Several codes have been recorded on various websites for selecting a particular map in Imperialism. Most are "randomly" generated, but some of them, such as "Dune", seem to have been engineered to have a characteristic related to the code wording. Some are found in the .exe file (noted below as "Code name found in executable") - see comment.
Choosing a map using a key
Click the globe on the second (map room) screen while pressing a "Control" key. You then type in a replacement for the expression in the popup "map key" window to get a different map, which may have a specific characteristic. Names are case-sensitive.
Finding the key during a game
If you start a game without using a map key, you can later discover the "planetary map generation key" by clicking the "Zoom" icon while holding down a Control key. That may also show you the game's version number, e.g. "v. 1.1".
Far-from-exhaustive list
Please record more here when you find a map that looks interesting: do the "Ctrl+Click" on the globe when the map appears, and the key for it will be visible: write it down then check out the available GPs, noting which have advantages or disadvantages (and note it briefly here, with a link to its own detailed page, as, for example, [[Fidmech]], which jumps to the Fidmech article).
- The wiki software starts each pagename with either a number or a capital letter, so we will have pages that cover the capitalized and non-capitalized keys. To separate them, we can have page names such as Key coonwist.
- (Some of these appeared also on a webpage headed "Imperialism II"; need checking to see which description fits Imp1 and which fits Imp2.)
| Key | Result |
|---|---|
| 051195 | All GPs except purple have lots of resources. |
| 1815 | Wide range of continental arrangements; purple looks good sharing with only three MNs. |
| 71264 | Green GP has resource advantage. |
| Antarctica | Most land is covered in tundra. Green and Red have no orchards. Code name found in executable. (This from tempe85 on zetaboards.) |
| Bimboss | Three GPs each have nothing but 4 or 6 MNs sharing their continents; one GP has an island to itself; the other three are the only occupants of one island |
| Brete | Red has plenty of coal, gold, iron, timber but not much for making fabric. (This from davidk on zetaboards.) Three of the minor nations list their exports as merely (1) cotton, (2) wool: an unusually restricted combination, though it is better than nothing, which is the apparent export list of the MN that has a standard name of "Idolon". |
| bushwhacker | Any GP: lots and lots of timber (from Neoseeker) |
| Congo | A map mostly covered in hardwood forests. Code name found in executable. |
| Coonwist | Deneb (yellow GP) is stated to have grossly unfair advantages. See comments. |
| Dune | Mostly desert and tundra (from Neoseeker and CheatCC); light blue shares a continent with seven MNs but has no grain farm and not many bare plains and only one fruit, with the nearest grain farm in Manx to the east; green is not much better but can build a capital with a grain farm and shares a continent with five MNs. Code name found in executable. |
| Earth | One of the great powers is alone on a super continent with 8 of the minor nations. See external link below for more details. |
| Eclectia | One great power has lots of farms and orchards; another has almost all swamps; another has almost all hills; etc. Code name found in executable. |
| Eden | World map is mostly covered in farms and orchards. Code name found in executable. |
| Everglades | Lots of swamps. Code name found in executable. (This from splashinpool on zetaboards.) |
| Fidmech | Blue GP shares a continent with just six MNs, four of them adjacent to it, and it has several good port sites, lots of timber, and a fair sprinkling of food but only a few resources for fabric and steel |
| frogcity | Green GP has lots of iron and even more scrub forest and quite a bit of coal with some gems, but coal and gems are not accessible till railroads can go through hills (i.e. till you get Compound Steam Engine in about 1837), so prepare to invade a minor nation! |
| Holloxtast | Play red with capital on the river near the timber. (This from davidk on zetaboards.) |
| Hothor | Green GP balanced resources (from Neoseeker and CheatCC) |
| Kansas | World has only two iron deposits (so how could it be workable???) and not much fruit or timber. Mostly flat, with lots of cotton, cattle, and dry plains. Code name found in executable. (This from splashinpool on zetaboards.) |
| Key | Yellow GP shares a continent with six MN's, three of them are directly adjacent and all three have abundant minerals. GP has only three seas, although you might want to make colonies of your three neighbors and guard other seas. GP has enough resources to build a strong economy. |
| Kidasticks | Red GP balanced resources (from Neoseeker and CheatCC) |
| LumberPlenty | Red GP lots of timber |
| Mirkwood | Map covered in forests, both hard and scrub. Code name found in executable. |
| Nar | Good for green; productive mountains near capital. (This from davidk on zetaboards.) |
| Nepal | A map mostly covered in mountains. Code name found in executable. See also Ocpal. |
| Ocpal | Same code as Nepal and same map except that most of the mountains are replaced by normally-distributed terrains. ("Neped" is identical or nearly so.) |
| Pippin | Red GP lots of coal and iron (from Neoseeker and CheatCC) |
| Robin | Four large or medium-sized continents close together, none having just one nation; no outstanding GP and all have less-than-perfect starts |
| Scotland | Lots of hills. Code name found in executable. (from Neoseeker and CheatCC). Keys with the same value, such as "Scotlamf", are the same amongst themselves but are quite different from this. |
| Siberia | A map mostly covered in scrub forest. Code name found in executable. |
| StandardCode | Red and yellow GPs have good resources |
| Unwun | Red has good balanced resources (This from davidk on zetaboards.) |
| Yucatan | A map mostly covered in scrub forest. Code name found in executable. |
| zYdAimp | Used in the second of the Imperialist forum Competition games |
Procedural note
A page name that is just a simple map key should be an overview page, in the category of the same name, with the game-specific page then using the game-specific suffix. See example at Coonwist.
See also
- Joe subpage for list in June 2013 posting to Imp list by joemithiran"at"yahoodotco.uk
- Map key (Imp2)
External links
- Page with some of above and more, on zetaboards - active in 2012; CC-BY-SA licensing, which allows us to copy it with acknowledgment, as for Copying from Wikipedia
- NeoSeeker map keys noted above
- CheatCC list - all are on the Neoseeker page, but who was first? These were apparently added to the CheatCC site on September 1, 1998
- GameFAQs page with some of the above
- Notes for "Earth" key