[GUIDE] Map scripts

[tu_79]

A very common question, what map script to play. Let's discuss our favourite (random) map scripts and try to rank them (Current order is not ranked).


1 - Communitas. (Most popular, it seems).
Very interesting land formations, with bottenecks for tactic combat. Somewhat realistic. Excessive land tiles with resources, very few sea tiles with resources (can be modified with Really Advance Settings mod to fix this).

2 - Tectonic.
Random map.
Somewhat random, realistic land formation and weather. 1 size larger than usual, must set number of civs manually.

3 - PerfectWorld3 v5b (by Bobert13, based on PerfectWorld3)
Standard size {84,52}
Very random (Pangea to 4 continents)
GUI Options: Resource, start placement on largest continent (Terra like)
Editable constants: Land/water ratio, percentage of terrain type, percentage of features, Water level, features frequency (blocky shapes), bordermap attenuation, climate strength, map sizes.
Features mountain chains, long rivers, lakes, realistic climate, twisted coast lines. Can be tuned really thoroughly, but it requires editing values in lua file.

4 - Planet Simulator. (by Bobert13, based on PerfectWorld3, updated by LamilLerran)
Standard size {84,52}
Very similar to Tectonic, theorically with better resource distribution.

4 - Continents ++
Resource scarceness forces the player to make strategic decissions, CS locations fixed from Continents+ version.

5 - Frontier
Imitates North America terrain. Nice inland seas.

6 -

 

[tu_79]

For me, Planet Simulator is the most realistic map, with balanced resources and believable formations. Plenty of plains. Communitas is the most fun if not for the lack of fish and the overabundance of resourced tiles, making farm clusters difficult.
Tectonic is like Planet Simulator, but bigger. Pangea and island maps are not really balanced in my opinion, since they favor land or sea combat in each case. Ring is a special case of Pangea.

Continents+ is not much better than Continents, and it places city states on islands. I've heard of Continents++, but not played yet.

 

[phantomaxl1207]

+1 for Planet Simulator and its Fish abundance. It makes Coastal cities a lot more lucrative. Too much, however.

 

[TwoPodRay]

I like to test play Communitas on Huge with 17 Civs, 24 CS. I use Really Advanced Setup to add tons of fish (between 50-100 more instances) since in real life you can fish in many locations. I also add one extra of each luxury in a random spot to try to spread out monopoly advantage for any particular luxury. I play low sea level with random environmental effects (rain, temp, age) and 2 random rifts. I have been experimenting with standard resources but adding one more instance of each strategic between 4-7 tiles from each Civ, so it isn’t as directly impactful as strategic balance or legendary, still making you expand a bit to get the resources. I also make sure one instance of every wonder is available with sprinkles of resources around them, to make natural wonders a bit stronger.

This probably isn’t the best balance, but it is fun.

 

[crdvis16]

I use continents++ with all standard settings (maybe low sea level for a bit more land). I don't like the idea of extra abundant strategic resources that other maps have- I like the idea that I might unlock a strategic resource only to find there's none in my land so I'd better adjust somehow.

Continents++ does solve the issue where CSs were resigned to islands- they are properly spread out on the continents with maybe a few on small islands too.

I think continents in general provide good balance between navy and land, and I prefer situations where there are 3-5 civs on each continent (continents++ will occasionally put me on a subcontinent by myself which is almost always a re-roll for me).

I haven't actually tried many other map types like communitas, etc.

 

[neo_arcadia]

I love communitas map because it has those world age, rain level, strategic balance, etc options thingy. I'm kinda biased because in the beginning, I was introduced by my friend to vox populi mod with communitas because that's what he usually play with so I have yet to play in other map script. Is another map script have that kind of "world building" options? I am curious how much terrace farm I'd be having if I can set bonus resource to perhaps.. very low? Sheep is the enemy of Inca land.

 

[tu_79]

Is another map script have that kind of "world building" options?

Sure. Most of them. Most scripts have age, weather, water level and resource distribution. Tectonic and Perfect Planet also set type of map and island distribution. This is from game options, but I think more variables can be set if tweaking with the lua file.

