Thank you for your feedback. Allow me to address each of your points in turn. First, I don't intend my maps to seem photographic - some mapmakers have remarkable skill in such things, mine are largely representative. That said, I wanted my grasslands to feel like grass, not simply be monotone green empty places.

Larger settlements are less common than smaller (which is why they seem to be alternating) but most of the tiny settlements are not pictured on the map. The circles are indeed tiny villages or hamlets, and are placed where they are mostly to reinforce the settlement pattern and show that the area is not abandoned. There aren't any really heavy farming cultures in this area, so I couldn't just place farmland. The circled dots are (correct again) actual cities, as opposed to towns (black dot). There are no capitals on the map, because there are no nation-states. Only cultures and settlements. I am most certainly going to change the way I mark settlements, but I am probably going to keep to the simple black markings, because colors would quickly get lost against the background.

Thank you for your input!