The Q-BAM Improvement and Core Thread

[Tanystropheus42]

Here's a patch for Northern Siberia, including some new lakes and two new rivers.

Well, that saved me a lot of work.

As part of my (currently stalled) project to complete a 1907 world map, I've been trying to improve the general quality of QBAM geography, and I'd just started adding a few lakes to Siberia (I fortunately started on a different area).

I may as well post that progress here as well, now the rest of Siberia seems to be done (The borders of the map are currently a WIP for the aforementioned 1907 map; I would produce a new blank map but I don't have the time);

 

[Alex Richards]

Are those really lakes on the Amur there or just slightly wider bits of river?

 

[LSCatilina]

Are those really lakes on the Amur there or just slightly wider bits of river?

Mostly the second, but there's lakes and pools as well.
Couldn't find which were natural or not.

 

[Tanystropheus42]

Yeah, to be honest, I did mark wide sections of river as water (which is something I've been trying to do; if it's big enough to be visible on this scale, I mark it on a map).

It's pretty much impossible to find out if some random small lake in the middle of Siberia (or anywhere really) is artificial or not by looking on the internet, so to figure that out I spent around 2 hours looking at Google Earth and Maps to see if there were any obvious signs of human tampering. I didn't see a thing, hence I included the lakes.

 

[Alex Richards]

I'm still not particularly happy with this proliferation of 'lets just draw a single pixel black line for the lake here' additions myself, but at this point I feel like I'm running a losing battle on that.

 

[iori]

I'm still not particularly happy with this proliferation of 'lets just draw a single pixel black line for the lake here' additions myself, but at this point I feel like I'm running a losing battle on that.

I am very much in agreement with you; lakes and other such bodies of water should only be shown if they're large enough for there to be atleast a single pixel of water and atleast a plus sign border.

 

[Imperator Frank]

Its seems like an "cleanness vs accuracy" argument and that is pretty much personal preference. Maybe somewhere in the middle?

 

[Drex]

Just do not use updates with more lakes, bruh.

 

[GodoftheTranses]

Just made something for q-bam for personal use that i think might be kinda useful

basically i took the blank Q-bam map from a few pages back and put in a legend

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7uxy04c6wv7o6o/blank qbam legend.png?dl=0

Sorry about it being a dropbox link but it wont let me upload the file, its just too big lol

 

[Tanystropheus42]

After a long hiatus, I finally have a new ice sheets patch ready; Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego;

Don't know when the next one will come, depends on when I next have an hour or two to kill.

 

[Tanystropheus42]

Here, have some more ice sheets; the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands;

I know it's slightly cheating to pick one so easy, but I was feeling lazy.

 

[Drex]

So I'm working at updating secondary subdivisions and at a time I tried to do Brazilian Mesorregions (Due to the near imposibility of fitting municipalities in smaller states). I noticed I'm not that good with big chunks of land as I thought. Here is the map progress I did so far and I'd really appreciate if someone could do the rest of Brazil.

My sources are wikipedia, but it accurately shows each of them by state (https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesorregiões_do_Brasil#Listagens_por_estado).

 

[BionicWilliam]

Heres Meso-regions and Micro-regions by Qazaq2007
Blue: State
Dark Gray: Meso
Light Gray: Micro
He uses an order version of the map so some editing may be required

 

[Wendell]

Heres Meso-regions and Micro-regions by Qazaq2007
Blue: State
Dark Gray: Meso
Light Gray: Micro
He uses an order version of the map so some editing may be required

We need indigenous reserves maps for Brazil and other countries, not just the United States.

 

[Tanystropheus42]

We need indigenous reserves maps for Brazil

You know, I may be able to assist with that ...

 

[Drex]

So I did some secondary subdivisions and extra work in the Q-BAM. Here's the final map (for a list of updates, check the latest part of the description).

 

[Tanystropheus42]

Another little patch; Costa Rica with first level subdivisions, plus self-governing Indigenous Territories and a few minor border and coastal fixes;

 

[Sharklord1]

Why have you placed the oldest version of 1885? And there already are the 1919, 1945 and even 1648 and 1450 Q-Bams. You really should improve this list.

I quoted from this list from the newest I found, I didn't individually go into all alternate history forums to find it all...

 

[Sasalele]

Another little patch; Costa Rica with first level subdivisions, plus self-governing Indigenous Territories and a few minor border and coastal fixes;

View attachment 345427

Why did I never know there was an island there?

 

[Tanystropheus42]

To be fair, Cocos island is tiny, even if it is quite interesting.

The island has been claimed by Costa Rica since the 1830's, and for most of that time has either remained uninhabited, or as sparsely populated as makes no difference. In the 1880's, the Coasta Rican government sponsored the creation of a small colony on the island, and even appointed a governor, though that settlement was eventually abandoned in 1908. Today, Cocos is one large, insular national park, with a permanent population of 33 (all park rangers), and is administered as part of Puntarenas Province.

The island even comes with a buried treasure myth; the Treasure of Lima. Supposedly smuggled out of Lima by the Spanish authorities as the rest of Peru slipped from their grasp in 1820, the treasure was stolen by the captain of the ship tasked with taking it to safety in Mexico. The treasure was allegedly buried on Cocos island for safekeeping by the mutineers, though their ship was caught and most of the crew executed soon after. The treasure is valued at £160 million in today's money, and is said to include jeweled stones, candlesticks, and two life-size solid gold, gem-encrusted statues of Mary holding the baby Jesus.

The 1880 settlement was actually an attempt to look for that treasure; the colonists dug a complex network of tunnels (some of which can still be visited today), but over 20 years only found 6 small gold coins for their troubles.

Needless to say, the island is still a magnet for treasure hunters.



Actually, while we're on the topic of small Pacific islands, have another patch; Gorgona Island (conspicuously absent from all maps I've checked so far), another isolated insular national park, though this one did a stint as Colombia's Alcatraz from the 50's to the 80's;