Mountains Deserts Jungles

[Attilla]

I smell DEATH when I settle into an area where mountains(even if their production is great), desert, or jungles are dominant. I say to myself, 'What the F*** will I achieve in this kind of map.'
In those times, I usually restart the game with a different map (and if it's still a bad area, I just blame the AI and CIV 3) But then, I start a new game because I can't live without this fuc**** game
So, I just wanted to know if you do the same or keep on with the fuc**** map you're given. And I wonder if you can achieve anything with a country built on a desert, mountain or jungle!!!

 

[BillChin]

I play out every map start, at least for an hour or so. This is on random map type, standard size map, Emperor difficulty, random civ. From reading other posts, huge maps and large maps may be more dependant on starting position. One reason is that on large maps, bad terrain extends further than on a standard map.

I find that starts with lousy terrain often are rich in resources. Good looking starts may lack critical resources, such as coal or rubber. There is no way to know this without using cheats, so I suggest that players try each start. Most times I have fun and sometimes I learn something. After an hour (end of first age) if the game looks really frustrating, I go ahead and quit.

The best way to overcome bad terrain at the start is to build an army and conquer the good land. On a huge map this takes some patience but it is still doable with a good plan.

 

[gzollinger]

Some of the best games I have played are in crappy starting places. Sometimes that slow start will mean a more meaningfull game in the last 1000 years. Usually if I have a great start, the game is over before the late game.

 

[rangers85]

Originally posted by gzollinger
Some of the best games I have played are in crappy starting places. Sometimes that slow start will mean a more meaningfull game in the last 1000 years. Usually if I have a great start, the game is over before the late game.

Exactly, my current game is probably one of my more enjoyable games. I started in the middle of a jungle terrain with mountains covering the rest. I'm hoping to find lots of coal, plus I've ended up clearing most of the jungle now, so lots of grassland.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by Attilla
I smell DEATH when I settle into an area where mountains(even if their production is great), desert, or jungles are dominant. I say to myself, 'What the F*** will I achieve in this kind of map.'
In those times, I usually restart the game with a different map (and if it's still a bad area, I just blame the AI and CIV 3) But then, I start a new game because I can't live without this fuc**** game
So, I just wanted to know if you do the same or keep on with the fuc**** map you're given. And I wonder if you can achieve anything with a country built on a desert, mountain or jungle!!!

The Civ III GOTM 5 is by far one of the worst starting maps I have ever played on. The only reason I kept playing after the 1 hr mark is because I knew everyone else was stuck with it too.

PS You forgot Tundra. Tundra is evil too.

 

[FenrysWulf]

I think at the higher difficulty levels a bad starting place will doom you to mediocrity for the entire game. After the first few games I played I discovered the map editor, and since then I always design my own maps. This way I know I'll get a good starting location. I like designing the map because you can design the game to play out like you think you'll enjoy.

 

[Attilla]

You've said that you design your own map. But what's the deal. I mean if I design my own map, I'd put myself in the best location and get rid of all my rivals easily. So, do you really enjoy playing in your own map and also knwoing the rest (exploring sucks, I agree, but it is what makes CIV a more interesting game!!!

 

[damunzy]

I have played all my games until I have either won or it comes to a point where I know I have no chance. I have felt the desire to restart the games so many times when I get a back starting location but I fight the temptation...although I find the games more fun if I have a good starting place.

 

[Park Ranger]

I'm probably one of the worst out there for restarting when I don't like the terrain. But as a veteran of civ2, I have to say that civ3 is slowly curing me of the habit. I've kept games where half my cities were in jungle, because I had access to two different luxuries and a good chance a getting coal & rubber.

Two things though, when BOTH are missing, send my fingers twitching for the ctrl-shft-Q keys:

1. rivers - even without the civ2 movement bonus, semms to improve the treasury significantly.

2. cattle - getting 3food/2shields from one or two squares in just one the first three cities makes for a significant edge.

If you play large maps, I believe setting planet age to 5Billion yrs mixes up the terrrain some - still, those equatorial jungles can be vast...

 

[sealman]

Originally posted by FenrysWulf
I think at the higher difficulty levels a bad starting place will doom you to mediocrity for the entire game. After the first few games I played I discovered the map editor, and since then I always design my own maps. This way I know I'll get a good starting location. I like designing the map because you can design the game to play out like you think you'll enjoy.

