Pangea Ultima

[Gojira54]

Earth in 250,000,000 years. 256*236.

Version 1 removed after 17 downloads:


Version 2:


Download it here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=21762

Version 2 features wooded fresh water, slightly lengthened mountain ranges, more varied remote isle terrain. and the Indian River.

This is a WinRAR file.

 

[Gojira54]

Some notes on this:

No resources, barbarian huts, or starting locations are placed, as the ones I place will be scenario specific.

This is intended for an upcoming mod, which will have the following terrain rules. The map is large, but will play fine on a hearty computer that sticks to these:

- No Cities on Mountains, Volcanoes, Desert, or Marsh.
- Mountains, Volcanoes, Marsh, Jungle, and Forest are impassable by wheeled units
- ALL units are wheeled except workers and a few specialty units - making workers and boats critical. You will need workers to cut down trees and make paths, as well as build Outposts on otherwise unreachable Mountain and Desert resources. Boats can help take your settlers to otherwise unreachable locations, even on the same continent.
- only Seafaring civs can ever attain Oceanfaring, leaving most of the ocean (and a few of the remote isles) off limits to all but them.
- I recommend using some resources with strong boosts. This will help break up an otherwise monotonous terrain in places. Otherwise you may have way too much food and no shields, or vice versa.
- I also recommend preplacing barbarians, and turning them down to the lowest level. Otherwise those vast, unsettlable deserts will become their haven. This actually makes the game more interesting IMO, as barbarians will continue to harass you throughout the game, but it does slow things down a bit.

 

[timerover51]

Gojira, when you say "large", how large do you mean? Is it 160 X 160, or more like 362 X 362?

 

[Gojira54]

Gojira, when you say "large", how large do you mean? Is it 160 X 160, or more like 362 X 362?

256*236

So, pretty large, but not so large that you will use up your 512 cities before the map fills up. If you follow my terrain rules, that is

 

[timerover51]

I am not sure what you used to compress it, but I cannot seem to open it with anything. Maybe just post the straight .biq file?

 

[Kirejara]

This map looks good!

Since my civ3 comply with most of Gojira´s required features (except another solution for seafaring), I will quick outfit it with resources and try it on my next game.

Hi Timerover51, I had no problems opening the file. It is a normal working RAR-archive. What program have you used?

 

[Gojira54]

Wow, this is my fourth time writing this post. Technical difficulties today.

Timerover - this is a WinRAR archive - I can't upload .biq files into the database. If you cannot open it, PM me and I can send.

I've uploaded Version 2, which features wooded fresh water, slightly lengthened mountain ranges, more varied remote isle terrain. and the Indian River.

I've also changed the recommended settings to allow jungle cities. I imported this map into an otherwise unaltered Warhammer 2.5 game yesterday, and by the third era, all the usable land was taken, without hitting the dreaded 512 city limit. (WH 2.5 allows jungle cities, and is a great mod).

 

[timerover51]

I had no problems opening Version 2, and it looks like an interesting map. I also have the map from the Future Is Wild, and they make for interesting comparisons. The FIW map is a single continent, but both maps feature a lot of desert and mountains, limiting settlement possibilities.

Not sure if the restricted Ocean travel came through, or is that part of your proposed mod? If so, you might also want to slow Ocean travel down further by increasing the movement costs of Ocean tiles. That works quite well in the Age of Discovery scenario that comes with the game.

 

[Gojira54]

Yes, there are a few other versions of this out there, all based on variations of Pangea Ultima projections you can find on Google. All are similar but do have their variances.

- Chieftess's The Future is Wild

- TETurkhan's The Lost World

- Gisli's Pangea Ultima - very similar to mine

Mine is done with Destiny Reborn specifically in mind.

I should be clear, all the settings I listed are recommended and in Destiny Reborn - but I didn't change any of the settings on the Pangea Ultima BIQ - just imported the map from Destiny Reborn into a clean BIQ and saved.

In DR, only Seafaring civs (El Caribe, Pacifica, etc.) start off with the ability to build coastal boats. About a fourth of the way into the game, other civs can build coastal boats, and Seafaring can build sea-faring boats. About halfway through the game, other civs can build sea-faring boats and Seafaring civs can build ocean-faring boats. Only civs with the Seafaring trait will ever be able to build ocean faring boats. Both continents and most islands are connected by either coastal or seafaring tiles, but there are a few well-guarded remote isles that are not located along the outskirts of the map and Madagascar in the Seeing Sea. Some are close enough that a fast seafaring ship may be able to reach it without sinking, but others are only for the ocean-faring ships.

I haven't played with the movement setting for the ocean, but I am making it quite high for the coastal tiles, to represent dangers like reefs and sandbars. Sea tiles will be quick, giving seafaring boats an advantage over the coastal. Ocean tiles will have.... other dangers that those Seafaring civs must look out for...

