Suggested map script?

For my first two FFH2 games, I used Erebus for flavor. I love it, but after these two games plus several other "test" games, the imbalances that everyone complains about (including "flavor starts") are clear enough to me.

What mapscript do you use? I honestly really loved the mountain range and valley structure of Erebus, for all it's other failings. In regular civ I usually do Archpelago (Snaky Continents, Low Sea) or Pangaea (natural shoreline).

I tried Highlands, but it was way too bland without real water bodies, and didn't really map the valleys and ranges I wanted no matter what I tried.

How do you feel about the Global Highlands script? I see I can control the continents and of course the mountains like in Highlands. Any fans of this script have advice on tuning it?

I use the Tectonics mapscript with 70% land selected. On a small map size it creates an interesting landmass, connected but well distrubted and varied, with lots of mountain ranges and at least a couple large bodies of water. You mileage may vary on larger map sizes.

I normally play with 9-10 civs on the small map setup, with the options No Tech Brokering, Raging Barbs and Remove Acheron ( I find the games flows better without the huge stacks of AI troops around his city). This setup makes for early AI encounters but still leaves room for the barbs.

in Multiplayer right now, we all like tectonics with 30% water.

My favorite for single player is big and small, regular continents, islands mixed in. It really gives some flavorful conitnents, and small continents. I laos play it with rocky for better mountain ranges...

(that volcanoes always make ugly... )

Can I plug my own map script here?

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=308590

It's fully functional right now with a variety of options to tweak as you see fit although I haven't yet added custom starting locations code to get around the default Civ4 methods generally poor selection.

I prefer pangaea style maps and wanted something to simulate a smaller part of the world rather than the entire world, especially with FfH where having a vast jungle or large area of tundra can add quite a bit to the 'flavor' of the map. I also wanted to be able to run a game with no tundra, or no jungles, or tons of both... whatever I felt like at the time. The final maps aren't as divided as they are using the Erebus script included with FfH but the will have plenty of interesting areas and some key chokepoints here and there.

Looks like my type of maps, Seven05. I'll be sure to give your script a try.

Lakes is like pangaea only good. Try it out.

@Seven05

Your map seems awesome as of my first play..... I used standard settings. Very nice.... just wish I had lasted longer in the game

I've often enjoyed the mountain ranges generated on tectonics maps, though sometime I wind up in fairly expansive flatlands too.

I enjoy playing the "Earth2" mapscript, I like renaming my cities to match real ones and other stupid things like that

Its also cool that since everyone appears on west hemisphere, when Hyb spawns he always gets to build a huge empire on east hemisphere

Tectonics, usually with 30% water. And arid so I can terraform more. I originally picked it up because it was guaranteed to have ice for Ring of Carcer. That was before I could get all unique features guaranteed. I get mountain ranges with choke points. But I also get enough room for cities. Valleys in Erebus are too small. Finally, the starting locations are fairly balanced. I have had some extremely good ones too, but that's rare. Tectonics also offers nice locations for Scions (read: lots of hills) in the mountain ranges.

I like Big&Small with separate islands so navy still has its uses.

RandomScriptMap with Pangaea "on", Archipelago "off", and low seas. Makes very interesting single continents without the blobiness of pangaea.

I like Mediterranean on Tectonics. It usually puts you in a corner and gives you a relatively easy solo game. Of course, if that's not what you're looking for, I understand.

I use Planet Generator v.68, it's by far my favorite.

reveler said:

I like Big&Small with separate islands so navy still has its uses.

Click to expand...

"Islands mixed in" still has plenty of islands, large and small, they just aren't separated out into separate "island groups"... continents made of islands/

Tectonics, Perfect World, Mountain Coast and Erebus Continent are my favourites. Together with FlavourMod for FfH or Flavour Starts enabled in Fall Further of course. *shameless self-advertising-mode off*

fractal with low water

some maps i like:

inland sea:

lots of flat land and rivers and has ocean in middle. good for farms, cottages, and REX (rapid early expansion). good for casual and/or competitive games. good for human and/or ai. good for ffa and/or team games. all together on same landmass. depending on size and # of civs can have room or be crowded.

pangea:

same as inland sea, except land is more natural (more variety of biomes) and ocean envelops the land instead of the land enveloping ocean in the inland sea map.

team battle ground (TBG):

great competitive map. u can do 3 choices. top vs bottom option. this is great for team games. no ocean and has a left to right desert splitting the upper half and lower half. left vs right option. this is great for team games. CAN have a top to bottom ocean splitting left and right land masses or the left and right landmasses ARE connected. 4 corners option. this makes a "star" map. it has 4 squares of land in each corner. they are only connected by land in the middle of the map making choke points into each corner square of land. the 4 corner squares are separated by ocean except where they all meet int the middle by land. great for 4 teams. depending on map size u can do 4 teams of 1 each (4 ffa=1v1v1v1) or 4 teams of 4 (4v4v4v4). can do human or ai.

and more...(but i got to go soon).

No map script makes me happy like smartmap. It requires a bit of fiddling with the settings before you'll find a combo you'll like, but once you get that combo, changing just one option can give you an all new strategic, geographic challenge.

Tectonics, 30% water, Wet aridity, Small size, Normal speed, 10 civs.

(No Tech Brokering so that the teching with 10 civs isn't too fast.)

* Awesome shapes and chokepoints.
* Somewhat scarce food, balancing FFH farms and giving an edge-of-survival feel.
* All-plains "wilderness" areas.
* Limited sea terrain, well-matched to the limited role of navies in FFH.
* No boring extra cities that duplicate cities you already have; but not as crowded overall as you might think.
* Accomodates a largish number of different civs, but without undue computer slowdown or an unduly protracted Domination/Conquest slog.