09-16-2022, 05:48 PM
Europe Expanded II for GearCity - RC 1
![[Image: EEII_PreviewImage.png]](https://ajtjp.com/software/GearCity/Images/EEII_PreviewImage.png)
The Map, showing population growth rates in the mid-1980s
Installation Instructions
Download the .zip file from https://ajtjp.com/software/GearCity/Down...%20RC1.zip (1.11 MB).
Then decompress the .zip file and put the "Europe Expanded II" folder in your "GearCity/media/Mods" folder. Then start the Video Settings Editor and go to the mods tab, and select Europe Expanded II. Start GearCity, and you should be running the mod. Use the Europe Test map, which should be the only one in green, to start a game of Europe Expanded II.
Summary
This is the first release of version 2 of Europe Expanded. Europe Expanded seeks to provide a viable second map for GearCity, focusing on Europe, and greatly expands the number of cities available from the base Europe Test map.
Using current borders, EEII features:
- 268 cities overall (+199 over the base Europe test map)
- 50 cities in Italy
- 49 cities in the United Kingdom (40 in England, 4 in Scotland, 3 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland)
- 47 cities in France
- 40 cities in Spain
- 10 cities in Portugal
- 10 cities in Belgium
- 9 cities in Switzerland
- 9 cities in the Netherlands
- 5 cities in Ireland
Approach and Demographics
Europe Expanded II takes a hybrid region-city approach to the game. Each city's population represents the population of a region, or a part of a region if multiple cities from one region are included. The GNP also reflects the regional GNP rather than that of just the city. This way, most of the population of the countries that have been covered are included, and are potential customers.
Countering this increase in population, infrastructure and manufacturing levels are generally lower than in the base game, and starting economic wealth is also generally lower. In my in-depth playthrough (before the Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland were revamped), this resulted in industry-wide sales figures that were about half the level of the base game over the first decade, rising to about 75% by the late 1920s. So while you may have a lot of potential customers, don't think everyone will be able to afford a car in 1900!
A future post will provide more detail on the demographic and economic approach, but in short while the hybrid city-regional approach means the figures won't match a historic atlas, historic population levels for both regions and cities have been gathered and used as the basis of the mod, as well as historic national-level GNP data and current regional GNP data.
There are City files for every decade, and where possible historic demographic data was used for each decade; interpolation was necessary in some cases, as the depth of data varied from country to country, largely based around the frequency of censuses. Nonetheless, there should be at least as much depth on average as in the base game. If you start a game in 1912, most cities will be growing at different rates than they will in 1902.
AI Companies
EEII also features real AI company names (though not logos) for 124 of the AI companies, and adds three new AI companies in Portugal. For many of the AI companies with real names, the starting location has been updated, if need be, to be historically accurate based on the much-expanded roster of cities.
City Art
For twelve cities, EEII also includes custom city art, deptcing the actual skyline, plazas, or historic landmarks. These are:
- Berlin, the Tiergarten viewed from the Reichstag
- Chur, panorama of the city
- Kiev, Maidan Square
- Le Mans, panorama of the city
- London, the Palace of Westminster
- Nancy, Place Stanislas
- Padua, Prato della Valle
- Paris, Notre Dame
- Rome, the Colosseum
- Soria, San Juan de Duero
- Teruel, the Plaza del Torico
- Zurich, Rathausbrucke
![[Image: EEII_London.png]](https://ajtjp.com/software/GearCity/Images/EEII_London.png)
London, in 1987
Please see Image Credits.txt, included in the download, for more info on these locations, as well as attributions.
I played EEI - What's New?
The Italian, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, British, and Irish revamps are all entirely new. Another pass has been done for Spain, Portugal, and France as well; France has gained 14 cities since EEI, Spain has gained 11, and Portugal has gained 5. Much of this has focused on adding cities/regions that had proportionally larger shares of their country's population in 1900 than they did in 2020.
Overall, the number of cities has increased from 124 to 268.
The demographics are also much more granular over time; in EE1 there were only 1900 and 2020 city files, now there is one per decade. All cities have at least 3 data points (1900, 1950, and 2020), but many have far more than they did in EEI.
The economy also now varies by region, whereas in EEI only country-level economic data was used.
The real AI names and city art are also new.
Errata
Currently, three historic aberrations are known:
- The Treaty of Versailles is more favorable to Germany than historically, allowing them to keep Elsass-Lothringen
- It is also more lenient on Austria-Hungary, who gets to keep their Italian cities, though their economy will falter
- The Irish mostly do not gain independence from the UK, only in Dublin
These will be fixed for the final release, however as my focus has been moving to other hobbies over the past week I wanted to release what's available, rather than wait several months while I did other things as happened with EEI.
Additionally, infrastructure grows at the same rate as manufacturing due to game limitations, which is not intended. I am hoping that Feature Bounty item #191 (https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3975) can be funded as that will make this mod (as well as the base map and other maps) more accurate. If you haven't signed up for the Feature Bounty yet, please consider doing so!
Aside from these aberrations, as far as I'm aware EEII is working as intended.
Future
After the full release, which will also be posted to the Steam Workshop, there may well be a 2.1 or 2.2 release that includes more historically accurate demographic, economic, or infrastructure data; in particular I've recently found additional sources for historic regional economic data.
Long term, there may be a 3.0 release that revamps countries father east; Germany would be a top priority, but depending on how much demographic data I can find, a 2.5 release with a smaller country such as Greece may arrive first.
However, I will most likely do a North America map first unless Eric beats me to it. I seem to be motivated to work on this about once a year, so that may mean North America 1.0 in 2023, Europe 3.0 in 2024. Or I could skip a year or decide to make a Japan map before Europe 3.0 if someone hasn't done that first.
