To be honest I went through several maps "originally generated" by the SDK map builder, found one that matched my general criteria and modified it to my idea. I didn't "draw all the map" but I did modify it quite a bit through multiple play-tests to make my concept of a "multi-theme" map.
Gliese581d is a mixture of "continents", "archipelago", and "inland sea". It is not a "scenario" or a "mod", only a map, so the starting locations, ruins and strategic and luxury resources are completely random for greater replayability. It's huge-size so optimum for total 12-14 civs with 24-28 city states.
Some notes: I've found emperor difficulty a bit "easy" on this, not only because I play often, but because there are a number of "strategic localities" like chokepoints or "canal opportunities" (what I call 1 hex wide "bridgings" between interior/exterior oceans) of which the AI can't make effective use, always. Also, the "random resource generator" is a bit liberal with resource variety to make the first couple eras seem particularly easy, especially for expansion. For this reason I've been routinely playing immortal difficulty and I find this both fun and challenging as an experience player. Even with the "resource and AI" issues, though, I found the map very fun on emperor.
To play on gliese581d download and unpak the zip to documents, my games, civ5, maps. Run the Civ5 application and select it in the advanced setup, map types.
Gliese581d is a mixture of "continents", "archipelago", and "inland sea". It is not a "scenario" or a "mod", only a map, so the starting locations, ruins and strategic and luxury resources are completely random for greater replayability. It's huge-size so optimum for total 12-14 civs with 24-28 city states.
Some notes: I've found emperor difficulty a bit "easy" on this, not only because I play often, but because there are a number of "strategic localities" like chokepoints or "canal opportunities" (what I call 1 hex wide "bridgings" between interior/exterior oceans) of which the AI can't make effective use, always. Also, the "random resource generator" is a bit liberal with resource variety to make the first couple eras seem particularly easy, especially for expansion. For this reason I've been routinely playing immortal difficulty and I find this both fun and challenging as an experience player. Even with the "resource and AI" issues, though, I found the map very fun on emperor.
To play on gliese581d download and unpak the zip to documents, my games, civ5, maps. Run the Civ5 application and select it in the advanced setup, map types.
