Acularius' GEM for Caveman2Cosmos

[Acularius]

Version: Philip 01-15-2013.
Version: Acularius 02-02-2013

First off, and should be rather obvious, I have in no way created the base map.
I'm just trying to keep it up to date with the new terrains, resources, and civilizations that C2C has to offer.
If you want to help, play the map, give tips and suggestions, back it up with reasons. I don't need many to institute something.

Philipschall has taken over, I'll try to keep the first page up to date.
I also can't keep calling it "Acularius' GEM map", so I've changed the title of the post to reflect it.

Instructions, extract the .rar file into the 'privatemaps' folder of the C2C mod, load up C2C and play.
For best use out of it, pick the custom scenario, and customise to your playing pleasure.

@Acularius, can you put a link to philipscall's spawninfo file in the first post. You should include the instructions to replace the existing Assetts/XML/Units/CIV4SpawnInfos.XML with it. They should probably compress the standard one first as a back up, copying may not work as it may result in both sets being active in game.

In order to get more accurate spawning of animals, follow these instructions.
The file is included in both downloads. Enjoy.

Resources: I'm trying to keep it relatively in line with the Real Earth, but I'm also trying to keep the resource spread in line with the Pre-Columbian scenario so there will be no potatoes in Europe.
[In terms of natural resources such as rice and the like, but mineral sources, or generally finite resources in general will be placed given the appropriate information to back it up.]

There are 3 variants of the map,
No preset civs map (Essentially a open map, random play)
5 preset Civs (China [Xian start], Egypt, India, Maya and Sumeria [Lagash start])
Pre Columbian Civ start (Any civilization before the ~1500's essentially)

Note on Pre Columbian Civ start. We're at 50 civilizations now.

This are is just to keep it all centralized, find bugs and try to find balance.



~Thoughts and ideas, please discuss.

Changelog 02-02-2013

• Fixed the bad flags afflicting Germany and England. [Aesthetic more than anything but it bothered me. XD]
• Japan: Remove the dormant volcano on the second half of Shikoku, and replace it with silk, while changing the silk south of the Kyoto starting location into beef. Also tacked in some Coal on Kyushu and a mountain in Hokkaido, furthermore placed some Obsidian south of what would be Fujiyama (Dormant Volcano)
• Carthage: Generally re-arrangement of terrain tiles, to better allow Carthage to form its cultural wonder. Generally buff to the area essentially with an addition of copper south of the Carthage starting spot. This should make them more competitive around the Mediterranean.
• Scotland was 'Pimped' out, I didn't add anything in terms of food resources, but Scotland now boasts a source of Stone and Obsidian (Together combined they form FLINT!) as well as some Prime Timber.
• I sprinkled some Obsidian around the Old World, in regards to this I also changed around the Aegean and the west coast of Anatolia a bit to allow Greece to hook up with the island source of Obsidian. Rhodes, was brought closer to Anatolia... to represent that they are islands, I placed rivers to 'cordon' them off... to represent Rhodes strategic importance, it is a hill tile.
• Removed both Korea (cramped and on a peninsula) and Arabia (Constant under performer, and suited for the chopping block).

Remember that in no ways are these changes permanent. Any civilization removed can also be put back.
Latest version: [Acularius 02-02-2013]
Comes with the Pre-Columbian exchange, and the no pre-set map.

 

[Koshling]

Not necessarily map issues per se, but touch on points that may be be relevant:

With v22 I started a new GEM 38 (latest one, modified by DRJ I think, that is included in v22) game on eternity as England (start as minors off). I knew that being on a small island would make life hard in terms of growth, but I expected the absence of initial military pressure might compensate. These are my observations so far:

1) England really only has room for 2 cities. I'll probably cram in a 3rd for early prioduction, but it will mean massive overlap, and long-term very sub-optimal placement (the two would essentially be London and Liverpool/Glasgow - between them in real life)

2) I was very disappointed to find no deer once I researched scavenging. Historically England had deer, and the hunting of them was restricted on large tracts of land to the monarch (and those he allowed). I think one of the forest tiles in the south should really have deer. The horses that are present on the Welsh borders are welcome enough but relatively inaccurate I think.

