Map Discussion

[DaveMcW]

What kind of map do you want? I'm going to provide some general maps scripts, which will serve as a basis for the customized map that will follow. What I want your team to do is let me know what kind of map you'd like to see for this game. Here are five general options to think about:

Wheel: One of the better Multiplayer maps for this sort of game, and a very "fair" map, with equal territory for all civs and access to each team. May be too unnatural for some teams' tastes. Also on the small side.

Donut: A fun script added in the expansion. All the teams start on the outside edge of the donut, with a large region of peaks in the middle. The peaks can also be replaced by water, or standard terrain, if desired. Lots of early contact on this map.

Islands: A map that features lots of water and naval combat. Each team has their own starting island to themselves, which may or may not be what you want. The islands by default are separated by ocean, but they can be bridged by turning on the "tiny islands" setting.

No Tiny Islands

Various Tiny Islands

Archipelago/Snaky Continents: One of my personal favorites, due to the crazy and unpredictable land forms it spits out. Navies will still be emphasized heavily on this script. Here are three different looks, with different settings:

Global Highlands: A more interesting take on Pangaea, IMO. The peaks make for all sorts of wacky geographical formations, and interesting decisions on where to settle. Lots of customization options in the settings too. The latter two pictures explore some of the peak options.

Now what I would like from each team is to discuss and agree on a ranking of your three top preferences. This doesn't mean that you'll necessarily get the script that you picked first, but I will take into account what kind of map each team wanted. For example, if your team was dead-set on an Islands map, I'll lean more towards the naval ones in the overall decision. You can also simply say, "we trust the map maker, come up with a mystery game that looks awesome" as I know a couple of teams have suggested. If that's the general team feeling, you can skip this discussion entirely.

Once again, I'm asking each team to come to a decision on their top three map preferences by Saturday, March 27. At that point, I'll see what each team decided and do my best to come up with something agreeable to everyone (although that may be impossible...) Thanks for your input, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

 

[Earthling]

Thanks Dave.

First I'd like to say Hi to all others in this great nation of Quatronia! We ought to get started on some of our own discussions too.

As far as maps go I actually have the same but simple thoughts I had in the last demogame - I trust the great mapmakers/admins here to create an exciting map with fewer guidelines than having to have a set map script.

Though to be a little more specific my description would remain around a Highlands/Tectonics type map with natural chokes and some possible emphasis on aspects other than direct Pangaea land routes. But I hope we'll have a decent and balanced map in the end anyway and it's the other choices that concern me so I'm happy with what our team wants to go for.

 

[TyBoy]

Heyo Quatronia!

I'd like to see resources go out fairly but not identically. It's boring if every civ has copper, horses, marble and stone all within their first few cities. Trading opportunities are fun in MP games.

Ditto for quality city locations. There are lots of ways to set the terrain up, but bottom line is that a city that can't grow to 6-7 people without using farms (excepting corn/rice/wheat) is not going to contribute a lot economically to your empire. The immediate area around capitals should contain a similar number of well fed city areas for each empire (+/- 1 I would say). Another interesting thing that can be done is create situations where there is a specific tradeoff for founding cities in different places (maybe founding in one spot gives a whole lot of food, but moving over 1 space puts a silver resource in the bfc). There are lots of ways to micromanage the map design around the starting locations to give different civs different experiences without making them the same. Given how important the early game is in MP spending time building the starting areas can go a long way to making an interesting game.

I don't like the predictability of a donut/wheel type map, but I don't like the unfairness of a long strand type map, so overall I'm indifferent there. More than anything though I want to have to explore a decent chunk of the map and meet a few civs before I'm sure what it looks like. That wouldn't work for islands, which I would be fine with. What I really mean is that I want to be making early strategy decisions based on what we've actually seen in game and the civs we've actually met, rather than things we know because we can predict what civ map must look like. To that end I vote we just trust the mapmakers to pick something and tweak it to make things fair.

 

[Sherlock613]

Hey team!

I would prefer donut with water in the middle or archipelago or islands with tiny islands. I think that the naval aspect makes games much more interesting.

 

[galdarian]

I'd rather not have a wheel / donut situation where you can reach all civs by land.

Islands or Snaky continents will ensure that gameplay extends beyond a chariot spawn fest.

In terms of resources as long as there is a little balance in the late game i.e There is more than one civ with access to oil / aluminum / coal etc then the game will seem fair. Civ's should be encouraged to trade for what they don't have (or fight for it) rather than be given the gift of access to all resources.

 

[Super Sonic]

I'm not partial to really any map, and greetings fellow teammates!

 

[DaveMcW]

For voting purposes, I'm putting Team Quatronia down for:

1. Mapmaker's choice
2. Archipelago/Snaky Continents
3. Donut

 

[Provolution]

Snaky continents would be good, same as mapmakers choice.