Map Thread XII

[Superman]

Hi there. Welcome to AH.com!

First off, I'd like to tell you that that is a nice looking map, if not all that plausible. Personally, I believe that, if every nation was to be spacefaring, most would either start their own space programs or join willingly. I like the concept, though. I'll see if I can whip something of my own up based on that, if you don't mind.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

First post ever, please tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

Welcome to the board!

Whilst I don't mean to sound rude, alot of the things on that map appear implausible, most noticeably to me are the Greek attacks against Turkey (this is not Germany vs Russia, its like Belarus vs Russia) and what appear to be the Spanish and French annexations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, respectively. Both nations would not do it, its too much of a money sink in France's case, and on the other hand, this would quickly turn into Spain's version of the Vietnam war. (Or the Second Restoration war)

 

[LSCatilina]

First post ever, please tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

First, welcome on board!

Then...Your map and TL are quite original, and the use of Moon and Mars maps are quite well toughy.
Don't mind too much about plausibility (if we really had to look at that, 3/4 of this thread should be scrapped away and mashed in tiny tiny pieces).

There's two things that are looking a bit off.
1) Too much inner border. It's unesthetic, and doesn't add much to your map. Remember : if it's not important for the TL or the purpose of the map, there's good reasons you souldn't show them.

2) Recolouring book syndroma.
Borders didn't changed. Either they disappeared, or countries take over regions following exactly former administrative zones. It can be understood for some, but usually, ethnic/politic/geopolitic/economic/even some geographic feature doesn't follow these, and following scrupulously ancient borders make the changes a bit off.

 

[B_Munro]

Here is a map of a larger Zaporozhia caused by better military leadership under Yuriy Nazar.

What's the year on that map? The "uninhabited" area isn't, it's Circassia...

 

[GeoJuggernaut]

What's the year on that map? The "uninhabited" area isn't, it's Circassia...

Oops! My bad... and the year is sometime in the late 1600s.

 

[Lascupa0788]

Think it's finished.

Why did they ignore major features like the Congo River/Basin, various deserts, other rivers, mountains and so on which where used at various points OTL? Looks silly.

 

[MarshalBraginsky]

Welcome to the board!

Whilst I don't mean to sound rude, alot of the things on that map appear implausible, most noticeably to me are the Greek attacks against Turkey (this is not Germany vs Russia, its like Belarus vs Russia) and what appear to be the Spanish and French annexations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, respectively. Both nations would not do it, its too much of a money sink in France's case, and on the other hand, this would quickly turn into Spain's version of the Vietnam war. (Or the Second Restoration war)

One question though: what happened to Bulgaria? It looked like it was partitioned.

 

[Narwhal]

First post ever, please tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

This is great for your first post! I have some constructive criticism for you though.

On your earth map you just spilled over countries borders into the subdivisions of other countries, try to keep the borders looking by changing their colors.

Also France's recolonization seems pretty ASB

On the Moon your borders look a little thick, try to keep them to 1 pixel wide

 

[What am I doing]

Here is a map of a larger Zaporozhia caused by better military leadership under Yuriy Nazar.

Ukrainian text makes no sense at all.

 

[Goldstein]

I have no idea what any of that means, but ok, I trust you know what you're talking about.

I reread it and I found a mistake in what I said, though; the rule about modal adverbs ended in -mente applies to proparoxytone words as well.

Just to be helpful and make it clearer: an oxytone word is a word stressed in the last syllabe (apply), a paroxytone word is stressed in the one before the last (tomato), a proparoxytone is stressed in the one before the one before the last (chemistry), and a preproparoxytone word is stressed even before (comfortable). The last two always need an accent save for the aforementioned exception, the ones stressed in the last syllabe need it when they end in N, S or a vowel, the ones stressed a syllabe before need it when they do not end in N, S or a vowel, when they end with two consonants put together (I forgot that, but it's very uncommon), or when the stressed syllabe and the last have adjacent vowels.

 

[Crazed Victorian]

Interesting. Super-Portugal (it colonized Brazil, lost Brazil, and then got the best prize of Africa as part of a Pink Map!), Super Russia, many straight lines in Africa, and a Germany which has Bismarck's map of Africa.

And an Ethiopia that is mostly Somali! Seriously, most of "Ethiopia" is in the British Empire in that map. And Super-Japan (is there Philippine unrest?)

I misremembered a map of alternate Ethiopian borders.

The Philippines are being treated reasonably well, this Japan is Britain's little pal not some rogue state. (Meaning they have a decent cash flow and don't need to abuse the Philippines.)

