Not the same "Map-feeling"

[Rickard77]

I dont know if im alone having recognized this, but Civ 2 hasnt the same "map-feeling" as Civ 1. In Civ 2 it feels like everything is more near to each other than in Civ 1. And the enemies seems to reach you faster and in a more brutal way. In Civ 1 you can hide in a corner of the world and it can take up to 3000 years before you meet another civ.

Also Colonization has that map-feeling. You have plenty of time to develop your colonies before enemies or indians attack you.

I think Civ 3 had a better map-feeling, but de later versions just suck in that matter.

What do you think?

[Sir_Lancelot]

I have not noticed the same. I remember Civ 1 having the map tiles right, same as on a chessboard. In Civ 2 and later they are tilted, rotated 45 degrees. I'm not sure which I prefer.

[Ali Ardavan]

It is years since I played Civ1. I do not recall such feeling when first starting to play Civ2, but it could be that I have simply forgotten.

Thinking about this, however, the following come to my mind:

1. In Civ2, movement along rivers is like moving along a road. When a world has long rivers early movement is significantly changed.

2. In Civ2, Horseback riding is an initial tech and a favorite of AI players. If memory serves me right, in Civ1 it had a prerequisite (Wheel I believe, but I am not sure).

3. In Civ2, the city center always produces a shield, even when the underlying terrain does not provide one otherwise. Since most cities are built on grassland and half of those are shieldless, this results in an overall increase in the number of shields produced. This difference is significant in the early game and leads to faster production of units as well as the ability to maintain more of them on the field.

[Solkatten]

Can't say this was something I noticed when moving from Civ1 to Civ2.

On the other hand I really missed to "Big world" feel when going from Civ2 to Civ3/4. It didn't feel like empire building but rather like SimCity for a small county with a couple of towns. So I went back to Civ2.

[Sir_Lancelot]

Heck, I already missed the "big world" feel in Civ1! After playing a while, I discovered that the map was very much smaller than I thought it was. In my very first game I started out as German on a real world map and after a bit of exploring I found out that this little backyard pond was actually the Black Sea.

[Rickard77]

Originally Posted by Sir_Lancelot

Heck, I already missed the "big world" feel in Civ1! After playing a while, I discovered that the map was very much smaller than I thought it was. In my very first game I started out as German on a real world map and after a bit of exploring I found out that this little backyard pond was actually the Black Sea.

Yeah.. I agree that the earth-scenario in Civ 1 really sucks. England is like a tiny island where you have to stay until you develop map-making. The size of Europe is a joke. Italy is about 5 map-squares and Scandinavia and Spain we shouldnt mention.

I always played americans in the earth-scenario, because you only have the Aztecs on the same continent, and its a big continent and plenty of time to develop your civ before the enemies reach the coasts.

[nickthehun]

I rather enjoy using the Chinese on Earth. Its generally isolated and gives you time to settle and strengthen before you send your chariots to trade technology, pick out the weak points, and plunder. The Americas is way too quiet. Even Russia is cool because nearby France/Germany/Greece have weak city sites and are easy to destroy and Egypt/Babylon/India are like ripe fruit trees of money and technology. Its just that sometimes you have those Mongols not far away...

[Theov]

Originally Posted by Rickard77

Yeah.. I agree that the earth-scenario in Civ 1 really sucks. England is like a tiny island where you have to stay until you develop map-making. The size of Europe is a joke. Italy is about 5 map-squares and Scandinavia and Spain we shouldnt mention.

I always played americans in the earth-scenario, because you only have the Aztecs on the same continent, and its a big continent and plenty of time to develop your civ before the enemies reach the coasts.

I still do that in Civ3.
But true, Civ1 is smaller than you'd think.
Civ2 doesn't have the enormous corruption rules, so you can expand like crazy and then some more.

[Ali Ardavan]

For what you are saying Zulu and Japanese work best. No one is nearby yet many rivals will be close enough.