Discussion: The Map

[ahowl11]

Okay guys so here is the deal regarding the map for the next version..

Let's only focus on any GLARING issues in regards to settlements. For example, instead of Tigranocerta I believe Thospia would be a better option, since Tigranocerta was not founded yet.

Let's try to keep the maximum number of changes at 10. Anarchon has agreed to help but only for minor and simple stuff, I don't want to get carried away with editing and changing things, and end up having a laundry list of things for him to do. So we can contine scanning the map, but let's not make it a 'deep' scan. Instead, let us scratch the surface and only notice glaring issues. I will keep the OP up to date with issues we discover and then at the end we will decide which ones we will fix for the next version and which ones that we will hold off on.

In the future I plan on carefully studying each region, realigning the provinces and settlement selection, assigning provinces to factions and assigning AOR/Mercenary pools to regions. But for now we must keep it minimal since the mod is young. I think what I will do is brainstorm a bit and come up with a 'big picture' mod plan that will ultimately be finalized based off smaller 'stepping stone' versions.

[ahowl11]

Okay here is my list of things:

Eburacum? Is there a better alternative?
Londinium - Verlamium
Mogontiacum? Alternative?
Argentorate? Alternative?
Arausio - Vienna
Lugdunum - Bibracte
Tarraco - Emporiae
Toletum - Segobriga?
Tigranocerta - Thospia

[Bercor]

Okay here is my list of things:

Eburacum? Is there a better alternative?
Londinium - Verlamium
Mogontiacum? Alternative?
Argentorate? Alternative?
Arausio - Vienna
Lugdunum - Bibracte
Tarraco - Emporiae
Toletum - Segobriga?
Tigranocerta - Thospia

Well, this seems to be the best alternative for Eburacum, since it was, presumably, the capital of the Brigantes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanwick_Iron_Age_Fortifications
However, it doesn't seem to have any name besides "Stanwick", which, from the looks, seems to derive from the anglo-saxonic stān "stone" wic "settlement".

[Mausolos of Caria]

Eburacum- what Bercor said seems good enough, but there doesn't seem to be an accredited name to these fortifications, right?
Londinium- I don't know, similar to Lugdunum (look below)
Mogontiacum - same 
Argentorate - same
Arausio- Vienna? No idea
Lugdunum- Bibracte... well there was a settlement at that time, but only a few huts really, the oppidum was only erected in the late 2nd century BC. Cold_mac or The Great Montrose would know that better, hopefully they'll have time soon
Tarraco- Emporion or Cissis. Depends if we want to have a native or a Greek city, you'll know what's better for campaign balance
Toletum - no idea
Tigranocerta- Thospia= Tushpa? If yes, then I agree with that one 

Okay, sorry, that was kind of a failure... I'll look into the Barrington Atlas on Wednesday.

[ahowl11]

I think we will leave Eburacum as is, I don't want to use a medieval english name
I'm going to use Verlamium for Londinium

Argentorate and Mogantiacum can become Volubilis (Berber Capital) and Heraclea Pontica (Between Bithynia and Pontus)
Germania does not need a ton of cities during this time frame.

Tarraco should become Emporiae because I believe it was important, especially for Massilia. Also Bolskan can represent the native settlement.

Toletum can stay as is.

If you mean the city next to Lake Van than yes

[Bercor]

Well, Europa Barbarorum team decided to use the name Caern-Brigantae which basicly means "Brigantes pile of stones", refering, probably, to the settlement stone walls. Seeing as we are using latin nomenclature, we could call it Lapumurus, latin junction to something like "stone wall".

[ahowl11]

I feel as if that would be trying to do too much. I think Eburacum will be fine until we find another settlement.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Mmh yeah maybe Eburacum should stay. I'll look into the atlas tomorrow, but I'm not sure if it depicts settlements from 280 BC or just the world at one year (14 AD I think) and some special maps like ''Greece under the Theban Hegemony'' or ''The 2nd Punic War''. I'll look, take pictures and then report back.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Okay guys, I looked into the Barrington atlas today, but as I expected, the map only displays things how they were at the time of the Principate. It still names every damn town or fort, though, and the location of different tribes, so if we need anything I'll look at my pictures or go to the library again.

[ahowl11]

I guess just look into everything that I have in the first post. Make sure it's okay to put in or not. As soon as you do, I can contact Anarchon and see if he can make the edits.

[Bercor]

I really don't think we need more cities in north Africa. It would be better to place it in Sardinia, as Hannibal Barca suggested.

[ahowl11]

There are alternatives. Zama is not needed. It was a village and the site of a battle. That could be made into the Sardinian settlement.

[Bercor]

Ok, do want you think is best. Nevertheless, after the BETA we should revamp North Africa/Iberia to something like this:

[ahowl11]

Yes, that map gave me ideas as well. Don't worry, the map will have a lot of work done to it to fit our needs. We need to get the basics and base mod finished first though.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Okay dokay... again then:

If we want to keep Argentorate, it seems there was a Celtic settlement at Baden-Baden (the German city on the other side of the border), so we would only have to move it to the other side of the Rhine, 20 kms downstream. The Romans later called it Aquae, a Celtic name doesn't seem to be known, but we could still call it Aquae. And when someone complains that Aquae was only founded in 80 BC we'll tell him exactly that. For most pre-Roman settlements North of Italy we'll have this problem anyway.

As for Mogontiacum there was a Celtic town called Altiaia South of Mainz. Altiaia is today called Alzey (so you can see where it is). Altaia and Aquae are closer at each other than Mogontiacum and Argentorate, maybe that's a problem?

Thebes is too close to the mountains? If you mean the Egyptian one, you should just lower the mountains a bit, if you mean the Greek one we could replace it with another city perhaps.

By the way I have to applaud your friend for choosing Gortyn to represent Crete I always say everyone it was the most powerful polis on the island during this time frame, but RTR6, RTRVII, RTW, EB, RSII and Rome II have always fielded it's lesser rival Knossos or the rather unimportant Kydonia. I also like having Naxos and Mytilene, hopefully we can keep them  Considering the Nasiotic League was there we might give them to the Greek superfaction?