Too many straight lines, honestly. It looks off.
Are they corresponding to something (and not only latitudes), as two geographical markers relied by a line?

Why did they ignore major features like the Congo River/Basin, various deserts, other rivers, mountains and so on which where used at various points OTL? Looks silly.

It was on purpose. I wanted it to look more steam-punkish.

 

[LSCatilina]

It was on purpose. I wanted it to look more steam-punkish.

You'll excuse my reaction but...How on earth straight lines popping out of nowhere are steampunkish? Are they steam-propelled borders?

Honestly, it doesn't look this way, it just look...Well, lazy, unmaginative and to say it bluntly, boring.

 

[Agatho]

Isn't the province that contains Ethiopia's capital mostly made up of a semi-separatist ethnic group OTL?

That Ethiopia does look a touch to the east though.

Well, yes, but that's largely due to the way centralization went down, and technically Addis is just surrounded by the Oromo, and not part of the province. Either way, the heartland of (Amhara-run) Ethiopia is around Lake Tana, which on that map is part of a British protectorate that makes no sense. How the Christian Ethiopian emperors have managed to hold on in a desert full of Muslim Somalis is a bit perplexing.

 

[Crazed Victorian]

You'll excuse my reaction but...How on earth straight lines popping out of nowhere are steampunkish? Are they steam-propelled borders?

Steampunkish nations care even less for the natives than OTL's. That's the point I was trying to get across.

Honestly, it doesn't look this way, it just look...Well, lazy, unmaginative and to say it bluntly, boring.

I suppose it failed, but it certainly wasn't out of laziness. It was a deliberate experiment with style.

 

[LSCatilina]

Steampunkish nations care even less for the natives than OTL's. That's the point I was trying to get across.

It' doesn't strikes me as a particularly "steampunkish" feature.

It's also particularly unefficient, something that would be a bit weird in a steampunk (aka engineer-wank) world.

Indeed, you're cutting traditional entities in half (while having them all make them more easily managable), isolate entiere part of your colonies from their cores as they are crossed by multiple geographical features (desert, rivers, mountains), cut down traditional roads in the continent (rivers, paths, trade ways, etc.).

Apart if these borders are made by caricatural monocle-bearing lords, smoking cigars as hells and putting Cecil Rhodes to shame, trying as their only goal to troll natives by drawning straight lines appearing out of nowhere with a great evil laughter (but a distinguished great evil laughter), it's not making much sense.

OTL colonial powers didn't really cared about native opinion, but the borders they drawn made sense and were all based on at least geographical features (even the straight lines, that are always something as "the line between this mountain and this other mountain")

 

[The Uchronian]

First post ever, please tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

Let me just start with whoever posted a base map with the moon and mars a while back, thank you.

This is a FTL of "short-range" space colonization. The year is 2127, and here's a jist of what's happened.

Worldwide: It has been declared that all non space-fairing nations are to be annexed or conquered by the space-fairing ones.* Solar colonization is to take place the same way the colonization of Africa did- first come, first serve.
Europe: The EU has collapsed when disagreements over management of solar bodies turned for the worse. Many smaller nations have already been taken over, with some still being contested. Notable ones include Latvia(Poland/Russia), Norway(Denmark/Norway), and Switzerland(Switzerland/Germany,France,Italy). Greece is now led by a "Nazi dictator with a twist" instead of Jews, Muslims are the infidels, Turks in particular. Greece, Serbia, and Romania consolidate the Balkans, with Greece continuing into Turkey and Cyprus. Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth Reestablished.

Asia: after the Russian invasion of Kazakhstan, the three larger central Asian powers banded together, with the other two planning on joining. No one really wants to touch Afghanistan, still as unstable as ever. India, Siam(formerly Thailand), and China are bickering over Burma, though this conflict has split into other regions. Full scale war is expected. The Philippines were annexed by the US. a number of small claims have been staked, and the Koreas have unified after a staff purge cause a coup, further destabilizing the state, amid the chaos, South Korea led a UN "peacekeeping" effort. China says they should have led the effort, but have done nothing more than worsen relationships between them and the rest of the world.

Middle East:Persia(formerly Iran) teamed up with India and Arabia to split Pakistan and Iraq, respectively, though relations with the latter have since soured. Turkey is on the brink of collapse after being hemmed in and battered by almost all its neighbors. Greece had completely wiped Turkish influence from its occupied zones, and still has with its new borders. 1/3 of Turkey was treated this way, meaning the Turks now have to guard land that will do nothing for them for the next few years, making it a perfect target for invasion. Arabia has split Syria with the Turks as part of an odd bet- If the Turks controlled Damascus, The borders would be set at the front lines, if not, Arabia Annexes Turkey. Turkeys other neighbors took small pieces as well. Georgia has bits annexed by Russia, and further control is expected. Arabia invades Yemen, UAE, Qatar, and annexes Jordan.

