"Fantasy" maps

[ywhtptgtfo]

I started a game using the "fantasy" map generator a few days ago. This map script creates a lake map goes quite crazy with resource distribution (i.e. map is crowded with iron but only scarce few copper, starting city has 6 corn, etc).

I played a game at Prince level and I am surprised that I got owned. I think part of the challenge is that there's a great deal of distance between the player and each of the A.I.'s and that there's much more space to expand. Both of these factors work to the A.I.'s advantage due to maintenance issues.

Perhaps increasing the # of A.I. will make this more manageable.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

We played a Game of the Month game along these lines a few years ago and the winning strategy seemed to be to find the Gold and Gem Resources and to settle near as many of them as possible early on.

Still, each map can create a very unique feel to it, since there are a couple of Resources that get spammed everywhere and the map script changes exactly which Resources get massively duplicated from game to game, giving you lots of replayability.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

We played a Game of the Month game along these lines a few years ago and the winning strategy seemed to be to find the Gold and Gem Resources and to settle near as many of them as possible early on.

Still, each map can create a very unique feel to it, since there are a couple of Resources that get spammed everywhere and the map script changes exactly which Resources get massively duplicated from game to game, giving you lots of replayability.

So what if $$ resources aren't spammed? Instead you have lots of iron and sugar?

 

[Dhoomstriker]

It is really HARD to form a totally general rule... I don't think that Gold and Gems were actually the spammed Resources in that game... but that doesn't mean that they will be available to you, either.


Part of the problem is that a square that looks good (say, a Pig or a Wheat) might actually be really terrible if it gets placed on Desert or on Ice.

It's nice to say "well, build some Cottages," but again, it's very map-dependent, because it is possible that you'll end up with a lot of Tundra squares that can't get Cottages... which is why finding Commerce-based Resources can help out a lot.

If there aren't a lot of Mineable Commerce Resources, and if you also have a lot of Sugars, then I'd suggest a Calendar beeline (maybe even grab it with The Oracle), so that Commerce-based Resources like Dyes and Silk can be used to help keep your Commerce rate up.


Iron being everywhere is going to make for a tough game, as you know that all of the AIs will be well-equiped militarily. Good luck and pray that Shaka isn't your neighbour!


Actually, playing as an Organized Leader or a Leader with a Maintenance-reducing building (like Shaka) is another approach that you can take on these maps.

 

[Killroyan]

Fantasy maps are big fun. Especially if you put resources on "crazy" which means that there is one resource of every type that will be present a lot. So you will get 1 food resource, 1 luxury resource and 1 strategic resource that will show up a lot. I played a cultural crush on this map with rice as the food resource (not that strong in this map because it is mostly situated at hills) and gold as the luxury resource. This way you can spam the culture corps (sushi and creative) like mad.

Things about the map:
1) Resources can pop up on any land tile. From normal grassland to hill to desert.
2) It is sometimes very hard to find good city locations.
3) Get a financial leader and restart a couple of times to get an oasis on a hill for a 4F/1H/3C tile from the start (a bit of cheating )
4) The map is bigggggg and perfect for the culture crush as there are no borders.

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

I just won a fantasy map.

It appears the main problem is not the resource distribution but rather the map size. Increasing the number of A.I. from 11 to 14 makes things way more manageable mainly because there's less (but still considerable) room for A.I. to REX and a lesser distance one has to travel to invade (~10 turns of travel vs. 20+ turns).

I am getting a bit bored of the map script though. I like how terrain features and resources are crazily distributed, but I'd also prefer some regularity in terrain distribution and the ability to choose land mass type (continents, pangaea, etc). Maybe I should write a map script that controls that.