[GUIDE] Map scripts

[MidnightAfterglow]

It's so difficult to find the perfect map script t_t. I had to give up on Communitas again. I appreciate the work people have put into it, but it's just not to my liking. In addition to the lacking jungles and the issues Kim Dong brought up, I also noticed the river systems are often really short and overly saturated in some coastlines (simulating realistic watershed I assume); this more often than not looks aesthetically unpleasant and makes conquest of these areas a nightmare (not to mention makes Songhai very OP, similar to the Inca situation, although not as severe).

I also dislike how the land always generates so close to the north/south polar regions and extends the entire latitude. I don't mind having a continent that is situated close to one pole or the other, but they always seem to extend the full distance, leaving no free oceans, and even the islands frequently generate right next to the polar ice caps, which I find odd.

I tried the Frontier script in the pangaea configuration and I did enjoy that (after some tweaking of the river systems and sprinkling some lakes throughout with IGE)especially the inland seas it creates, but the sheer size of the map leads to unbalance as far as access to city states and settleable land in uncontested regions. I think it's like tectonic script in that you should really add additional AI and city states for a proper balance. I'll have to experiment more with it, or maybe just go back to pangaea script.

 

[black213]

I've enjoyed the new Communitas with more land and less mountains but there's still the abundant rivers and lack of jungle. Perhaps JMA, or anyone else knowledged in map scripts, could return to us once more with a more gameplay-friendly Communitas edit?

 

[tu_79]

I've enjoyed the new Communitas with more land and less mountains but there's still the abundant rivers and lack of jungle. Perhaps JMA, or anyone else knowledged in map scripts, could return to us once more with a more gameplay-friendly Communitas edit?

You can manually affect rivers. There's a function for that, but I don't know yet how to get nice values.

 

[Gidoza]

Hi. I guess I'll post a question here to rely on others' experience.

I'm trying to figure out what map type would be ideal for me.

As with others, Communitas has too many resources, so that's out.

I like Continents generally, but without small islands or mini continents around, I find it very boring.

I also don't necessarily like starting so close to other civs that I can barely fit 3 cities before there's no room to expand. But I like lots of room to run around on the water.

I also like seeing good terrain variation, actual lakes and mountains, etc...

Does this description fit anything?

 

[TranceBlossom]

Hi. I guess I'll post a question here to rely on others' experience.

I'm trying to figure out what map type would be ideal for me.

As with others, Communitas has too many resources, so that's out.

I like Continents generally, but without small islands or mini continents around, I find it very boring.

I also don't necessarily like starting so close to other civs that I can barely fit 3 cities before there's no room to expand. But I like lots of room to run around on the water.

I also like seeing good terrain variation, actual lakes and mountains, etc...

Does this description fit anything?

Continents Plus? But the small islands generally have all the city states on them, so you won't find any city states until you can sail, and won't find all of them until you have caravels. I've heard Continents++ fixes that too though, but I haven't tried it personally.

 

[tu_79]

Continents Plus? But the small islands generally have all the city states on them, so you won't find any city states until you can sail, and won't find all of them until you have caravels. I've heard Continents++ fixes that too though, but I haven't tried it personally.

I can't make Continents++ work, so I can't say either.

 

[Txurce]

I can't make Continents++ work, so I can't say either.

Is ++ called + Custom? I don't have a screen open right now, but if so, it works for me. I wonder what's throwing you off?

 

[crdvis16]

Is ++ called + Custom? I don't have a screen open right now, but if so, it works for me. I wonder what's throwing you off?

I use continents++ too, works just fine for me. I don't play with any mods side from full VP+EUI in case that matters.

Continents++ seems to usually give 2 main continents with 3-5 civs each as well as a good number of island chains that are not dominated by CSs. It will sometimes make a subcontinent with a few CSs on it which is fine to me but the majority are on the main landmasses. It will sometimes isolate a civ on a subcontinent, too, which if it happens to be me that's isolated I restart.

Strategic resources are such that I usually have some of each in my immediate area but will occasionally not have any of a particular one. I like the tension that comes from occasionally not having a strategic and adapting to it.

The continents are sometimes separated by deep ocean or sometimes can be reached as early as triremes.