Africa: Colonialism is reborn after Italy invades Libya, France annexes Algeria and declares war on Mali, and Spain declares war on Morocco. Nothing happens past that for a number of years, and most of Africa continues on with its day-to-day life. Only when France makes war out of some island disputes that everything goes mental. The South African Commonwealth(formerly South Africa and Botswana) is formed, which now occupies Zimbabwe, parts of Zambia, and keeps Namibia under its wing. Egypt invades Sudan, causing South Sudan to do the same. Ethiopia Invades Eritrea, Mozambique occupies Malawi, and other countries prepare for the worst.

N. America: The US invades parts of the Caribbean and Mexico, but this is stopped after a Chinese-Mexican alliance forms in the aftermath of the Filipino annexation. Guatemala and Belize(the latter now part of The Union of Guyana) get their cut of Mexico, but some later gets taken back. Panama annexed by the US, causing other C. American countries to unite. European Powers begin to take back some smaller islands.

S. America: Argentina and Brazil are becoming the two main powers, as The Northern three countries fail to see what's coming. France gains larger influence, occupying Suriname. Currently, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay still exist, due to Argentina and Brazil being pitted against each other as for what to do with them. Guyana, Jamaica, and Belize for the UG.

Oceania: Australia annexes New Zealand, a number of smaller, unimportant, claims are made.

Moon: The moon is divided among the nations, and as of now any conflicts will be kept/dealt with on Earth, as Lunar warfare is an expense no country wants to bear. Spain is currently trying to buy some German exclaves.

Mars: Various nations get a foothold on the red planet, and it is required that all that do so help in the terraforming effort.

*list of space fairing nations:
US
Canada
China
India
Russia
Poland
Germany
Italy
France
Sweden
Denmark
Australia
Japan
Korea
Arabia
Argentina
Brazil

And for those of you that get it; that's right, Poland can into space.

Indeed, Poland *can* into space!

Welcome to AH.com, TheBatman. Are you, by any chance, a DC Comics aficionado?
Anyway, that is a rather fascinating map. First question: do you mind telling me the story behind the separated Texas and California?

 

[Superman]

TheBatman, if you don't mind me asking, where did you find the basemap for Mars and the Moon? I've seen them both before, but I can't find them anywhere.

 

[Huehuecoyotl]

First post ever, please tell me what you think. Suggestions are welcome.

Espléndido. A high note to start posting on, I think. I'd only echo everyone else's sentiments re the internal borders, but overall it's a very strong map.

 

[TheBatman]

One question though: what happened to Bulgaria? It looked like it was partitioned.

Yep. WHy it was picked idk, just sort of the odd man out i guess.

Welcome to the board!

Whilst I don't mean to sound rude, alot of the things on that map appear implausible, most noticeably to me are the Greek attacks against Turkey (this is not Germany vs Russia, its like Belarus vs Russia) and what appear to be the Spanish and French annexations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, respectively. Both nations would not do it, its too much of a money sink in France's case, and on the other hand, this would quickly turn into Spain's version of the Vietnam war. (Or the Second Restoration war)

a lot changes in 100+ years, also it wasn't just Greece, it was also Arabia, Iran, Armenia, and Georgia. The Caribbean countries basically had the choice of them of the US, and, personally, i'd much rather be ruled by a country that speaks my language(given that i'd ever have to choose), but thanks for the insight

This is great for your first post! I have some constructive criticism for you though.

On your earth map you just spilled over countries borders into the subdivisions of other countries, try to keep the borders looking by changing their colors.

Also France's recolonization seems pretty ASB

On the Moon your borders look a little thick, try to keep them to 1 pixel wide

Thanks for the tip, though i don't know what ASB means, and i'm pretty sure they're 1 pixel thick, gonna have to double check.

Indeed, Poland *can* into space!

Welcome to AH.com, TheBatman. Are you, by any chance, a DC Comics aficionado?
Anyway, that is a rather fascinating map. First question: do you mind telling me the story behind the separated Texas and California?

i don't really read a lot of comics past those in the Sunday paper, though i kind of wish i could. It mainly comes from the fact that my patrol in Boy Scouts is the bat patrol, and my steam name is Batman, but that was taken.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'll take it all into consideration.

 

[Narwhal]

ASB means Alien Space Bats, it pretty much means that something is implausible.