Since the last updates/patches I have seen more inland lakes/seas, even on Continents maps. While I applaud the greater diversity in maps (and would love to see more) they did not, apparently, consider what their 'random placement' of units carrying over from the previous Age would mean: bad enough that the Exploration Age starts with armies of all archers or all swordsmen/cavalry instead of the combined arms forces we had at the end of Antiquity, but the spawning of our only Cog on an inland sea with no access to the Outside World - and in a game that provides no way to get that access - is just short of game-breaking.
And the Cosmic Irony is that in my first post-patch game, with a big inland sea on the homeland Continent, I had a large fleet of Quadriremes stationed there at the end of Antiquity since 3 other Civs shared that sea with me. Despite that, my Exploration Cog spawned at one of my seaside cities on the outer coast of the continent, right next to the nearest islands of Distant Lands.
Pure blind Luck, as it turns out.
Since then, I have learned, as posted, to not place any Quays or other portish structures on any inland sea before the transition to Exploration. This is poor advice for the Exploration-Modern Age transition, though, because any coastal settlements/cities on inland seas lose a lot from not being able to build Wharfs, Quays, or Shipyards until Modern Age.
On the other hand, given the length of time (centuries) submerged in the Crisis/Transition period, I don't see giving us gamers complete control over where everything spawns: the crisis transition, to me at least, implies a relatively long period of not-playable turns during which Unknown Things a re happening to your armies and fleets (and settlements). The human gamer should, at best, only have partial control over how that comes out and where things end up, or the crisis transition threatens to turn into another Human Advantage Period over the hapless AI.
\We do need a specific solution to the Trapped Ship transition, though, even if it's just the option to move one Cog one time at the beginning of the Exploration Age.
