Do you like playing on real world map or randomly generated one?

[TETurkhan]

NOTE - READ FOLLOWING:

1- WORLD MAP: Maps created by modders.
2- RANDOM MAP: Random map generated by the game.

IMO - Random maps are good, but ones made by modders such as World maps are better, because in most cases they have been tweaked, edited etc to really enhance game play.

 

[Finvola]

I like the randomly generated ones personally

 

[Reboot]

I like the random maps more. Hmm. Just wondering... World Maps with expansionist... isn't that kind of like cheating?

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

where's the both option?

 

[Knightblade pDM]

I have about five versions of the world map, but I also have megamillions of randomly generated maps, mostly what I've made, but some from here and 'poly. Yes the world maps are historical and it's great to run some Panzers throughout Russia and Italy, but for a change I go to one of mine. So I enjoy both very much.

 

[TETurkhan]

I should of put both as an option, oh well...

come on, where are all you real world fans?!?

 

[CivMonger]

I like random maps WAY more than real world. I like to play on islands were you have to conquer a few islands to get a good economy and the resources you need. The real world maps are way too much land (earth is like 70% water I think) and there are huge chunks of crap area, which, while being realistic, is very annoying in terms of gameplay.I find islands are more strategic in attacking, and suit my peaceful builder type better. Most of the time war is declared on me the never land any troops onto my land. If they do, I fight them off and build up a navy to bring the fight back to them.

 

[Jon Shafer]

I like both also.

 

[TETurkhan]

I totally agree, I love playing on islands!

 

[Finvola]

I think I've only used the world map a few times.

 

[TETurkhan]

I now you have just completed the worlds most ginormous perfect world map, but 99.9% of the civ3 games will not be played anywhere near a "quote unquote worldmap".

haunting words from Cracker coming true!!! Arggggg!!!!

 

[cracker]

Teturkhan,

Don't let those words "Haunt" you as much as they should steer you to understand what the game does.

Civ3 is not a very good choice of a game engine to replicate things that you think you know about. Replaying the civil war or venting your spleen in the Arab Israeli war will be disappointing in this game engine because the AI opponents just won't play the game the way you think they should if your ignore what the game does.

Big world maps that demonstrate your infinite knowledge of world geography might satisfy an itch for one or two experiences, but after that, most players will grasp that the excitement in the game comes from world domination in sequence of strategic plays that do not always rely on knowing where all the land is and where all the people are. Compare these choices to the excitement of being Lewis and Clark vs the excitement of being a Map Clerk in the offices of National Geographic Magazine.

There are terrain balance issues in the forced examples of real world maps where you really just take each square of the map and assign it a number somewhere between 1 and 15 to represent the terrain features. A rocky mountainous Japan is virtually unplayable in this game because of the terrain type limitations on a "real world" map when what you would like from a game play standpoint is to create challenging and exciting opponents. A Saudi Arabia civ on a real world map would be virtually worthless in civ3 and there are numerous other examples of terrain matching combinations that would just turn civs into tiny festering pimples on the map. After you play, this set of examples once or twice, then it sort of loses any excitement. With fixed allocations of good and bad terrain, some of the civs are always winners and others are always losers.

Even when you play a world map starting in the black fog, it takes away one of the most important and exciting phases of the game if you want to play any of the early contest elements.

Ultimately, big real world maps have at least three strikes against them when you consider how they fit in with the way the game works. This doesn't mean most people will not play at least one or two games on a world map just to exercise a test of their familiarity factors. It does mean that most people will not play games over, and over, and over again on a world map, particularly a huge world map, because it will just be tedious and like a big slow broken record.

"Killed the Isrealis in the desert ...."
"The Japanese faded and died in the rocks ..."
(sing the refrain)

"The Russians and China are huge and kicking our butts, Oh my!! ..."
"Babylon, Persia, Greek, and the Turks are fighting again ..."
(sing the refrain)

Enjoy

 

[MummyMan]

I love random maps! I usually do continents, just because it seems more like your playing against empires and not spread out collections of cities. I think it's stupid to play on a map where you know where everything is.

 

[Loaf Warden]

All right, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I like playing on real world maps, and I don't think I should have to apologize for that. I like having the semi-historical feel. I do occasionally play on random or otherwise non-real maps, but most of my important games (i.e. games that I'm serious about and are not just using to kill time) are played on Earth.

For me, it's fun to consider the real history and real geography when playing the game. Sometimes I'll do things like play as a civ who has a large nation in real life, put cities in their real locations, and not spread beyond the real borders. I played as the Americans once, and I put cities all across the Lower 48, Alaska, Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, and the Panama Canal Zone; all regions that have been directly controlled by the United States at some point in history. I also put a city called Monrovia in western Africa, just for my own enjoyment. The Iroquois were in my way, so I destroyed them. The French came and put some colonies (well, cities actually) in Canada, and I left them alone. This time around, I didn't want Canada. Does it make me less of a Civ player to do this, because I'm not trying to dominate everyone and I already knew where everything was before I started exploring? Maybe some of you think so, but I don't. It's just another way to play. I don't do it all the time, but I don't think I should have to hide away in shame when I do.

And the restrictions of geography can be good for the challenge. Am I playing as the Iroquois? Well, then, I'd better make contact with someone in Eurasia or Africa quickly, or put some cities there, because otherwise I won't have access to horses to build Mounted Warriors, because horses don't live in the Americas. Am I playing as the Japanese? Well, then, I'd better reach Map Making as quickly as I can and start putting cities on the Asian continent, because the Japanese islands are too mountainous and not spacious enough to hold a growing civilization. (I guess now we know why Japan keeps conquering Korea in the real world.) These are challenges, but they aren't insurmountable ones, and for me personally, they make the game more enjoyable. If I don't feel like having those issues to deal with, I'll just play on a random map. No problem. But I like the real world maps, and I will continue to use them.

 

[TETurkhan]

I agree with Cracker about the unknown element in random maps.. but know once multi-player arrives people might opt for world maps...

I am guilty too of playing with world maps... Play the Japanese, Chinese, its cool, cause pending on the location you have to play each Civ different... Look at a game of Chess, you know where all the pieces are on the board, know the moves etc, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment...

too bad I didn't put a third option here - Both... the results might be much different...

 

[Mad Bomber]

I've only played on a world map once: My starting position was Austrailia, Austrailia for the love of God!!!

World maps are nice to play on (from what i've seen), nice distribution of resources, adequate chokepoints, strategic areas, ect. But once you figure out your Starting Location, you know where everything else is. A world map can be very good for some civ's if you have historically accurate starting points. As a player who favors America I'd love a continent where my only competition is the Iroqouis.

But I just like the Idea of not knowing where everything is and where each civ starts out so I play random maps.

 

[dsirirueng]

Why should anybody be ashamed to play on world maps? Who cares what "most players" grasp as the excitement of the game? I believe there is a sort of scale that measures how CIV3 players value the game -- at one end are those who are purely into out-witting and out-strategizing the AI (or human players) by any means possible, at the other end are those who just want to build up a cool civ, and don't really care what the AI does ... within reason, of course. Obviously, most are in the middle, except for maybe the hell-bent warmongers.

For me, the appeal of playing on a world map is quite literally to re-create history. As cracker says, the AI won't follow that plan ... so do it for them! Conquer their cities and re-name them as is geographically realistic. Or stick to a particular civ's historic expansion as Loaf Warden does -- there is a lot of fun in doing that for some of us. I can understand why those people who exclusively see the challenge of the game in the struggle with the AI might not understand that others see a challenge in trying to re-create history. But think about what Loaf Warden describes -- limiting himself to areas America historically colonized does *not* make for easy-as-pie games! If the great unknown in random maps is a tremendous challenge, then there are self-imposed challenges faced by those who play primarily world maps. So, yeah, cracker, if I was to play your game of world domination on a map where I knew where everything was, that would feel like cheating and not very satisfactory. But when I play world maps, I don't do that ... and by the way, I also like to play random maps with the rule the world agenda.

Since I'm just getting started on CIV3, I'm, well, not speaking ENTIRELY out of my ass, but talking mostly about my CIV2 experiences. I'm already tending to like the random maps on CIV3 better than the world map, which wasn't the case on CIV2. On CIV2 I really started getting sick of building 100+ howitzers at the end of the game and taking every other civ out in a few turns(limited movement in enemy territory might be my favorite change in CIV3), so maybe it was more natural to steer towards the world map and totally different goals in the game.

And the Lewis and Clark/National Geograpic map clerk analogy is particularly ironic in a gaming forum ... we might as well compare being Xerxes to pretending to be him in CIV3!

 

[TETurkhan]

Just occured to me, on the world map I just completed there are two versions. One without resources and one with. A person could easily take the one with out, go to the map editor, and do a random placement of resources (the editor does it for you). This way the only thing you would know is the shape of the map etc, but resources would be all unknown....

You know this is a cool idea I just got... I could post my world map but with alternate resource locations. Have something where a few resources are severely restricted, and it is a matter of getting to them first if you want to win the game.

OR how about this:

Have something like in Raiders of the Lost Ark. An ancient resource, offering untold power to those who possess!?!

I really like this idea :enlighten
It could be the WILD CARD RESOURCE!

Think I will get busy working on it,
What do you guys think of this “Raiders of the Lost Ark” idea?

 

[Knightblade pDM]

I think you should go for it..as an Indiana Jones fan personally, that sounds like an awesome idea

 

[royfurr]

cracker's thesis put it pretty well, at least for me. Mind the old saying- "Geography is Destiny". I quit playing real world maps early on in Civ2, and I've not PLAYED one in Three at all, although the real world maps are fun to look at and perhaps work on.. but play- nah. Each to their own- those of you who like RW maps, go for it!

For me a good bit of the excitment is discovering the shape of the world and having it revealed, and the fact that the play is DIFFERENT every time, partially due to the different geography/geology.

Civ on!