3) I'm kinda glad to be out of the military pressure of mainland Europe! I just researched tracking, and already the Celts are cutting a swathe across europe and have eliminated Spain, Rome, France, and Germany. As a result the Celts now have 3 cities and no other visible civ has more than one (and its a thousand turns or so before tribalism)! I suspect this will likely make the Celts unstoppable in this part of the world (though apparently they are only ranked 3rd in power currently globally!). This probably isn't a map issue, so much as an AI defense issue, but I'm not sure what caused the Celts to be so successful.

4) Due to my lack of land I plan to adopt a totally different tech strategy than I normally do (I essentially beeline shamanism usually), and beeline to canoes in the hope of garrisoning Ireland first, which would give me an optimal third city.

5) Another non-map issue, but on eternity I had many (more than half) of my turns with nothing to do apart from press 'enter', often with long runs of 10+ turns like this waiting for the next build to complete, or animal to turn up. Playing on my laptop the turn times are about 10-15 seconds currently, so having to interact each turn is slightly annoying (I was playing while cooking!) Made me realise how valuable (in the early game) a player option to auto-ENTER at the ends of decision-free turns would be (as discussed in another thread), so I plan to implement this soon.

 

[DRJ]

With v22 I started a new GEM 38 (latest one, modified by DRJ I think, that is included in v22) game on eternity as England (start as minors off). I knew that being on a small island would make life hard in terms of growth, but I expected the absence of initial military pressure might compensate. These are my observations so far:
1) England really only has room for 2 cities. I'll probably cram in a 3rd for early prioduction, but it will mean massive overlap, and long-term very sub-optimal placement (the two would essentially be London and Liverpool/Glasgow - between them in real life)

I cramped 4 cities in but I also could hav had 5... (London, York, Glasgow and Plymouth) I decided to found the fifth on the hebrides later, as I had to fight off barbs in Ireland first (they had a city there and 30 units wandering around), but most of the time the hebride city didn't develop but rather cost me a little fortune.

2) I was very disappointed to find no deer once I researched scavenging. Historically England had deer, and the hunting of them was restricted on large tracts of land to the monarch (and those he allowed). I think one of the forest tiles in the south should really have deer. The horses that are present on the Welsh borders are welcome enough but relatively inaccurate I think.

I was lucky to catch a Moose that was coming from scotish tundra once, to get deer in my GEM/england game... but I felt like you before lol

3) I'm kinda glad to be out of the military pressure of mainland Europe! I just researched tracking, and already the Celts are cutting a swathe across europe and have eliminated Spain, Rome, France, and Germany. As a result the Celts now have 3 cities and no other visible civ has more than one (and its a thousand turns or so before tribalism)!
I suspect this will likely make the Celts unstoppable in this part of the world (though apparently they are only ranked 3rd in power currently globally!). This probably isn't a map issue, so much as an AI defense issue, but I'm not sure what caused the Celts to be so successful.

I suppose you didn't start with the AI having 2 settlers each? In this case celts often get no secound city. so they would mass produce units eventually getting one or two less defended 2cnd cities from of other AI? just guessing, though

4) Due to my lack of land I plan to adopt a totally different tech strategy than I normally do (I essentially beeline shamanism usually), and beeline to canoes in the hope of garrisoning Ireland first, which would give me an optimal third city.

