Minor hacky tweaks to increase multiplayer player count. Made originally for when I'm staging a game and we go over 5 that want in. Sharing here in case others find it useful. I mostly stuck to standard map sizes as increasing map size is just another thing that reduces stability multiplayer has enough issues as is.
MAP SIZE DETERMINES SOME PARAMETERS FOR THE SPAWNING ALGORITHM SO ONLY CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF SIZE AND TYPE WILL WORK WITH WHAT HAS BEEN ADDED
Combining the new map sizes with firaxis map types will probably result in bugged spawns and possibly other issues.
Fast PCs and internet connections are a necessity for playing with eight players, largely because Firaxis netcode sucks. Also the more people you have, the more people can randomly crash regardless. Personally I have played with eight 3 times, one game had only had 2 crashes and a few desyncs, similar to normal multiplayer stability. Two of the other games were both very unstable until a particular player using a toaster on wifi left or was eliminated, one of those at 7 and the other at 6 remaining became stable... Standard practice to reduce desyncs such as avoiding moving in the last second of the turn etc recommended.
Please lmk if you have any issues. I did a quick run through checking if various combinations of settings worked, but surely there is something I missed. If you load in with only the first ring of tiles revealed around your settler, that usually an indicator that the spawning algorithm failed and something is wrong.
Pangea 8:
Large (8,3):
- Original map sizes and types are unaffected.
The newly defined map types Continents-MJP and Cont-Plus-MJP are only default generation algorithms tweaked slightly so spawning works and I increased shallow water spawning for balance in exploration era (players are more likely to have cross-able section of deepwater). - Additions:
- Pangea-MJP Map Type: a modified Continents Plus script with 1 very big landmass, the second set to 0 width, and all the open space spawning cont-plus style islands. Also increased shallow water generation (that does not bridge the gap to the islands) to increase likelyhood players have spans of deep water small enough to cross.
- Standard-Six-MJP Map Size: Standard map but allowing 6 human players on the first continent and 2 ai on the second. Recommended for use with Continents-MJP
- Standard-Eight-MJP Map Size: Standard map but allowing 8 human players on the first continent. Recommended for use with Pangea-MJP.
- Large-MJP Map Size: Large map allowing 8 human players on the first continent and 3 ai on the second. I could not do more as the game crashes if the ai cannot pick unique civs. Recommended for use with Continents-MJP or Cont-Plus-MJP.
MAP SIZE DETERMINES SOME PARAMETERS FOR THE SPAWNING ALGORITHM SO ONLY CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF SIZE AND TYPE WILL WORK WITH WHAT HAS BEEN ADDED
| Map Size: | Map Types |
| Standard-Six-MJP (6 landmass1, 2 landmass2) | Continents-MJP (Recommended), Cont-Plus-MJP (Not recommended) |
| Standard-Eight-MJP (8 landmass1, 0 landmass2) | Pangea-MJP (Recommended), Continents-MJP (Not recommended), Cont-Plus-MJP (Not recommended) |
| Large-MJP (8 landmass1, 3 landmass2) | Continents-MJP (Recommended), Cont-Plus-MJP (Recommended) |
Fast PCs and internet connections are a necessity for playing with eight players, largely because Firaxis netcode sucks. Also the more people you have, the more people can randomly crash regardless. Personally I have played with eight 3 times, one game had only had 2 crashes and a few desyncs, similar to normal multiplayer stability. Two of the other games were both very unstable until a particular player using a toaster on wifi left or was eliminated, one of those at 7 and the other at 6 remaining became stable... Standard practice to reduce desyncs such as avoiding moving in the last second of the turn etc recommended.
Please lmk if you have any issues. I did a quick run through checking if various combinations of settings worked, but surely there is something I missed. If you load in with only the first ring of tiles revealed around your settler, that usually an indicator that the spawning algorithm failed and something is wrong.
Pangea 8:
Large (8,3):