that is dynamic, so again it's not easy to get a clear view ingame.
Note that there currently are a few "holes" that I already reported, so this map will get updated once they are patched. Still, even now it might offer some insights:

Legend:
Green - Temperate
Dark Blue - Mild Winter
Light Blue - Normal Winter
White - Sever Winter

So that's it for now, when I have time I will post some more. Hope you find this visualized info entertaining.

 

[zeress]

A lot of the terrain questions can be answered with one of two answers:

1. Force limit would be atrocious without a plains (or similar) terrain, even if makes little sense for it to be literal plains. Could make it something with another name like "Oasis" but it'd serve the same function
2. It's from vanilla and never got changed. This is especially evident in the specific example of the red sea, where new provinces were added from vanilla

Most likely if it seems out of place, it's either an oversight or just a mistake rather than anything else though.

 

[LordPeter]

The thing is, in my opinion every desert province in the game is already considered to have an oasis or something similar in it, because otherwise it would simply be impossible for humans to settle there. I know it's from vanilla, and even HIP has the region fertile (heck, they even have a FOREST there !!), but it startled me during one of my research-hazes, because - at least nowadays - Djibouti is so hot and arid, and even its climate is considered to be of "true desert" (BWh) type mostly. In Egypt its the Nile that offsets the desert climate, obviously, but for example Oman has areas that are much more fertile than most in the region, and it is still considered to be Desert ingame.
That's how the region looks from space - I simply can't see why this should currently be called Plains, which ingame means it is mostly the same as e.g. the region around Paris. Of course this isn't as fine grained as it could be, but imo it lies far closer to Desert than to Plains. Unless in the Middle Ages the region had an entirely different climate, about which I don't know.

But enough with the ranting, that's vanilla and not your fault. I'll probably compile a list with suggestions about terrain changes at some point, and you can see if you agree. But not right now, as it's no pressing issue.
For now, these screenshots are just thought to visualize the "big picture" situations, which ingame you don't notice.

 

[Ruisuki]

wouldnt the desert terrain affect the desert expert commander trait?? My commander could use help there