Greek place names painted on map in wrong place

[Philippe]

I just bought Hannibal and fired it up. Then I remembered why I don't play these games anymore.

It was particularly depressing as I've recently played Hegemony Gold and Hegemony Rome. They operate at a much greater level of geographical detail, and I would describe the maps in those games as 99% accurate (and the only real howler that I've ever noticed was probably due to someone not being able to read Greek).

The maps in the three AJE games have a lot of problems. Getting place names wrong and/or in the wrong place in areas that see a lot of action is not a good way to build credibility.

I've fixed Osrhoene in a personal mod so I'm not going to complain about it.

But there are three major problems in Greece, it would take a lot of work to fix without the underlying files, and I'm short on time and way behind in the modding that needs to be done for other games that seem to have better quality control.

Once again, for the record, those problems are:

1) The word "Thessaly" appears on the map in the wrong place. It should appear where the map currently has the word "Beotia".

2) The word "Beotia" appears on the map in the wrong place. It should appear on the map much farther south, over the area that the game engine labels as Beotia. (In other words, way to the south of Lamia rather than to the north of it, a little to the southwest of Thermopylae and nothwest of Attica).

3) The word "Atticus" that appears on the map is a barbarism. It should be Attica, as per the game engine. Atticus is a roman cognomen and a word that means someone from Attica, not the place itself.

Now that the game has come out three times there should be some money in the till to fix something that never should have been wrong in the first place.

Any chance that something will be done about this, or should I go back to playing Hegemony?

[Ged]

I would like to second Philippe. I've just bought AJA and started it. I had expected a very historically faithful environment since all the complexity of the system is to serve the goal to give the feeling of an ancien general. And the whole map is disappointing from the historical point of view. I won't delve into details but just have a look at Crete - Gortyn is at the place of Rethimnon and Knossos too far to the east. In fact, both cities were very close to each other. Why not to make Kydonia and Gortyn?
And the rest of the map is full of similar problems.
Just have a look at Total War mods, like Europa Barbarorum or RTR - why not spend some time to fix it for the next releases?
Ged

[Franciscus]

The large printed letters on the map are hard-coded and there are no plans to change it, now or in the future. Sorry.

Small corrections to city positions and alternative city names are possible, but only if on the same map region; changing a city location from a region to another can have devastating effects in the game and I believe will not be done.

If you have specific suggestions, namely in regard to small corrections of city positions in-map, inside same regions, please provide them. There are no dates for a future patch, but something can eventually be done.

Regards

[Ged]

Ok, I understand a map is very costly and there's not enough players buying the game for the developers to afford changing it. That's a fair explantion, even though changes would help (like: there're two different spellings of Pamphylia / Phamphylia - which btw in place of the province Isauria / Cilicia Tracheia)

I'll pay attention to the names while playing AJE and I'll come back after some time (months?) with suggestions.

Could you just confirm that what is possible to change are:
- changing of a city name;
- changing of a region name;
- moving a city position within same region.

BTW - did you consider different names for provinces / cities for different campaigns? Is it possible to implement? The time span of the game is like 500 years, and many cities changed their names meanwhile. Or different cities were prominent in the same region in different times (like in Pamphylia: Side - Perge - Attalea, btw - the city Selinus, which is current city in Pamphylia, was in fact in Isauria, ie more to the east, so the name should be replaced outright by Side). Using different names would be possbile even with the hardcoded map.
The best reference for the ancient names is obviously the Barrington Atlas.

Anyway, if I may help, I will. Just tell me what is possible.

And thanks for developing this game - I'm looking forward to having much historical fun.
Regards
Ged

[Franciscus]

Region names are not truly possible to change.

City names are changeable, and indeed they are changed, according to the scenario you play. For example, while the city in Sena Gallica region is named Ancona in AJE scenarios, it is named Sena Gallica in BOR scenarios.

It is possible to change slightly almost all the cities' position inside the same region. This is not simple to do, involves changing also other sprites positions (eg, harbours, default armies positions, etc) and cannot be done for all.

Please note that even if something is possible to change, it does not mean it willl be changed in a future patch.

Also note that if you are interested, it's possible to mod cities' positions and names youself.

Regards

[Straight Arrow]

I am sure this is already well known to the members of the forum, but the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World is a magnificent and solid source of geographical and city names. The atlas would be a most excellent resource for game design.

On the down side, the atlas is probably the most expensive book I've purchased. But it really brings the ancients alive; walking, step by step, through a topographic relief map of Greece with Pausanias was a lot of fun.