a little gift for your mod, the map based on the link on your first post ^^
i saw your question about my china map thread, and i added japan on my bmp files so you can import them in Thorgrim's map editor, which will save you already a lot of work
the files you'll find under are all highres (1398*926px in size) so
you'll need to greatly resize them in order to make the ingame map size you want (a 300pixel*200pixel will make a 300*200 map in number of tiles if import setting ratio is 1-1 in setting.cfg config file from map editor). I prefer to work on high res image so i can have a lot of details, that usually need little reworking when image is resized to desired size after.
You can also resize the map according to the area you want to have.
You will also probably need to reduce the number of forest after importing the files.
if you dont know how to use editor, either ask some help based on those bmp files or check here :
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,64289.msg1671004.html#msg1671004
color map :
color map is a 16million color bmp file
its name must be like that : nameofimage-c.bmp
color palet
must exactly match the palet for terrain importing in Thorgrim map editor (palet is find with the files in the map editor archive, do not take the tutorial palet since colors have been altered there)
The actual color count is 8, make sure it never changes when resizing the map (and make sure that the palet remain the same since some tools often blur color when resizing a 16million colored image, leading to a great increase of color count in palet)
you'll need to paint desert yourself in editor since there's no desert matching color for importing in editor
height map :
here i made 2 versions : 1 without blur (but height will be very bumpy when importing, but it can be used as a raw map for bluring if you need), and the other 1 with blur added (to soften height when importing)
no blur :
blured :
height map is a greyscaled bmp file (16m c)
its name must be like that : nameofimage.bmp
once color map have been imported you can then import the height map that will apply basic height on the map (still need a lot of reworking after)
edit : it seems imageshack (the hosting service) is converting my bmp files into png files, if that doesnt work reversing those files to bmp, i can send them to you directly (especially if the color count of the color map has changed and isnt 8 anymore and isnt exactly matching the rgb palet from map editor)
enjoy
ps : if i have time i *cough* could *cough* make the map, still need to finish sumo pars one before (hope caprera wont read here hehe)