Earth Maps

I'd like to support an "earth map" to use with this mod, by adjusting its resource placement so it works with the changes here. Which map should I use?

Gameplay or "Realism"?

If gameplay is more important, you need to go with Rhyes (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=408887) but he takes his time to create a polished product (though the map is available I think). The advantages of his approach are clear: Larger Europe, so more space for the numerous European civs, less Africa and South America and worse Siberia of course. I personally like this, don´t see the appeal of playing on a world map and then having Mega-Cities on the Northern Shore of the Bering Strait. But of course these maps are horribly tilted and in some places unfair.

If you want to have a realistic map-depiction, I can´t help you . Also, Size is important, so just including a map for a maps sake seems not really helpful.

Thalassicus said:

I'd like to support one "earth map" to use with this mod, by adjusting its resource placement so it works with the changes here. Which map should I use?

Click to expand...

I'd like to support TBM to be used with YnAEMP...

what changes to resource placement did you need ?

@mitsho
One of each (realism and gameplay) would be good. Large map size is what I'm looking for. People tend to like big maps for Earth games, while normal size is the most balanced, so a Large map is a middle ground between the two. A selection of every size would of course be good too, but does require more work from whoever puts the map together.


@Gedemon
Strategic resources are placed differently than vanilla. Each players' territory (plots closer to us than opponents) has a specific quantity of each resource. With our first two cities, each civ should be able to build 2 horse units, and 2 iron units. The territory should also have 2 more iron and horses in harder-to-reach spots like desert or within nearby citystate borders. Smaller territories have more compact deposits (fewer deposits, larger size) while big territories have scattered deposits (more deposits, smaller sizes). Details are in the "how players/resources get placed" thread.

On randomly generated maps I create slightly more resources than we need, since they might appear in unreachable spots. For a premade Earth map there's more control over this so the numbers for horses/iron can be lower... something around:

This allows every player to create 4-8 strategic resource units at the start of the game. The other important thing to point out is oil. In hostile terrain the oil is on land (deserts), while in nice terrain (grassland) the oil is offshore in the ocean. To see resource distribution visually:

1. Create a new Large size map with the mod enabled
2. Open the Firaxis LiveTuner's "Active Player" tab
3. Click the "Modern Era Techs button.
4. The map and all resources are revealed (via satellites tech).

Obviously this requires 2 versions of the earth map, vanilla and mod-compatible. If you have any questions, just ask here or send me a PM.

but you plan to make a map with pre-placed resources, or change the random placement rules for a WB map ?

Because afaik the random resource placement for WB maps does not use the territory placement as in AssignStartingPlots.lua

Basically I just want some sort of earth map to be available with the smaller strategic resource quantities the mod depends on. I'm guessing preplaced... I don't really know how random WB placement works. I did the changes to map generation in AssignStartingPlots.

I also think pre-placed spots would be better. Otherwise the final gameplay experience might be weird in term of realism (centuries of fighting over the rich oil fields of sicily or Arabia exporting tons of ivory to the world).

Also, the interesting aspect about playing earth maps is the reproducable gameplay experience. If I play England, I want gameplay that matches history to a certain extent. I want to know there's plenty of coal. If I play Mongolia, I want to start next to horses. I don't want to play Rome and have to make do without Iron and Legions, at least not in an Earth game.

Thalassicus said:

Basically I just want some sort of earth map to be available with the smaller strategic resource quantities the mod depends on. I'm guessing preplaced... I don't really know how random WB placement works. I did the changes to map generation in AssignStartingPlots.

Click to expand...

ok, YnAEMP have a custom semi-random placement (ie by region, with exclusion or forced placement), but even if the resource quantities could be changed at the forced level, making it mod dependent couldn't be done quickly.

Still, afaik, WB random placement use the value given by the game resource table (when it's hardcoded in AssignStartingPlot), so I suppose if your mod already change those value, then mine will use them without any change needed.

The deposit size table? Deposit sizes in VEM are calculated like this...

For each territory:

1. Each resource has a total (horses=4, iron=5, etc)
   .
2. Max deposit size:
   total * 80 / number of plots in the territory
   .
3. Size of each deposit:
   random between (1 and max), no higher than the total

Sirian's original small-large deposit split was very cumbersome to work with, so I did a more straightforward system.


Details are in the AssignStartingPlotslaceStrategicAndBonusResources function, lines 9521 - 9728. I overrode everything in the existing function. Is there some way I could set up things in AssignStartingPlots so your map can automatically use this? I guess I need to experiment a bit with the world builder's random placement...

I've played several games of YnAEMP with your balance mod and it seemed to work just fine. Is there an inherent conflict in loading the two mods together?

The only potential problem I'm aware of is resource distribution. If it uses the VEM method everything should be okay.