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Milcana Atoll Taxhaven Exile (Vanilla)

*** I've received feedback that this map is broken since the Plaza update was release. I don't have any plans to repair or update the map at this stage. ***


Back-story
In a not too distant, plausible future, the world has changed. Populations of hard working average people across the planet have risen up and reclaimed democracy from corrupt officials and the wealthy elite, in ‘the great global economic revolution’. The ripple of dissatisfaction with incompetent politicians, grew into waves. More and more people with kind hearts and intelligent minds were elected, weeding out the business backed career politicians, reducing bureaucracy, improving life for the many, not just the few. Archives of classified information were un-earthed, laid bare, sending many former leaders scurrying into the shadows to escape jail time and remunerations. Many had their bank accounts and assets frozen, residency revoked, and exiled to the ‘registered address’. One such place was the small island country of Milcana Atoll, which had been used by the super wealthy as a tax haven for the past 75 years. It previously had a population of 1500, along with 70,000 registered businesses. Now many of the CEO’s of those businesses (and their families) are on their way, with no other place to go. They now live isolated, in the only territory that would accept them, still living in luxury on man-made islands. But what of their entourages and extended families? Funded by hidden bonds, gold bullion and crypto currency, the sea has been reclaimed in the largest engineering endeavour ever seen ready to be settled.

Theme and LUTs
I’ve made this map using Captain Soap Realistic European Theme v1.4.5, please remember to give the theme a thumbs up on the workshop. I haven’t tried any other themes on this map myself, but feel free to experiment and if you find a better one, please leave a note in the comments for others.

I went with the vanilla tropical LUT, simply because it enabled a bit more light in the shadow of the dam wall. Again, experiment and if you find a better one, please leave a comment.

Networks
There are two separate shipping routes which will be your initial source of freight and passengers, along with the two air routes once air traffic is unlocked. Pre-built cargo and passenger harbours on either side of the map are connected to each shipping route. Those harbours are connected to the start square via 3 lane highways, which also form a ring road around the buildable areas. There is also a ring of rail line intended for a commuter service.

If you find gameplay is too impeded using the harbours and prolonged access, there is a hidden highway and rail outside connection. Inside the tunnel in the corner of the start square, is an underground three-way intersection. The last segment of the on ramp connecting to the highway is reversed, so fix that and it will work. Same for the rail tunnel.

Infrastructure
Windmills, water towers, water pumps and discharge pipes have been included for aesthetics, all are operational and connected. All roads (except dams) have pre-piped reticulation buried. The sea windmills only power that small corner of the map. The land windmills connect via power line, then hidden underground components under the lake into the start square.

Gameplay
This map was designed for a challenging vanilla play. Although not all of the 25 squares are buildable, a good percentage of about half of them are. Managing the delay in the supply of people and goods will require planning (if you don’t use the cheat I included). Deciding the tile purchase order will be crucial, do you purchase open lands for development, or work towards the harbours in anticipation of upgrading their capacity??? There are ample resources on the fertile former seafloor for internal production which will reduce your imports, but what about exporting? Good luck 😉

Bugs/Troubleshooting/other notes
There is some seepage of water through a couple of points in the dam walls when you first start the map. Do not worry, the dam walls are quite robust and have not caused me any issues throughout.

While I was playing with water levels, several times flooded buildings were destroyed. Multiple destroyed passenger harbours and one airport would not delete, they have been dragged off into the fog. Won’t affect gameplay, but if spot them and wondered what they are, that’s it.

Viewing the map on another system, I found there is a little blue mantle in the switch backs when viewed from a distance and bit of jaggered terrain, especially on one of the switch back corners and around the ferry harbour building. This doesn't appear on the computer I used to create the map (and I'm not talk map editor vs game engine). I smoothed the areas and updated, but was essentially editing blind and there still remains some bumpy bits. A bit unfortunate, but I really did push the limits of the terrain forming.

I'd also recommend a mod to get rid of the brown circles from around the base of the vanilla trees, looks terrible.

Start square grid map added to workshop images. Note grid has been drawn in by hand and indicates incorrectly the lower harbour is outside the 25 tiles. It is in the 25 tiles.

Just an extra note... I kept this vanilla, but was very tempted to include the Snowfall DLC, I thought cable cars from harbours to the build locations would be cool. Creating a snowfall version is something I could do if there enough interest, please leave a comment if that's what you want.

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