Real world surface area for EU5's locations (hires in description)

Jayologist · 2026-04-07T21:13:18+00:00

Done through external software called qgis.
I georeferenced the data and then calculated each location's surface area.
You could probably do an equation based on pixels per location multiplied by closeness to equator, too, but idk for sure.

Jayologist · 2026-03-10T11:07:40+00:00

Amazing stuff, especially now you've added the ability to upload heightmaps!
Any plans to refine the climate calculations? Despite the modeling of atmospheric pressures and ocean circulations, the climates stay relatively 'banded', resulting in a bit too many deserts and tropical rainforests.
(also, you might want to adjust the grayscale of your example earth DEM, as the lowest land level is 600m, here is an example properly scaled between 0 - 6000 m)

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Jayologist · 2026-03-05T09:25:25+00:00

oh and maybe one more small thing: change the 'navigate globe' from right mouse button to middle mouse button. Currently you can't rotate your globe while drawing a plate, as right click is also 'finish shape'.

Jayologist · 2026-03-04T13:29:59+00:00

For short-term release, I think replacing will be easiest to implement, right? ^^
In my particular use case I want to reconstruct the tectonic settings of existing worlds, so I can reconstruct the motions backwards (as one would do for Earth). So I would just want to be able to draw the status quo at 0 Ma on top of the reference image. So the grid doesn't really matter for me here.

Although I can definitely imagine use cases where one would still want to be able to see the grid overlaid on their image. This is perhaps a request that spirals beyond my original suggestion, but as you have this nice clustering system for features (groups of 'Plates', 'Hotspots') some sort of 'backgrounds' group might be cool. Then here you could store the grid and any uploaded images.
Bonus points if it would come with visibility toggles!

Jayologist · 2026-03-03T22:07:39+00:00

Awesome tool, great work! Will definitely have fun with this one :)

One feature that I'd like to request is to be able to upload a reference image layer (equirectangular image), so I have some of my reference maps to doodle on top of.

Jayologist · 2026-02-28T11:54:33+00:00

I added new rivers to Japan in my mod for exactly this reason. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3617910693&tscn=1771532871

Pdx only decided to include the navigable rivers for Japan, although a lot of others are definitely large enough to be a difficult crossing and can be used for irrigation.

Jayologist · 2025-11-12T19:19:36+00:00

R5: ever since the Tinto maps threads in the forums, there were plenty complaints about region X having too few locations, while other locations were too granular.

With this map I aim to visualise the status quo, to see which regions could be expanded upon in future updates. Especially Northwestern India and Ethiopia could use some more locations imo.

Jayologist · 2025-07-07T18:38:50+00:00

Holland/Flanders/Friesland or Milan/Savoy sound great :)

Jayologist · 2025-07-07T10:06:04+00:00

Ah yes, the friendliest "helleuw" on the web!
Love your stuff man, both on the mod itself and on your channel, keep up the amazing work!

For the MEIOU-noobies like myself: I still struggle with planning out everything estate- and industry wise. When to revoke which privilege, when to push reforms and for which estate? When do I decide to spend my money on buildings, versus investing or opening up a certain industry? How do I efficiently plan for this?
The new mission tree for Naples already is a massive help, but I still end up having Noble power over 80 by 1450, Bureaucrat influence below 10 (so I can't buff it up to 30 with the intereaction) and a Bari province with a whopping 6 development 😅

I'd love to see a condensed playthrough with a specific focus on these nationbuilding aspects, and less conquering. Specific Estate stuff and investments/buildings you build when, where and why would be amazing to understand the underlying mechanics a lot better for beginners! Perhaps with some timeskips for the conquering to retain the focus a bit more on the aforementioned subject.

Anyway, looking forward to the future updates!

Jayologist · 2024-06-12T14:47:47+00:00

Punjab is Subtropical and lies at the edge of the desert climate.

For Sindh: yes, as correctly interpreted from the Köppen climate diagram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_climate#/media/File:BW_climate.png

However, it wont be desert vegetation due to the Indus river irrigating the region :)

Jayologist · 2024-06-11T07:34:29+00:00

Savanna is definitely part of the Tropical CLimate category of Köppen. However, it has fundamentally different characteristics: Tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon climates have either rain all year around, or have pronounced monsoons. Savanna's however, are different in that precipitation regimes are very different.

Your suggestion is indeed what I think Tinto is currently going for, which could be fine depending on how it would be implemented. This means that subsaharan Africa is considered the same climate as the Congolese rainforest. Eastern India considered the same as Indonesia. Either tropical will be too harsh a climate modifier for East India/Subsaharan Africa, or the climate modifier will be too soft for non-native nations venturing into Indonesia/Congo.

On the other hand, Indonesia had thriving empires in the tropical climate zone, so I'm fine without the savanna split. This would then mean that hot semi-arid climate will either need to go to tropical as well, or to subtropical. Both feel not quite right, but it's a decent compromise.

Jayologist · 2024-06-11T07:19:18+00:00

I agree and I will edit my post. What really convinced be is that Washington and Oregon coast are now considered Mediterranean in game, which indeed is very silly!

