How to play without tundra, desert and jungle?

[Cissnei]

I hate all 3 (especially jungle and i hope they remove it from the game) and i prefer playing without any of them, but i don't see any map type that offers playing without them

 

[Matthew.]

Having a colder map should have less desert. Wetter will be both more trees and jungles. It seems like a decent trade-off though: More trees means tundra will be covered for lumber mills and tiles under trees can't be desert.

Jungle is... a mixed bag. If you can find a jungle site with a few key tiles for hammers, you can ignore improving the tiles until much later. With trading posts and 2 science, they become very good tiles. Add in +1 culture on jungle from religion, and that is a crazy amount of gold, science, and culture.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Why do you hate desert? Desert is one of the best starts in the game and it is THE best if you land Desert Folklore and Petra.

 

[Optional]

Your only option is to modify files. Desert and Tundra are terrains, for that rules are set in the file 'Terraingenerator', jungle is a feature, they are done by the file 'Featuregenerator'. Both are found in Steam/Steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization V/assets/Gameplay/Lua.
It's not difficult to make alterations here. If you see a line like "local iDesertPercent = args.iDesertPercent or 28;" you'll probably work out what to do to lessen the amount of desert in your games, and any simple text editor program can do it.
I expect some map types to overrule these standard settings, like 'Desert Storm' and 'Ice Age', and then you'll need the specific map scripts to make changes, but most common map types will behave according to the general settings.

Making changes to the original game files isn't really recommended, but if needed you can always verify the integrity of your game files through Steam to bring them back to their original state.
I still wouldn't recommend changing everything at once, but lessening the desert percentage while choosing a warm map would already ged rid of most of your undesired terrain.

 

[Shafi-is-back]

I'm always hoping for Jungle or Dessert

 

[IkM]

Desert is the best. Desert Folklore + Petra.

 

[BrotherInJah]

I hate all 3 (especially jungle and i hope they remove it from the game) and i prefer playing without any of them, but i don't see any map type that offers playing without them

So you hate playing with oil, aluminum? Why are you playing Cissnei? I'm asking cause you rant at civ all the time.

 

[Junuxx]

You could try the Arborea map script. No desert, tundra or jungle at all.

 

[Cissnei]

So you hate playing with oil, aluminum? Why are you playing Cissnei? I'm asking cause you rant at civ all the time.

I don't only rent T-T
I like playing with them but i hate starting around them, i love starting on grassland
And if they are on the map there is 90% chance i start next to them/on them

 

[Smokeybear]

I don't only rent T-T
I like playing with them but i hate starting around them, i love starting on grassland
And if they are on the map there is 90% chance i start next to them/on them

Then select 'Restart' until you get something you prefer.

 

[Cissnei]

I always do that and always end up near desert/tundra/jungle

 

[Unresolved]

You hate 3 out of 5 starting locations. Of course you're going to dislike your start all the time. Try playing civs with a plains/grassland start bias I guess.

 

[Smokeybear]

You hate 3 out of 5 starting locations. Of course you're going to dislike your start all the time. Try playing civs with a plains/grassland start bias I guess.

Or turn off the start bias altogether in advanced setup options.

 

[Unresolved]

Or turn off the start bias altogether in advanced setup options.

It's not even that, it's just that there's a 60% chance of starting in one of those three locations without a start bias. Unless I'm missing some starting areas(no, I don't count coastal starts because those also have a good chunk of land in them).

 

[Cissnei]

Its not really even about starting directly on them, but just close to them too. Its way higher than 60% T_T I really rarely have a game when there isnt a huge desert close to my capital

 

[revco]

There's a mod that lets you choose your starting position. I think it's called reseed.

 

[Civ4Pengbo]

I am rubbish at this game but even I have worked out desert next to capital with desert hills = instant win it just takes several hours to prove it. of course if you get loads of desert and no desert hills that's a bummer but I have never seen that yet. Still early days.

I used to hate jungle too but now I have discovered trading posts I am begging to love them. Plus with jungle you clear the inner two rings and usually have some fantastic river tiles and leave the outer ring for trading posts and a natural barrier to civs. There is just something so nice about a civ moving a unit onto your jungle tile and expending all it's moves while you massacre it with your units next turn just waiting for that chance.

 

[Wodan]

Desert is one of the best starts in the game and it is THE best if you land Desert Folklore and Petra.

Desert is the best. Desert Folklore + Petra.

I don't buy that.

If you have to waste a religion bonus AND build a wonder just to make those tiles not suck, then those were sucky tiles. In addition to cost of the religion and the wonder, you're paying a pretty hefty opportunity cost.

The correct comparison for desert+folklore+petra is not normal tiles (grass, plains, hills) by themselves, but normal tiles+[your choice: messenger of the gods, goddess of love, etc.]+[your choice: hanging gardens, great mosque, etc.]

 

[Unresolved]

I don't buy that.

If you have to waste a religion bonus AND build a wonder just to make those tiles not suck, then those were sucky tiles. In addition to cost of the religion and the wonder, you're paying a pretty hefty opportunity cost.

The correct comparison for desert+folklore+petra is not normal tiles (grass, plains, hills) by themselves, but normal tiles+[your choice: messenger of the gods, goddess of love, etc.]+[your choice: hanging gardens, great mosque, etc.]

Desert tiles(excluding plain ones) are exactly the same as their grassland counterparts. Desert Folklore and Petra just make them amazing.

 

[dopingman]

I don't buy that.

If you have to waste a religion bonus AND build a wonder just to make those tiles not suck, then those were sucky tiles. In addition to cost of the religion and the wonder, you're paying a pretty hefty opportunity cost.

The correct comparison for desert+folklore+petra is not normal tiles (grass, plains, hills) by themselves, but normal tiles+[your choice: messenger of the gods, goddess of love, etc.]+[your choice: hanging gardens, great mosque, etc.]

Well, the investment (the opportunity cost) yields tremendous results. Considering you are supposed to have DF + Petra before T100 gives you 100-200 turns with super mega awesome tiles. You give up some early game power to become unstoppable in mid- and lategame. You lay the foundation for your win in the early game, sure, but the game is won in the late game, so it is quite powerful to have a proper desert start. Essentially your foundation is DF + Petra if you do so, that is what makes it powerful, instead of using conventional starters like 1 city NC at T65 or 4 cities and NC around T70-100 (you can still do them ofc if you have enough resources to pull that off in combination with DF + Petra). HG is also out of question, unless you beeline it, which is a bad idea usually anyway and GM is unnecesseray due to DF. Most wonders just can't compare to it. Also Petra is somewhat breaking the game mechanics (in a figurative manner, not literally) as it allows you to get more then 5 yields of a standart hill tile (this means no river, no resource). The same happens if you TP jungle after universities, which makes it also very powerful. Just comparing isn't working in this case, because you have to factor in game mechanics itself too.