Islands on continent world types

[Myme]

Ever since civ 6 came out, continents was always my favorite world type. A couple large continents with a number of islands that people could expand to once the main land masses started to get crowded.

An issue I've been running into, since I believe the release of GS, is that islands no longer seem to generate. Every continents game I've played so far have had 2 large continents, and no islands. I think so far, in one of the games, I saw a single 3 tile island close to one of the continents. I really miss those islands, and am saddened when my boats explore the vast world and find nothing but empty ocean.

Is it just bad luck on my end? I play on large or huge maps, not a single mod, standard on all settings (rainfall etc). Do I need to lower sea levels just to generate some islands or something? Like I said, never had this issue before recently.

 

[Bradypus]

I have had the same experience. I tend to play on Standard size maps, but they always have 2 large continents and no islands. So boring.

 

[Socrates99]

I play on huge and those island chains I used to see have become less common. I still get some islands but its usually one or two big ones and they often have CSs on them.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I play huge continents almost exclusively and the map layout has been extremely consistent each game since GS came out:

2 large landmasses with several islands in between. Sometimes the in between islands get large enough to be a home for 1 or 2 civs or multiple city-states. They usually have a coastal waterway connection to one or the other large landmass but never both.

I really quite like it.

 

[acluewithout]

Ever since civ 6 came out, continents was always my favorite world type. A couple large continents with a number of islands that people could expand to once the main land masses started to get crowded.

An issue I've been running into, since I believe the release of GS, is that islands no longer seem to generate. Every continents game I've played so far have had 2 large continents, and no islands. I think so far, in one of the games, I saw a single 3 tile island close to one of the continents. I really miss those islands, and am saddened when my boats explore the vast world and find nothing but empty ocean.

Is it just bad luck on my end? I play on large or huge maps, not a single mod, standard on all settings (rainfall etc). Do I need to lower sea levels just to generate some islands or something? Like I said, never had this issue before recently.

Agreed.

I exclusively play continents. There is a real of islands and it really hurts the game - nowhere to found colonies, lack of good harbour locations, less scope for naval games, exploring super boring.

Needs to be fixed.

 

[Pietato]

I play huge continents. Yeah, there are less islands. Usually there is one with a couple of city states on it.

I really want them to add Small Continents back

 

[Zenstrive]

Yeah, I noticed the HUGE vast of empty oceans too.

I played on Island Plates, large size lately, and the landmasses are enough to support two civs easily. With the fact that coast tiles are now not entirely useless, I now really love this map type.

 

[King_Course]

You can try and mess with the settings. Try and set water level to low, and try also fractal maps with low water settings. Island plates with low water settings, will also make bigger islands, though you do tend to find yourself alone or with just 1 other Civ.

 

[Jkchart]

Ever since civ 6 came out, continents was always my favorite world type. A couple large continents with a number of islands that people could expand to once the main land masses started to get crowded.

An issue I've been running into, since I believe the release of GS, is that islands no longer seem to generate. Every continents game I've played so far have had 2 large continents, and no islands. I think so far, in one of the games, I saw a single 3 tile island close to one of the continents. I really miss those islands, and am saddened when my boats explore the vast world and find nothing but empty ocean.

Is it just bad luck on my end? I play on large or huge maps, not a single mod, standard on all settings (rainfall etc). Do I need to lower sea levels just to generate some islands or something? Like I said, never had this issue before recently.

I've had the same issue and I love having little islands and smaller landmasses. Sometimes the map will generate some good ones, but it is very rare. A lot of the time, it's tiny frozen islands in the poles IF the islands appear. In my Hungary game, we had 2 large continents, 1 small continent, one large island, and one small 2 title island. It's super underwhelming when that happens.

I play huge continents almost exclusively and the map layout has been extremely consistent each game since GS came out:

2 large landmasses with several islands in between. Sometimes the in between islands get large enough to be a home for 1 or 2 civs or multiple city-states. They usually have a coastal waterway connection to one or the other large landmass but never both. I've been trying to use mods to improve the island density.

I really quite like it.

You recommend I move up to huge then for the islands? I love continents, and I've been playing large for awhile now, but I want more islands for sure.

Yeah, I noticed the HUGE vast of empty oceans too.

I played on Island Plates, large size lately, and the landmasses are enough to support two civs easily. With the fact that coast tiles are now not entirely useless, I now really love this map type.

I will have to check out large island plates as well.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've had the same issue and I love having little islands and smaller landmasses. Sometimes the map will generate some good ones, but it is very rare. A lot of the time, it's tiny frozen islands in the poles IF the islands appear. In my Hungary game, we had 2 large continents, 1 small continent, one large island, and one small 2 title island. It's super underwhelming when that happens.



You recommend I move up to huge then for the islands? I love continents, and I've been playing large for awhile now, but I want more islands for sure.



I will have to check out large island plates as well.

Yes. My expectations for a Continents map is the same as the OP and I have been satisfied with each Huge Continents map I have played.

 

[Jkchart]

Yes. My expectations for a Continents map is the same as the OP and I have been satisfied with each Huge Continents map I have played.

Welcome news. Thanks, Eagle!

 

[Tyroq]

Of course with world builder it'll be exciting to have better custom maps now anyway, so we could get our island fix that way.

 

[Phoenix1595]

My experience has been similar to others’ Continent maps as well, although on large maps. Two continents+a couple of islands with CSs and enough room for one or two more cities.

However, I don’t mind it, too much. In my games, the AI rarely takes advantage of the extra space as it is. I sometimes play the Colonizer, but if I have all the resources I need, I generally do not bother. Granted, I don’t play as the civs with colonization traits, so my opinion on these maps would likely differ from those who do.

 

[Jkchart]

My experience has been similar to others’ Continent maps as well, although on large maps. Two continents+a couple of islands with CSs and enough room for one or two more cities.

However, I don’t mind it, too much. In my games, the AI rarely takes advantage of the extra space as it is. I sometimes play the Colonizer, but if I have all the resources I need, I generally do not bother. Granted, I don’t play as the civs with colonization traits, so my opinion on these maps would likely differ from those who do.

The AI is much better than ever, in my experience, at claiming un-claimed territory. The exception to this is polar wasteland, which sometimes gets filled up with tiny cities, but more often than not is left alone (and I think that is acceptable).

I will colonize, but you're right, it's mostly if I lack certain resources.

More game examples (I like using them):

-My Hungary game: I colonized in the latter half of the game when I found out that I had no oil not in lakes and hadn't researched plastics yet (had other priorities), but I found that Arabia's mini-continent was largely uncolonized and had untapped sources of oil.

-My Sweden game: wouldn't you know it, Oil needed again! Though I eventually dominated the nobel prize for Physics 2 or 3 times so it wasn't REQUIRED. I ended up colonizing a small icy island at the bottom of the world to control three untapped deposits of oil over there. The Maori (who weren't doing well) thought they could take a slice of that island and that was my only act of aggression that game - I took the city so I could control all of that oil like I had wanted.

 

[Aristos]

Always use HIGH waters. Breaks the land masses apart in a better way.

 

[Jkchart]

Always use HIGH waters. Breaks the land masses apart in a better way.

I will give this a try as well! Thanks!

 

[Aristos]

I will give this a try as well! Thanks!

You can also test multiple settings until you find the one you like the best... go to the AppOptions.txt file in your My Documents folder, and change the line

;Enable Debug menu.
EnableDebugMenu 0

from 0 to 1. Then, inside the game, press ~ (to the left of the number 1 key), which opens the debug console, and type reveal all. That way, you can see the whole map right after starting the game, so you can evaluate which map and settings produce the best results.