Do you play on the World Map?

[DarkSchneider]

When you start most Civilization games do you play on the world map or a randomly created one? Personally, I play on the world map for two reasons. One, it's a little easier (not much, but when you play on Emporer/Deity level you need all the perks you can get) Second, it's so much more fun describing your game

First I offed the Babylonians, and began my push into Africa, whilst maintaining diplomatic relations with the Japanese before I blitzed their defensive fortifications in India upon the discovery of gunpowder...

Much better than:
I finally got that Russian pressence off that odd-semi circular shaped Island strand that was right next to my main Island.

So anyway, which do you usually play on, what are the pros and cons of each?

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

I like a combination of both Though random tends to be more interesting as far as exploration goes.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

I liked the Europe and Pacific maps, and I play random maps too, for the thrill of discovery.

 

[Jive]

or sometimes a good scenario

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I'll prob start with the world map first, then switch to random most of the rest of the time for the added challenge. Will play the world map every now and then though for old times' sake. The world map's nice cos all the geographical regions and landmarks are named (and representative of the real world) but predictable.

 

[ArcticWolf]

World map and hopefully there are bigger and better world maps than in Civ2....I have always wanted to rewrite the history..

 

[Magnus]

I will most likely start on the real world and then move on to always playing on random maps - at least that's how it went for me with civ2...

 

[Setsuna]

Maybe I'm just incompetent, but I never liked playing Random maps in Civ II. No matter how I set it up there always ended up being 700 tiny islands scattered across the map instead of the huge continents offered by the world map.

 

[Vinc]

I think I'll alternate...

Playing always on the Earth map will be boring... Since you already know the map, the islands, where the ressources are...

But dominating the world will be fun!!

 

[Ankka]

I usually play The random map, but I also like to sort of "change the path of history" on the world map
(Unless I play a scenario, wich I do quite often)

 

[Mozenwrath]

I hate the stuoid random maps in Civ2, they're really crap.

 

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by DarkSchneider
Second, it's so much more fun describing your game

First I offed the Babylonians, and began my push into Africa, whilst maintaining diplomatic relations with the Japanese before I blitzed their defensive fortifications in India upon the discovery of gunpowder...

Much better than:
I finally got that Russian pressence off that odd-semi circular shaped Island strand that was right next to my main Island.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts in the Stories and Tales forum then.
I don't like the world map because the civs always start in the same places and as soon as you get the message: "The Babylonians have started the Pyramids" and such like, you know what you're dealing with and where they will be. It makes it easier because there is no real need to gift them your techs to get their maps - you only do that for the boost to your own tech. As soon as you know who the other civs are, then you know where they are and can begin to plan in advance despite never having met them. The random maps place far more emphasis on exploration at the beginning and you are forced to make do with what you are given. In my current game, I started on an island big enough for about 3 cities (which isn't as bad as the team succession games going on based in Hawaii, but nearly) and had to change my usual research pattern and boost navigation, etc. This didn't adversely affect my game particularly, but it gives you a different angle to work on. Ordinarily, on a continental map, I'd never bother with the Lighthouse as I can have better ships than the trireme before I want to expand further, but here it was a necessity. Random keeps you on your toes and makes you refine your strategies, instead of just developing the same one. The end is always the same - the AI are crushed - but the method is different.

 

[DaEezT]

I prefered random maps in Civ2 because to me it's part of the fun/challange to explore the world and the same will go for Civ3. Now that the map generator is better I might even play less on the worldmap.

 

[DarkSchneider]

I agreed with most of what's been said. The main reason I play on the world map is that when I go random, more often than not, (through no fault of my own) discover that I've been placed in some region that's unsuitable for expansion. Either a tiny (less than 5 city) Island, or in a small grassland area near a land mass that's mostly swamp, or the dreaded, tiny Island in the middle of a swamp . Seriously though, I have to reset about every other game going into it because I can't deal with my starting location. Maybe the Civ3 map generator will be better, but I could rarely get the map generator to give me anything reasonable (at least, my starting location was almost always worse than all of the starting locations o the world map)

 

[TownsendVol]

my first game with probably 10 or more civs. I might use 16 but I dont want to be super crowded and since I have never played a Civ. game I dont know how its going to be.

 

[Malys Faisent]

Heh, the random map generator is better I think in CivIII, but that still hasn't stopped me from starting on tundra (twice) desert (once) and in the middle of a swamp/jungle (a few times), but the maps actually feel a bit more normal, some island chains, some large areas and generally a decent landmass or two...

 

[amadeus]

Hopefully, this time, there won't be desert squares next to snowy squares.