Fractal or Shuffle?

[Barathor]

I don't know if it's true but there's something about Fractal that generates very believable landscapes. Certain terrain types appear in larger clusters like deserts, mountain ranges, rain forests etc. I also like how big land masses always seem to have more access to the coast because I'm personally a big fan of the harbor district.
However, I wish it wouldn't generate maps where you can meet all the AIs before caravels. Sometimes, it's very close to a dull pangea map.

I haven't tried shuffle yet. So does it only pick a random existing map script or does it also mess with settings like sea level etc?

Actually, a map filled with big landmasses will have less coastal tiles than one filled with smaller landmasses and/or snaky ones.

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Also, for me, deeply exploring and meeting more AI's earlier is a huge perk to small-continents/fractal maps. Playing with only half the civs for half of the game isn't as enjoyable, for me. I just started a new game on a Fractal map and it's great! I've met six out of eight civs already. Though, it's also making me very nervous because I'm almost surrounded and I'm playing on Deity -- I'm bracing myself for the dogpile, haha.

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No, Shuffle uses its own methods to generate plot types, but they're basically the same as the other scripts being copied -- well, the fractal and continent types anyway, I haven't verified the island one because I couldn't care less for those types of maps. The map type chances are: 50% fractal / 30% islands / 20% continents. Also, yes, other map settings like world age, temperature, rainfall, and sea level are all randomized for more "shuffled" unpredictability.

 

[NukeAJS]

(actually, it looks like all of Civ 6's maps have had sea levels reduced by roughly 10%).

Makes sense seeing as all districts except harbors require land to plop them down.

 

[heinous_hat]

I primarily play Fractal along with 'new', 'wet' and occasionally 'hot' settings. Fractal seems to do the best job at creating interesting coastlines and inland features. New and wet settings are for more hills, mountains and foliage. If I get sick of tundra, I select hot climate.

I've been toying around with FeatureGenerator to get more forest. If there's a grain variable, I haven't found it yet... I like clumpy forests. Maps generally have nice, dense rainforest biomes, but not so much for forest. The script also seems to lack any sort of climate control for forest/rainforest separation... it routinely mixes these and it looks damned odd, considering the limited artwork. I suppose it may be a balance consideration, but I'd like to fix that.

Another gripe is that resource generation in civ6 produces an obvious, even distribution pattern. Relative to previous iterations, it's boring. The civ5 routine went out of it's way to create a more organic looking spread. Looking at the ResourceGenerator script, it seems somewhat rudimentary compared to civ5's method with impact and ripple data. Again, maybe it's an approach that serves civ6 gameplay, but I'd like to see it improved. Thus far, I've only tried tuning the 'sparse' setting to get more sparseness

 

[JonR43]

Would be good to be able to choose what shuffle gives, personally would like it to pick the real world maps!

 

[PhilBowles]

I prefer to randomise as many variables as possible, but I found an overabundance of island maps with shuffle. I've taken to using Fractal more, though that seems to produce pangeas more often than not. I hadn't realised that Fractal was part of the options the Shuffle option chooses between - going forward I'll adopt that once more.

I wish they'd add a Random option to give an approximately even distribution between all available map types, including ones added since the Shuffle code, such as assorted TSL options and non-TSL real-world maps. Of course it would add Inland Sea, but while I hate that map I do need the associated achievement...

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Another gripe is that resource generation in civ6 produces an obvious, even distribution pattern. Relative to previous iterations, it's boring. The civ5 routine went out of it's way to create a more organic looking spread. Looking at the ResourceGenerator script, it seems somewhat rudimentary compared to civ5's method with impact and ripple data. Again, maybe it's an approach that serves civ6 gameplay, but I'd like to see it improved. Thus far, I've only tried tuning the 'sparse' setting to get more sparseness

They said something about this in one of the R&F livestreams. Each continent will contain two unique resources - I agree that that's a disappointingly monotonous approach. Civ VI's map generation woes seem to stem from slicing the map into procedurally-generated continent slices.

 

[steveg700]

I'd like to see a (huge) map which continents that have no civ's on them. One of the disappointments of exploration is the foreknowledge that being able to cross oceans usually won't mean finding virgin territory.

 

[PhilBowles]

I'd like to see a (huge) map which continents that have no civ's on them. One of the disappointments of exploration is the foreknowledge that being able to cross oceans usually won't mean finding virgin territory.

Well, that was true in reality as well. Wherever Europeans explored, they found human populations on all but the smallest islands.

 

[bonafide11]

I'd like to see a (huge) map which continents that have no civ's on them. One of the disappointments of exploration is the foreknowledge that being able to cross oceans usually won't mean finding virgin territory.

In Civ IV I think they had a map type like that. Unfortunately the AI wasn't smart enough to settle it properly so it just favored the human player a lot.

I wish I enjoyed other maps, but I always find myself playing Continents. Every other map disappoints me. Continents can be boring too, but at least I know it'll be mostly fair to me and the AI.

 

[steveg700]

Well, that was true in reality as well. Wherever Europeans explored, they found human populations on all but the smallest islands.

True, and perhaps in some older vision for Civ, that world history would find itself retold in a fashion where some civ's have a significant tech edge over the rest of the world, and you might recreate an age of imperialism where Spain shows up on the shores of the Inca, or England makes a run at the Zulu, or better yet the converse of those scenarios, and it's some kind of pitched battle of superior firepower versus superior numbers and home-terrain advantage.

But that's not what Civ is now. Nobody chooses to ignore science or just bypass gunpowder, and there's no telling who the heck the barbarians actually are since you don't need to be very civilized to be included as a civilization. So, unless you're a civ with a crazy science advantage, you're more likely to cross the ocean in caravels to find someone with strong walls defended by knights and crossbowmen.

What I'm talking about is a continent with nothing but barbarians and city-states.