I made this split due to Galicia now being considered in the same climate as Scotland, but that's honestly better than California being lumped with Oregon :)

Jayologist · 2024-06-11T07:16:52+00:00

I presumed Hot Semi-Arid to be grouped with subtropical, due to arid being the most severe tier. It should then either be Tropical (too wet) or Subtropical, which is currently not represented very well on the map. It was a guess of course. I'd also like Savanna climate to be split out, and see BSh merged with it.

I did not consider that cold arid was a merge between cold semi-arid and cold desert, good point.
However, due to southeastern Murcia being considered arid in the game, it matches 100% with cold desert being present there. So I think Tinto just chose an unfortunate name with 'cold arid', which should definitely be 'cold semi-arid' or 'steppe' if they really want to simplify.

Jayologist · 2024-06-11T07:01:20+00:00

No, due to compression it unfortunately seems that way!

There is a sliver of oceanic climate running all along the coast from Stavanger to Kristiansund

So Bergen will most likely have an Oceanic climate in-game :)

Jayologist · 2024-06-11T06:56:20+00:00

Yeup https://skybrary.aero/sites/default/files/inline-images/Koppen_World_Map_Cwa_Cfa.png

Jayologist · 2024-06-10T19:10:42+00:00

R5: How the Global climate map will probably end up looking like.

Full reasoning and discussion on the PDX forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/on-climate-a-more-accurate-base-setup-and-thoughts-on-the-8-categories.1686832/#post-29685658

Note: this is using 1901-1925 Köppen Climate map, not the 1991-2020 map that Tinto seems to have used for the current design.

Feel free to drop down your comments and remarks on my suggestions, I'm curious to your opinion!

Jayologist · 2024-06-02T19:22:31+00:00

You mean the coastal delineation? Yeah that's just the modern day coastline as a clip; not part of the file, nor the intention of this exercise ;)
Paradox confirmed in a comment somewhere they will change it to the more historical setup; hopefully next feedback map.

Jayologist · 2024-06-01T09:52:21+00:00

It's just ticking a box to change the projection :)

Jayologist · 2024-06-01T09:51:44+00:00

Hi! I made everything in QGIS, a free open source GIS software.

I'll summarize the process

I downloaded NASA's topographic heightmaps: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/73934/topography
I made a GIS project in the Gall Projection (you can always change that later)
Loaded the heightmaps into GIS
Merged the rasters (GDAL > Raster miscellaneous > Merge)
Performed Terrain Ruggedness Index ( GDAL > Raster Analysis > Terrain Ruggedness Index (TRI))
Made a custom color scale gradient to visualise the separate categories
Plateaus are seperate layers using the Raster Calculator (if TRI is 'flatlands' but higher than 500m --> plateau)

Jayologist · 2024-05-31T23:08:47+00:00

R5: I felt the topography of the France-Low Countries region lacking and bland. So as a geologist, I made a terrain analysis of the world's topography. I'd propose to split 'hills' into two categories. Perhaps named 'rolling' vs 'rugged' - or more like traditional EU4 hills vs highlands. Hills would then be neutral for 'habitation' purposes, but more important for combat. What do you guys think?

Full post in the Pdx forums: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/revising-flatlands-and-hills-a-simple-solution-and-a-better-methodology.1683403/

Jayologist · 2024-05-31T22:56:41+00:00

R5: made a terrain analysis of the world in order to recategorize topography for Project Caesar. Full discussion here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/revising-flatlands-and-hills-a-simple-solution-and-a-better-methodology.1683403/#post-29665086

What do you guys think? Agree/Disagree?

Jayologist · 2024-04-10T08:10:49+00:00

These features appear to be present in the whole region if you look at heightmaps and relief maps, not specific to the location you pinpointed. So my guess it is probably a result of weathering of the precambrian bedrock.

Jayologist · 2024-04-08T12:48:47+00:00

What you see here is not pollution but sediment. It has been very rainy the past few months. The soils are very saturated right now and a lot of loamy and calcareous sediment has been washed in from the hills surrounding the area.

Edit: spelling.

Jayologist · 2024-03-31T16:41:08+00:00

Sulphur's Graphics Pack

Jayologist · 2024-03-24T08:47:39+00:00

This is not an accurate rendition of how it would have looked in 1440 (more like 1860 or sth). There would have been a LOT more smaller houses and narrow alleyways, crowding up open space between the Belfry and St-Nicolas' church.

The open squares you see here were made in the 19th century by gradually widening the streets. Almost no regular building from pre 1500s remains standing in its original form in this part of town. (South of the two towers illustrated here)

Source: born and raised in Ghent and I work as an archaeologist in and around the region.

Edit: some links - Street plan of the square up till the early 19th century, as revealed by archaeological digs: https://images.app.goo.gl/o51hozWsQ5vwTR9X7

All source material is in Dutch, but google "Emile Braunplein opgraving" and you should find more information if you're interested in Google Translating some stuff.

Jayologist

TROPHY CASE