 

[Gojira54]

both maps feature a lot of desert and mountains, limiting settlement possibilities.

They serve as more than that.

Deserts are intended to hide treasures deep in their recesses. These will be well-guarded strategic or luxury resources only found in the deep desert. You must fight to get them, then build a road and a colony, and keep it well guarded to maintain access. They will buffer travel a bit, as they will have a high movement cost, due to the sand and heat. I also made desert 'beaches' to limit the number of coastal cities.

Mountains will have a little bit of the above, but also restrict access to other areas for awhile. Most of the mountain ranges now extend into the sea, so the only way to get to the other side will be by boat or road. Mountains will have an extraordinarily high movement cost, so roads will take awhile to build, and volcanoes are prevalent, making roads a slow, dangerous, costly way to travel. The only ranges that do not have passes somewhere along the way are the Africa\Greenland Divide and the Austrarctica Range. The Indochine Blob is a rather fat but geothermically active range, that may hide treasures amidst all the spouting lava.

It is worth noting that Greenland and especially Antarctica will be unpopulated regions available only by boat or mountain road. Antarctica will be especially large and rich, but will have some nearby Seafaring Civs that will vie for it.

All these are ideas I throw out to you modders out there who might be looking for ideas on how to use this.

 

[Big Bopper]

Very nice map, it took me a few minutes to recognize the continents and find I'll be buried in Africa in a few million years.

 

[timerover51]

Gojira, I was wondering how you are planning to defend the deep desert resources? Pre-placed Barbarian units, or a desert-based civilization? Pre-placed Barbarians would be the easiest to do, although a Desert-based Civilization with units that ignore Desert moving costs would be interesting as well.

If you boost the movement cost of Ocean Tiles, that would keep any exceptionally speed seagoing boats from getting across without the chance of sinking.

 

[Gojira54]

Thanks Guys.

Without giving away too many spoilers, I will say there will be some significantly powerful and unique preplaced barbarians in at least some of the deserts, mountains, oceans, remote isles, and otherwise uninhabited sections of land.

Good thinking on the ocean squares. I'll want the fastest of the seafaring boats (including wonder bonuses) to be able to traverse up to to Ocean squares - leaving the closer islands a remote and distant possibility late game, if they haven't already been claimed. Madagascar could only be accessed by a Seafaring civ unless accessed via Brazil late-game by a civ with the appropriate wonder, but New Zealand would only be accessible by a Seafaring Civ.

If you notice, there is only a single Sea tile separating Austrarctica from the main continent, While the eastern half of Austrarctica will initially only be populated by Pacifica, the set of islands between the continents - and therefore the only connection for the non-seafaring civs - will be controlled by one or two other seafaring civs (definitely Wilayah Indonesia just south of the choke point, possibly Bagong Pilipinas just to the north).

 

[Civinator]

That´s a very interesting map. I´m happy to live now and not in 250,000,000 years in one of these few gigantic "fried eggs".

Where on this map would be the remnants of Britain, Germany and Scandinavia?

 

[Kirejara]

Hi Gojira,

I am currently playing your map with autoplaced resources. The start positions I had also placed by the computer at first, but at least half of them were either in jungle or desert - two exceptionaly cruel start positions were in the middle of the desert 10 - 15 rounds away from settable land. So I placed them by hand.

However you can not sail around the world. Is this intended?

EDIT and PS: What mapsize rules have you used? The corruption is exceptional heavy as if I have far too many cities, but I have settled only a quarter of antarctica (?). The AI seems to struggle too with more than normal corruption.

Second EDIT: According to C3MT uses the map the rules of "small", this allowes only a handful of cities (as made for small maps). This is a very harsh restriction. I assume that this was not intented, or is it?

Does anyone know, how the size rules can be changed in the editor without erasing everything else?

 

[Yoda Power]

EDIT and PS: What mapsize rules have you used? The corruption is exceptional heavy as if I have far too many cities, but I have settled only a quarter of antarctica (?). The AI seems to struggle too with more than normal corruption.

Second EDIT: According to C3MT uses the map the rules of "small", this allowes only a handful of cities (as made for small maps). This is a very harsh restriction. I assume that this was not intented, or is it?

Does anyone know, how the size rules can be changed in the editor without erasing everything else?

When playing a custom map it is very important to edit all the sizes in the World Sizes tab to be exactly the same. Otherwise you will run into the problem you are encountering.

The settings should be exactly the same for all sizes (size, corruption, tech rate etc.) in the tab.

Whenever you import rules from a mod that uses random map, it is important to remember that the World Sizes has to be edited afterwards.

 

[Gojira54]

Where on this map would be the remnants of Britain, Germany and Scandinavia?

