[MAP] [Map] My huge 19 civ map for v.25 +

[Ekolite]

Hi. Just thought I'd say I love the erebus map. I've not been having any problems with it 'cept for my computer running kinda slow lol.

Its about turn 150 playing as the calabim, there starting location is great with all the floodplains everywhere. As soon as I get my hands on some water mana I'll get the desert sorted out too altough its not much off a problem really. Just finished crushing the malakim with hordes of moroi. lol.

Great map.

 

[vorshlumpf]

Ah, I'll look into the forest. The fort is there to act as a chanel, mostly, so I don't care about the defensive bonus. I'd assume it would if it fell into someone's territory, though?

That could be right. I noticed the same problem on Sureshot's map.
Does it act as a channel when unclaimed, though? I'll have to try that when I get the chance.

Ach, it's probably the evil civs converting too soon. Those stupid elves & dwarves. Wanting to play as Basium is what made me make the new map.

Yeah, well, it was only one game. Can't really base game-play feedback too heavily on it. There were two evil civs left, one who founded AV. But the AV wasn't spreading, for some reason. After a couple of hundred turns it was in maybe 5 cities (based loosely on memory).

 

[zxcvbnm]

which still leaves 20% of ALOT that is still a lot ...
but you're right... it helps

maybe s/o interested in this kind of reduction can do it himself and then give it to the community ??? (instead of asking Nikis to do all the hard job..)

The 20% left is playtesting and balancing which can always be outsourced to the community

Actually I made smaller height and terrain maps with the converter for my study of Fast'n'Furious-Super-Insane-Tiny-Maps-With-Lots-of-Civs
One in half size (1/2.25 actually, about 80x55) and one quarter size (64x40!)
Such maps are interesting, obviously there's no late expansion but clashes are possible from the beginning (->multiplayer) and in ar 300 a 9-player map runs as fast as a huge map in beginning.

So if Nikis approves i can make smaller versions of his map.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I don't mind, though I expect it has a bit more than 20% left--need to realculate start positions, readd resources, double check choke points/passages, etc. So I was thinking that this would be a good time to rethink what works and what doesn't in general.
edit:

So if Nikis approves i can make smaller versions of his map.

Actually, I would appreciate that, if you're already familiar with the utility.

 

[feydras]

I'm on my second game with the map. This time i'm the Calabim playing at Epic speed and i'm at turn 523. Two things...

I'm stuck on a Waiting for other Civilizations hang. Tried the F5 then F8 thing but the game didn't seem to respond to either key. It is a great game, really sad to loose so much time and effort. Tried previous reloads and same crash when i get to that point.
The turn it crashed the cultural border expanded onto the 'shadow mana' if that matters. No way to stop the expansion to test it though.

In this game and the previous game with this map i've not seen Hyborem or the Mercurians at all. I am pretty sure Hyborem never got summoned. This game Auric founded the Veil (and never took a state religion of course) so that may be the problem. I haven't met any civs yet with Veil as their religion but as i said it is turn 523 on Epic.

Wonderful map btw.

- feydras

 

[zxcvbnm]

I don't mind, though I expect it has a bit more than 20% left--need to realculate start positions, readd resources, double check choke points/passages, etc. So I was thinking that this would be a good time to rethink what works and what doesn't in general.
edit:
Actually, I would appreciate that, if you're already familiar with the utility.

Choke points/passages are checked already in the maps, they should be same as in the huge map.
20% is left WHEN you outsource some testing, at least based on my style of design:

Spoiler :

1. decide what kind of map you want to make
2. choose the civs
3. regret your choices of phase 2, wanting to add civ X
4. decide the overall style of the map
5. try to place the civs
6. fail in it as you want that conflict/alliance there and it doesn't fit
7. redo phases 2-6 2 times, then 2-5
8. do a base map
9. switch the jungle and desert, return to phase 8
10. place the resources
11. feel that civ Y has too good start, with all that flood plains AND good resources
12. worsen civ Y's start
13. ARRRGGGHH! civ Z was left behind, redo phases 4-6,4-5,8,10 and 11-12
14. give it to someone to test

 

[Nikis-Knight]

feydras,
Interesting about the shadow mana; I could see that being a problem, actually. I will change it to untyped mana in the future, just in case, but if you want to test, enter world builder and delete the mana (or replace with a plain type.