Hehe doing same as japan atm, just got boats, god, turn 2000ish! the game can begin now lol^^ and now I perhaps found the reason why I will probably lose the game (see balance thread)

5) Another non-map issue, but on eternity I had many (more than half) of my turns with nothing to do apart from press 'enter', often with long runs of 10+ turns like this waiting for the next build to complete, or animal to turn up. Playing on my laptop the turn times are about 10-15 seconds currently, so having to interact each turn is slightly annoying (I was playing while cooking!) Made me realise how valuable (in the early game) a player option to auto-ENTER at the ends of decision-free turns would be (as discussed in another thread), so I plan to implement this soon.

man, you got it. one day, I was holding my book with one hand, reading while pressing end turn with my foot on external keyboard and my laptop was plugged in tv via hdmi... now i won't tell you about the type of glass in my other hand, to help me overcome this endless, repetitive action, felt like the guy in "lost" who had to press the button everyday lol

 

[Koshling]

I cramped 4 cities in but I also could hav had 5... (London, York, Glasgow and Plymouth) I decided to found the fifth on the hebrides later, as I had to fight off barbs in Ireland first (they had a city there and 30 units wandering around), but most of the time the hebride city didn't develop but rather cost me a little fortune.

Yeh, you can physically fit them, but boy will they suck later on.

I suppose you didn't start with the AI having 2 settlers each? In this case celts often get no secound city. so they would mass produce units eventually getting one or two less defended 2cnd cities from of other AI? just guessing, though

Nope. Just one settler each. I started the scenario on emporer with increasing difficulty as an option

 

[Hanny]

Not necessarily map issues per se, but touch on points that may be be relevant:

England should have deer in the New Forrest at a minimum. Cornish tin, Welsh Coal are also absent iirc.

 

[Acularius]

Pretty sure Cornish tin is not absent, it should actually be around the area on the hill I believe since I replaced what use to be silver there. I will load up and do a quick check to be sure.
As for resources such as coal and deer, I haven't touched the initial layout set down in the original GEM with the resources. As for the horses, they have been there since the original GEM, and for balance reasons I can agree with it since i doubt the English ai would trade for horses, since it doesn't have a huge resource surplus to trade with other civilizations.
I thought there was deer in the forest north of England, on the borders of Scotland I think.


It also comes down to the problem that Wales is essentially 2 tiles big and it comes down to a problem I have when placing resources in the Middle East, its getting crowded over there. [I'm in no rush to give Wales coal, as it is already present in Northern England. Unfortunately the Welsh coal fields are also located where geologist found the Stone used for stonehenge, hence the stone resource located in Southern Wales as well.]
There is coal in the area of, I believe, the GEM equivalent of Yorkshire. If this map isn't off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:British.coalfields.19th.century.jpg


Notes in my English gameplay: (Oddly enough that's who I've choosen to play as well.)
-The Portuguese cut a huge swath into Europe, extending as far as all of France, but then Brazil broke off with the French cities.

-The Huns cut a swath through the Mesopotamic cities, and then they broke away leaving a Canadian dominance in the area until it also splintered apart.

-Egypt relocated to Lagash and were kicked out of Egypt itself by barbarians. I'm going to have to look again but the Byzantines did not settle in Constantinople but have appeared to more their cty further down the coast in Asia Minor.

-I'm thinking of giving Egypt more initial production resources in order to survive the barbarian onslaught. [Opinions?]

-Furthermore, North America seems to not fair well against raging barbarians. I know they are suppose to be raging and rampant, but I tend to think the settings might be altogether too high. Is there possibly a middle option? I do enjoy the additional barbarians, but I would rather it not be this extreme. [Is this as a scenario option creation possible?]

-On the topic, I had no problem hunting down little creatures in England, since they hail from Scotland, I just set up 'hunter' units on a forrested hill and it keeps a trickle of animals in.

Personally though, I will take a look at the area, I'm not however the most keen on making sure resources appear in the exact same spot as they did in real life simply because it would be impossible to do that for everywhere. I will try my best to do so in accordance with the limitations presented on the map.

EDIT: Looking in England, there is indeed tin, however there is no deer as pointed out which I thought there was. Now, the location of New Forrest roughly in GEM is where I have placed the apple resource, would anyone see a problem if I moved the apple to the forest north of the London start? Next to the Wheat on the river? In theory this should allow the construction of the English culture still for England. [Since the English culture requires, coast, apple and forest.] Thoughts on this change?