 

[tu_79]

I use continents++ with all standard settings (maybe low sea level for a bit more land). I don't like the idea of extra abundant strategic resources that other maps have- I like the idea that I might unlock a strategic resource only to find there's none in my land so I'd better adjust somehow.

Continents++ does solve the issue where CSs were resigned to islands- they are properly spread out on the continents with maybe a few on small islands too.

I think continents in general provide good balance between navy and land, and I prefer situations where there are 3-5 civs on each continent (continents++ will occasionally put me on a subcontinent by myself which is almost always a re-roll for me).

I haven't actually tried many other map types like communitas, etc.

How do you install it? I've tried but it just load a huge map.

 

[tu_79]

I use Really Advanced Setup to add tons of fish (between 50-100 more instances)

I'm trying this and 50 is too much for a standard map. 30 seems more balanced.

 

[crdvis16]

How do you install it? I've tried but it just load a huge map.

I'm not even sure, I think I just have it in the directory from a long time ago and it's the default map when I start a new game already. I'll look into it when I get a chance.

 

[76ers]

My main map of choice is Frontier. The benefits it has is first its size. You can choose either pangae or large continents with it. It fits wide gameplay really well as the standard sized frontier map is around the size of a large sized pangea or continents map. I turn them off but if you like playing with ruins it has a nice amount as a result. I like the large lakes and inland seas you find on it. There are usually settleable islands and city states to be found that reward exploring. I think the resource distribution fits the mod well too. Even with good space to explore and expand there is still competition over good spots as result. I like the mountain ranges too but people that want easy unobsticled conquest might not.

 

[TwoPodRay]

I'm trying this and 50 is too much for a standard map. 30 seems more balanced.

Ah, yes, I play on Huge, so somewhere between 50-100 is nice. 30 sounds reasonable for Standard.

 

[Grabbl]

I play PerfectWorld mostly. It creates "realistic" terrain with mountain ranges and good river simulation while avoiding the Communitas issues of 1-tile-water channels between continents and resource abundance. Sometimes, the resource distributions are rather extreme (very few of some strategic resources, or large areas without horses etc.), but that's the RNG I like and aim for in single player games. Other common choices are Continents, Pangea and Tectonics (though the latter for me has the problem of generating too much mountain sometimes, which makes Pantheon choice trivial and shifts balance to defensive combat too much for me).

A year or two ago, I mostly played Communitas, but found that it has too many resources in my opinion.

Also, I'm never sure, but isn't "Tectonics" the popular map script and "Tectonic" the one that's often confounded with it?

 

[neo_arcadia]

If it is not too difficult for you guys, would you mind to share some screenshot of your respective favorite map generated by map scripts? I believe it will be a great addition to our discussion, especially for players who haven't play in those maps. I only play in already popular map script of communitas though.

 

[TwoPodRay]

If it is not too difficult for you guys, would you mind to share some screenshot of your respective favorite map generated by map scripts? I believe it will be a great addition to our discussion, especially for players who haven't play in those maps. I only play in already popular map script of communitas though.

I like this idea as well. I’ve never seen the Perfect Planet or Planet Simulator maps, so if I can see a screenshot of them and like the way they look, I’d be happy to find and download them. I only play communitas because it has pretty good randomization of terrain and features and land shapes, in addition to a few more customization options in Really Advanced Setup, but I’m certainly not devoted to this map only.

 

[Grassland Farm]

I've been playing some PerfectWorld3 (Found on the steam workshop as "PerfectWorld - Updated", let me know if there's a better one). I love it, gorgeous landscapes, BUT there are too few ocean tiles (if any...) between the starting, largest continent, and the "new world".

Communitas just... doesn't do it for me. The concept is what I want, but it never gives me what I wish for. I had a game with a nicely drawn new world continent, except it had like 2 luxuries in a gigantic landmass. And of course, that continent wasn't a real new world, the AI island hopped to its other side.

I'll try other mapscripts mentioned there... if all else fails, I'll just edit the oceans by myself.

