Guildworld - Climate and Biome discussion

[J.Edward]

Just a question, does this new scale change the distances of things or just the curvature/circumference? Because I think most people have made their countries in relation to the original scale already.

EDIT: Just saw the comparison in the other thread, the difference seems negligible so it looks good.

Just the curve/circ.
Here's how it relates to the old scale.
Guild World Map - new scale to old scale.jpg
I'll add it here too.

[Robulous]

So 15 degrees is 1609 km for the 95% of the world's population that don't use metric

scale.png

[J.Edward]

Thanks Robulous.
Can you make that as a png image so people can download it if the want metric?
I'm sure they would appreciate it.

[waldronate]

So 15 degrees is 1609 km for the 95% of the world's population that don't use metric

From a historical/humorous perspective, this scale makes miles the "natural" distance measure because there are two nice round numbers there. Some cultures would undoubtedly view miles as evil in this scenario because there are 66.66666667 miles per degree of latitude (and sailors would undoubtedly go with 60 nautical miles per degree, just like the do at home - math is hard!) Others would no doubt celebrate the presence of both 2 and 3 in the miles per degree, as those are the first two prime numbers.

Now kilometers as a natural unit: 107.27km (give or take a few meters) per degree. That makes the math much simpler that some other silly system!

Clearly this world needs its own distance units. Probably calculated by lining up the first ten people coming out of church and taking the average length of some appendage or other. Maybe working in how much beast of burden can plow in a day at some random latitude, as well. Possibly a standard fraction of the amount of distance that an army unit in full gear can march in a day. Or take a bad estimate of the planet's pole-to-pole length and divide by some round number with lots of zeroes. Or every culture has its own distance units and maps that are sold into multiple markets will have multiple scales.

Well, then... too much history for today.

[J.Edward]

From a historical/humorous perspective, this scale makes miles the "natural" distance measure because there are two nice round numbers there. Some cultures would undoubtedly view miles as evil in this scenario because there are 66.66666667 miles per degree of latitude (and sailors would undoubtedly go with 60 nautical miles per degree, just like the do at home - math is hard!) Others would no doubt celebrate the presence of both 2 and 3 in the miles per degree, as those are the first two prime numbers.

Now kilometers as a natural unit: 107.27km (give or take a few meters) per degree. That makes the math much simpler that some other silly system!

Clearly this world needs its own distance units. Probably calculated by lining up the first ten people coming out of church and taking the average length of some appendage or other. Maybe working in how much beast of burden can plow in a day at some random latitude, as well. Possibly a standard fraction of the amount of distance that an army unit in full gear can march in a day. Or take a bad estimate of the planet's pole-to-pole length and divide by some round number with lots of zeroes. Or every culture has its own distance units and maps that are sold into multiple markets will have multiple scales.

Well, then... too much history for today.

Yes! That would be good. Multiple scales - once the main part of the mapping is done for the BIG map.
I can envision some of my people basing a measurement related to the mountains and valleys, as they're so prominent there.
Or even related to the circumference of the accepted standard size of a wheel of cheese.

[jbgibson]

Measuring distance by rolling a wheel of cheese would be interesting... the circumference would either drop as rind wore away OR it would increase as stuff stuck to the cheese and accumulated. So already we have sub-cheese miles, hard-cheese miles, and fuzzy-cheese miles. Then there's the stinkcheese league - the distance on a sunny day without wind that the average nose can detect its aroma. The Trebuchet Cheese League is not a distance but an organization of competitive flinging devices, so don't get that confused. The distance of a cheese thrown by trebuchet or catapult varies according to the host nation and region anyway, since the chosen cheeses change irregularly.

The Highland Games of Heathertop of course promote the length of a cheese-curling ice rink as a standard - which stretches the meaning of the term 'standard' since such ice rinks vary from about 22 to 31 meters, line to line. Cheese-curling has the unfortunate effect of promoting inedible cheese, since rock-hardness matters in curling. Proponents of the sport prefer 'long-lasting' to 'inedible'. As a side note, nations without a hard-cheese tradition have been known to substitute fruitcake, but that has never influenced an international distance standard.

I do enjoy old maps with a dozen or more competing scales. Seems like a great opportunity to do that on some of our Guildworld maps, even without involving cheese.

[Azélor]

A lot of people are probably intolerant to lactose (I think) and would certainly consider the cheese as the incarnation of evil.

[waldronate]

Proponents of the sport prefer 'long-lasting' to 'inedible'.

Ah, the acclaimed dwarf cheeses! I am led to believe that one of the first cheeses every made by dwarfkind still forms the centerpiece of the hoard of the northern dwarf nation, and it's still as 'fresh' as the day it was made.

[waldronate]

A lot of people are probably intolerant to lactose (I think) and would certainly consider the cheese as the incarnation of evil.

A well-made cheese is effectively lactose-free. It's those squishy young cheeses made from inferior animals by the mentally-limited that cause all the problems.

[Tonnichiwa]

Ah, the acclaimed dwarf cheeses! I am led to believe that one of the first cheeses every made by dwarfkind still forms the centerpiece of the hoard of the northern dwarf nation, and it's still as 'fresh' as the day it was made.

This would be the Dwarfs in Hallanicus. They keep that cheese surrounded by the kings hand chosen guards so that no one can steal it. They put it on a giant cutting board with 20 Dwarf Cheese Bearers and bring it to war with them. The smell alone can sometimes cripple an enemy army!