Keith's Balanced Earth Map

[I_am_sin7]

I don't post a lot - I do play a lot! And what I played most for Civ 4 was Rhye's and Fall of civilization - Before that in Civ 3 I played a lot of Rhye's brilliant world map.

I like to play earth maps! It's what I mainly played in Civ 1 and 2 as well. (Back on my creaky old 386, not Civ 2 though obviously), trouble is that the earth map isn't balanced well, and Civ rules tend to be unrealistic in that a small nation is unable to compete on any level with a larger one. Rhye got around this in his maps by magnifying marginalised areas of the world, like Europe and Japan, and shrinking unused areas like the pacific.

That's what I have tried to do with this scenario, heavily enlarging Japan and Europe, and playing a little loose with some start locations. I also increased the amount of mountains in a lot of areas - this makes the map a little ugly in spots, but acheives the directive of removing arable land from the game, in areas that are not historically important - Northern russia, Central Asia. Also, seeing as there are literally no South American civs, I've essentially removed the continent from play - I did this by coating it in mountains. Ugly, but its all in the name of playability. I added mountain ranges in places, in an effort to control civ expansion behaviour - so far it seems to be going well, in the few test games i've run, Civ's expand quite naturally.

I also heavily buffed areas of the game where expansion is going to be heavily limited in the late renaissance and modern/future eras. Euro civ's and Japan have a vast amount of resources available to them - their lands may be limited, but they are very valuable. This is to stop the Asian civ's just steam rolling Europe.

I moved the Iroquois North, figuring that they would nicely occupy Canada's position, and form a nice balance against the USA - You'll notice odd mountain ranges up there, specifically to control the Iroquois expansion, as well as a greater extent of arable land in Canada.

For future versions i'd like to include the C.S.A mod, and Canadian mod, and when I get round to checking out other areas of the SDK I'll maybe add Australia, (if no one else does), if I have the time.

For now, play it, and tell me what you think! Remember, map accuracy is intentionally sacrificed in the name of playability, especially from a European and Japanese perspective - as is resource placement. If you've any suggestions on maintaining accuracy whilst maintaining playability, I'm all ears, but I wont be doing the opposite.

Oh, forgot to mention, I based this on Shigg's Earth map, although it's fairly heavily edited now.

Edit- I keep replacing the file - But as far as I can tell it's been downloaded maybe a 100 times. I'm pleased with my minor accomplishment, mock me not!


Needed Mods -
Australia - The Land Down Under
Jeremy Norton

Canada - The True North, Strong and Free
Marc-Andre Belair

Confederate States of America
Emerald Knight

Federative Republic of Brazil
Emerald Knight

Spanish Empire
The Slayer

As well as the Mongolian DLC. - Not the scenario just the race.

 

[Shiggs713]

sweet, always good to see more earth maps

 

[I_am_sin7]

So I played through the map as the British. Steam rolled through it way too easily, and made notes of a few things that needed changing, especially AI. I'd set them all the Prince, but have set them back to Cheiftain now. My play through is in the 1970's, and England rules most of the coasts of Canada, S.Amerca, and Africa, and is the only country in the world that isnt still sailing around in Caravels- Especially poor performers were Greece, Babylon, Ottomans, Russia. Ottomans and Russia have been buffed, Greeks and Babylon removed.

So, here's an updated version -

Fiddled starting resources - most nations should have all the basic resources in their starting location - Feel this is fair as room to expand has been deliberately limited in most instances, to define more or less proper world borders.

Edited the map - Britain was a bit ugly, and I got sick of looking at it. Hopefully this will new look suits her better Also cleaned up the N.American continent, removing some mountains from the centre, and making California a more attractive prospect, added a lot of resources...

Added new civs - removed some old ones that where heavily marginalised.

Out are Greece and Babylon! For a start Babylon isn't available to non deluxe edition players - Secondly it cramps the Ottoman start. Ottomans had a bigger affect on history I feel! Babylon is represented within the Arabic states, sufficiently anyway.

In - The Confederate States of America - Canada - Commonwealth of Australia - Spain.


