Despite having little time to finish my dissertation I just couldn't resist and spent the whole day playing RFC RAND today. So far I'm really enjoying it, the kind of game civ should always have been. Thank you very very much Rhye!

My one significant request is that standard maps have the option to have the full array of civs in them. I don't want to play on huge maps because I hate managing dozens of cities and I think a standard-size works better with the RFC game speed. But I would really really like to be able to play with the full array of civs and I'm sure there's plenty of space for them. For example, in my current game France and Spain appeared but not the other overseas colonizers. It's now 1870 and the Americas are populated by the French (three cities), the Americans and the Aztecs. All the other small landmasses are empty or mostly empty. The absence of Portugal, the Netherlands and England really shows.

I also have an insignificant request to be allowed to see the year when alphabet is researched rather than having to wait until calendar (this applies to both RAND and standard RFC). I like the way you've made a distinction between the prehistorical 'timeless' era and the era of recorded histories, but it just happens way too late. In real history, any civilization with a primitive form of writing was able to reckon the years, even if their calendar wasn't very sophisticated. In RFC I normally discover Calendar around 200 AD, but historically, this is way too late for being able to know what year I'm in.

I would make another request for Judaism to be replaced but I've discovered the zoroastrian modcomp now so I'll shut up about that :goodjob:

Does the calender thing really make a difference though? You can see the turn numbers.

well it's only a flavour difference but i like that, i want to know how many centuries have passed, not just game turns

Lumpthing, this is a great idea that I was going to propose but you beat me to it. I heartily endorse it.:king:

I'd like to bring that request back into our consciousness: even with the medium map, there seems to be plenty of space available for all civs. As to now, Civs just expand without getting into conflict with spawn areas. And I agree with lumpthing, often large maps need too much micromanagement and take long on my laptop.

I would just like to add a "yes" vote to this as well. Standard size maps is what I'm comfortable with, and it does seem there are too few nations, and lots of empty space to fill.

yes this feature should be added

i am totally in favor of this. usually by the time my european games load, several ancient civs are dead, and the map is nearly empty. just not the same feel as RFC.

Me too. I didn't even realize that not all the civs were included until I noticed all the empty land around the map, and then realized that there were at least 3 civs not present in the game. I completely agree with all that's been said.