Eastern Hemisphere by KYBL

Eastern Hemisphere by KYBL


After five years away from this game I have returned to create a new map. With dimensions of 9999x6882, this map covers the entirety of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, as well as much of Oceania in much greater detail than the original map. Countries have more cities, and are correspondingly richer than in the original game. I used the same units as the original game as I remember it, which means I did not include any buildings or other new units added in the past few years.

I tried my best to make this game as balanced as possible, although my long hiatus from playing may have left me with some knowledge gaps, so I welcome any constructive criticism.

The map


As I already mentioned, the map encompasses Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and much of Oceania. The map is much bigger than the original, allowing for satisfactory gameplay that both encompasses large swaths of territory and cuts out two large oceans which lengthen games.

Many new countries were added, especially in Oceania, but I also included some partially recognized or unrecognized states which has a government which maintains control of its own territory. An example of how this plays out is in Israel and Palestine. Gaza was made an independent territory because it has a government which controls its own territory, while the West Bank is under Israeli military rule. There are two exceptions to this rule. Northern Cyprus was excluded because it would have made the island too crowded had I put it in, and I don't think it would have added any real benefit to gameplay. Western Sahara was included because I thought it would add to gameplay.

More countries were carved up into multiple territories, and countries which were already divided up were divided further. In the United Kingdom, Australia, China, and India, territories were divided based on real subdivisions. In Spain and Italy, historical and cultural boundaries were used. In Germany, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, Japan, and France, administrative subdivisions were grouped together with balancing considerations in mind. In Indonesia I just grouped islands.

Many major bodies of water are labelled on this map, and lakes such as the Caspian Sea are usable by naval units.

Map samples
United Kingdom


Germany


Western Mediterranean


Fertile Crescent


South Africa


Bengal


South China


Japan and Korea


Income
I used a curve with GDP (PPP) as the independent variable to distribute income. Countries with a GDP below $200 billion benefited from this curve while countries with a GDP above $200 billion were nerfed, with the degree to which a country is boosted or nerfed growing larger as the GDP diverged from $200 billion.

This is the case for most countries, but not for all. Countries which are split into multiple territories used a variety of different methods of calculating income to balance realism with playability. This was necessary because applying the formula to total GDP and distributing them across territories would make these countries disproportionately poor, while applying the formula to individual territories would make them disproportionately rich.

Top 5 income by continent

Europe:
1. UK: South England (951)
2. France: North (871)
3. Italy: North (829)
4. Germany: Rhineland (730)
5. Turkey: Aegean (669)
Asia:
1. Japan: North (1083)
2. South Korea (765)
3. Japan: South (741)
4. Thailand (566)
5. Taiwan (530)
Africa:
1. Egypt (548)
2. South Africa (410)
3. Nigeria: Christian (376)
4. Algeria (326)
5. Morocco (219)
Oceania:
1. Indonesia: Java (551)
2. The Philippines (481)
3. Australia: New South Wales (384)
4. Australia: Victoria (265)
5. Australia: Queensland (210)

Reinforcement
Like the original map, I used a population multiplier of 350,000 to distribute reinforcement. Depending on the country, I may have chosen to use the city limits, the urbanized region, or the metropolitan area to determine reinforcement. I did so with balance and income in mind, but did not follow any rules.

This formula was only modified in Russia and China. In Russia, a multiplier of 200,000 is used to make the vast and relatively empty country more playable, especially in northern Asia. In China, a multiplier of 1,000,000 was used because Chinese cities are insanely huge.

Top 5 reinforcement by continent

Europe:
1. Turkey: Anatolia (36)
2. Poland (34)
3. Ukraine (33)
4. Turkey: Aegean (29)
5. Italy: North (29)
Asia:
1. Iran (47)
2. Saudi Arabia (37)
3. Japan: North (37)
4. China: Jiangsu (33)
5. India: Maharashtra (33)
Africa:
1. South Africa (40)
2. Nigeria: Christian (35)
3. DR Congo (34)
4. Morocco (23)
5. Algeria (23)
Oceania:
1. Indonesia: Java (43)
2. The Philippines (39)
3. Indonesia: Sumatra (25)
4. Indonesia: East (14)
5. Australia: New South Wales (13)

Conclusion
My map is fun and you should play it.

Looks super cool ... will host it in casual soon!

Oooh western sahara