Edit 2: Loading up the 5 civ preset showed a similar problem to the initial release of my 'Pre Columbian' map, that is, the location starts seem to have been erased. I've fixed the version I have on my computer and when unless you want it right away I'l probably hold onto until the release of the next map pack.

 

[strategyonly]

nvm wrong area, needs to be in drjs.

 

[Hanny]

EDIT: Looking in England, there is indeed tin, however there is no deer as pointed out which I thought there was. Now, the location of New Forrest roughly in GEM is where I have placed the apple resource, would anyone see a problem if I moved the apple to the forest north of the London start? Next to the Wheat on the river? In theory this should allow the construction of the English culture still for England. [Since the English culture requires, coast, apple and forest.] Thoughts on this change?

Kent is known as the Garden county of England, so the apples would fit better in Kent.

 

[DRJ]

Edit 2: Loading up the 5 civ preset showed a similar problem to the initial release of my 'Pre Columbian' map, that is, the location starts seem to have been erased. I've fixed the version I have on my computer and when unless you want it right away I'l probably hold onto until the release of the next map pack.

I would like to see it pushed to SVN to as GEM 42 Civs, it adds nicely up to the GEM 38 Civs, the more the better I say.
Btw what about we help each other editing the GEM 42 tropical/arctic in?

We could split to segments like
- artic america/ arctic russia,
- tropical africa/ tropical india/ tropical indonesia/ tropical pacific/ tropical caribean
- artic antarctica 1/ artic antartica 2

so each time someone made something he posts the save and the next one can add the next region. Would make a lot of work easier to handle.

Last step would be the discussion about placement of cold and hot currents --- btw would be nice to have the water currents fluctuations play a central role in the new sooner or later to come active weather system... (like El Nino)

 

[Acularius]

I would like to see it pushed to SVN to as GEM 42 Civs, it adds nicely up to the GEM 38 Civs, the more the better I say.
Btw what about we help each other editing the GEM 42 tropical/arctic in?

We could split to segments like
- artic america/ arctic russia,
- tropical africa/ tropical india/ tropical indonesia/ tropical pacific/ tropical caribean
- artic antarctica 1/ artic antartica 2

so each time someone made something he posts the save and the next one can add the next region. Would make a lot of work easier to handle.

Last step would be the discussion about placement of cold and hot currents --- btw would be nice to have the water currents fluctuations play a central role in the new sooner or later to come active weather system... (like El Nino)

Pretty sure I got the arctic bits down actually, I got the tropical ocean down but I don't think I've actually place the 'tropical coasts' yet.

I just used the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, as well as the Arctic Circle. I would have used the Antarctic circle but the GEM is shifted north and does not have anough of the 'south' for it to be feasible.

As for putting the apples in Kent, I think I'll leave the wheat there and keep with the plan to put in the northern spot. I suspect it has roughly the same climate as my local area and we have apple orchards, so I suspect it is possible.
I would rather not touch that wheat essentially. Pretty sure there is wheat, where Kent is, I'll be sure to check though.

 

[Koshling]

Kent is known as the Garden county of England, so the apples would fit better in Kent.

I thought that was Hampshire?

 

[strategyonly]

I liked "your" new GEM map, but BOY oh BOY, i cant take the turn times, i am waaaaay to impatient, heck it takes over 20 seconds or so and i am just four techs in

 

[Hanny]

I was thinking about that earlier, Hydro was posting about spreading resources via trade through the Greatfarmer method, which means most maps need a lot of reworking, wheat is not native to England ( and it was Romans who opened up eats anglia for crop use, and climate change that made East Anglia a net exporter of cerialcrops from Roman Britain to supply the Rhine armies), nor where apples, ducks ( more Romans, who repalced the westy country major inter continetal trade port in the West country by establishing a the new port at Londoninium to break Brittany West country sea commerce) rabbits ( came with Normans, who put vinyards as far north as York) etc.

If you have a copy of the Oxford English history of Roman Britain, or a net search for Butser farms project, they will be of use.

