I am for 48 urban centers in total... 36 seashore and 12 river towns.
Before the establishment of Hanseatic League, there still existed river towns and a very intense river transport activity. Just to remember that some of the very important Hanse members were river towns.
And now Mr. Dumont, if it's not too late, what do you think to completely overhaul the concept?..
I propose a Map / Resources - Based concept instead of City-Based one.
I am also for a very big, very beautiful and very detailed Main Hanse/Game Map... F8 is the keyboard button that I use most often. I hope extreme care will be showed in the making of this map. Beside its beautiful appearence that reflects the maps of its time (i.e.The Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus (1490-1557)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carta_Marina.jpeg ... I wished also a precise geographical application about the courses of some most important rivers of the region.
Once rivers, hills, mountains, plains, plateaus, forests, marshes etc.. all geographical elements lovely rendered on this very big Map... now comes the most important phase of the concept:
Resources on the Main Map:
After some library research, it will be easy to determine the medieval resources, and localize them on the Map.
We need, say, 48 towns x 5 resources = 240 mini resources icons on the Map. This is too much however. This number must dramatically to reduce with some overlappings, as one forest may serve a Logging Camp to 5 overlapping City Zone...These icons must be rendered conforming medieval artistic canons, that will add beauty and engraving-like atmosphere to the map. Still refer to Carta_Marina.
The default opening of the Game with resources must be with above accurate and realistic coordinates... With option to randomize them for further playability and longevity. A Resources/Regions editing option will be very welcomed also.
Once Main Map opened like this, now this is the player's turn to choose with which cities one wants to play.
So 48 possible spots, visible after "ADD CITY" button. One may choose from 5 (to add more as niederlassungen) to even 48 of them right from the start.
A la Civ and RRT series, each city must have an influence zone, interacted on the nearby resources (raw materials and finished goods combined).
This will give to player an infinite option to choose either numbers of cities and resources in his *each* personal approach.
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Inland trading is a must. We have two instrumental elements. Rivers and Ships. All trade must be done with snaikkas and crayers, as always... Land routes may be kept, either in 'construction' and 'use' parameters, mostly to add drama and atmosphere. Or better yet, local (and abstracted) transport capacity may be simulated as occasional goods/ products appearences on city market panel, about resources on the upper course of the related river, à la RRT3 manner... as P2 shows on AI Med imports. I wished to see finished roads on the main map.
Exact Courses of Rivers and River Towns
Meuse >> Antwerp
Rhine >> Köln, Frankfurt a.M.
Weser >> Brunswick
Elbe >> Magdeburg
Oder >> Breslau
Vistula >> Thorn, Krakow
Niemen >> Kowno
Düna >> Polotsk
Narva-Peipus Lake >> Dorpat
Volkhov >> Nowgorod
MoS