Continental Drift

When Civ5 (vanilla) was new and I started a standard-size game using the "continents" map script, it almost always divided the world into two continents with four civs starting on each continent. Somewhere along the line (either with a patch or with the move to G&K), it seems to have changed. Now when I use the continents script, I almost always start on the smaller continent of a 3-5 or 2-6 split of civilizations. In fact, I just started three continental games as William of Orange, and every time I ended up on a continent with only two civs -- and it is really hard to take advantage of the Dutch unique ability if there is only one civ to trade with.

Have I had a (long) run of bad luck? Or am I simply misperceiving things? When you start a continental game, how often do you get a 4-4 split of civilizations, and how often do you get an unbalanced split?

Quite often on continents i end up either with 2 civs on the same continent, or none at all...

You could simply try diffrent map scripts, I believe Fractal is similiar to Continents, and I think that guarantees (I THINK) two continents only.

What I do miss is the options you had in Civ 4, where you had the ability to choose number of continents, not sure if that was a custom made script or an original.

The last 2 games I've done on continents has left me isolated, which makes Immortal a LOT easier. I don't know if I should complain or not, though. I have had up to 4 civs on the same continent though.

G&K surely did something to the maps - I've mostly played continents but general observations apply to other maps as well.

5-3 is by far the most common start with continents though it may in practice be (3+2)-3 subcontinents divided by coastal tiles. Also far more often than previously one starts with own subcontinent whether it's 4-4 or 5-3 (3-5).
I like the versatility compared to vanilla but otherwise I'm not happy with the maps. Continents are often only few tiles wide or there's a huge lake in the middle so the map heavily limits the expansion making a civilization a line of cities instead of more rounded ones.
Another result of narrow landmasses is that quite often each civ start with their own peninsula which makes early turns peaceful until civs start having borders in the middle of a X-shaped continent.
Continents like a smaller pangaea are very rare and pangaeas have a lot more choke points than there used to be.

Obviously setting low sea level would provide larger land masses but it'd also effectively end the sailing around the continent - a feature which already is too rare.

G

TheKingOfBigOz said:

You could simply try diffrent map scripts, I believe Fractal is similiar to Continents, and I think that guarantees (I THINK) two continents only.

What I do miss is the options you had in Civ 4, where you had the ability to choose number of continents, not sure if that was a custom made script or an original.

Click to expand...

Strange, i dont see a fractal option in my game...

Question said:

Strange, i dont see a fractal option in my game...

Click to expand...

Under advanced options.

TheKingOfBigOz said:

You could simply try diffrent map scripts, I believe Fractal is similiar to Continents, and I think that guarantees (I THINK) two continents only.

What I do miss is the options you had in Civ 4, where you had the ability to choose number of continents, not sure if that was a custom made script or an original.

Click to expand...

My experience with fractal is that it usually gives me a pangaea with a more interesting shape, typically including some narrow sections of land that can serve as choke points.

I wouldn't mind an option with three continents of three civs each....

Grendeldef said:

G&K surely did something to the maps - I've mostly played continents but general observations apply to other maps as well.

Continents are often only few tiles wide or there's a huge lake in the middle so the map heavily limits the expansion making a civilization a line of cities instead of more rounded ones.

Click to expand...

I tried again as William. Got a continent with five civs on it to start. Then I learned that all of my cities were on a large inland sea that did not connect to the ocean. Not much room to use sea beggars in that configuration.

krc said:

My experience with fractal is that it usually gives me a pangaea with a more interesting shape, typically including some narrow sections of land that can serve as choke points.

Click to expand...

It's not always a pangaea, but it can be quite common. I find Fractal the middle ground between Pangaea and Continents. It can be reaaally wonky if you choose to play with a ocean bias civ sometimes.

I keep getting very un-continent-like starts when using the Continents map script. Here's the latest:

Which part of "I'd like a continents start" suggests that being completely isolated is the kind of game I'd like to play today?

I'm guessing there is a shallow water connection to a southern landmass.

Gamewizard said:

I'm guessing there is a shallow water connection to a southern landmass.

Click to expand...

Nope. I played on just long enough to confirm that it does not connect to anything else.

I agree that a 5 - 3 split is the most common (it's what I'm playing at present from a random map start).