Map of Erebus - Unofficial FfH2 Map

[OzzyKP]

In the new version that is uploaded (i think) the barrows/temples/towers are placed randomly at the start and there are no huts. I think I've figured out how to place the huts randomly at the start as well, but it requires additional modding outside of the map. So I"ll talk to Kael to see if he can include that in the main mod so folks don't need to try installing a patch to the mod in addition to the map.

I add some hills to the island. And I"ll definitely see what I can do to tone down the Blaspheraphs and the Hippus since they are always leading.

 

[Aradiel]

Sounds cool, here some screens of how big the difference is between the blaspheraphs and the malakim, those are taken in the same turn really !

 

[OzzyKP]

Well that's good actually since the malakim have been one of the top civs in most of my games. So they look fairly balanced.

 

[Aradiel]

Interresting, as they never seem to get in mine to any topranking. Btw update on my current game: The Hippus are going to be a huge steppe empire as they expand south thanks to the missing luchiurp and calabim, the ljosfalar are somewhat small but have 6 10+ citys while most civs dont even have 3. Still i manage to keep up with their points, but half of them are comming from my research! If you give the isles around just 1 hill each the lanun could do very well under AI control as well. As i knew i have no hammers i forced research to building workshops and now im spamming every landtile with them.

 

[OzzyKP]

I can add more hills.

But one of the things I like about this map is that not all starts are the same and they require different strategies to master. The Lunun with their 3 food and 3 commerce coastal tiles can be financial powerhouses and can create a great specialist economy as well. Save from invasion and barbarians by the sea they don't need a huge military, so hammers aren't as needed. Get Octopus Overlords and turn the extra food into production via slavery.

 

[Aradiel]

Yea i figured out very quickly how to play them, anyways they are though to play, i see their big advantage in the good relationships with almost anyone. With the great lighthouse and ports in every town the money runs but you will never ever reach the economical power of a fully developed ljosfalar city.
Id only use the slavery when i have to rush a wonder, it simply takes too long for a city to recover and you also loose lots of income. The game is also extremly fast even on epic, im already on tunr 350 or so for ljosfalar it took me 3 days to get there while this game is just a few hours old. You simply dont have to fight and dont have to think and build up so many tiles. They are probably more suited for quick games and multiplayer, in the long run they are outmatched imo

 

[OzzyKP]

btw, this map is now the 10th most downloaded fantasy map on CFC.

 

[Aradiel]

Congrats ,

Btw i'll add you a savegame of my current campaign, have a look if you like. Especially notable is that most lanun settlements will cap out around 20 or even earlier, for obvious reasons (40+ turns for a temple) is simply too long to build in a size 15 city. I wish i had a spell to transfer grasslands into plains for the extra hammer. Also the malakim are getting pwned again by the khazad. I know you will propably throw me into chains or sell me to the hyborem so probably have a look yourself. However this game will become a hell of a fight, tasunke turned into ghingis khan and the hyborem are taking over the north.

savegame link

http://www.mediafire.com/?7czxxjnqumx

 

[OzzyKP]

The Malakim just got eliminated by the Khazad in my game too, heh. The Khazad had 3 cities for most of the game and now they declared war on like 3 civs and started taking over everything. It is really quite impressive.

I just destroyed the Hippus (though they have one small city left). The ljosfalar are in first - no surprize. I think they need to be nerfed more. Whoever told me to add more plains to their land just made them even more overpowered, heh.

Check out the save here:
http://www.oneandfour.org/stuff/civ/TebrynArbandAD-0400.rar

 

[feydras]

I am unable to download this map. I tried last week and now. I must be doing something wrong as i don't see any other posts with the same problem.

When i click on one of the download links on the page linked i get the option to download downloads.htm. If i save this file and try to open it i get a white civfanatics web page but with a line saying my browser blocked something. If i click on the blocked line and allow the download my Mcafee stops it, cleans it and calls it a Trojan.

If, instead, i select Open this page with Internet explorer i get the same white civfanatics page and a message that tells me to slow down and that i must wait 19 seconds before downloading another file. This message appears no matter how long i wait to click the link. I also waited 30 or so seconds and reloaded page but got the same page.

Does anyone have a less infuriating link to the map? I'd like to try it but trying to download has been a huge hassle.

- feydras

 

[Aradiel]

The Malakim just got eliminated by the Khazad in my game too, heh. The Khazad had 3 cities for most of the game and now they declared war on like 3 civs and started taking over everything. It is really quite impressive.

