Map balance advice, please

[CrazyCanuck87]

I'm working on a huge Europe map for BTS. I'm aiming for something that will fall somewhere between a completely accurate and realistic map and one that is balanced similarly to the ones generated by the game. Here are my questions:

1. How many goodie huts appear on a huge map? Does this number vary with the number of civs added or is it directly tied to map size?
2. What about resources, particularly copper, horses, iron, coal, oil, aluminum, and uranium? Does anyone have statistics for the number of strategic resources available to each civ on a randomly generated map? Obviously some civs will have an early strategic resource in the capital's BFC and others will need a second or third city to claim them; any advice for how I should balance this?
3. Stone, marble, and industrious civs. Again, how many sources of stone and marble are usually present on a huge map? Also, for balance, would you recommend giving industrious civs access to these powerful resources, or using them to give other civs a chance to build wonders?

Finally, any other advice pertaining to a hand-made Europe map would be appreciated!

 

[Shiggs713]

1) I couldn't give you a number, but pretty sure its tied to map size, and number of civs is irrelevant.

2) no statistics, but if your laying out all the resources, I would try to give some balance, most if not all civs should at least have 1 type of metal within 2-3 cities or less. More advanced resources such as aluminum and uranium should probably occur much less, and be somewhat balanced.

For example, on a europe map, if you put aluminum near France/Netherlands/Germany, for purely strategic reasons, it should be possible for any of these 3 to get it, at least with some cultural development or reasonable wars.

3)Stone and marble should be pretty rare as well, not all countries should have it. Whether you want to give it to industrious civs is up to you, sometimes they need that boost to balance things out, in very specialized scenarios.

Lastly I would balance most healthy and happy giving resources around the map... some civs have a surplus of some resources, and none of others, then another civ with different resources and they can trade....

But then again it all depends on whats important to you... Strategy or realism? I tend to try and balance the two as best as I can, without getting carried away. Simple is just fine, as long as its fun and has good re-playability.