So yea, I was thinking of doing a series of variants with regions around the same period they are:
Series 1: The Rise of Civilization: 2, 3 or 4 maps outlining the begining of civilization in Mesopotamia, China/India, and the Americas
Series 2: Bronze Age- Ancient China (the Zhou Dynasties including the two periods within it) map, Persian-Greek map, India Map, Roman Kingdom, and an map consisting of all of them entitled Alexander's Conquest.
Series 3: Age of Empires- Roman Republic/Empire map (Carthage, Egypt, Greece, Anatolia, Persia, Rome, etc), Far East (the conflict between Han, Parthia, Japan, India, etc) ; and one that outlines that stretches from coast to coast (Eurasia)
Series 4: Age of Confusion-The fall of the Roman Empire, The Three Kingdoms (fall of Han) period and the period of war following; and maybe some other though I'm not quite knowledgeable...
Series 5 to (5+#): I haven't thought these out yet
Series (6+#): WWI-one map consisting of major WWI powers/regional powers
Series (7+#): WWII-one map consisting of major WWII powers/regional powers, along with one based in the Pacific, Europe/N Africa, and the Far East... there wasn't much in Africa, or Middle East (countries like the Turks went nutural and countries like Iraq didn't really do much... Egypt/other countries that did something will be in the Europe/N Africa map) or the Americas (of which N America was a power/powers that went elsewhere to fight and S America didn't really do anything...)...
Series (8+#): Cold War: Proxy wars (haven't thought how much though)... will definitely do Korea and Vietnam, the two major ones
Series (9+#): The Modern Age-Iraq and Afghanistan war mainly, but will also include some rebellions like the ones for Arab Spring, and some wars/conflicts such as the ones in Sudan, Israel etc
Series (10+#): Redesign of the WWIV map to make stalemate less common (at sea) among other things

Series 1-somewhere in (5+#) or (6+#) will be played in Fog of War to simulate slow passage... depending on time, the area of Fog of War will vary. Series like the Age of Empire will have less fog of war due to the fact that it's the Golden Age that wasn't achieved for ages and wouldn't be achieved for ages more to come

there could be mongol and muslim eras/ maps

that's what I was thinking, but I'm trying to find a way to combine the entire world... oh and every game will have a set EOG to simulate the different periods

lots of work there! Good luck with it!

true, but not if there's a team behind me... what do you say?

I could work on designs?

I'd like to be involved - perhaps we should start a tab over at the forum for people to work on this series.

We can call it the vdip community maps.

I have an idea for an ancient Greek city states and powers variant that would consist of all of classical Greece, including a bit of the boot of Italy and about a third of Turkey. This would be a 16-power variant with 8 city states in western and northern Greece and 8 city states in eastern and southern Greece. Most powers would start with three units, but four of the more central powers would each have a 4th unit offset by the positioning of the power's home centers and type of unit.

Rules would include being able to build in any open center you own, transform units to armies and fleets in your own centers, and neutrals would contain standing armies that disband when dislodged (just like the Known World 901 variant). My aim is to create a large but very balanced variant in terms of both power positioning and land and sea distribution.

I will design the map, but I'm not sure how to go about implementing it?

The powers would be:

Sparta
Athens
Corinth
Thebes

Thessaly
Epirus
Macedonia
Thrace

Troy
Mysia
Lydia
Lesvos

Sardis
Ephesus
Rhodes
Crete

@G-Man: http://www.dipwiki.com/index.php?title=Pericles

Awesome. Basically, this is exactly the same as my idea at the core, but my take includes more of large Known World/Modern/Aberration/ Sengoku-like treatment to the map, particularly with the utilization of diverse, but simple land and sea spaces. I'll take a close look at this map to see what works and what is worth expanding upon though. Thanks.

Age of Odysseus
Age of Aristotle
Age of Sophocles
Age of Diogenes
or
Age of Socrates... that is the question?

I could help on everything concerning Rome and Italy. Series 2-3-4 gave me some idea about it. I've started looking for Roman Kingdom maps in order to create a 15-20 players map on either ancient Italy or Med (or both). Here some:
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/shepherd/shep029.jpg
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/ancient/class020.jpg
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/dow/dow003x.jpg
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/shepherd/shep026-027.jpg
http://www.heritage-history.com/maps/shepherd/shep030-031.jpg
...and I'm going on searching. Maybe you starting have the same ideas I have, looking at these.
Tadar Es Darden tought me many things about the creation of a map, so I think I could be useful on many tasks, including coding links between provinces or setting provinces' names & types and so on. What I really suck at is drawing maps. Tadar gave me GIMP and I discovered that I'm absolutely not good at computer-graphics programs. :(

So BenGuin, just let me know if there's something I could do.

If you want to create new maps it's absolutely necessary that you create the smallmap and the largemap (and the name-overlays). There is no coding experience needed (I can help with that), but the maps are essential. Most variant ideas die after some brainstorming because they fail to deliver a map.

"If you want to create new maps it's absolutely necessary that you create the smallmap and the largemap (and the name-overlays). There is no coding experience needed (I can help with that)."

That would be great. Let me know the format, sizes, and anything else I need to know. I only have some rough layouts drawn by hand so far, so it will take me some time to design, test, and edit my map. Realistically, I would like to complete it in about five to six months.

The smallmap should have a width of max 750px or it does not fit in the webdip layout.

@Oli. Yes I know :) That's the exact point where my new variant project failed. And Tadar has disappeared before he could teach me that.
Coding looks simple, I'd need someone who teach me how to use Gimp. I wasn't even able to modify an existing map :(

Ok, first I would like to thank everyone for their excitement. Before we get started, we need to put everyone into divisions according to their expertise. We need a European Department, a Far East Department, a Indian/Australian Department, a Middle East Department, an African Department, and an American Department... Can everyone list what they are good at and why, thx

oh and we are going to start Series one and two first... the first maps will be that of the Mesopotamian states, the Chinese Tribes, the Indo-Aryan synthesis, and the Greeks... and then we can add them together into one map

the seconds ones will include as states before, the Zhou Dynasty in China (warring state and Fall and Autumn periods), India (pre-Mahajanapadas and Mahajanapadas period), Rise of Rome, and the Persian-Greek conflict (redesign of the current Greek Map)... the overall map will be entitled Alexander's Conquest (which will stretch from Gaul to China)

European Department, I'm familar with European history and I have created quite a few maps about Europe. I'm also familar with Middle Eastern History and American History, I was part of the beta team on ConquestofNations for the Middle East and 1900.

I can start with WWI and WWII maps this weekend

thanks Airborne... can you head the Coding department?

id help with design as well maybe.

hahaha...no, I'm really bad with it. Like my throwing, I throw like a girl but I kick like a man because I play soccer anecdote aside...

... I have no experience coding whatsoever... I'm only good at History, research, and drawing... ps can everyone give me their Gmail account if you have one? I plan on doing this on Google Wave

I have a similar skillset
sidarghost@googlewave.com

i've a Europe WW2 map.

Maybe instead of a google wave use the offifial dev-forums. It's easier to follow...

?