Best diety game config options?

[planetfall]

Immortal has gotten boring, so ready to try diety again. The last couple of times I simply did not survive long.
I play with domination and science victory options and high seas. Looking for advice on startup options:

Map type
Choice is between continents OR continents and islands. Which is an easier learning curve?

Map size and number of AI civs?
Defaults are
small with 5 AI
standard with 7 AI
large with 9 AI.

I'm thinking I need space to get game going so leaning toward standard w/ 4 AI or large with 6 AI. What would you recommend?

What about resources? Normal I play with standard, but on diety do I need abundant to get iron and horses in early game?

FInally
-- barbs: enable or disable? Why?
-- goodie huts: enable or disable? Don't seem to make much difference in this version of civ?

 

[planetfall]

Hmmm, don't know if makes much difference. The jump from immortal to diety seems larger than any other difficulty jumps. I'm fighting on first real diety game. I "lucked out" with a continent to myself, but so far behind it's hard to accomplish anything. It's like the game changed from very exciting to very stressful and annoying. Not sure at this point if it's worth playing at diety. Not feeling the fun yet.