Powatan Valley

Powatan Valley

Powatan Valley is a map created to evoke the feeling of pioneer exploration in the northern Americas. It is a heavily forested valley surrounded by bluffs on all sides and opening to a small coastline. Small, fast rivers cascade through the valley in this pristine wilderness. Will you choose to build a quaint settlement that snuggles within the confines of the terrain? Or will you dominate the wilds with bold infrastructure and towers of steel and glass?

What the heck does “Powatan” mean?
Powatan Valley is named after the confederation of native tribes that lived in what is now present-day Virginia. The Powatans (or, more commonly, Powhatans) are probably most well known for being the group of natives that had contact with John Smith and the Jamestown settlement, spawning the famous story of Pocahontas (literally “mischief” in the Powatan language).

– Handcrafted, based on real-world terrain data from Apache Mesa in New Mexico.
– Highway, Rail, Sea, and Air connections are all available and working.
– Forest, Agriculture, Ore, and Oil deposits are all available.
– Rugged terrain to encourage creative city building
– Hydroelectrically friendly. If you find a place to build a dam, it will almost certainly work.
– Challenging water flows that encourage you to think about your water supply infrastructure.
– Plenty of wind power… just not on the first tile.

– The water flows fast on this map, but not very deep. Each river can take about 4 water pumps and still maintain a halfway decent flow rate. Beyond that you may have trouble getting the flow you need to move your dirty water. That’s one challenge inherent in this map. Placing pumps and pipes is typically pretty easy in this game. This environment should make you consider them a bit more carefully.

– As stated, there is practically no wind power on the starting tile. This was a byproduct of the terrain features, but it really should offer an interesting challenge. Everybody always starts with wind power; try something different!

– There is a lot of flat, buildable area on this map. But a lot of it is actually on top of the cliffs. If you want to use that space you’ll have a fun time getting your roads and rails up there.

I cannot believe how popular Boulder Rapids became. It is still currently the top most popular map in the workshop with over 24,000 subscribers. I’ve seen people post screenshots of it all over. Every time someone asks what good maps there are on Reddit one of the first mentions is Boulder Rapids. There are even Let’s Players out there using my map in their videos. It’s unreal! The response to that map has been incredible and I’m, frankly, a bit overwhelmed. But all of you who have supported the map have also motivated me to want to make more content for this awesome game. Thanks for subscribing and playing in these environments I’ve created. It’s just awesome!

As always I am happy to receive feedback. If there are game-breaking problems with the map please let me know so I can do what I can to fix them. If there are ways in which the map could be better or ideas you have, let me know and I can use that knowledge on future projects.

Thanks all! Happy city building!