As for the adopting of the veil, that annoys me a little as well. I considered switching the Khazad start position with the Blaseraph or Hippus perhaps, so that only their corner would go runes. Or maybe giving the Sheaim a couple techs along the Ashen Veil path already...
But in the meantime, try crusades, the second map in the first post. Not perfect yet, but I had a great game as the Mercurians last week using that map.

Choke points/passages are checked already in the maps, they should be same as in the huge map.

Roughly, I'd expect, but if something starts as 2-3 tiles huge, I could see it getting truncated down to zero on large, or vice versa. And I sympathize with your design steps.

 

[feydras]

Nikis-Knight,

My theory doesn't appear to be right. On double checking it was the preset Death mana that the border grew to emcompass not the Shadow. Despite this i did try to wipe them in World Builder and it still hung. If i get more time i may go through and try to wipe a bunch of civs at a time and see if i can isolate it. I'll probably start with all of my cities except a minor one to see if my civ is causing the bug. It would be nice to isolate it.

BTW - since it doesn't appear to be the Shadow mana i'd leave it in as it is a neat addition. I wish it was possible to add some function to the Shadow and Sun mana while we wait for Shadow but that would require modding not a map i assume.

 

[feydras]

I tried to test by wiping out a handful of civs but when i go back from World Builder the game crashes on me. Guess i give up the troubleshooting.

One question would be if people are having the WfoC hang what civ were they playing? I was playing the Calabim.

- feydras

 

[wr4th]

i had wfoc hang one time playing the elohim when i went for altar victory, so i had only few land. that would exclude a cause by cultural expansion. at least for the elohim area

 

[zxcvbnm]

Roughly, I'd expect, but if something starts as 2-3 tiles huge, I could see it getting truncated down to zero on large, or vice versa. And I sympathize with your design steps.

I checked them with the mapview, they should be the same with 95% accuracy guarantee in the current version. These professional tools make mapmaking a lot less tedious, so I really appreciate your classical worldbuilder tinkering. Not all have patience for that, especially if they follow those design steps

 

[zxcvbnm]

Some things really get tiny but the main features are still there: the dale and pass of Malakim-Svartalfar mountains and the ring shape of the Lanun lagoon to name a few. The conversion is done so that 2x2 tiles becomes 1x1 so it's pretty realistic with 21 civs and quick speed, as techs still come relatively slow because of the few cities
(now imagine that with epic speed)

These are pictures of the original map and the small version:

Spoiler :

 

[xienwolf]

Might need to cut back on the number of peaks in the upper left hand corner though.

 

[zxcvbnm]

I tried to make it unenterable but from south, like in the huge version. I admit it has far too many peaks when compared to other mountain areas but how else i'm going to get it such?

 

[xienwolf]

Hrm, not seeing where there is a blockage on the big map (is the whole thing showing? Seems that it doesn't wrap quite right top to bottom). I'm talking about the sideways "C" of mountains in the corner of the map (encloses 3 grassland and a forest, can only get in through a diagonal on the southwest)

 

[zxcvbnm]

The original map was too big to fit in that picture, these are not the whole map but approximately same parts of it, here's the original corner:

 

[feydras]

Nikis-Knight,

You probably read the .25 bug thread and so already know this but the 'Waiting on other civilizations' hang bug doesn't appear to be anything to do with your map. It is reported there and i just had the hang again on a random map.

 

[xienwolf]

Okies, kinda figured I was missing something important there when I looked closer

You could replace some of the mountains with ice on the Northeast to keep it inaccessible from that direction, but increase the workable tiles available. But now that I see that section of the map I don't know if you really ought to change it up.

 

[zxcvbnm]

That might work but what about blight? It melts half of the ice allowing access there.

 

[xienwolf]

Ack, didn't know that one. I rarely have Ice in my games, always play Torroidal maps.