Full of resources maps

[civvver]

Does anyone like to play on these? I play on them all the time with a ~25% resource ratio and a bit higher for seafood. Pretty much every city has 4 food resources and 1 or 2 happiness/strategic. I like it because I love to build gigantic empires, both vertically and horizontally, and dislike waiting for cities to grow into their specialties to see decent production.

But I am noticing a big trend here. As great as the resources are, the AI almost seems to do better on these maps than I do, at least through the middle ages. I'm usually a prince player, but even on noble the AI is matching my size, gnp and production through the middle ages, often getting to maces just a few turns behind me. It makes it difficult to expand through warfare unless you have an early strong uu. I certainly have waged and won early wars and eliminated opponents, but that usually leaves me rebuilding and trying to catch up to the peaceful civs who are rocketing along with all the resources on the map.

Basically it's my theory that while the AI isn't smart enough to specialize and take advantage of map locations, on a map so resource rich you can build just about anywhere and every city will have decent commerce and production. So it's idiot proof, ie AI proof.

I'd love to hear your experiences with this map.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

What maps are these? Which ones are they? Tectonics? I don't get it.

 

[KingLoraxII]

Yeah, sounds fun - have no idea what it is though? Enlighten us....

 

[civvver]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=151629

It's a map script that takes some standard map generations (continents, custom continents, tectonics, archipelago, etc) and customizes them based on your input. You can greatly change the resource generation, place them how you want, change the distribution of terrain like removing ice for example or having excessive forests. You can add more goody huts, do a lot of cool stuff. It's fun to play but I'm still trying to hone my strategy for a map with triple the resources of a normal map.

 

[Tacgnol]

I think part of it is that AI sucks at terraforming, they make farms where they should make cottages, cottages where they should make farms, workshops in every city, and chop every forest in their land. But they have the sense to improve resources, so in a map like that their abysmal civ planning skills don't really hurt much, and the AI bonuses at prince + make a difference.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I build workshops in all my cities that have plains and enough food to feed 20 citizens (minimum). At least I build workshops in all my cities if I'm utilizing an SE (Caste System +1 per workshop)

 

[Ultimocrat]

I think part of it is that AI sucks at terraforming, they make farms where they should make cottages, cottages where they should make farms, workshops in every city, and chop every forest in their land. But they have the sense to improve resources, so in a map like that their abysmal civ planning skills don't really hurt much, and the AI bonuses at prince + make a difference.

I think this gets at the heart of it. I also think that the AI does better on the Earth map because it is so resource-rich in certain areas.

 

[CrazyCanuck87]

Thanks for posting this question and introducing me to this script! I'm having a lot of fun with it. I've only just started experimenting with it, but I agree with Tacgnol that these maps are easier to deal with for the AI's poor decision making in improving land. I haven't played around with it enough to be sure yet, but slowing down the game speed (from normal to epic or epic to marathon) might help balance things out a bit.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I think this gets at the heart of it. I also think that the AI does better on the Earth map because it is so resource-rich in certain areas.

The AI does better on Earth map? I guess... well... if you decide to start as a remote CIV (like Inca/America/Monty) or if you decide not to rush the AI early. I find that I can move up a level when playing a European civ on Earth 18

 

[EmperorFool]

I find the same thing when playing SmartMap and PlanetGenerator, both of which place Flood Plains on non-desert tiles next to fresh water (rivers and lakes) and optionally ocean (for PG).

I agree that the result of an improved AI teching rate is that there's far more productive land within reach. Everyone techs faster, but the AI lack-of-a-brain handicap is less noticeable.