So now that I have some time to make some points regarding this week's feedback (or Frankly, lack thereof) I want to preface I KNOW the Areas of real life regions do not affect Location Density in game, and more applicable factors like Population, Urbanism, terrain, Climate, and overall viability. HOWEVER, for a massive region like West Africa, I cannot help but notice the Stark Contrast of location Density for a place that has had rather consistently, around 1/3 of the entire continents population. Not only this, but West Africa, along with Eastern and Northern, has an incredibly rich and very deep history, yet it is often Obscured or even mythological in nature due to lack of early written records.
Honestly, I can understand if this lack of available and verifiable information has an effect on what you may consider viable when it comes to adding new Locations, But I wanted to take a moment to go over some approximations. I have a general location count for several Regions that I wanted to compare against West Africa, those being France, Italy, the Maghreb, and lastly, the Arabian Peninsula. I wanted to compare both Population Density, as well as Location Density.
To start off, I took a look at West Africa, excluding all the isolated Sahara Locations. I counted up the region and ended up with ~ 591 Locations (From Senegal to Lake Chad and Cameroon) A pretty sizeable amount I would say. However, when looking at the Area these locations cover, we have about 1,528,000 Sq Miles. Or about 3957500 Sq Km. If we find the Average coverage of each location, they are covering a WHOPPING 2,585 Sq Mi/Location. These are truly Massive Locations around the entire Region. If we take the Population suggestions made by others and go with about 13 Million, we do end up with a decent 22,000 pop/Location. Though If I am being Frank. This Average Density feels a bit High?
My first comparison, France, has ~ 429 (give or take a few) Locations, after the Feedback Last year. This is incredibly dense Location Wise, as France's Area is about 213,000 Sq. Mi/511,700 Sq. Km. This creates an average location in France covering about 500 Sq Mi or 1300 Sq Km.
France's Population at the start of the game is around 18 Million, which quickly drops to about 12 Million by the 1350s. This population Density goes from 42,000/Location to 28,000/Location (A complete simplification of course, as Pop density varies greatly from Rural to Urban Locations)
Italy has ~ 205 Locations after feedback, Corsica is not included in the count. Modern Italy has an area of ~ 116600 Sq Mi. This equates to ~ 566 Sq Mi/Location, fairly close in Density to France!
Italy's pop at game start is around 12 Million, and is slashed to about 7.5 Million (This varies from what I found) This Population Density is 58,500/Location and strays down to 36,600/Location by 1350. Still remaining incredibly dense.
For this First part I conducted, I did not feel like France and Italy were great comparisons for all of West Africa. They were Highly Urban, highly Developed, and quite rich for the time. Not to Mention incredibly well documented when it comes to things like founding towns and cities, or simply WHAT Existed.
I then looked at comparing some other places, that maybe are not QUITE as good as Western Europe, so I looked to the Maghreb, a drier, hotter, and much less populated or developed region. What I did to calculate Location Density with NA and Arabian Peninsula is excluded the desert wasteland completely, especially as North Africa Quadruples in Size or more if you factor in the Sahara. So I calculated based on *Habitable* Area. With this, the Maghreb has about 276 Locations, and the area is approximately 390,400 Sq Mi for what is Habitable. This leaves us with 1,414 Sq. Mi/Location, already a very sizeable drop from Europe, but Honestly I think for this Region it's really good Density. The Initial Pop Map has about 5.7 Million. This gives us in-game pop density of 20,600/location. Also Feels pretty alright for the 1300s.
Arabia is Interesting, as there is a surprisingly large number of locations at ~360. The sheer number already left me ok with the lack of additions in the feedback. To be fair, the Area of the region is a sizeable 1.153 Million Sq. Mi! However, a vast chunk of the map is Wasteland so I did split this 60/40 as well as 50/50 as I can't tell one way or the other if the Wasteland size is equal to the Location coverage. Both measurements put the location density at 1922 Sq. Mi/Location or 1601 Sq. Mi/Location. For a region that is nearly completely desolate, this is good coverage. Especially since the population is not all that great. In game currently we have nearly 4 Million in the Peninsula, giving us a Density of around 11,000/Location. This still seems pretty good to me as much of Arabia was pastoral or Nomadic, development was really only around major towns and cities, so it gives a good sense of lower pop density.
Based on this, I think West Africa as a whole should be getting the Location Density up to be somewhere between Arabia and North Africa, as the region is quite habitable. This would get also Pop density down more from the 22000, which is currently more "dense" than the Maghreb, which gives the feeling the region is supposed to be more settled and urban than it was at the start of the game (Not to say there wasn't Developed cities or urbanization!). There should be noticeable core Regions that are much more dense with Locations and pops, that also have a clear indication it is an important region during the time frame. This Includes Yorubaland, Hausaland, Igbo/Nri, the Gambia River, Senegal River, and even Ghana (Modern region). Frankly it's not the easiest to tell right now because all the locations are around the same size and they are all huge, with perhaps Jolof being the exception. a Redrawing of locations might make this a bit better, but then you're just left with even bigger locations that are sat right next even smaller ones, something that is *supposed* to be avoided.
I know a Geographic take is maybe a weird one, I don't even know why I went this way, I'm sure there are better ways to persuade that Locations are needed. But, I truly think increasing the Location density, even a little bit is crucial to get the region more on par with the rest of the world, as a region that has had sprawling Empires and Kingdoms, Migrations, Large Population centers, centers of religion and learning, centuries of... interaction... with Europe, many many many different peoples, tribes, chiefdoms, statelets, and more. If Sources are needed for each location, Ill provide them. I want Western Africa to be the absolute best it can be. The EU4 update to the region was such a disappointment. This feedback was so disheartening. But I wont give up trying to make the region more exciting and more interesting.
