Do the maps feel smaller?

[Ozymandias9891]

One thing I've noticed since I started playing Civ VI is that the maps feel smaller. Where it would take me anywhere between 15-25 to meet another Civ in Civ V, I meet other civs between 5 and 10 turns in Civ VI.

Personally, I like that beginning part of the game where you really feel like you're all alone with no one else around you. The Civ VI maps, regardless of size, make it feel like the Civs are clustered together.

Does anyone else feel the same? What observations have you made about the maps (sizes, placement, etc...) in Civ VI compared to Civ V?

P.S.: The island plates maps...really not doing it for me...

 

[heinous_hat]

It's not your imagination... the world is shrinking and everyone is right on top of you.

Smaller maps (duel through standard) are actually larger, but not substantially so. For example, standard is 84x54 vs 80x52 (civ5). Large and huge sizes are noticeably smaller though... huge is 106x66 vs 128x80 (civ5). So medium sized maps are ~9% larger, but huge maps are ~32% smaller. Of all things, I really didn't appreciate the devs misstating this prior to release... it was implied that maps would be larger overall.

Start positions are also much closer, and AI players receive extra settlers sooner on higher difficulties... I think it's from Emperor upwards (vs Deity in civ5). The combined effect with the map shrinkage is a much tighter environment.

I agree with your sentiment. Fortunately, you can address all of the above via modding. As always, increasing the map size can deliver a noticeable performance penalty, depending on other settings (e.g. barbarians, # of AI players etc). So it's best to tune distance, and eliminate free settlers first.

Sans modding, I'd suggest trying a huge, Fractal map with low seas setting, and possibly removing a player or 2. They may still start right next to you though.

 

[Ozymandias9891]

@heinous_hat What mods do you recommend that will allow me to space out starting positions, and also to maybe level the playing field in terms of starting settlers? Or perhaps any other mods you feel would help with this issue...

 

[PYITE]

@heinous_hat What mods do you recommend that will allow me to space out starting positions, and also to maybe level the playing field in terms of starting settlers? Or perhaps any other mods you feel would help with this issue...

The YNAP map mod allows for map sizes above huge, you can have the mod active and still play the vanilla maps.

There are mods that increase the minimum starting distance between major civs.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=899688103

This however can result in less than the desired number of civs being placed on the map. Check the leader board on your first turn to find out how many were placed.

Smoother difficulty mod gives larger bonuses to the AI with an increase per era factor added in that allows the AI to keep up for longer. The mod makes up for the bonus increases by only giving the AI one settler at the beginning of the game.

 

[heinous_hat]

Gedemon's YnAMP (Yet not Another Map Pack), along with it's addons, is definitely a good place to start. The main package will give you larger map options for vanilla map scripts, along with some other choices like culturally linked start positions and less obstructive sea ice. The mod is probably more popular for it's Earth maps, but all features work with random map scripts. In the addons package is a supplementary mod that does the same thing as the mod that PYITE linked above... extends the starting distances. It's easy to customize the exact distance to your liking by editing the mod's rules.sql file.

edit: like PYITE mentioned, it's possible that a particular map won't generate enough land for all players if you increase the distance too much. I think it handles this gracefully (no crash... just fewer players), but I'm not certain atm.

Beyond map scripts and such, Smoother Difficulty sounds like a good suggestion, though I've not played with it lately. Quo's Combined Tweaks is quite interesting, and does remove the extra AI settlers. You can toggle most of the mod's other options in the rules file, if they aren't all to your liking. Although on larger maps, I find I do like his modified movement rules.

Prior to several months ago, I would have recommended Seven05's Larger Worlds map script, but he hasn't updated it in quite a while. He took a different approach and rewrote the starting plots routine so that it scales distance directly according to number of players. Like YnAMP, it also provides larger map sizes. Have to give it a look to see if it still works. Firaxis have updated maps and utilities scripts quite a bit recently... you may have noticed the (over) abundance of rivers and lakes.

In general, try to stick with mods that are still actively maintained. Also, be careful when mixing both the traditional method of mod installation (user folder) along with Steam subscriptions. Steam's automated process can create some bad scenarios if you don't keep your eye on it, and you end up with mod installations in 2 locations.

 

[Ozymandias9891]

@heinous_hat @PYITE Thank you both so much for your recommendations and help! I will try these out as soon as I get the chance! Hopefully it makes my gaming experience much better.

 

[Piruparka]

@ Thread title: No.