Tropical Estuary V2
Updated version of my Tropical Estuary map. I’ve left the original, in case anyone wants to use the simpler, easier version of this map. A large river flows over a very tall waterfall into a volcanic caldera, then snakes through the playable area before ending in a braided estuary with many small island. Craggy mountains frame a sandy bay holding a large, flat island. One small valcanic cone sits in the center of the larger caldera. A series of small cliffs define an old river channel running around the starting tile.
Overall, I’ve tried to provide a good variety of terrain, there is plenty of flat and gently sloped land in the starting tile to build a starter city, but there are also enough terrain features to break up boring grids and give some shape and variety to your city. You’ve got maybe five tiles in total of flat and open terrain, the rest is across a river, up a hill, down a steep valley, or on some tiny little island. Plenty of resources, but ore is across the river and a tile away, oil is only on the tiny little islands, and farming is in the dry river channel next to the freeway, in a tile next to the start. The map has one train line, one major freeway that now splits into two loops, and airplane and ship access. You could dam the small caldera, I’ve found one 1400MW spot but the dam has to be huge and expensive, it takes years to fill up the reservoir, it’s in the furthest corner tile, and it kills the view of the waterfall.
This version features another freeway, making two loops with the first, an improved initial interchange, and a crazy diverging diamond based freeway to freeway interchange where the freeways cross. It has even smoother water flow, still using a single pair of water spawn points at the edge of the map, but now with more topographical variety to the banks and channel. Animal spawn points have been added, and the fertile land slightly reduced. A series of low cliffs now break up the flat space around the starting tile. The large island at the mouth of the river has been made even bigger and now starts with freeway access.