Thinking Big - Torq's landgrab - choose a territory

[ravells]

Well said, I'd love to see a few more industry pros involved in this...it would be very inspirational.

[Redrobes]

Yeah but be fair, HRob and Anna have enough on their plate with their own worlds. I am supposed to be doing MeDem as well. Since we're testing coast lines out right now I am using this partly as a test run in that area too.

Maybe they will get more stuck in when the scale gets a bit smaller. I'm not intending to map everything in my sector - I want people to join in and map some of it.

[Midgardsormr]

RR, would you like us to start tagging our images like in the Challenges? I went ahead and did so in my thread.

[Redrobes]

It would be much easier. Currently I am doing the regional map with the custom tiles on it using ViewingDale but it means that I have to keep checking the threads with new posts and grab a tile then put that in to see the new overall map. The thing is tho that some people are mapping an area bigger than their tile and/or have borders to the map. The WIP scraper will just take an image and make a thumb out of it. I can format up the thumb sheet any way I like so I could make it use a 6x5 tile grid of thumbs no prob but I don't think that many of them would line up all that well as it stands. I think for now ill keep going by hand and you gotta expect it to be out of date quite a bit and when it gets more tiles progressing then maybe it would be easier then to say - hey guys put a borderless square WIP in now and again and tag it for the overall map. If tile mappers think this is a good idea then put the latest wip tags in your thread next to a tile formatted attachment and if I see enough to make it worth it then ill set up the script and page.

Doing 30 tiles is going to be tough by hand. The challenge script has been running great for the April so far. Its using that code block in the main entry to get at the thread numbers.

Oh yeah, if people want a high res image like that of the brown backdrop to use as a template to get the borders right for the overall map that I have been placing them on then just ask as I have all 30 of them done already.

I have been playing with my tile tonight. I will keep the border but the actual terrain has to be modified. Its a bit like the random dungeon map - I cant make sense of it without changing it. I think I got a bit of a duff tile as its all near to sea level and uniformly bumpy without any form. In real life it would either flood or dry up but it could not exist like the way it comes. So its got a ridge of hills running through it now. Will have to make up a name and start a thread.

[su_liam]

I just can't stand seeing that hole in the middle of the map. Has anyone laid claim to #14 yet? If not, I'll take it. I'll need some input from my neighbors: GP, Kagehito, Airith, Su_Liam, Venardhi, Torq, and Clercon. What notions do you guys have so far, and what can I do in my area to reinforce them?

One thing I'm thinking about is to have the Stoutlings somewhat immune to the Plague. This might also be true for the other Little People tribes, if so the Gnomes and Dwarves won't say and no one expects a straight or coherent answer from an idiot Kobold. From the look of things, Orcs have no problem with the Plague. The Orcs better looking cousins, the Elves haven't been seen around here in so long, who knows?

That's my story anyway, it could change.

[DarkOne]

I could take map 4 if no one wants it, for another smaller kingdom spanning map 3 and 4 (about midway, upto the huge mountain range).

I still extremely busy to complete work for an urgent deadline so no progress from my side.

[Baziron]

One thing I'm thinking about is to have the Stoutlings somewhat immune to the Plague. This might also be true for the other Little People tribes, if so the Gnomes and Dwarves won't say and no one expects a straight or coherent answer from an idiot Kobold. From the look of things, Orcs have no problem with the Plague. The Orcs better looking cousins, the Elves haven't been seen around here in so long, who knows?

Resistance of Gnomes/Dwarves: Well, they are usually presented as being tougher than the average (Ingame, at least), sooo... but I came to think of something else, which however would bear a lot of significance were it to be decided to be true:

The Plague is a disease (like the real plague), but with the twist that it is somehow race-specific (i.e. only reacts to something unique to the human/halfhuman genome?). So the other races might carry and spread it, without ever suffering from it. It's your comment regarding Orks that gave me the idea.
However, if it was exactly this case, then that would have an unbelievable impact on the racial demographics. I'd go as far and say: It can't be this way, for that'd probably screw humanity over faster than they could witness.

[su_liam]

True, but if we assume that humanity is greatly in the majority over much of the world, and the other races are perhaps in decline it might be something that gives the others a fighting chance. There's been some discussion about "The Years of Rice and Salt," here, and it brings up a question. While the real plague did not bring about the extinction of European civilization, as in the book, it did devastate Europe, killing, if I remember correctly, more than a third of it's people. 150 years later, "Columbus sails the Ocean blue." I wouldn't count humanity out, but these are going to be interesting times.

Really can't say about the others Gnomes pretty much keep to themselves. There really weren't a lot of Dwarves in the previously effected region, there could be a few huddling in high mountain fortresses. I haven't really worked that out except for the Stoutlings and Orcs. I'm pretty sure the Plague kills Goblins and Hobgoblins as well, thus shifting the balance in that area toward the Orcs.

This is all assuming non-humans exist. I don't even know if the Guildworld has magic. I know Stoutlings don't.

[Baziron]

@Europe and the plague: Hm, valid point there. It probably depends on how contagious the disease is, you know, whether it spreads through fluids, touch or other.

At any rate, dwarves huddling in fortresses tend to be more hygienic and thus simply less affected.

Another point to be considered: since the land is visibly affected, documenting a spreading of the plague - I don't think the black plague did that. So we'd be more into a "contamination-thing". But radiation, for example, doesn't exactly spread... so what is the plague?

I say, we have a question to drive Groam's intellectual elite mad! MAD! ;-)

[industrygothica]

Has anyone considered that maybe there is no plague? There probably once was, but decades after the surrounding regions have implemented their precautions to keep those from the plaguelands out, the plague itself may have simply run its course.

This gives two viable options for the plaguelands:

1. It is a blighted region imprisoned by the fortifications of the surrounding areas. Those within are forced to depend on themselves for survival, as they have no imports. The people would likely have become a tribal society, living off the land and making use of the ruined towns and villages evacuated so many years ago. Of course attempts have been made to escape into another region, but those people are quickly put down by the border guards.

Imagine their horror should they ever find out that they’ve been killing innocent, plague-free victims all this time.

2. In basically the same scenario as above, but the plaguelands have since become a thriving utopia. Crops grow in abundance, rivers flow clean, etc. Of course the populace is more than content to let those on the outside think what they will. I think that in this scenario there should be some blighted border of some sort, just to keep the perception to outsiders that the land is indeed still inhospitable.

Just my two cents… carry on.