- JC Denton
Ohio, USA
The Map, showing population growth rates in the mid-1980s
Installation Instructions
Download the .zip file from https://ajtjp.com/software/GearCity/Down...%20RC1.zip (1.11 MB).
Then decompress the .zip file and put the "Europe Expanded II" folder in your "GearCity/media/Mods" folder. Then start the Video Settings Editor and go to the mods tab, and select Europe Expanded II. Start GearCity, and you should be running the mod. Use the Europe Test map, which should be the only one in green, to start a game of Europe Expanded II.
Summary
This is the first release of version 2 of Europe Expanded. Europe Expanded seeks to provide a viable second map for GearCity, focusing on Europe, and greatly expands the number of cities available from the base Europe Test map.
Using current borders, EEII features:
- 268 cities overall (+199 over the base Europe test map)
- 50 cities in Italy
- 49 cities in the United Kingdom (40 in England, 4 in Scotland, 3 in Wales, 2 in Northern Ireland)
- 47 cities in France
- 40 cities in Spain
- 10 cities in Portugal
- 10 cities in Belgium
- 9 cities in Switzerland
- 9 cities in the Netherlands
- 5 cities in Ireland
Approach and Demographics
Europe Expanded II takes a hybrid region-city approach to the game. Each city's population represents the population of a region, or a part of a region if multiple cities from one region are included. The GNP also reflects the regional GNP rather than that of just the city. This way, most of the population of the countries that have been covered are included, and are potential customers.
Countering this increase in population, infrastructure and manufacturing levels are generally lower than in the base game, and starting economic wealth is also generally lower. In my in-depth playthrough (before the Netherlands, Ireland, and Scotland were revamped), this resulted in industry-wide sales figures that were about half the level of the base game over the first decade, rising to about 75% by the late 1920s. So while you may have a lot of potential customers, don't think everyone will be able to afford a car in 1900!
A future post will provide more detail on the demographic and economic approach, but in short while the hybrid city-regional approach means the figures won't match a historic atlas, historic population levels for both regions and cities have been gathered and used as the basis of the mod, as well as historic national-level GNP data and current regional GNP data.
There are City files for every decade, and where possible historic demographic data was used for each decade; interpolation was necessary in some cases, as the depth of data varied from country to country, largely based around the frequency of censuses. Nonetheless, there should be at least as much depth on average as in the base game. If you start a game in 1912, most cities will be growing at different rates than they will in 1902.
AI Companies
EEII also features real AI company names (though not logos) for 124 of the AI companies, and adds three new AI companies in Portugal. For many of the AI companies with real names, the starting location has been updated, if need be, to be historically accurate based on the much-expanded roster of cities.
City Art
For twelve cities, EEII also includes custom city art, deptcing the actual skyline, plazas, or historic landmarks. These are:
- Berlin, the Tiergarten viewed from the Reichstag
- Chur, panorama of the city
- Kiev, Maidan Square
- Le Mans, panorama of the city
- London, the Palace of Westminster
- Nancy, Place Stanislas
- Padua, Prato della Valle
- Paris, Notre Dame
- Rome, the Colosseum
- Soria, San Juan de Duero
- Teruel, the Plaza del Torico
- Zurich, Rathausbrucke
London, in 1987
Please see Image Credits.txt, included in the download, for more info on these locations, as well as attributions.
I played EEI - What's New?
The Italian, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch, British, and Irish revamps are all entirely new. Another pass has been done for Spain, Portugal, and France as well; France has gained 14 cities since EEI, Spain has gained 11, and Portugal has gained 5. Much of this has focused on adding cities/regions that had proportionally larger shares of their country's population in 1900 than they did in 2020.
Overall, the number of cities has increased from 124 to 268.
The demographics are also much more granular over time; in EE1 there were only 1900 and 2020 city files, now there is one per decade. All cities have at least 3 data points (1900, 1950, and 2020), but many have far more than they did in EEI.
The economy also now varies by region, whereas in EEI only country-level economic data was used.
The real AI names and city art are also new.
Errata
Currently, three historic aberrations are known:
- The Treaty of Versailles is more favorable to Germany than historically, allowing them to keep Elsass-Lothringen
- It is also more lenient on Austria-Hungary, who gets to keep their Italian cities, though their economy will falter
- The Irish mostly do not gain independence from the UK, only in Dublin
These will be fixed for the final release, however as my focus has been moving to other hobbies over the past week I wanted to release what's available, rather than wait several months while I did other things as happened with EEI.
Additionally, infrastructure grows at the same rate as manufacturing due to game limitations, which is not intended. I am hoping that Feature Bounty item #191 (https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3975) can be funded as that will make this mod (as well as the base map and other maps) more accurate. If you haven't signed up for the Feature Bounty yet, please consider doing so!
Aside from these aberrations, as far as I'm aware EEII is working as intended.
Future
After the full release, which will also be posted to the Steam Workshop, there may well be a 2.1 or 2.2 release that includes more historically accurate demographic, economic, or infrastructure data; in particular I've recently found additional sources for historic regional economic data.
Long term, there may be a 3.0 release that revamps countries father east; Germany would be a top priority, but depending on how much demographic data I can find, a 2.5 release with a smaller country such as Greece may arrive first.
However, I will most likely do a North America map first unless Eric beats me to it. I seem to be motivated to work on this about once a year, so that may mean North America 1.0 in 2023, Europe 3.0 in 2024. Or I could skip a year or decide to make a Japan map before Europe 3.0 if someone hasn't done that first.
- JC Denton
Ohio, USA