Heightmap

[Brian S]

Elevation may be it, but considering there were debilatating blizzards in Tsaesci in Uriel's invasion [sorcery aside], i don't think it's a big factor. And if i'm not mistaken, isn't the cold weather at extremely high altitudes consistent?

[Kodama]

The map does look nice.


About the wilderness on the concept map, a height map will have limited space, and the Tsaesci and Ka'po Tun Empires are big, so the wilderness is basically an enormous waste of very valuable heightmap space.

[Brian S]

I also think, seeing how we've seen the territorial nature of the Akaviri [except for maybe KaPo] that nothing would be left unclaimed.

[Ysne]

That available space in a heightmap does limit our options.

[Kielanai]

This is all very interesting. ^_^ I don't have anything worthy to add except the fact that Akavir's invasion points of Tamriel led me to believe it was north east of Tamriel -- above the Skyrim/Morrowind border. But you may already have that (or have a refute for that).

The only other thing is just a small idea. When the final map is done, if you transfer it to a flat mesh, it will make a nice interior in-game addition for a library, palace, or ship's cabin. I have done this for the fune and uchi no genkan on Kojima, but felt it was a shame it was a map of Cyrodiil instead of Akavir. So, for immersion, a game map of Akavir would be nice somewhere in the game other than the menu. :yes:

[Kodama]

Originally posted by Kielanai
This is all very interesting. ^_^ I don't have anything worthy to add except the fact that Akavir's invasion points of Tamriel led me to believe it was north east of Tamriel -- above the Skyrim/Morrowind border. But you may already have that (or have a refute for that).

That's what Brian S said too, but let's not forget how large a continent is, if it would be placed north-east of Tamriel, it would be placed all over the north pole, it would be something like placing a continent the size of Australia north-east of Siberia, it just would'nt fit on the world map that way :eek:
I believe there have been one or more invasions from the other side of Tamriel aswell (the Iliac bay, Highrock).

Originally posted by Kielanai
The only other thing is just a small idea. When the final map is done, if you transfer it to a flat mesh, it will make a nice interior in-game addition for a library, palace, or ship's cabin. I have done this for the fune and uchi no genkan on Kojima, but felt it was a shame it was a map of Cyrodiil instead of Akavir. So, for immersion, a game map of Akavir would be nice somewhere in the game other than the menu. :yes:

I really like this idea! Thanks for the suggestion Kielanai :goodjob:

[Coinneach]

well as much everyone likes to kill my concept, why are the Tsaesci placed in the wrong area on my heightmap? As far as I can tell, the Tsaesci are obviously in the south-west. And I admit that Kamal/Tang Mo arent perfectly positioned, but that doesnt mean that Kamal shoudl take up the Northern half of Akavir. Because that means you waste even more heightmap space than you do with the wilderness area i put in, and I only put that in because I was running out of time and didnt know what to put in the middle.

The ice demons are frozen for half the year, which would mean that for half the year there wouldnt be much to do - because a) the icedemons are gone and b)the player would freeze as well. So I think that Kamal should be positioned in a high altitude mountain range in the north west, because that would give them access to morrowind and Tamriel without having to attack the Tang Mo.

And lastly, I think that Akavir should be placed so that the Tsaesci lands are directly east of the Telvanni lands in Morrowind. And also remember we don't need to have a big square continent like my rubbishy concept, it could be long and curve only slightly northward ?( i don;t know tbh

[Kodama]

Originally posted by Coinneach
well as much everyone likes to kill my concept, why are the Tsaesci placed in the wrong area on my heightmap? As far as I can tell, the Tsaesci are obviously in the south-west. And I admit that Kamal/Tang Mo aren't perfectly positioned, but that doesnt mean that Kamal shoudl take up the Northern half of Akavir. Because that means you waste even more heightmap space than you do with the wilderness area I put in, and I only put that in because I was running out of time and didn't know what to put in the middle.

No one here "likes" to kill your concept (well... i think no one does), but we are all trying to perfect the map as much as possible.
And ofcourse, there will always be people who just don't like something, you will have to accept that.
However, Tsaesci is in the right place, but i don't think that Brian S was talking about it's position, but rather what little is known about how Tsaesci looks like (a big river that runs deep into the land, mountains to the north of the river, etc. You should read the report on the disaster of Ionith to know what Tsaesci looks like, or at least a large part of Tsaesci).

Don't worry about the wilderness, you could just redraw the border of the lands or whatever.
Kamal is, and always has been a bit of a problem, that's why we are talking about it.

Originally posted by Coinneach
The ice demons are frozen for half the year, which would mean that for half the year there wouldn't be much to do - because a) the icedemons are gone and b)the player would freeze as well. So I think that Kamal should be positioned in a high altitude mountain range in the north west, because that would give them access to Morrowind and Tamriel without having to attack the Tang Mo.

The ice demons are frozen MOST of the year, they are only active during the summer (but that's just unimportant details for this subject).
We were also thinking about mountains, it could make things easier for us that way.

Originally posted by Coinneach
And lastly, I think that Akavir should be placed so that the Tsaesci lands are directly east of the Telvanni lands in Morrowind. And also remember we don't need to have a big square continent like my rubbishy concept, it could be long and curve only slightly northward ?( I don;t know tbh

I most certainly agree with the square continent, but we also have to deal with the restrictions of a Square heightmap, so the continent itself may end up looking a bit square in shape, but the Empires may be placed in a more interesting way, with natural looking shapes.

[Ysne]

I really like that suggesting for an ingame map too Kielanai. Thanks for explaining how to do it too.

We are not trying to "kill your concept" Coin. As Kodama explained, the placement of Kamal is a problem. There is evidence that someone from Kamal attempted to invade Morrowind at some point. Which also needs to be taken into account when pulling this continent together.

[Coinneach]

The Disaster at Ionith report does not seem to me to state that the river flowing through Septimia is the major river in Tsaesci lands. The report (IIRC) simply says that it is a major river. We don;t know for a fact that it runs deep into the land, as the Imperial Legions never got far enough in to tell.

The relevance of the Kamal's inactivity to the heightmap is that, as you said, there is limited space on the heightmap, and therefore we should make the Kamal be in the majority of northern akavir, as there wouldn't be much to do. Nevertheless a sizable chunk should be given to them because they are important to Akaviri history, and because in the summer they thaw out and attack the Tang Mo.

And I was only joking when I said you were trying to kill my concept I don't mind if my concept was wrong, because it was just that - a concept

OOC: are you planning on including the minor races we hear whispers of in some books - the races with 'rat and canine features'?