I also added custom names for most of the Civ's - England is the United Kingdom, and America is the United States.
No play through's on this one yet, on my part anyway, will be starting one now. Any other reports from people who may have downloaded, or even just looked at the previous map would be handy. I figure once I get the map and resources fairly balanced, I'll use it to make a few decent scenarios. Well, Hopefully decent, Har Har.


Thanks to -
Jeremy Norton, for Australia
Marc-Andre Belair, for Canada
Emerald Knight, for The Confederate States
The Slayer, for Spain.
and XiDragon, for the reveal map button. Very helpful!

Furthermore, I figure your going to need those mods installed for it to work properly. Searching for the authors listed should do the trick I think, but just in case your looking for the following files

Spanish Empire Civ
Australia - the land down under
Canada - The True North, Strong and Free
Confederate States of America

 

[Larhall]

Thx very much for your work! I love to play British, though i am German. I played your first version now almost through and it was very nice. I am very curious about your changes and will now download the new versions with the extramods. Go on with your map plz, it´s great

 

[I_am_sin7]

Thx very much for your work! I love to play British, though i am German. I played your first version now almost through and it was very nice. I am very curious about your changes and will now download the new versions with the extramods. Go on with your map plz, it´s great

Hey there thanks for your reply! hope you enjoy it! let me know if you notice anything odd - civs out of the game etc , too slow research.
im particular interested in how the new civs do.
maybe you can help me name germany - i was trying to think of a fairly generic but still accurate name for them. at the moment they are listed as the "German Reich". any ideas for a good generic german name or is that fine?

 

[Larhall]

I don´t really know about a good name for the Germans. Maybe only Germany? That´s quite neutral, cause we all know what happened...
Yesterday i started a game with Japan. It worked all out about the civs. Only the names of the cities were a bit strange, like ´´txt-city-name-madrid´´ for example.
Today i wanted to start with British again, because there are just my favourite civ(and the japanes music got on my nervs), but now i have the problem, that the 4 civs from the addon do not load, there are random civs, though i have changed nothing to yesterday?
I don´t know really what to do, i will just try out another time with reloading the mods.

 

[Larhall]

Hey, don´t bother about my problems with loading civs any more. It just doesn´t show they are in, but it seems they are and in the right place. Just met Spain were it should be. By the way, what level did you set the AI to? They are much stronger this time. Rome conquered France, half Germany and half Spain and i am afraid i will be next^^. I wonder, because i only play on prince degree....

 

[Larhall]

Hi again, i just found some horses in the passage of Gibraltar Maybe you want to move them on the land. I am not to far yet with my game, but all seems well besides the city and leader names of the modded civilizations. But what degree did you set the AI on? Rome now conquered France, Germany, 1 City of Spain and almost all of Russia ;(.I have no idea how to compete with that. Even if i could kill the massive roman army the unhappiness in my own country would rise so high that i would probably produce nothing any more? Or is there a limit of penalty produced by unhappieness? (sry for my bad english by the way).
Ah, one thing, it would be nice if you implemented the natural wonders, i did not find one yet, are they in the map?
Best wishes from here

 

[redindus69]

Not bad but found cluster of horses N.W. of Australia on the coast while Rome starts on Australia. While playing Japaneses.

 

[I_am_sin7]

will check these when i get home tonight - horses are almost certainly just a mistake on my part.

i loweredthe difficulty for ai civs to chieftain - may rise it a notch - in my current game as the confederacy world developement seems good, although france is the european badboy. will probably set different diffixulty levels for differing nations next time.

if rome appeared in aus im guessing u dont have the extra
civs installed, try the map with them! thanks for your input re germanies name! look for a new version soon this weekend most likely

 

[I_am_sin7]

Map updated again, this time to a mod pack, albeit, only of the most minor variety-One key thing I had noticed was that Ships are way to damn slow in the modern age - It does not take YEARS for a battlegroup to sail from the north to to the south atlantic.
So the sum changes are that Modern naval ships are damn fast, on average 30 odd movement, with destroyers at 40. Why? Because the unrealistic speed of modern ships was just horrific. One thing I couldnt figure out was how to set the speed of embarked units. Ideally I want to change the formula the game uses to calculate that speed, so that it's a HIGHER rate, rather then a slower one. I'll try that again tomorrow maybe.