 

[Hanny]

I thought that was Hampshire?

http://www.visitheartofkent.com/site/the-heart-of-kent-the-true-garden-of-england

 

[Acularius]

I was thinking about that earlier, Hydro was posting about spreading resources via trade through the Greatfarmer method, which means most maps need a lot of reworking, wheat is not native to England ( and it was Romans who opened up eats anglia for crop use, and climate change that made East Anglia a net exporter of cerialcrops from Roman Britain to supply the Rhine armies), nor where apples, ducks ( more Romans, who repalced the westy country major inter continetal trade port in the West country by establishing a the new port at Londoninium to break Brittany West country sea commerce) rabbits ( came with Normans, who put vinyards as far north as York) etc.

If you have a copy of the Oxford English history of Roman Britain, or a net search for Butser farms project, they will be of use.

I'm quite aware that a LOT of the resources present in England weren't there until they were brought along, however I don't think its feasible to not include them for the English player. One of which is the illusive apple resource which I believe is native to the area around Anatolia, which I doubt the English player will see for a LONG time. Even then you would still need the apple resource for the English culture.

I liked "your" new GEM map, but BOY oh BOY, i cant take the turn times, i am waaaaay to impatient, heck it takes over 20 seconds or so and i am just four techs in

Maybe I should make a 'lighter' civilization map?
Granted it won't solve the problem that it will have mid to late game as the units pile up and the civilizations become bigger.

 

[Hanny]

I'm quite aware that a LOT of the resources present in England weren't there until they were brought along, however I don't think its feasible to not include them for the English player. One of which is the illusive apple resource which I believe is native to the area around Anatolia, which I doubt the English player will see for a LONG time. Even then you would still need the apple resource for the English culture.

Well thats because English culture is taken from a time period incompatable with 12000 bce start, one that has apples in England and an English identity, which is why i wrote, maps will need reworking.

 

[Acularius]

Well thats because English culture is taken from a time period incompatable with 12000 bce start, one that has apples in England and an English identity, which is why i wrote, maps will need reworking.

Right now I'm trying my best to make the resource spread 'Pre Columbian', which should allow the apples to be in England as they are currently. Really, I'm not much on balancng England, I think they should be fine. (I was mor einterested if anyone has a problem with me moving the apple to another place, since it is already there and adding in the deer.)

I'm more concerned about areas such as North America, how the Middle East and Europe now fair as well as Asia and Africa. England should be able to build up quite the solid infrastructure, and it is quite tempting to place a barbarian city in Scotland and Hokkaido in order to put early pressure on the English and Japanese.

 

[strategyonly]

Maybe I should make a 'lighter' civilization map?
Granted it won't solve the problem that it will have mid to late game as the units pile up and the civilizations become bigger.

Nah, thats not the problem, its really the "size" of the map, its jut WAY to BIG. I can run 49 civs no problem, on a smaller map, so it isnt the civs.

 

[Hanny]

Each barb city ( when set at start) is a seperate civ and GEM is already unplayable due to the number of civs/map size,in play so adding more start barbs is only hurting game performence, you may just as well put in 2 more civs to start with and be done with it.

Deer placement, has a large number of animals + Neanderthals spawn from it, ive placed it often times for civ, so the first culture expanding fails to spread to it, so it spawns units, untill second round of expansion before comming into culture capture, something to consider if your only palcing one deer in England.

 

[Acularius]

Each barb city ( when set at start) is a seperate civ and GEM is already unplayable due to the number of civs/map size,in play so adding more start barbs is only hurting game performence, you may just as well put in 2 more civs to start with and be done with it.

Deer placement, has a large number of animals + Neanderthals spawn from it, ive placed it often times for civ, so the first culture expanding fails to spread to it, so it spawns units, untill second round of expansion before comming into culture capture, something to consider if your only palcing one deer in England.

If I recall the deer placement would put it squarely within the founding sphere of London, if not the next round up.

I can't do much about the 'size' of the map, as much as it hurts to say that, but it is the GEM for a reason.