Physical Geography of the Map

St George

St George

RolePlay Moderator
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Physical Geography of the Map
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The older versions of the current map we have were accompanied by a physical map that detailed some major geographical features, including rivers and mountain ranges. Whilst acknowledging that this would be a significant undertaking for the cartography team, what kinds of things would people be looking for in physical geography map?
 
I don't really see geography as being necessary. Most of us just create our own geography and have so far been pretty good about figuring out shared geography between neighbors. I think deciding ahead of time will limit new nations joining the map.

Plus then we'd have to figure out things like techtonics and fault lines, subduction zones, etc.
 
Plus I don't want to see Esplandia's beautiful topography maps be overwritten by anything we decide here. I'd rather leave it alone.
 
I'd be content to leave it up to the nations mostly, it's not uncommon for the identity of a nation to be partially made up of it's terrain and how that affects it's people, cities, and resources so I think we'll run into some roadblocks with what people want to do with their nations if the geopgraphy is too pre-defined.
 
Predetermined geography would only be ideal if we did a map reboot, though I don’t think Lore wants to be lynched
 
Nor do I believe that he wants to commit suicide.

I honestly think the best way to go about doing this is just to let everyone work it out between themselves; if neighbouring RP'ers want to have, say, a large mountain range running through each of their nations, and that said mountain range should be contiguous, then they should be able to do that. If the nation beside them wants to have a nation of plains without much terrain altitude, they should not be forced to have a mountain range they don't want in their nation.
 
A good example of players deciding on geography together, a lot of nations (Iraelia, Nogori, my self, and others) in South Iteria (a region of an Erasian continent) generally accept that there’s a large desert in that region.
 
The "let RPers decide their own geography" thing goes both ways however, as seen in the past where people were claiming super volcanoes and larger than Everest mountains and even recently when someone tried to claim a 2 mile deep river or something.
 
Maybe an in-between is the way to go? Let RPers decide their own but with restrictions on what they can throw in, asking them to be realistic about it, so they can define their own mountain ranges, plains, deserts, rivers, lakes, etc. within reason but not allowing those supervolcanoes, extreme mountains, an entire country on a near-infinite supply of oil reserves, etc.
 
Andrenne:
A good example of players deciding on geography together, a lot of nations (Iraelia, Nogori, my self, and others) in South Iteria (a region of an Erasian continent) generally accept that there’s a large desert in that region.
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I also agree with players deciding what should be in their nations through some cooperation. Me and Cogoria have basically accepted a mountain range along the border from the tip of the horn down to the lake, slightly declining in average altitude the farther south you go. As long as nobody makes insane claims about their nations, such as a super volcano, or really deep rivers as stated before, I feel that it can be easily figured out between each neighbor and agreements can be come to.
 
St George:
The "let RPers decide their own geography" thing goes both ways however, as seen in the past where people were claiming super volcanoes and larger than Everest mountains and even recently when someone tried to claim a 2 mile deep river or something.
Click to expand...
Doesn't the RP Conclave have the power to overrule and shoot down ridiculous ideas? Sure, we mainly rule on matters of canon and help with stats and making them reasonable to fit within the standards used by Eras but unless I'm misreading / mis-remembering the Conclave powers, we do have the ability to tell people no they can't have a two mile deep river or some other ridiculous geographic feature.
 
The highest point in Ninhundland is 6,328 m so it's still lower than Mt. Everest. As for rivers go that should be up to the player since I've agreed with Goy and Andy that there will be rivers marking the main borders. I have yet to make a detailed geography map but I'm planning to do that soon with a better and update climate map.
 
Nightsong:
St George:
The "let RPers decide their own geography" thing goes both ways however, as seen in the past where people were claiming super volcanoes and larger than Everest mountains and even recently when someone tried to claim a 2 mile deep river or something.
Click to expand...
Doesn't the RP Conclave have the power to overrule and shoot down ridiculous ideas? Sure, we mainly rule on matters of canon and help with stats and making them reasonable to fit within the standards used by Eras but unless I'm misreading / mis-remembering the Conclave powers, we do have the ability to tell people no they can't have a two mile deep river or some other ridiculous geographic feature.
Click to expand...
They do, but it needs people to challenge the claims formally and bring them up to the Conclave, a process that I think could be easier, but I've not really looked at it since it was first set up.
 
Just throwing this out there as a thought:

It's possible to have a little bit of a topo map. Players that are on the map steadily can possibly build their topography according to some rules and then it can be submitted to be added to a topo map the next time it's updated. Topography will only be available for nations that desire to build a topo map and are on the map long enough to be added to that topo map. Players that agree on border features can coordinate those features, but otherwise players should subdue their topography as it approaches the borders so it doesn't ruin their neighbor's topography.
 
Aye, being able to have a shared topographical map decided on by the RPers themselves, rather than by the carto team, is likely preferable.
 
This would require more input from people that aren't Lore in the cartography team than currently happens. It'd be a good thing to have that, but updates to a topo map will be few and far between if its just left to Lore (and to a lesser extent me).
 
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