The terrain seems well balanced to me. Civs that benefit from terrain (Songhai, Iroquois, Inca, etc) typically have a good amount to take advantage of but it never seems like an absurd amount in my experience.

 

[tu_79]

Is ++ called + Custom? I don't have a screen open right now, but if so, it works for me. I wonder what's throwing you off?

Can you provide a link? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong place.

 

[MidnightAfterglow]

Tectonic script is a popular one capable of making such maps to your taste. Just make sure you add 2 additional AI and additional city states for any given map size, as the maps are quite large. The main issue with it is that the maps it generates can often be unbalanced, but some people don't mind that, and treat it as a realism feature.

 

[Txurce]

Can you provide a link? Maybe I'm looking at the wrong place.

I will when I play again, which won't be until the next patch. But it's right under Continents Plus.

 

[Gidoza]

Tectonic script is a popular one capable of making such maps to your taste. Just make sure you add 2 additional AI and additional city states for any given map size, as the maps are quite large. The main issue with it is that the maps it generates can often be unbalanced, but some people don't mind that, and treat it as a realism feature.

Sounds interesting. Can you define "unbalanced"?

 

[Gidoza]

I use continents++ too, works just fine for me. I don't play with any mods side from full VP+EUI in case that matters.

Continents++ seems to usually give 2 main continents with 3-5 civs each as well as a good number of island chains that are not dominated by CSs. It will sometimes make a subcontinent with a few CSs on it which is fine to me but the majority are on the main landmasses. It will sometimes isolate a civ on a subcontinent, too, which if it happens to be me that's isolated I restart.

Strategic resources are such that I usually have some of each in my immediate area but will occasionally not have any of a particular one. I like the tension that comes from occasionally not having a strategic and adapting to it.

The continents are sometimes separated by deep ocean or sometimes can be reached as early as triremes.

The terrain seems well balanced to me. Civs that benefit from terrain (Songhai, Iroquois, Inca, etc) typically have a good amount to take advantage of but it never seems like an absurd amount in my experience.

This is a helpful response, thank you!

 

[Rekk]

Tectonic script is a popular one capable of making such maps to your taste. Just make sure you add 2 additional AI and additional city states for any given map size, as the maps are quite large. The main issue with it is that the maps it generates can often be unbalanced, but some people don't mind that, and treat it as a realism feature.

I think it's just that the default map size is larger, if you choose the map one size smaller than the default, it should be the same size as standard Firaxis maps.

 

[Rekk]

Sounds interesting. Can you define "unbalanced"?

There is a huge amount of variation in how the terrain turns out, as it's all based on how the randomly generated tectonic plates smash together during creation. For example, you might get tons of land in one generation, and very little in the next.

 

[MidnightAfterglow]

Sounds interesting. Can you define "unbalanced"?

Unbalanced as far as spawn location with respect to proximity to city states, amount of uncontested free land area, strategic choke points, etc.. The geography is quite random as far as the size of the continents unlike say Communitas for example where you generally get more or less evenly sized landmasses and a uniform distance between the civs and city states present on them. Tectonic script produces a far more random distribution of starting locations.

 

[vyyt]

Tectonic is by far my favorite. I sometimes switch to Planet Simulator and I am planning to try Frontier next time I play.

One thing others have not mentioned about Tectonic is that often continents touch the poles and (probably because of this), some parts of the world consist of mainly snow. These areas are inhabitable, but spawn Barbarians. I personally like this, but understand why someone may find this imbalanced.

 

[TranceBlossom]

One thing others have not mentioned about Tectonic is that often continents touch the poles and (probably because of this), some parts of the world consist of mainly snow. These areas are inhabitable, but spawn Barbarians. I personally like this, but understand why someone may find this imbalanced.

Those are just white walkers

 

[Rekk]

In my current Tectonic game, there's a very large snow region, but it has rivers flowing through it, and every tile touching the rivers are turned into tundra, which makes it just good enough for the AI to settle on it and make it habitable.

 

[Gidoza]

I just had a Tectonic game (mostly all settings random) where the water level was so high that there was barely any land at all. I started only a couple tiles away from Germany, and founding my starting city effectively eliminated him from the game. All land tiles hand resources on them, and most coast tiles did as well.

I quit because it was stupid.