P.S. Sorry for the rambling post.
Honestly, I can understand if this lack of available and verifiable information has an effect on what you may consider viable when it comes to adding new Locations, But I wanted to take a moment to go over some approximations. I have a general location count for several Regions that I wanted to compare against West Africa, those being France, Italy, the Maghreb, and lastly, the Arabian Peninsula. I wanted to compare both Population Density, as well as Location Density.
To start off, I took a look at West Africa, excluding all the isolated Sahara Locations. I counted up the region and ended up with ~ 591 Locations (From Senegal to Lake Chad and Cameroon) A pretty sizeable amount I would say. However, when looking at the Area these locations cover, we have about 1,528,000 Sq Miles. Or about 3957500 Sq Km. If we find the Average coverage of each location, they are covering a WHOPPING 2,585 Sq Mi/Location. These are truly Massive Locations around the entire Region. If we take the Population suggestions made by others and go with about 13 Million, we do end up with a decent 22,000 pop/Location. Though If I am being Frank. This Average Density feels a bit High?
My first comparison, France, has ~ 429 (give or take a few) Locations, after the Feedback Last year. This is incredibly dense Location Wise, as France's Area is about 213,000 Sq. Mi/511,700 Sq. Km. This creates an average location in France covering about 500 Sq Mi or 1300 Sq Km.
France's Population at the start of the game is around 18 Million, which quickly drops to about 12 Million by the 1350s. This population Density goes from 42,000/Location to 28,000/Location (A complete simplification of course, as Pop density varies greatly from Rural to Urban Locations)
Italy has ~ 205 Locations after feedback, Corsica is not included in the count. Modern Italy has an area of ~ 116600 Sq Mi. This equates to ~ 566 Sq Mi/Location, fairly close in Density to France!
Italy's pop at game start is around 12 Million, and is slashed to about 7.5 Million (This varies from what I found) This Population Density is 58,500/Location and strays down to 36,600/Location by 1350. Still remaining incredibly dense.
For this First part I conducted, I did not feel like France and Italy were great comparisons for all of West Africa. They were Highly Urban, highly Developed, and quite rich for the time. Not to Mention incredibly well documented when it comes to things like founding towns and cities, or simply WHAT Existed.
I then looked at comparing some other places, that maybe are not QUITE as good as Western Europe, so I looked to the Maghreb, a drier, hotter, and much less populated or developed region. What I did to calculate Location Density with NA and Arabian Peninsula is excluded the desert wasteland completely, especially as North Africa Quadruples in Size or more if you factor in the Sahara. So I calculated based on *Habitable* Area. With this, the Maghreb has about 276 Locations, and the area is approximately 390,400 Sq Mi for what is Habitable. This leaves us with 1,414 Sq. Mi/Location, already a very sizeable drop from Europe, but Honestly I think for this Region it's really good Density. The Initial Pop Map has about 5.7 Million. This gives us in-game pop density of 20,600/location. Also Feels pretty alright for the 1300s.
Arabia is Interesting, as there is a surprisingly large number of locations at ~360. The sheer number already left me ok with the lack of additions in the feedback. To be fair, the Area of the region is a sizeable 1.153 Million Sq. Mi! However, a vast chunk of the map is Wasteland so I did split this 60/40 as well as 50/50 as I can't tell one way or the other if the Wasteland size is equal to the Location coverage. Both measurements put the location density at 1922 Sq. Mi/Location or 1601 Sq. Mi/Location. For a region that is nearly completely desolate, this is good coverage. Especially since the population is not all that great. In game currently we have nearly 4 Million in the Peninsula, giving us a Density of around 11,000/Location. This still seems pretty good to me as much of Arabia was pastoral or Nomadic, development was really only around major towns and cities, so it gives a good sense of lower pop density.
Based on this, I think West Africa as a whole should be getting the Location Density up to be somewhere between Arabia and North Africa, as the region is quite habitable. This would get also Pop density down more from the 22000, which is currently more "dense" than the Maghreb, which gives the feeling the region is supposed to be more settled and urban than it was at the start of the game (Not to say there wasn't Developed cities or urbanization!). There should be noticeable core Regions that are much more dense with Locations and pops, that also have a clear indication it is an important region during the time frame. This Includes Yorubaland, Hausaland, Igbo/Nri, the Gambia River, Senegal River, and even Ghana (Modern region). Frankly it's not the easiest to tell right now because all the locations are around the same size and they are all huge, with perhaps Jolof being the exception. a Redrawing of locations might make this a bit better, but then you're just left with even bigger locations that are sat right next even smaller ones, something that is *supposed* to be avoided.
I know a Geographic take is maybe a weird one, I don't even know why I went this way, I'm sure there are better ways to persuade that Locations are needed. But, I truly think increasing the Location density, even a little bit is crucial to get the region more on par with the rest of the world, as a region that has had sprawling Empires and Kingdoms, Migrations, Large Population centers, centers of religion and learning, centuries of... interaction... with Europe, many many many different peoples, tribes, chiefdoms, statelets, and more. If Sources are needed for each location, Ill provide them. I want Western Africa to be the absolute best it can be. The EU4 update to the region was such a disappointment. This feedback was so disheartening. But I wont give up trying to make the region more exciting and more interesting.
P.S. Sorry for the rambling post.
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