05-07-2026, 08:19 PM
Two years ago, I released my Great Lakes map, a 2nd Gear exclusive.
Today, an expansion to that is being released - Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic. Like its predecessor, it is for 2nd Gear only, primarily because I prefer playing it to porting it to 1st Gear.
Download it here! Extract it to your <Gear City Install>/media/maps folder, so that the extracted folder is named "Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic", and it has two sub-folders, "scripts" and "MapArt". The name of the folder within the maps folder must be Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic! This should be the case by default with most decompression programs, but it is worth checking to make sure it didn't create a nested folder with the date of release. Otherwise Gear City won't be able to load it up in-game.
The map:
![[Image: GLMA_Map.jpg]](https://ajtjp.com/software/GearCity/Downloads/Screenies/GLMA_Map.jpg)
Additions
Compared to the Great Lakes map, it adds six states: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky.
This takes the city count from 90 to 120, and the 1900 population from 34 million to 43.4 million - a significant increase in the potential customer base. If playing with the "Limit New Branches" option (recommended), this also takes the branch-per-year limit from 3 to 4.
There is also a boost to the number of companies, which go from 104 to 114. Competition may now be quite as harsh per capita, but the early game remains an ultra-violent nightmare!
Cities by state/province:
- Illinois: 7
- Indiana: 11
- Michigan: 13
- Minnesota: 4
- New York: 7
- Ohio: 11
- Ontario: 12
- Pennsylvania: 12
- Wisconsin: 13
- New Jersey: 4
- Delaware: 2
- Maryland: 4
- West Virginia: 6
- Virginia: 9
Recommended Settings
It is strongly recommended to play on Normal difficulty, with optional Hard settings. This is because sales have been "flattened" to be closer to historical figures, with the result that compared to what you are used to on the Base Cities map, the early years can be an ultra-violent nightmare! You may well go bankrupt on your first attempt, so don't be afraid to tweak the starting cash to give yourself more of a cushion.
It is my belief that the new production setting has increased the difficulty of the game, especially early on, adding even more reason than when the Great Lakes map was new to give yourself some extra buffer.
Beyond that, each company's starting funds reflect its founding year and longevity, increasing or decreasing its likelihood of long-term survival. To keep these funds as intended, it is strongly recommended to move the AI starting funds slider all the way to the left. This prevents the game from auto-adjusting (read: increasing) the starting funds each company receives. With the default settings, too few companies will go bankrupt.
Disable Founding New AI Companies is also cautiously recommended; without it, new, non-historical companies are generated to keep the minimum at about 35 companies, which is too little consolidation. But with it, you may wind up with one or two companies by the 2010s. Hopefully you are one of them.
Otherwise, it is up to you. I like to play with the benefits system enabled, the option to be fired, limited branches, and the import tax, settings that are defaulted on at hard difficulty, but need to be turned on manually with the Normal difficulty preset.
GNP
Where available, historical province/state and city-level GNP data has been used. Where this data was not available, data has been interpolated from the most geographically and chronologically close data available. In general, this means that the GNP data is more rich the later in the timeline you are playing.
In terms of infrastructure and manufacturing, generally larger cities are more developed.
Infrastructure Development
Thanks to FBS bounty #191, infrastructure now develops at a separate pace from general industrial growth. Historical information has been added on the development of interstate highways, and you'll now notice a major boost to infrastructure as the interstates are developed, starting in the 1950 to 1960 timeframe.
As this information has not yet been integrated for the King's Highway and other provincial highways, Ontario still follows the gradual system of development that the U.S. followed in the initial release of this map.
Have fun!
There may or may not be future updates; maps take time, and so does playing them. It took two years since my last map, so don't expect frequent updates. I'm considering adding a few foreign automakers in the second half of the 20th century to spice up the level of mid-to-late-game competition, maybe as a second AI file option so you could have only domestic, or have Honda, Toyota, BMW, etc. invade the shores later on.
