Day 3:
Expanded the map a bit, and added a lot more settlements (currently at 27). The map now reaches down the north Africa, esp Egypt, the Nile delta looks pretty cool and will be navigable via ship. I've also started work on the culture system and tying it into the UI. I started on the mini-map. And I've added colored city labels + stars to indicate which culture is prevalent (culture determines control, so it's basically a faction display):
Imports and Exports here is just a mockup. There will likely be more and may have to be abbreviated on this screen, with more detail being provided by a larger panel. Imports shows you what resources are being provided by trade routes "upstream". Exports shows the resources that you are sending "downstream". Note, you can't export your imports. Imports and Exports combined are all the resources available to create higher tier resources. So the concept here is that a city with a lot of trade routes can produce the highest quality goods and have to most cultural impact, but having such a "hub" potentially puts you at risk of losing a lot come the next disaster. Classic "putting all your eggs in one basket" problem.
EDIT:
I actually just quickly traced out the rest of the map, so all the land and water is there albiet un-detailed, Worth keeping in mind that you won't see most of the inland, only the coasts. And I'm also considering adding "deep water" to limit access to the large open water spaces and force you to go through safer shallow waters, this is more realistic and should alleviate boredom that'd come from such empty vastness. It should be fun to discover the far off lands though! :)