Do you also give the AI good starting locations as well. If not, I would consider this a form of cheating. Randomness is all part of the game.

 

[sealman]

Originally posted by Attilla
You've said that you design your own map. But what's the deal. I mean if I design my own map, I'd put myself in the best location and get rid of all my rivals easily. So, do you really enjoy playing in your own map and also knwoing the rest (exploring sucks, I agree, but it is what makes CIV a more interesting game!!!

I Agree 100%. I rather enjoy exploring the areas that I find myself and then racing to strategic points. Knowing everything in advance is like.... welll... something not real fun.

 

[swt1]

I've changed my thoughts on jungle lately. It really isn't too bad. Just transform it to the terrain underneath.

Jungle use to scare me away, now I just make sure to have some extra workers who keep on slowly transforming, quicker than my jungle cities are growing.

Agree desert, tundra aren't too good. But I like a challenge.

 

[Magnus]

whenevr I start in jungle, I pray I pulled an industrious civ out of the lot. (I play randoms civs).

 

[royfurr]

I almost always play random maps, usually NOT little islands (can't spell archapelego!) or panagea (probably got that one wrong too). Anyway I'm sure you all know what I mean.

I like the not knowing and the discovering, and racing to grab the unkown/about to become known.

I usually image the civs are each based on a surviving escape pod of a different ethnic group, abandoning an insterstellar colony ship thas come to grief around another star, all coming down to random locations on the planet, but each without enough people or equipment to maintain high technology, and reverting to barbarism. Slowing clawing their way back up. Of course, its a bad drop, they loose writing, the alphabet ... and a lot of other pretty basic stuff ... just about everything! But its really tough when your stranded on a hostle planet ... I image they mostly die off in the first generation or two, and the game picks up maybe 10 generations after the crash ...

Of course the fun thing is to image the spaceship is to head back and find Earth ...

Yep, I usually play out till I am either killed off or its obvious I am about to be. Or have better luck!

I wish we could vary the nature of the planets environment a LOT more, and in more precise ways. :alien: Unfortunately, I just don't have the patience to design a map myself; it seems like just an overwhelming amount of work. Not to mention knowing where everything is. I wish more people would post maps; perhaps a real "map exchange" to pull maps from, it would be like random ones in that you do not know where stuff is, but other people (then me!) have put in the effort to design in neat features.

Ah, if wishes were horses ...

 

[rangers85]

Yeah, it'd be nice to have more maps posted. I'll be uploading one map probably over the weekend when I fine tune it. Basically it's a blood bath map. 8 civs 1 continent with 1 other continent fully bare of any civs. It'd be nice to have a lot of different maps to play though; however, I like the random maps as well that the game generates.

 

[zombyman]

i always play with random maps & random civilizations....and i find that the most fun....even with a really crappy starting location that just makes it for a more challenging games....so far my two highest scoring games have been both with pretty bad starting locations....one of them being GOTM#5...and that's a bad starting locations AND a bad civilization!!

anyways i think the randomness is a very fun aspect to the game....if i always had starting locations i liked that wouldn't make it very fun.

 

[Barker]

One of the bast starting locations I have found.

City founded adjacent to ocean, 1 tile from river.

4 grassland cattle tiles.
1 ocean fish tile.
5 shield-grassland - 3 of them on river.

I only had to move the settler 2 spots from beginning of game to found city. I used my initial worker to mine and then build roads on cattle.

Needless to say, expansion was very quick on this map.

 

[Tassadar]

My opinion is if you decide to built on bad area, you will need iron and coal as a prioryty to build railroad to increase irrigation. But me i restart the game when i dont like the area. It happen a lot that starting position is very good, near river and 1 luxury so the capital can grow up to 7 or 8 on despotism.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

If I am playing an industrious civ (and I usually am), then I see vast ungle as a bit of an edge. It is a big area that the AI will not typically be going after for some time, meaning I can put my cities just like I want and go wild with the workers. And the resources, cleared grasslands are usually a huge bonus when the going gets tough.

If I am not playing an industrious civ, I still give it a go. I try to get all the stuff around the edge and just plop a few cities in the jungle to build up culture and grab the area.