I am starting a new project, Capilano Islands.  Since Mass Transit came out I’ve been thinking a lot about islands and how the game would work with various villages on different islands.  I’ve also been getting more and more into detailing and plopping versus zoning.  So Capilano Islands is intended to have a smaller population with a lot of focus on details.

The first step will be to create a map.  I love the Scottish Highlands as well as the Pacific Northwest, and since I live in the Midwestern U.S., this game serves as a way for me to sort of pretend that I’m in one of those places.  This map will be inspired by those two locations.

Specifically, the map will have two main sections.  One will be the mainland with two large mountains and various streams flowing into either the sea or a larger river, inspired by both the Scottish Highlands and British Columbia.  The second main section of the map will be islands, inspired by the San Juan Islands in the state of Washington.  The name is a blend of the Capilano River in North Vancouver, B.C. and the San Juan Islands.

The map will be intended to be played with the 81 tiles mod, but will be playable and intriguing as a vanilla option.  The starting tile will be on the mainland, and most of the vanilla tiles will be the islands.

So, with all that said… here’s the beginning of the terraforming: