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

[Knight-Dragon]

Well, I have never played the 'world map' before. But nothing strange, only played about 20-30 games so far. Prefer random maps.

I think the world map is kind of like cheating, since you know how the geography goes, once you've figured out exactly where you are. Makes it less of a challenge.

 

[Proteus]

I Play always on Random generated Maps.

As for Worldmaps I also see one litttle Problem:
Cracker mentioned already the "worthlessness" of the Arabian Civ (at least on the African Terrain as it is today).

But there is the real Problem. Africa as we know it today wasn´t Africa some hundred Years ago.
At the time of the Roman Empire there has been more Jungle in Africa and much less desert. Even in the 1800s there was much more Rainforest in Africa, than is today. Africa was a continent, which had lots of Places where humans could live. That´s the Reason lots of Empires could evolve there (and later disappeared)
Everything changed as deserts began to grow.

Same goes for Italia. In times before the Roman Empire there were much more woods. But then some Roman Emperors decided to build huge Fleets and cut all the Forests down, which altered the Landscape significantly.

To really simulate the development of Cultures on earth one should not build a Map of Earth as it is today, but try to research, how Earth has been 6000 Years ago.
(if you wish to more accurately simulate Earths History, you also should get some Mods to work which simulate the Disappearing of Woods in Italia, the growing desertification of Africa throughout the centuries and so on)

It may be a really interesting (but also difficult to solve) Project

 

[Bifrost]

This thread is a sign of modesty from the side of teturkhan?
Personally I liked playing the world in civToT the map there was really great, but it is poring to play the scenarios in CivIII, and btw, TETurkhan, I like your map, but I'm completely bored sitting infront of my computer with a real world map and putting there resources, will you update it someday?

 

[Bamspeedy]

If you play his mod, the resources are there. There are two maps, one with cities and one without the cities, but resources are in both. Some resources appear after you get certain techs. And this is to simulate when certain cities had an increase in population throughout history. By looking at the editor I see that for example, there are 2 game resources. One appears earlier, and one would show up at the appropriate time to increase the food potential of certain areas so those cities grow at the appropriate time in history. He did the same with horses and that is how horses first appear in Asia (and not North America), but later in the game horses do show up in North America. Very nice work, because horses were not in North America at 4000 B.C.

Great mod and idea, but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet.

With world maps, like has been said before, you can always go in the editor and select 'redistribute natural resources' and this will randomize all the resources into new spots, so the general geographical features will still be the same, but you will still need to explore to find out where the resources are. Playing as America, sure you will have lots of land all to yourself, but because you have contact with limited civs you will fall behind in tech (if you are playing a high enough difficulty level).

 

[NitroJagZek]

Hello,
I was reading this thread and I had to reply. I didn't have an account so I've set one up.. thats how strongly I feel about sharing my thoughts on this subject.

I play on both Random and Premade maps. I prefer Premade maps and trying to make recreations of history. I have the maps by all the map authors who have responded in this post and think their maps are great (Kal-el, teturkhan, etc)

In fact I have almost all the Human made maps/scenarios from Civ 2 and III. I have them in classified by Continent.

I always play with Civs starting in their historic locations, but to make thinks challenging for myself I choose my own civilization as Random. Nobody in history could choose what nation they were born in and I play civ under the same reasoning. It makes starting every game a mystery as what route to victory or defeat I might take.

I tweak the user made maps.. maybe removing/adding resources or the map. If playing on Earth I eliminate city building in the desert and tundra. The result is a very enjoyable game where many civilizations play like they did in history. The biggest diffculty is the crowdedness in Europe - then you just eliminate a few civs.

I have had many great civ games - All the way back to Civ 1. I remember playing Civ 1 as the Aztecs. I controlled all of North and South America but had not explored the world. Then the Romans began to invade South America. They were technologically superior and quickly conquered me. I retired before being completely conquered by foreign invaders. The result of the Civilization History-Endgame map was quite fascinating, seeing cities get conquered.. civilizations become eliminated and an alternative history living itself.

Knowing World Geography is not that great an advantage. I might race towards Australia and only find another civilization got there first!!! You rush to obtain a chokepoint but then you realize its take! In real history ancient peoples knew of many other kingdoms that were very far off but had little impact on there lives.. look at Marco Polo for example.

Civilization III works great on world maps. Most Crowded civilizations work together because they are smaller.. and fight the larger empires. I've changed many of the Civilizations to make it more balanced for starting location. Creating Civs in South America as the Incas and Amazons.. Giving Africa a few tribes. There are endless options for any single one map of Earth.

The things I don't like about Human-Made maps I change on my own.. They provide me more fun then some sad computer generated map with every civilization evenly spread out and all the resources located in illogical locations. I find it really sad that within one city radius I could have 4 or 5 grain/cattle and 4 or 5 Happiness resource (gold.)

What is very enjoyable is to play Civ III as the underdog/loser… and see how things fold out... Try it. Limit yourself to only 5 or 6 cities and see what a different game it makes.

Playing Civ III for a strategy game against the AI is silly. If you want Strategy play Chess. The computer A.I. can only follow predictable paths to victory. Humans can always beat a computer when neither side is production cheating That is why Scenarios and maps are so great! They offer the Computer AI the advantage that has some meaning rather then just - land rush – warmonger – build the best.

Civ II is the most flexible non first person shooter game ever created! Map making and Modding are great. I seriously hope Civ III’s editor can follow in its footsteps because that’s where I get all of my enjoyment out of Civ III.

NitroJagZek