What map settings do you guys use?

I tried playing standard continents plus, but for some reason the game kept making me start on islands regardless of what civ i was playing. I then tried normal continents, but that makes you start within 10 tiles of 2-3 AI capitals so theres no room to expand...

Terra on standard is HUGE. And not in a good way...plus the CS take all the off shore spots so theres no room to expand in the "new world".

I like to use either Fractal, or Small Continents with the sea level turned low. The latter you're guaranteed to have coastal capitols, and usually you'll have a few civs sharing your island while there's still room to expand. I play on Huge, 22 Civs, 22 CS.

Standard on Pangaea with legendary starts and no barbs. If you are having trouble with your settings delete your game cache located in ~\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\cache and redo your settings in the advanced setup.

I always play standard or large size because my computer is not that great for huge maps.

When I want a domination victory or OCC, I go for pangea. For all other kinds of victory conditions, I like continents or small continents.

Once I played 'inland sea' and it was great. Felt like the mediterranean sea.

Standard resources, quick combat, 50% more civs, 1/3 less CSs.

For myself, standard map size, Large Islands, legendary resources, 8 civs (standard), and 8 city states (cut from the default 2:1 ratio to 1:1 ratio), on Immortal level.

Question said:

I tried playing standard continents plus, but for some reason the game kept making me start on islands regardless of what civ i was playing. I then tried normal continents, but that makes you start within 10 tiles of 2-3 AI capitals so theres no room to expand...

Terra on standard is HUGE. And not in a good way...plus the CS take all the off shore spots so theres no room to expand in the "new world".

Click to expand...

You can always use Advanced to alter the number of CS.

Me, I play Huge, usually Small Continents, with maximum AI and CS.

I find that in order to get the best game out of AIs, just do standard, Pangaea, sometimes with strategic balance. But nowadays I find it more fun without strategic balance so I don't know for sure I'll have horses and iron in my capital so taking AH and BW early can be of a gamble.

I'm still trying out the various settings, trying different ones each time.

So far I've done
Small - Continents
Huge (or whatever is the biggest size) - Earth
Duel - Archipego

So far I'm finding the duel one pretty fun. It also helps that the wait between turns and load times isn't taking forever compared to my Earth play through heh. I think I'll eventually settle somewhere in the middle for most games since Huge is a bit too big for me (although it was a peaceful play through from the start)

I think I'd prefer to go in with no idea what kind of victory I want to achieve and just play by ear. That way I can resort to Domination if it calls for it. On Huge, that'd just be pretty painful.


Pangaea sounds fun though - I actually don't use navies that much except to look for city-states. Though being forced to use them more on Archipego is interesting - mostly I just island hop to escape the ships for now since it's still BC.

I use archipelago with the sea level set to low. this gives me larger islands or medium sized continents. It works well if you want a naval based game.

So far it seems standard number of civs/CS on a large continents map gives you a lot more room to expand.

Continents, Standard Map Size for me unless I feel like an Archipelago, Standard Map Size.

I like water maps so I alternate between Archipelago, Tiny Islands and Small Continents (using the "Plus" versions when appropriate). I usually pick low sea level so the world can be explored before Caravels -- or play as Polynesia and pick high sea levels to hobble everyone else.

I haven't played the land maps as much yet. Has anyone noticed a big difference between Pangaea and Pangaea Plus? Has anyone here played Highlands? It sounds interesting because a lot of maps don't have many mountains, but I don't know if it also has seas or lakes.

If you want a strange challenge, play a Ring map. It generates a chunk of land for each Civ and connects them with an isthmus into a ring-like continent. You can choose the width of the isthmus connections and the overall type of terrain. This map does have some quirks. You cannot sail around the world, and there are only a few islands besides the main continent. There will be only a few city states, found on the islands in the inland sea, regardless of how many city states you choose in set up. You will be at a disadvantage if you play as Indonesia (hard to found offshore cities for Spice Islanders UA) or as Greece, Siam, or Austria (due to the paltry number of city states). Only play as Venice if you want an extreme challenge.

Standard (8) players, 12 City-States (1.5:1 ratio instead of the usual 2:1), Oval. Lately, I've been playing pretty much only Oval - it's like a Pangaea but with some big bays carved in between Civs - that way naval combat & embarking can still play a role, but it's not mandatory.

Other settings - Raging Barbarians usually on. Resources and other stuff are all standard.

In all the maps I play I don't play below large. For someone who is just starting with the Civ series this seems to be a handicap haha. But it's just so fun meeting so many civs in the same map. Maybe when I play on higher difficulties I'll shrink my map size.

I've been playing on PerfectWorld lately, but sometimes I switch to Fractal or Earth. Mostly Fractal though.

Default settings for large and huge maps mostly. Sometimes I add either one more civ or a few more city states depending on how masochistic I'm feeling at the time.

I wanted to ask advice on what map setting to use.

I have been playing Standard/Continents and am kinda bored.
I got it figured out, you get 2 continents, the rest is pretty much 95% water.

I don't want pangea, I want something earth like, more than 2 continents.
What type of map works?

rover6695 said:

I wanted to ask advice on what map setting to use.

I have been playing Standard/Continents and am kinda bored.
I got it figured out, you get 2 continents, the rest is pretty much 95% water.

I don't want pangea, I want something earth like, more than 2 continents.
What type of map works?

Click to expand...

"Continents Plus" maps have small islands off the coast of the main continents and many of the city states get relocated to those small islands.

Continents all day every day! I like the feeling of not knowing what going on on the other side of the world also lets me have navel warfare if I feel like it in the end subs are too much fun hehehe!

Huge Communitas Map.

I recommend it if you like Continents, but wish there were more usable Islands.

There are enough of them to toy with if you wish, but not so many that you are forced to pay them heed.

I've settled on Fractal, Standard size, 9 civs, 14 CS's as my favorite settings. Really like the exploration aspect of going into a random world; having to adjust to surprises adds some spice to the game as well. I'd prefer shuffle if it didn't make so many archipelago style maps, not a fan of restarting!

Cutting 2 CS's and adding 1 major civ feels like a nice balance to me, used to cut 4 CS's and add 2 civs but figured I'll play closer to what the game is balanced around.

joncnunn said:

"Continents Plus" maps have small islands off the coast of the main continents and many of the city states get relocated to those small islands.

Click to expand...

Are you sure it is called continents plus and not some other name because I could not find it.
I ended up using Terra thinking it would be continents with islands and it stinks.
Everybody is on a continent followed by very isolated city states.v At king, this makes it impossible to get much needed CS allies.

Galgus said:

Huge Communitas Map.

I recommend it if you like Continents, but wish there were more usable Islands.

There are enough of them to toy with if you wish, but not so many that you are forced to pay them heed.

Click to expand...

I want a standard map that is like Earth....several continents.

Just continents is bland with only 2 continents and useless Isles. Terra stinks. What do you suggest?