It's also possible that I'll do another map expansion at some point - New England being the most likely candidate, perhaps with Quebec. In theory, the map could expand to the whole Lower 48 and Canada someday... but have fun playing this one first.
Today, an expansion to that is being released - Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic. Like its predecessor, it is for 2nd Gear only, primarily because I prefer playing it to porting it to 1st Gear.
Download it here! Extract it to your <Gear City Install>/media/maps folder, so that the extracted folder is named "Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic", and it has two sub-folders, "scripts" and "MapArt". The name of the folder within the maps folder must be Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic! This should be the case by default with most decompression programs, but it is worth checking to make sure it didn't create a nested folder with the date of release. Otherwise Gear City won't be able to load it up in-game.
The map:
Additions
Compared to the Great Lakes map, it adds six states: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky.
This takes the city count from 90 to 120, and the 1900 population from 34 million to 43.4 million - a significant increase in the potential customer base. If playing with the "Limit New Branches" option (recommended), this also takes the branch-per-year limit from 3 to 4.
There is also a boost to the number of companies, which go from 104 to 114. Competition may now be quite as harsh per capita, but the early game remains an ultra-violent nightmare!
Cities by state/province:
- Illinois: 7
- Indiana: 11
- Michigan: 13
- Minnesota: 4
- New York: 7
- Ohio: 11
- Ontario: 12
- Pennsylvania: 12
- Wisconsin: 13
- New Jersey: 4
- Delaware: 2
- Maryland: 4
- West Virginia: 6
- Virginia: 9
Recommended Settings
It is strongly recommended to play on Normal difficulty, with optional Hard settings. This is because sales have been "flattened" to be closer to historical figures, with the result that compared to what you are used to on the Base Cities map, the early years can be an ultra-violent nightmare! You may well go bankrupt on your first attempt, so don't be afraid to tweak the starting cash to give yourself more of a cushion.
It is my belief that the new production setting has increased the difficulty of the game, especially early on, adding even more reason than when the Great Lakes map was new to give yourself some extra buffer.
Beyond that, each company's starting funds reflect its founding year and longevity, increasing or decreasing its likelihood of long-term survival. To keep these funds as intended, it is strongly recommended to move the AI starting funds slider all the way to the left. This prevents the game from auto-adjusting (read: increasing) the starting funds each company receives. With the default settings, too few companies will go bankrupt.
Disable Founding New AI Companies is also cautiously recommended; without it, new, non-historical companies are generated to keep the minimum at about 35 companies, which is too little consolidation. But with it, you may wind up with one or two companies by the 2010s. Hopefully you are one of them.
Otherwise, it is up to you. I like to play with the benefits system enabled, the option to be fired, limited branches, and the import tax, settings that are defaulted on at hard difficulty, but need to be turned on manually with the Normal difficulty preset.
GNP
Where available, historical province/state and city-level GNP data has been used. Where this data was not available, data has been interpolated from the most geographically and chronologically close data available. In general, this means that the GNP data is more rich the later in the timeline you are playing.
In terms of infrastructure and manufacturing, generally larger cities are more developed.
Infrastructure Development
Thanks to FBS bounty #191, infrastructure now develops at a separate pace from general industrial growth. Historical information has been added on the development of interstate highways, and you'll now notice a major boost to infrastructure as the interstates are developed, starting in the 1950 to 1960 timeframe.
As this information has not yet been integrated for the King's Highway and other provincial highways, Ontario still follows the gradual system of development that the U.S. followed in the initial release of this map.
Have fun!
There may or may not be future updates; maps take time, and so does playing them. It took two years since my last map, so don't expect frequent updates. I'm considering adding a few foreign automakers in the second half of the 20th century to spice up the level of mid-to-late-game competition, maybe as a second AI file option so you could have only domestic, or have Honda, Toyota, BMW, etc. invade the shores later on.
It's also possible that I'll do another map expansion at some point - New England being the most likely candidate, perhaps with Quebec. In theory, the map could expand to the whole Lower 48 and Canada someday... but have fun playing this one first.