Optimal number of civs for a given size map

[Sgtslick]

Personally I'm looking for a new map type. I enjoy crowded maps at most by classical age because to me it gives more of the feel of International relations. There is few tensions between nations if each has more than enough room to expand. However I've played custom continents 3 continetns to death (any more than 3 is too symmetrical and predictable, looks odd to me, and any less than 2 isn't interesting).

I used to play very similar settings, use custom continent where you can choose snaky (kinda important unless you like Pangaea maps, I much prefer choke points where each civ kinda gets his only little area to build 5-6 cities easily then start pushing near each others choke points). Snaky is also good coz navy becomes really important to avoid chokes or to launch surprise attacks at vunerable places. Also try rocky, I like this setting and choose extra mountains (helps with chokes). Also increase hills to groups up to 5 instead of 3. Add in some extra flood plains if you feel it might not have enough farmland. Go large if you can't handle huge, start with 12 civs, start the game open up world editor and have a look at the map, regenerate it (alt-g from memory) or exit to main menu and adjust. This is what i used b4 fixing my MAF problem and now I can play GEM yay

 

[civhelp121]

er what does MAF means? I'm guessing GEM stands for "Giant Earth Map". I'll definitely try out your guys recommendations on new maps. The only concern I have is meeting all the civs by a very early point and having effectively no oceans, just a series of waterways with land in between. That said I obviously have not tried out these settings, and given your description my concern is probably unfounded.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

er what does MAF means? I'm guessing GEM stands for "Giant Earth Map". I'll definitely try out your guys recommendations on new maps. The only concern I have is meeting all the civs by a very early point and having effectively no oceans, just a series of waterways with land in between. That said I obviously have not tried out these settings, and given your description my concern is probably unfounded.

MAF = Memory Allocation Error. A particular type of CTD (Crash To Desktop). It depends mostly having graphics settings too high for your on your rig. They usually appear later in the game.