[MOD] After the End CK3 (2024)

After the End CK3 Dev Diary 2: The Map (Part One)

Good tidings, all!

It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? I apologize for leaving you all hanging for so long, but, as you can probably guess, it was largely due to factors beyond our control. The content we’ve posted so far has certainly been high-quality, but I’m sure many of you are hungry for a look at something in-engine. Well, I’m glad to announce that you’ll be getting just that in this dev diary.

Before we continue, I would once again like to say that everything in this diary is a work in progress and is subject to change at any time. Our focus was on speed and volume for this first iteration rather than accuracy. In fact, if you spot any errors or other weirdness in this dev diary, I encourage you to point it out to us – we would appreciate the feedback.

Now, without any further ado, here is the first iteration of the full in-game map.

Song credit:

Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/3964-laid-back-guitars

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

(You might have noticed something unexpected about the orientation of the map. We’ll be touching on that later.)

We said in our last dev diary that we would be doing the entirety of the Americas, and, as you can see, we have delivered on that promise. The Fan Fork stretched from sea to shining sea, but After the End CK3 will extend from the tip of Tierra Del Fuego to Alaska and Svalbard.

Now, I’d like to walk you through the process of how this map was made. I will begin by saying that this would have been impossible without the hard work of many people on the dev team, including ThomasMapper, Nico, ToiletCleaner666, Tex Starshine, Lahom, KaYoS, Meriador, Elzephor, Tech_King465, Farrouphiler, Kefir, nullpointer_, and many others. It was their hard work and dedication that brought this map to fruition so quickly.

We didn’t just aim for speed, though. Most of the time, when making maps for Paradox games, the process is somewhat ad-hoc, based on other existing maps at best. But we had already been discussing the inadequacies of the Fan Fork’s map projection before CK3 was even released, so we decided to take this opportunity to make a new projection from scratch. Especially because ThomasMapper specifically had the knowledge and skills to make it happen, we implemented a design process with a basis in geographic information systems (GIS) as would be used in a professional (non-video game) context.

The mapping process began with selecting the right projection. An orthographic projection (in other words, the view that you would get if you looked at Earth through a telescope from a distant point in outer space) centered at St. Louis was considered as it included all of North America. This projection by its nature distorts the edges which for the far north wouldn’t matter as there are few provinces there anyways and we also wanted to minimize unused areas rendered by the game. It was more of a problem for Central America, and also precluded map expansion into South America. To account for this, we employed a hybrid orthographic-sinusoidal projection. The US and Canada are projected using a slightly modified orthographic projection, while the Caribbean, Central, and South America are using a modified sinusoidal-like projection (stretched out into an oval). These two projections merge seamlessly into each other through North America. The projection was designed so that we could present the Americas with minimal distortions of shape, distance, and area. This also allowed the north, which was previously very stretched out due to the use of a standard equirectangular projection, to include a wider area. That’s why the map now includes everything from Svalbard to a tiny corner of Russia, though these additions were mostly side benefits.

Once we had a projection, we (specifically, Thomas) could project real maps and GIS data, and that provided direct context for our mapping, allowing us to make a more accurate map than ever before. The first thing we did was coastlines, and those wound up being pixel perfect in most areas. Some islands and most navigable rivers would be too small to be clickable so we had to enlarge them slightly, though for perspective, nothing changed as drastically as vanilla Venice. We also made a few intentional changes, such as removing most reservoirs on the assumption that their dams wouldn’t last six centuries. But even including the intentional deviations, when you combine the effect of our improved methodology and the increased resolution allowed by the new engine, this is by far the most detailed and accurate map of the New World that has ever appeared in a Paradox game.

Close-up of Lake Michigan.

Close-up of the Alaskan coast.

There are a few different kinds of terrain that exist in the Americas that don’t exist in the vanilla game’s map extent, so we’re adding those.

The swamps of the Everglades.

Keep in mind that this content is not yet finished, so the list might change in the future. We haven’t yet settled on specific mechanics or tested any numbers. But northern Canada and Alaska have a few different landscapes that aren’t well covered by anything Paradox designed for Europe: a notable example is the inhospitable terrain of the Yukon, where life revolves around coastal fishing and hunting of marine mammals. But perhaps the most visually striking of our new terrains so far are the salt flats of the mountainous regions of the Americas.

The Salt Lake area in Western Utah.

We’ve also got several species of new world trees that will be appearing on parts of the map:

The Ypês of the Cerrado.

Once that was complete, we began the process of actually adding the in-game selectable entities; namely, counties and baronies. We decided to map with a “county-first” approach - we would draw our intended county shapes onto the existing map, using a combination of modern municipal borders and natural geography to guide us.

Once the counties were filled in, we relied on an algorithm provided by ThomasMapper to procedurally generate barony shapes using “seeds” placed inside the counties. This dramatically sped up the mapping process, as not only did we not have to draw every single barony by hand, but the baronies would already be linked to the drawn counties.

We are still in the process of cleaning up some of the automatically generated barony borders and names - please tell us if you spot anything strange!

Now, to address the proverbial elephants in the room. Why is the map sideways? Well, I wish I had something clever to say here, but it’s actually because of an engine limitation. It turns out that CK3 just can’t handle maps which are taller than 8192 pixels (the width of the vanilla map), so we flipped the entire map 90 degrees to compensate for that. I personally like how it turned out, though - it takes a little getting used to, but it helps you literally see things from a different point of view. Also, east used to be up on old medieval maps, so replicating that for AtE seemed very fitting. Also, how fast does this run? Based on our preliminary testing, we have determined that the mod should run at a comparable speed to vanilla CK3.

We have one last announcement we’d like to make regarding the CK2 version of the mod. I know I said that 1.2 would be the last major content update for the CK2 version, but it probably won’t be ready for a few months at least. However; I think that you guys deserve to get something new a bit sooner than that. That’s why I’m officially announcing the release of v1.1.1 of the Fan Fork. v1.1.1 will fix most of the bugs that have been reported during the hiatus and add some smaller additions and adjustments. It should be out by Valentine’s Day this year.

That about does it for this dev diary. Once again, I’d like to thank ThomasMapper, Nico, ToiletCleaner666, Tex Starshine, Lahom, KaYoS, Meriador, Elzephor, Tech_King465, Farrouphiler, Kefir, nullpointer_, and the rest of the team for the contributions they have made so far. If you’re worried about another long gap between dev diaries, don’t be. We have a ton more content for both CK3 and CK2 coming down the pipeline, including some more details about something that eagle-eyed viewers might have spotted in the video. I hope you’re all looking forward to it!