I really dislike how early naval units can cross oceans if they can see they'll land in a coast at the end of the movement

 

[76ers]

If it is not too difficult for you guys, would you mind to share some screenshot of your respective favorite map generated by map scripts? I believe it will be a great addition to our discussion, especially for players who haven't play in those maps. I only play in already popular map script of communitas though.

Here are some screenshots of some frontier maps. Taken at the beginning of the game thanks to ingame editor.

First a standard sized frontier pangea. This is with sea level set to low. I like a ton of space but some people think this is too much but even with a higher sea level this map a good amount of space that fits this mod well.

Spoiler Frontier Pangea :

I mentioned this map usually has some interesting inland seas. Here is one next to Rome.

London is very far south from Rome. As you can see there is a lot of space on this map script.

This screenshot is West of the Iroquois. Just look at all this empty settleable space. It is awesome.

I think the starting spots in this one were actually kind of odd since Spain is in tundra too. Even tundra starts are playable though on a coast since the map always has a nice amount of hills. No forward settling worry
in this tundra start at least.

Since I used ingame editor Songhai didn't settle on the first turn. Just happens for some odd reason with a civ or two.

Paris and Berlin too the way North

Like I mentioned in the first post look at this massive island in the middle just waiting for renaissance era settling. Might even be reachable earlier.

Another island with a potential settling location and a city state.

Here is another map set to continents.

Spoiler Frontier Continents map 1 :

Attila to the south.

With Venice on the map the Huns might even have too much space.

If Arabia goes progress with this start

Continent number 2

Even with more city states on this side nice amount of room

If China goes progress with this start look ou5

Not a great capital location for Darius but he;ll have good cities to the south

One more large continents map since that one was missing some of the usual features.

Spoiler 2nd frontier continent map :

Only flaw on this continent is Kabul and London should probably swap places.

Continent 2

Ton of room south for Rome and a huge bay

Of course they can go West too. This one has one of the large inland seas missing on the last map.

This one also has the large islands missing in the last one. Not a great one though too south

Better small one accessible later

 

[76ers]

Here is a frontier pangea with the normal medium setting for sea level. I was hoping to find one of these maps to be fair. The one flaw with frontier is on very rare occasions you will set the map to pangea and one civ will start on an island but is connected by sea to the main land mass. Fortunately found one of those to show that off as well.

Even at medium space isn't an issue.

Spoiler Medium Sea Level Pangea :

This map was actually odd for having 2 inland seas that were unusually big.

Look at this 2nd beast

Here is the oddity. The Inca on an island. Nice island though.

One frontier pangea with high sea level just to have to compare to the other too. Again settling space is fine.

Spoiler Frontier pangea high sea level :

Now this is what you call a mountain range. It is like the one on Earth protecting India

Babylon hiding there too.

City states grabbed the one smaller inland sea on this map

 

[tu_79]

Ok, here is a Planet Simulator map, settings Continents, rings of islands.

Spoiler Planet Simulator :

It features a nice continental mountain chain, but otherwise the map is very flat. Too many desert tiles for my taste. Long and short rivers. Very few lakes and no inland sea.

Spoiler Planet Simulator :

Another instance of same map script. This time there are 4 continents, two of them easy to sail embarked. Mountains are rare and very clustered. Deserts are plenty, tundra not. This time there is an inland sea. Rivers are acceptable.

 

[TwoPodRay]

Ok, here is a Planet Simulator map, settings Continents, rings of islands.

Spoiler Planet Simulator :

View attachment 505334 View attachment 505335 View attachment 505336 View attachment 505337 View attachment 505338

It features a nice continental mountain chain, but otherwise the map is very flat. Too many desert tiles for my taste. Long and short rivers. Very few lakes and no inland sea.

Spoiler Planet Simulator :

View attachment 505339 View attachment 505340 View attachment 505341 View attachment 505342 View attachment 505343

Another instance of same map script. This time there are 4 continents, two of them easy to sail embarked. Mountains are rare and very clustered. Deserts are plenty, tundra not. This time there is an inland sea. Rivers are acceptable.

What does it look like on Huge?