I just destroyed the Hippus (though they have one small city left). The ljosfalar are in first - no surprize. I think they need to be nerfed more. Whoever told me to add more plains to their land just made them even more overpowered, heh.

Yea the khazad are evil little buggers, in every game yet even when they suck in start they begin to rise and kick varn gorsam right into his so loved sun. Nerf the poor elves ? doh, well i can give you two reasons for why they are always good but not great: 1. Their location is very protective, ocean to the east, small coverable iceshield to the north, water to the west, just a small southern and southeastern border. 2. Their ability to upgrade forests with followers of the leaves + building stuff enables them to settle almost anywhere and grow a size 20 city, especially when you transfer the land just a little. You could increase the size of the iceshield in the north, it would mean more barbarians and probably slow their expansion, which is already slow btw. I checked your savegame and i think they are not overall reasonable, their offensive abilitys are just poor, i always struggle in taking citys, i bet the ai will do even worse. In mid and late game they have at least 6 20+ citys of course, so no ai can keep up with their population.
In your game the lanun are a joke, 3 citys !? they didnt even leave their homeisle but guybrush is sitting on a hill Yet they have 1300 points, and are not far behind from you. Strange huh ? Its because of their techrating, silly ai build only cottages but that fool cant build a thing in his citys. Anyways they need more hammers, and probably less of the pearls and more crabs/fish. The isles to the far south could use a little beef up, the one with the black powder, if the fish would just be in reach of the coast The isle to the east of the ljosfalar coast definetly needs a workover. Also it seems the hyborem like the isle west of the khazad ? Probably you could increase the size to the northwest and give him more room. Oh and help the poor malakim! Move the startloc 1 square to the left, so they reack the marble and 1 more hill ? The problem is imo they are wasting too much space and so run out of it after placing 4 citys, while lots of room between them is unused.

 

[Aradiel]

@ Feydras, pm me your email and i send the map to you. Mcafee sucks get antivir. http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

 

[Vorgen]

man I'd love to play this game and I've gotten through 200 turns as Ljosalfar, but the huge map slows down my machine so much. Is thre any way to make huge map games faster?

 

[Aradiel]

man I'd love to play this game and I've gotten through 200 turns as Ljosalfar, but the huge map slows down my machine so much. Is thre any way to make huge map games faster?

Good question, even on my machine the game lags ugly and i have a overclocked p4 6400 @3.2ghz with 2 gb ram so unless theres a trick its certainly not working smooth on the fastest machine affordable.

 

[OzzyKP]

man I'd love to play this game and I've gotten through 200 turns as Ljosalfar, but the huge map slows down my machine so much. Is thre any way to make huge map games faster?

Be sure to turn off animations, set graphics on low, turn off combat zoom, and other tricks like that. It won't eliminate lag, but it should help a bit.

I wish this game wasn't so resource intensive...

 

[Vorgen]

but its not graphics lag its the lag between turns.

 

[vorshlumpf]

Get a good book next to your computer. Do some push-ups. Write some letters.

 

[Aradiel]

update on lanun and co: I've started a new game and moved some resources, for the lanun (banana on mainisle and fish on southpole isle) and moved the malakim startspot 1 square to the left. So far they are doing great, they will be overrun by the khazad again soon though as they had a good start too. The luchiurp are again almost wiped out, they definetly need help asap, i think they are the most challenging faction on this map. As i restarted the lanun im doing very well, the key is to rush technology instead of settling around, i built the great lighthouse and the great libary and even got a great engineer which is saved for the next important wonder. With my technological advantage i could easily wipe out cassiel or the malakim, i will continue to settle all isles first though and also trying to convert the elohim to "terror from the deep"

 

[OzzyKP]

Ok, I made an update.

I tried to beef up the Luchuirp a bit and nerf the Ljosalfar a bit. I also added just a touch more production for the Lanun and I moved the Malakim one tile west. I also added more jungle and desert to the Balseraph land. No major changes in anyone's case.

The big change though is that I figured out how to add the huts back in. So there should be a random scattering of goody huts like there should be. I've enclosed an additional file that needs to be placed here:

Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2 023\Assets\python (copy over the existing file, but be sure to back it up for use in random map games)

I hope things are a touch more balanced!

 

[OzzyKP]

btw, has anyone tried Bannor yet? Do they get mercilessly swarmed by barbarians since they start next to two civs with the barbarian trait? Or did I just find myself some bad luck?

(the barb city you can see on the right was my ill-fated second city...)