Map Discussion

[wabatt]

I think whatever it is should be a surprise. And that the map maker shouldn't know which civ has which start until the game begins either.

Yes I like this idea

 

[champinoman]

How about the 6 civs on medium-small remote islands (big enough for 5 cities maybe) and all modern resources on a big central land mass?

That would make for an interesting game. However the only condition would need to be that we don't know the modern resources are in the middle before we play as otherwise the first person to settle there wins (or has a very high probability anyway).

 

[azzaman333]

I like the idea of having other islands with no one on them, but all strategic resources should be made available to civs without having to settle these islands. There are other, less game breaking, incentives you can use to get people to settle there.

 

[BLubmuz]

A donut can be interesting, but with water in center.
Also a Wheel, with some modifications to the center (must do it manually in WB) to let it more useful and interesting.

But i think to a 2 big continents setup, with 3 players each.

If we choose the 2 Civ/Team setup we'll need a large or even a huge map.

An interesting choice can be a (again manually modified) tectonics actual earth map, with Greenland used as a connection between continents in pre-optics era.

Australia can be left empty.

If we decide for an actual earth, there're maps in many Mods (LoR, to cite one)

 

[grant2004]

three small coastal slices through the ring at 120 degree spacings, thus dividing it into 3 continents with 2 players on each but in a ring shape. I also like the idea of having at least one or two islands which nobody starts on and which cannot be settled until Astronomy (or Optics for Joao), perhaps with some unique resources that are not present on the rest of the map (e.g. Gold, or even perhaps Oil or Uranium?) - this gives an incentive to those teams wishing to expand overseas. I think it'd also be cool if there were one or two small islands reachable by coast for each team, perhaps with a strategic resource (Horse or Iron) that would make them worth settling early.

I like this idea a lot, it seems like it would be easy to balance, there would be interesting opportunities for naval orriented strategies. Imagine a civ makes a rush for another team's coastal island. Denying them some strategic resources would be a big incentive to do this, but it would also likely start an early war.

I don't like the idea of critical late game resources being only on an issolated island though. It seems like this will decide the game almost immediately in favor of the team that is strongest at the instant in time when those resources become useful. Having an important supply of happy resources, or a crazy good city location would make this issolated island a big enough target to fight over.

I think the good city spot on an issolated island is the best idea because if this spot can be made good enough it may become a wedge in alliances, who should control that city and gain the benefits.

 

[Lord Parkin]

I've set up a series of polls so we can speed up our decision on key factors about the map. The precise layout will of course be up to the map makers, but there's a few things we can express our opinions on.

- Should we play on a smaller map or a larger one, and how much sea should we have? Vote here!

- Should everyone start on the same continent, or should there be at least two continents, or should everyone have their own island? Vote here!

- Should everyone be able to contact each other before Optics, or should there be at least two different groups that have to research Optics and explore the world to meet? Vote here!

- Should there be bonus islands that people can settle via coast or ocean, or not? Vote here!

 

[DaveMcW]

For official voting purposes, am going to put Team Sirius down for:

1. Mapmaker's choice
2. Archipelago/Snaky Continents
3. Continents separated by coast

Please correct me if that looks wrong.

 

[Lord Parkin]

We're also voting for a Standard or larger map, with sea level adjusted accordingly. But yeah, that looks reasonable. We'd also be okay with regular continents as well, looking at the votes and comments.

 

[Lord Parkin]

Posted in the official thread.

Team Sirius votes for:

- Standard or larger map, sea level adjusted accordingly for six teams
- Contact between all teams should be possible via land or coast, but NOT ocean
- Our preference is in the direction of a continents/islands setup rather than pangaea
- We think it would be a good idea to have at least some initially uninhabited islands (something the last map lacked)
- Overall though we vote for the mapmaker's choice as to the layout