That Wacky Planet Generator

BTS 3.17 has introduced a couple of new official map types. Tectonics has already gotten a lot of press. Less hostile to human life, but also unusual -- I hesitate to say "equally unusual" since I've never had the courage for Tectonics yet -- is the new Planet Generator script. I used to think this was an official implementation of RandomScriptMap. Now I'm not so sure: with default settings (everything below will assume default settings), it gives different behavior than I always expected from default-settings RandomScriptMap. Maybe I just had an outdated version.

IME Planet Generator behaves unlike most other default script behaviors in several ways. ("Most other" in that e.g. Lakes is obviously similar in the lakes department.) They are:
* Massively more forests, at the expense of unforested grass/plains and somewhat at the expense of jungles. They seem especially rampant as I near the tundra.
* Bigger lakes (ISTR the RandomScriptMap author hating 1-tile lakes, so maybe...) and more lakes.
* Fewer and shorter rivers.
* (A bit iffy on this) Slightly more hills and mountains.
* (A bit iffy on this too) Slightly fewer and less clustered resources.
* More cowbell.
* More fractal.


All of these affect strategy, and that's the thing I'd really like to discuss. So far I've decided that:
* Warriors gain in value relative to scouts what with the increase of 2-MP and 3-MP squares and of defensive terrain.
* Fishing and Sailing gain in value, to work, then milk, the lakes and the greater percentage of water tiles in BFCs (fractalness), and because I find myself going out of the way to harness fish just to get certain spots any bonus food at all.
* While Bronze Working couldn't become any more important than it already is, Mathematics becomes more important so as to start getting the bigger chops ASAP.
* Seemingly less jungle and less easy iron -- seemingly less priority for Iron Working.
* Fewer resources, more fractal --> AIs expand a bit slower at first, helping the barbs a bit.
* The player does too, but the rocket-fuel injection at Mathematics meanwhile helps the player most of all (as the AIs don't "see" it).
* With barbs a bit more rampant and copper seemingly a bit harder to grab, early Archery becomes more attractive even on Monarch. (With barb archers getting 4.5 defensive strength from the forests and chariots being mired down at the borders and devoid of the forest bonus, a chariot defense strategy is less attractive.)

Other thoughts? Screams of "that's not true at all"? Corruptions of LOL?

Didn't 3.17 shoot down the Chariot Defense Strategy already without this map?

Hmm? What do you mean?

Though I don't have 3.17 or even BtS, so I can't vouch for it personally, I seem to remember hearing that some spearmen are now included in the mix of barb units, which will pwn a chariot-only defense.

Picket archers and chariots still works. The barb spears will generally suicide against your fogbusting archers on hills.

But yeah, metal is necessary for barbs. The only answer for a barb swordsman is an axeman.

3.17 has definitely added more spearmen Barbs, I notice them more and more, but the predominant barb units are still warriors and archer, so you can usually get by with archers and chariots for a good while.

Is it just me, or has copper gotten more rare and horses gotten more common? Thats what I have noticed recently, lots of horses, all over the place it seems, but copper is sparse.

NC X was made with the Planet generator and a lot of people in there didn't liked it. The sparcity of food didn't helped in spite of a inteligent use of the lakes could bring huge dividends.

I kind of like the script..... but it is very diferent of the more standart scripts and I understand that it will get more of the "where is the food, dude?" reactions that tectonics had.

Planet Generator > SmartMap

r_rolo, thank you for being the first person to actually respond to the main topic of the thread. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds them kind of dry. I like the change, really, because it really forces me to think about squeezing the most food from the map, something that I was too lazy to do back on Shuffle maps or even RandomScriptMap maps.

ViaArete: What's SmartMap?

Bostock said:

What's SmartMap?

Click to expand...

"Smart_Map" is one of the Map options in custom games. I played it once: First start: 1 clam was the only resource in the fat cross from settler's start (moving didn't help), several tiles of desert and peaks. Regenerated map: 2 stones and 1 marble this time (I've never seen these resources packed so closely together)...

At that point, I decided it was pointless to continue with Smart_Map.

Bostok..now I can't give anything to relate to the topic, but I do have a question. Should I ever have a fever in the future, should I play on the planet generator?

A fever would have the advantage that you wouldn't be bothered by the crazy maps.

***

A small update: I've found that by toning the Hills and Peaks settings down a level, and bumping wetness up to Wet and/or warmth up to Warm, I can get the Planet Generator to produce maps that are ACTUALLY COTTAGEABLE. They are still a bit fractally, land-resource-thin, forest-heavy, and unusually dependent on lakes for fresh water, but all those work out to interesting and fun variations (for me), whereas the default settings leave every city kind of feeling like a production city.