I removed the amazing swimming horses from australia, added some resources in places, buffed the germans a bit, and tried changing the difficulty level per each individual civ. It's early, but I think that'll go along way to balancing the map. Later on I think I'll try using the same tricks Rhye used on his earlier, Civ3 version of Rise of Civ. - Customised tiles with extra resource, etc, to balance out europe, rather then giving them mounds of resources. Oh, I changed the germans to "Deutsch Republic" I think that'll do. as i get more familiar with editing tools I'll try to be a bit more ambitious. - for now I think it'll do for a new version.

You'll still need the extra mods i listed previously installed. Just unzip the mod to your mods directory, and it should work just fine.

 

[aimlessgun]

Sounds interesting, if I have time I may give it a test run. I like that you've added some civs to balance the map: now you need Mongols to eat up territory in northeast Asia, and Inca for South America!

 

[I_am_sin7]

Ahah, yeah, when I have more time I might try creating them myself - I just need a few hours to sink into it. Maybe on sunday! South america is currently a mountain really. With time I want to add Brazil, Argentina maybe. But Ideally what I want is to encourage ocean activity.

 

[Larhall]

Your changes sound nice, especially the enhancement of modern naval units. Though in this game i just play, i have decided to set all on one card so i won´t come to this age. I have worked out a little science advange by building out a small kingdom with lots of specialists, it´s 1775 now and i am conquering the capitals of the remaining civs. Maybe i made a mistake to not attack the romans last, because they spread all over europe, africa, russia and india, but i was afraid they will be attacking me, when i am finished with the others and my mainarmy is far out in the pacific. So I conquered Rome and i am killing their army as they embark from all sides to reconquer rome with my ships, hope they will make peace when they run out of units and i have enough time to finish the others then. It´s only Persia, Japan and Australia left...
I will go to Italy for a week tomorrow, then i will try out your new mod Anyway, thx a lot for the work you do
P.S.: If you want to rename Germany correctly, why don´t give them a german name. In German ´´Deutsch Republic´´ it´s ´´Deutsche Republik´´. Just an idea, do as you like
Best wishes from here.

 

[Larhall]

Just made it. The strategy went through. Conquered all of the capitals with my navy and a small but powerfull army

 

[I_am_sin7]

glad your enjoying it larhal, ill certainly use your german name. thanks for reporting on how your games go too ^^

 

[Acoustic]

Can I get some screens of the map, so I can see how big it is?

 

[I_am_sin7]

Screenshot as an attatchement.

Also updating the map again. This time to include more civ changes, and a couple of edits to the map.

Horses are gone from the sea, the British Isles have been changed - (Again, - it always looks fine in the editor, then ugly as sin in the engine), I removed the Iroquois, replaced them with Brazil, Added Mongolia.

Will fiddled the UK's resources, edited S.America for Brazil, added features to the map - Honestly dont remember removing em, but, oh well! They should be back now.

So to update the Req. Downloads list, your gonna need to have installed -
Mongolian Civilization By Magzhi, Steve "Molnuts" Molnar (thanks)
Federative Republic of Brazil By Emerald Knight

As well as all the others listed in the original post.
//quote//
"Thanks to -
Jeremy Norton, for Australia
Marc-Andre Belair, for Canada
Emerald Knight, for The Confederate States
The Slayer, for Spain.
and XiDragon, for the reveal map button. Very helpful!

Furthermore, I figure your going to need those mods installed for it to work properly. Searching for the authors listed should do the trick I think, but just in case your looking for the following files

Spanish Empire Civ
Australia - the land down under
Canada - The True North, Strong and Free
Confederate States of America"

Download coming soon, tomorrow maybe!

 

[Larhall]

Hi i am back from Italy and waiting for the download Btw, it was a horrific vacation, my girlfriend broke her leg and the italian medicine system is, let´s say something you need getting used to ;>. So plz give me the new map to enjoy I already downloaded the civs.

 

[I_am_sin7]

hi there! sorry ive been busy with work- also couldnt get it to load - map works but when i tryto run it with a new civ - it crashes ! ill look again when i get home!? sorry tohear about your girlfreind! hope shd gets better fast!