Fairest Map for all Civs?

[isau]

Recently I've been playing the Small Continents Plus map from the Scrambled Maps DLC. It's changed how I view the game so much that I was wondering if some other maps also greatly benefit the game.

On the standard maps (Continents, Small Continents, maybe less so Terra) I never feel like there is enough room. I find Pangea dull as dishwater and really unfair to the naval civs. In contrast, archipelago leans a little too far in favor of naval civs and the AI doesn't seem to adjust to it.

The Small Continents Plus maps seem to fix a lot of this. There is enough space for Liberty, there are enough barbarians for the Honor opener, there isn't a huge blank open ocean, Carthage can get enough coastal cities to use its UA, there are small islands for Indonesia, there are mountains for the Inca, rivers and lakes for the Aztecs, Polynesia gets a chance to explore, Byzantine dromons can actually move around due to all the shallow water, and city states don't gobble up all the good land. It feels (to me) like this is the default map that should have launched with the game.

Is there another map type or set of settings that is similar?

 

[Veras]

I was already thinking in buying this DLC after the 50% discount, now I'm definitely taking it.

 

[Civilmyzation]

I love small continents plus. I really actually love most of the new map packs, they are freaking awesome, Italy, awesome, so much greatness there in those packs. but especially the SCP, I have had some of the most fun and exciting games using that.

 

[gozpel]

I still think Fractal is great, very unpredictable. But fair, I don't know until 100 turns of the game.

If you end up with no rivers on Emp you will have a problem, if you end up in river galore -> 22 tiles are river, it's not a game anymore.

Just saying, try Pioneer I think it is, that can create some odd and funny maps.

 

[Walter R]

I think small continents is always the fairest map. I don't have small continents plus but it sound really good from what I've read here.

 

[black213]

I think normal Continents is the most 'fair' map script for all civs, though naval civs do have an advantage there.

 

[Human Crouton]

Does small continents plus put all of the CSs onto islands away from the major civs like the other plus maps do? Because part of the fun of CSs to me is that you can use them as buffers states for wars, so I need them near the major players.

 

[Loucypher]

Is Small Continents Plus part of Scrambled Continents or Scrambled Nations? Just checking, dont want to buy the wrong DLC.

 

[black213]

Is Small Continents Plus part of Scrambled Continents or Scrambled Nations? Just checking, dont want to buy the wrong DLC.

It's in the Scrambled Continents pack. I recommend buying it, especially now that it's on sale.

 

[Optional]

What's the difference between Small Continents and Small Continents Plus?

I know the Pangaea Plus and Continents Plus maps, they just scatter some small island groups around in addition to the continents. That wouldn't change your view of the game that much or make it a 'fairer' type of map. It's probably even unfair to the AI, as they'll settle all those borderline useless 1- and 2-tile islands at the cost of their scientific progress.

Is Small Continents Plus different?

 

[Devon Lovelock]

What's the difference between Small Continents and Small Continents Plus?

I play almost exclusively small continents on a huge map, but decided to check out the DLC after reading this thread. I'm on my first game of small continents plus. In this particular game, there is a LOT of shallow water, containing tiny islands as well as connecting the continents. So much so, that I've explored almost the entire map with a trireme. I'm not sure that's a good thing or not. The continents seem better though, as they are not as long and narrow as sometimes happens with small continents maps.

I'd say check it out - the DLC is very inexpensive.

 

[Firesmacker]

I've been playing small continents plus almost exclusively lately and I love it.

In my last game I was fortunate enough to have a bottleneck in the NE corner so I dropped my second city there and had a nice big area all to myself. I basically got to sit back and watch Ghengis and Askia tear each others throats out.

 

[Carmack]

I'm kind of curious about the difference between regular small continents and small continents plus, too. I've played a couple small continent maps and while I prefer the more varied land over regular continents, it often produces long, snaky landmasses. In fact, the small continents script reminds me so much of Civ4's snaky continents script.

 

[Optional]

I just went with what people said here and got it, the pack is just £2 anyway and I had to satisfy my curiosity.
Just like the other 'Plus' maps it adds island chains, but it doesn't force the CS's on the small islands. Apart from that I don't see any difference from ordinary Small Continents - I generated some maps in WorldBuilder to get an impression.
The script itself mentions it has a better continent generation, and the code is indeed different from the Small Continents map, but I don't see the landforms being less snaky. Maybe they are, if you do a meticulous comparison, but I don't see it at first sight.

 

[MerchantCo]

Purchased. Thanks for pointing out that it is on sale, black!

 

[jlim201]

Small Continents is quite fair, about 50/50 land/water.

 

[Drakarska]

Interesting. 1 mention of normal size maps, and the rest for small. Nothing about huge maps.

 

[Glassmage]

TSL earth map. Think about it.

 

[KmDubya]

Lately I have been using small continents with low sea water and random age, rainfall and temperature. It makes for some interesting maps, lets you get to the other continents before astronomy. It seams to be fair for early war expansion, rexing with liberty or turtling with tradition.

The start is almost always coastal but the random elements make it unique. My current game as Siam started coastal w/o any sea resources in a marshy jungle. It has been fun overcoming the challenge. Winning after overcoming a bad starting location feels better compared to winning with a super awesome start like multiple salt and gold on rivers with coastal access and fish with Lake Victoria as Spain, with barrier reef placed for second city.

 

[sendos]

Here is my personal scale of fairness from 0 (unfair) to 10 (fair). This is not a complete list of maps:

Small continents: 9.5
Continents: 9
Earth: 7
Fractal: 6.5
Pangaea plus: 4.5
Pangaea: 4
Archipelago: 1
Any map that barely contains sea, such as Lakes or something like that: 0.5