Real Cities

[Icepick]

Incase people still want information on how Defcon picks its Cities, here it is.
Theres nothing mysterious about it at all. In default mode, Defcon simply picks the cities with the highest populations for each territory, as long as those Cities aren't too close to any other city currently picked. This is to stop Cities overlapping each other (for example, Cairo has 2 other smaller cities almost directly underneath it on the map, meaning that a direct hit on Cairo would cause even more damage to Africa than it does now).
Once it has selected the required number of cities, it simply scales the population of all of them up so that the total population equals the set population level (100m by default)
Of course, the new city placement/population options will change this somewhat, but the basic principals remain the same.

[antidotos]

Icepick :
thanks for the precision, we have already found that, the problem was why some cities were not proportionnaly accurate (in the cities.dat) and the algorithm to compute the final size (I got the impression that the number of cities was not exactly the one asked for). Actually at this stage it is no longer useful, we would prefer a higher res map to allow more precise positionning of cities.....
Blackbelt Jones :
the mod is slowly taking shape..... I think you could have a try for a beta test if you wish. Thanks for your kind words.

[Blackbelt Jones]

I'd love to take your mod for a spin. Let me know, and I'll put it through the ropes.

[hellcatv]

would love to have the game support even more than 50 cities

[Star*Dagger]

Census and Tax records are very accurate. They might be off a small bit, but certainly useful for what he is trying to do.

S*D

[antidotos]

For those interested :
the geopolitics mod. or current cultural wars....
Crude beta.
Note there is a problem with AI and v1.2 is not supported.....
I do not have enough time to remedy.....
Let me know your opinion, particularly if you think something can be easily improved. read the readme.....

Thanks for your interest.

just a glimpse at 7th fleet intervention in Taiwan waters in a context of rising tension between China and Indonesia.....


Go here :
http://perso.orange.fr/simulaction/geopolitics10.zip

[stas]

Thank you so much antidotes!

First, I have some questions about your mod: to enjoy these wonderful realistic
scenarios, do all players need to install cities.dat, or just the host? Does
this work on Defcon 1.1?

Also I have a question to the game devs if they're still reading this thread: is
there a chance that this geographic data will find its way to the official
client?

In particular, I think that an option to choose whether to use original,
"80's-style" demographics, or the census-correct 2006 cities would be both well
received and easy to implement.

Stas

[antidotos]

Yes, geopolitics works perfectly with 1.1 (it has been designed with this version).
As a mod all players need to have it on their Hd.
Patch 1.2 was supposed to allow easy play with mods but it makes a mess with modded cities.dat which kills all the purposes of geopolitics mod.
Stas, did you have a good experience with the mod ?
Normally you should have noticed problems with AI fleets in the Pacific, for an undetermined reason they simply cross Mexico, probably using nukes to blow open a canal ahead of their path of intended motion.... This quirk drove me mad and I have no time to correct it.....
Now if at least 2 people want to try a multiplayer game just drop me a note, we could arrange a test session.

[A.T.]

Hey, I've just found your mod. I've been working on a similar project for the last few days, although nothing of the scope that you've implemented.

What program did you use to alter the territories? I've been trying to find one that gives smooth edges like the ingame ones, but I've had little to no luck. Any suggestions?

I've tried your mod out... it's HECTIC. Massive fleet battles... massive dying action. the Middle East especially seems a bit boned at times, just by not having very many nice places to deploy its things. But, as a concept this is pretty spiffy.

[antidotos]

Thanks AT for your feedback.
I simply used a good graphic editor (GIMP) and altered the various bmps. Yes, it was a lengthy process.
I have not enough time to play now and of course to go on improving the mod.
Further, as there was not much reaction to it, I suppose it was not interesting for the vast majority of the community.
I know it is somewhat unbalanced and only multiplayer testing could have improved this.
By the way anyone interested in this mod is encouraged to use any elements which could be useful for his own objectives.
Just tell me if you achieve something.

[A.T.]

Heh. I've been trying the GiMP too... I've been trying to get the thing to overlay the nation auras (southasia.bmp, africa.bmp etc) over the wireframe maps to no avail and it's been driving me absolutely batty.

My efforts for adding new cities were nowhere near as comprehensive or as thoughtful as yours... I kept having problems getting enough cities in europe or russia, and you seem to have conquered that problem. If I could use your Cities.dat file in my own little project, that would be fantastic. I was going to break up the world a bit differently... probably excluding either africa or russia entirely to make room for a nation made out of the middle east and India. A LOT of people live in India, and grouping India with China and Japan in the stock game is a bit insane.

Rough (planned) Breakdown:
NA: Canada, USA, Mexico. Much harder to defend without help from SA; I may give Mexico back.
SA: South America proper, plus the Caribbean islands.
Europe: Europe is merged with Russia. This actually does a fairly good job of normalizing Russian populations... on a 50/200 map Moscow had 62 million people when in "Stock" Russia, which was simply absurd.
Asia: China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand. Concentrated, but has nice coverage.
Africa: "Stock" Africa, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Nice distributed population allows a number of silo setups.
"Russia": India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Australia. This "group" may in fact be overpowered, as in all the demo games I could deploy my subs in position to rain fiery nuclear death down upon China and the Middle East, killing up to eight or even nine with some bombers at Defcon 1, which is just a bit absurd. Perhaps I shall move the Indian deployment zone far south...? Though, then Africa and Asia could bumrush it with subs.

Just a pipedream I had. If anything comes of it, I'll let you know.

EDITED:
Actually fired up GIMP and spent a few hours drawing this up. Screenies forthcoming.