Huge Maps

[AngelGabriel]

During a session the Sheaim aimed to kill me and invaded my country with lots of pyre zombies. While I didn't want to lose that fine starting point I entered the world builder just to kick that army out once. Then I saw it:

Though I had 15 civs on that map most of the map was uninhabited. A whole continent was almost civ-free. So what do you emphasize: How many civs should there be on large maps and on huge maps (Erebus)?
I think in future I shall stick to large maps as huge maps with minimum 18 civs will result in major breakdowns of speed.
Is there even a big difference between large and huge Erebus maps?

 

[Sarisin]

I haven't been able to finish my first two games of FFH .40 on a Huge map. I play at Epic speed and when I get to around turn 750 or so things really slow down with a lot of time between turns. By then I am down to maybe 6-7 civs, but the map is pretty full.

Also, I constantly get Memory Allocation Failures.

I have a pretty powerful machine, but the huge maps, etc. are just too much for it. I guess I will drop back to Large maps again.

 

[avalonnn]

Try no hell terrain. It's working to me.

Someone explained that the program does a hell terrain calculation for every square between turns.

The other thing than can slow it down is showing enemy moves. Play without it, however, and you may need to lower the difficulty level by one.

 

[Sarisin]

Try no hell terrain. It's working to me.

Someone explained that the program does a hell terrain calculation for every square between turns.

The other thing than can slow it down is showing enemy moves. Play without it, however, and you may need to lower the difficulty level by one.

I always play with Hell Terrain turned off and still have the problems. You are probably right about showing enemy moves, but I keep that turned on so I can see the lone Wolf Riders, etc. that are approaching. I do turn off show friendly moves.

I play at Monarch speed, but I don't see how that can affect all this.

 

[Ranos]

During a session the Sheaim aimed to kill me and invaded my country with lots of pyre zombies. While I didn't want to lose that fine starting point I entered the world builder just to kick that army out once. Then I saw it:

Though I had 15 civs on that map most of the map was uninhabited. A whole continent was almost civ-free. So what do you emphasize: How many civs should there be on large maps and on huge maps (Erebus)?
I think in future I shall stick to large maps as huge maps with minimum 18 civs will result in major breakdowns of speed.
Is there even a big difference between large and huge Erebus maps?

I was noticing the same thing. I've only explored a portion of the map but what I can see is either crouded or empty.

I'm playing on a huge map of Erebus with 9 civs total. I started very close to the Sheim (sp) with minimal areas for us to expand into. This sparked an early war. Just on the other side of the mountains from me is a huge area of forest/jungle and desert/plains areas that is completely unoccupied. Just to the north of that walled off on a penninsula is another civ.

On the other side of the mountains from the Sheim is the Elohim who have a massive area all to themselve. To the north of them are the Doviello and The Clan. The Doviello have no room to expand because they are stuck in a walled off valley with the clan at the entrance.

This is just my current game. In past ones, I have often noticed that one part of the map will be occupied by a large number of civs while another will have only one or two or be completely civ free.

I don't think it has anything to do with how many civs you choose as it does with how the map gentrator places civs at the start of the game. It seems like more of a balance issue.

 

[PotatoOverdose]

The problem is the erebus mapscript, sometimes it generates maps that are simply amazing in terms of flavor and balance, other times it fails horribly at the latter. From my experience though, its best to treat erebus as one size category higher for population purposes.

 

[Grey Fox]

I never play Huge, I don't think I would be able to finish a single game if I did.

But when I play large I play with 14-19 civs, when I play standard I use minimum 9 civs (3 of each alignment).

But I never play Erebus, I don't like how the mapscript works. The terrain is spread unevenly which makes it unfair, and the 1 tile bottlenecks everywhere makes it too easy to defend, and too boring to invade.

I usually play a pangaea-type mapscript cause the ai suck at naval invasions.

 

[Taalen]

I hardly ever play anything but huge. Yes, I hardly ever finish a game, but what can I say - I'm a megalomaniac

 

[Neomega]

I never play anything but huge either. The BTS AI I noticed uses more border crowding techniques, just like I do. But on a huge map with 14 players, it still seemed to fill up fast. I had 18 my first good game, and the world simply filled up way too fast. I like this particular game with lots of barbarian lands. Unfortunately, I kind of had to cordon them off myself, and keep my borders closed so nobody could come conquer or colonize them.