I have begun creating a map of Arcanum on Civ5, it is taking a while though as I want it to be large and I'm still learning a thing or two about map editors.
You know one thing I've always wondered is... exactly how big is Arcanum? I recall reading somewhere a long time ago that it might actually only be as big as the British Isles. That might have just been speculation. Regardless, there's a whole world out there outside of the landmass we see... I wonder what it is like.
Singleplayer map has 2000x2000 sectors, one sector has 64x64 tiles, one tile has 80x40 pixels... Summed, its 10240000x5120000 pixels, in isometric view. To convert that results into rectangular view, you must double its height and rotate it counter-clockwise by 45°. In other words, its a HUGE map. :thumbup:
I'd wager every tile is around 1x1 meters, which would make the game world as a whole 128000x128000 meters, or 128x128 kilometers. I might have something wrong in the calculations there, but seems like the map is actually rather small compared to our Earth's continents. The continent of Arcanum is even smaller, considering there is ocean all around it.
I would say your calculation is correct. I just independently did the same thing myself - but assumed one tile is 90 cm (~3 ft) long - and the result was that Arcanum is a square with a side of 115,2 km (~71.58 miles). Or maybe all that is outside the Arcanum we see is the edge of the flat world, Discworld-wise.
One can indeed wonder how big the "Old World" is. For all we know, Arcanum can be the [world where Arcanum lies]'s version of Greenland.
It is actually the Living One that can say he is from another continent when talking with Myrth. It is never said whether that is true or not. Also, it doesn't explain why Arcanum would be the "New World" and that theoretical continent the "Old World" rather than the other way around.
He doesn't explicitly say he's from another continent, he just says "I'm not from Qintara." Whereas Myrth, in disbelief, is like "You expect me to believe you're a foreign elf from some far away continent? LOL HOW ABSURD"
Can't agree with you there, miss. Let us just ignore the fact that I am obviously too short for an elf.
I've experienced that dialogue before. I made an elf thief who was originally from another continent.
Considering Arcanum has a "U.K" on it I would say it, generally, represents the British Isle, regardless of whatever the size might be. I remember in the past that the person who suggested the size might be roughly the same as Britain came to that conclusion by judging how long it takes the Living One to travel across the world map. In any case, judging by Arcanum's history it seems more like the "old world" to me. After all, the industrial revolution apparently kicked off here, just as in Britain. If anything I'd wager that "other continent" is the "new world", perhaps Arcanum's equivalent of the North America. I always thought that might be a good setting for a "sequel". Or even a prequel maybe. Say set it 20 years in the past so that the possible endings and choices made in Arcanum proper aren't invalidated.
I've been thinking about this too... Caladon would be Cornwall in the British Isles, it doesn't count as one of the united kingdoms because it joined England. Therefore, the Elves would be Irish (with their Faerie legends and red-haired princess), Cumbria would be Wales (with their Dragon Knights' flag) and the Dwarves would be Scots (with thick Scottish accents no less, as well as a defunct king who's having a crisis of Stone; the Scottish monarchy vanished with the loss of the Stone of Scone). This fits the geography as well as the history of the British Isles (loosely) and your calculations about the map-size seem to fit the idea too. Pity about the scrambled histories. If Arcanum is the NEW world, then the Elves are more like the Amerindians while the ancient city of Vendigroth might represent the city of Atlantis, sometimes placed in the Carribean Sea, but the modern history of arcanum (ie, colonies from the old world) would have to be at least 500 years old, from what I can gather. Anyway, cool map Frigo.