Europe as a whole is very scrunched up, essentially is smashed into the triangle of land just north of Africa between 109*7, 131*25, and 145*15. Euro civs will have an early bloodbath and need to expand out. Luckily DR is based on 2100 projected population counts, and includes neighboring countries merging into one, so there are less Euro countries than there is in the base game - but even still this will be very tight area. Especially when you realize that Pacifica starts on the eastern coast of the otherwise uninhabited (by civs, anyway) smaller continent Austrarctica. I'll balance this out in game by using barbarians - they like uninhabited areas...

However you can not sail around the world. Is this intended?

You should be able to circle the continents navaly. If you are referring to no X-wrap and Y-wrap, yes that is intentional, and this is not meant to represent all of earth. Pangea Ultima itself represents about a fourth of the Earths map, the rest is pure ocean with a few isles here and there. That being said you can easily toggle the wraps off and on as you desire. I should forewarn you that if you allow North\South travel on this map, you have the undesirable effect of being able to move from the north coast to the south in 1 or 2 turns, as I made the map borders extend just past the land masses. In fact I had to eliminate 1 land tile from the south coast to maintain separation.

I am currently playing your map with autoplaced resources. The start positions I had also placed by the computer at first, but at least half of them were either in jungle or desert - two exceptionaly cruel start positions were in the middle of the desert 10 - 15 rounds away from settable land. So I placed them by hand.

EDIT and PS: What mapsize rules have you used? The corruption is exceptional heavy as if I have far too many cities, but I have settled only a quarter of antarctica (?). The AI seems to struggle too with more than normal corruption.

Second EDIT: According to C3MT uses the map the rules of "small", this allowes only a handful of cities (as made for small maps). This is a very harsh restriction. I assume that this was not intented, or is it?

Does anyone know, how the size rules can be changed in the editor without erasing everything else?

When playing a custom map it is very important to edit all the sizes in the World Sizes tab to be exactly the same. Otherwise you will run into the problem you are encountering.

The settings should be exactly the same for all sizes (size, corruption, tech rate etc.) in the tab.

Whenever you import rules from a mod that uses random map, it is important to remember that the World Sizes has to be edited afterwards.

I'll answer both the posts here with the same response I mentioned previously. The map was built by hand by me for a mod I've been working on for many years. Once the map was done, I simply imported the map and the map alone into a fresh, clean, new BIQ, and saved it. I did not make changes to any of the settings at all, including the recommended ones in the second post. You should be able to change any or even all of these settings without it affecting the map at all.

I just found the map interesting, and since it is not really a fantasy map but rather a scientific projection of what Earth may look like in 250 million years, I thought I would post the clean version without any modifications by me, so you folks can use it however you wish. But as you both pointed out, playing it right out of the box probably isn't going to be as fun as if you go in, tweak the settings, place things like starting locations, resources, goody huts, barbarians, etc.

To sum up, I just posted the map, imported from my mod. Nothing else was changed.

I do really appreciate the interest and feedback, so keep it coming. I've done quite a few playtests using it, but the more people that use it, the more Gotchas can be caught before the mod goes live. Timerovers high oceanic costs is an example of something that will now be added to my mod as a result of this.

 

[timerover51]

For those who want to have both the X and Y wrap, there is a solution to the North-South short problem. You can add times, quite a few of them, to both the top and bottom sides of the map using Steph's editor, as long as you also add a couple of tiles to both the right and left sides. Given the close proximity of land to both the right and left sides, you might want to add more than a few tiles. If you increase Ocean movement costs, you might not need that many tiles to make sure that only SeaFaring Nations which can use Ocean movement can operate over them.

Gojira, are you planning any restrictions on ships in this to limit them to sail-powered vessels only?

 

[Gojira54]

Yes, expanding the map would work. I don't remember if MapTweaker also has that functionality, but I think it does. For the purpose of DR, however, the map is fine without the X and Y wraps, IMHO. Feel free to tweak\change\use this for your own purposes in any way.

DR technology tree has been reverted to the original timeline I had for it, starting with the basics like Hunting, Gathering, and Toolmaking, and ending with some really high tech stuff like Gunpowder. All ships will either be moved by the faster but more costly sail, or the slow and cheap row.

 

[timerover51]

I sort of figured that the ships were going to be man or sail-powered, as it would be hard to limit mechanically-powered ships to only coast and sea travel. Just upping the Ocean Tile movement cost to about 3 should do a good job at restricting travel.

As for the corruption problem, it looks like the map is using the Standard map size setting for optimum number of cities, which limits it quite a bit. To change that, you would go to the World Size edit menu, and change the optimum cities number for the standard map. Based on the map size, I would recommend a setting on the order of 65 or higher, as the map is more that 2.5 times the size of the regular Huge map, which has an optimum city limit of 36. As for hitting the corruption algorithm directly, you can change the corruption level in the Difficulty Level menu. You can also do what I do, and that is set additional buildings to reduce corruption in a city, which works quite well as well.