Map size

I'm thinking that it might be like cultural start in Civ III, where like civs start near each other (Rome, Greece... England, France, Germany... China, Japan... etc)

perhaps along the same line of thought it determines what city states start near you, for example edinburgh would be next to engalnd etc.
 
It could also mean that they don't seed the area around your initial settler with extra resources.
 
perhaps along the same line of thought it determines what city states start near you, for example edinburgh would be next to engalnd etc.

I am thinking that both are the case (Civs and City-States). They say that the maps will have different terrains for Europe, Asia, Africa and America, so I am assuming that those play into the civ placement (disabling the option for start bias will ignore those settings).
 
Start bias I suspect is the way the game improved your starting BFC area, to make sure you didn't start in a complete mess.

Why would you be able to disable it then? Are there people out there that WANT to start in a messed up configuration?
 
Why would you be able to disable it then? Are there people out there that WANT to start in a messed up configuration?

Personally I'd very much like to turn that off, or at least tune it down, for Civ4.

I'm usually playing with 34 civs on an XXL map (150% of huge). Since there are 33 AI civs on the map, it's perfectly okay if some of them get an uneven starting position. Actually I regard that as a good thing because it adds to the variety between games.

Also, the additional resources make early rushes far too effective. Whoever is the first to capture an enemy capital, will usually have a huge advantage because he gets another almost-perfect location. Or, in other words: There are 34 city locations on the map which are game-breakingly good compared to the others - thus, 95% of the whole map gets devaluated in comparison to these artificially boosted starting locations.

This also removes a lot of strategic thinking on part of the human player. As long as you can establish a reasonable amount of culture there, going for the enemy capital in a war is often the best choice anyway. The fact that you already know beforehand that the capital will have a very good selection of resources often makes this decision a no-brainer.

Finally, for the players how like the feeling of simulating an alternative human history, the fact that 34 locations in the world are artificially boosted doesn't sound very immersive at all.
 
Why would you be able to disable it then? Are there people out there that WANT to start in a messed up configuration?

Part of the charm of the Civ series is that you don't start in the same exact condition every game.

I find that it is interesting to have a wide variety of starts throughout my games, and some of the most enjoyable games I've had are ones where I start in a really somewhat miserable spot and culture/build/think/fight my way up to the top.
 
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