Civilization 6 Modder Creates Earth Map
By Anthony Taormina 25 October 2016
Civilization 6 modder Gedemon releases a massive Earth map mod that will cripple even the most high-end PC rigs, resulting in turns that reach 2 minutes or more.
Although the Civilization series is built to mimic the development of cultures and cities on a small scale, most gamers are acutely aware of its shortcomings in the realism department. After all, it’s a video game and no amount of graphics or systems can overcome that fact.
Even so, some Civilization players still try to come as close to the real thing as they can when creating and developing their civilization, and that usually starts with using a realistic map. Unfortunately, Civilization 6 does not yet have an Earth map, despite Civ 5 including the feature out of the gate.
Thankfully, one Civilization 6 modder has put together an Earth map for players to download. But because full mod and optimization tools are not yet available for Firaxis Games’ latest release, any potential downloaders should be warned: the file is massive.
The Civilization 6 Earth map comes by way of modder Gedemon, who has posted his work over on the Civ Fanatics forums. He notes that the mod is much larger than any of the maps currently available in vanilla Civ 6, and cautions any who try to download the file. Not only is this recreation of earth impressive in terms of its efforts, but also it’s impressive for the fact that the mod can actually run.
Obviously any recreation of Earth was bound to be a monumental undertaking, but even the most powerful machines are struggling to run the Civilization 6 mod. I7 processors and GTX 980s buckle under the pressure that comes with trying to render realistic starting zones for players. However, it’s important to mention that this mod is only in alpha, and will likely become more optimized as time goes on.
For now, though, Civilization 6 players are recommended to lower texture size to cut down on the PC demand. Even then players should expect a lot of waiting, as the massive map bloats turn times to 2 minutes early on and 4 minutes in the late-game.
Gedemon’s work only goes to show the power of the modding scene in PC gaming. Though a game like Civilization 6 might not launch with a popular feature, modders will inevitably find a way to “patch” it into the game. Yes, these modders might not have the optimization or foresight to ensure that their mods actually run on average machines, but if nothing else the creations show the game’s real devs what content players want to see.
Civilization 6 is out now for PC and Mac.
