Preferred Maps?

[Orion Pax]

This is where we differ. I find the Astronomy dynamic annoying in CiV4 and don't like boating fleets over large distances for attacks....much rather just sit and tech to space or Culture than go through with intercontinental war if it's not a short hop onto the next landmass or way ahead of the AI already. Even in Iso it still matters because I gotta get trade routes and resources up and running. Which is cool and all, I learned how to handle the situation form other great players like Lain and participating in the NC games here, but it's still not as fun to me as either running war early, mid-game Cuir/Cav stomp, or big REX recovery into huge cannon or tank push later. I would rather even sit on the same Pangaea in a corner and Space Race before intercontinental war. Pfft.

Totally hear that. Really depends on the victory type I guess. If Conquest/Dom, then yeah it becomes a larger hurdle. For Space/Culture/Diplo, it becomes more of an expanded aspect? New trade partners & potential city cites. But you don't have to engage with it much if you don't want to. Often on Space I do much of what you say: focus on continental expansion, but then maybe go grab a colony or two. And meet some new frenemies of course. I like how it expands the AI's options from being bound to their land to being able to branch out. It changes the norm of interactions in a way I enjoy.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

My dream map would be fractal in design. That is to say it would have a repeating pattern of landmasses.

Each player would start on a mini continent with enough room for 2-3 players. 2-3 of these would than be grouped into, for lack of a better term, island chains that can be traversed with galleys. So no ocean between them but not easy to hop over from one to the other either. And finally you would have 2-3 of these clusters on your map separated by ocean.

So you would get a huge map with 20-30 civs and each part of the game would always be about you seeking to dominate first your island, than your group of islands and finally the whole map.

The ideal game outcome would be that you start with 20-30 civs. By the time you hit optics each of the starting islands has been conquered by one civ eying its neighbors. Than your range opens up and you move on to start forming relations with other continental groups. And by the time you reach the modern era each of these big clusters is just one civ with potentially some vassals. And you go into a big showdown with modern fleets.

 

[Qactus]

@PPQ_Purple That sounds like you should give Hemispheres a try. You can set the number of continents to 6. Their position will be very predictable but they'll be separated by ocean. If you choose "massive", these will be actual continents, but you can specify "Varied" as well, so some will be massive, some snaky or a group of islands. Play against 17 opponents on a huge map and you should get pretty close to what you described with 6 groups of 3 civilizations before optics, some sharing a massive continent, some having an island each.

Spoiler This is how it could look like :

 

[Pangaea]

Perhaps this would amount to much the same, but there is a script called "Smart_Map". Here I just set it up quickly with one continent per civ with 18 civs. However, there are heaps of possible customisations, so maybe it's possible to fill out with some islands too. Probably won't get exactly what you want, but you can play around with the settings and see what you get.

This is a huge version. (check the minimap for an overall look)

 

[Orion Pax]

@Pangaea- That looks super fun. One cool thing about landmasses like those is that they can become navigable with galleys if borders expand enough. Sometimes you need both your borders and another civ's borders you have Open Borders with to traverse. But it gives a nuance between super close landmasses and distant continents.

 

[6K Man]

@Pangaea- That looks super fun. One cool thing about landmasses like those is that they can become navigable with galleys if borders expand enough. Sometimes you need both your borders and another civ's borders you have Open Borders with to traverse. But it gives a nuance between super close landmasses and distant continents.

I'm 99% sure that your Galleys/Workboats/Triremes can't enter ocean tiles in anyone's culture but your own, even if you have OB with the other nation.

I'm a SmartMap fan. It's nice to be able to pick and choose landforms besides Arid/Normal/Wet and Cool/Normal/Warm. More rivers, less lakes, and fewer mountains, please.

 

[floydmcw]

Does anyone play with Fantasy maps, where terrain and resources can appear anywhere? I try it every few years, usually goes down like:

"Look at this weird terrain!"

"OMG grassland incense"

"This sucks"

Because normal resource/terrain associations are forbidden, you wind up with a lot of tundra wheat, desert sheep, etc. Also resources that appear anywhere generally aren't present. This includes iron and copper.

And the general feel of the map is barren, there's desert and tundra and ice everywhere.

I did come away with a better understanding of terrain mechanics though. Answer in spoiler, what does Tundra/Flood Plain produce?

Spoiler :

Flood plain is apparently a +3 overlay, on normal maps only to desert. Tundra FP is 4, plus if next to a river.

 

[6K Man]

Yes, I remember a grassland Floodplain that was before I even touched it. Fun stuff... until you see the AI gets them too.

It'd be hilarious if the Fantasy map generator put all your nearby strategic resources on Mountains.

 

[Lennier]

Doesn't the fantasy map default to toroidal? I remember generating one once and looking at it in worldbuilder and getting a headache.

 

[Seraiel]

I did not know that. Also WHY????

The answer to the why is, that units move more easily.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

The answer to the why is, that units move more easily.

But what does that have to do with anything?

 

[Pangaea]

It has something to do with max distance between cities. With Flat world wrap, that can be a whole lot, but with Toroidal it's much less. So maintenance costs are changed to compensate for the different settings. Still, Flat is a nice advantage here, because your cities/empire tend to be clustered together, and not spread half way around the 'world'. Therefore you typically get relatively lower maintenance costs on Flat.

 

[Keler]

I almost always play Balanced script map, I really can't stand archipelago and islands, and Pangae is too unfair for me.

 

[Orion Pax]

I almost always play Balanced script map, I really can't stand archipelago and islands, and Pangae is too unfair for me.

What do you like about Balanced maps? I've never played em.

 

[crashmon]

There is some script "Planet generator" which can do very random and interesting maps, and I played quite abit of maps on that one, but it's not that commonly in use on the forums so it lacks the comparability and social aspects.

I also used to use that, but found that it seems to create far too many forests / Jungles compared to the standard map scripts.... I also use smart map when I want to play something a little freaky, but I generally stick to the standard scripts these days while trying the harder difficulties

 

[Keler]

What do you like about Balanced maps? I've never played em.

I like balanced maps for having solid land and not much coastline

 

[crashmon]

Yes, I remember a grassland Floodplain that was before I even touched it. Fun stuff... until you see the AI gets them too.

It'd be hilarious if the Fantasy map generator put all your nearby strategic resources on Mountains.

There is a map script called 'smart map'. In the many options it has, on resource mapping it has something called 'smart map insane'.. And it is, you get grassland Flood plains with insane tile yields, you can see furs in desert, cows in tundra, all sorts of weird and wacky combinations.

I've never actually played on those maps, but I love generating them just to see how wacky they can be, but actually playing a game with a cluster of furs in a desert would just feel far too weird

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I just got back to playing the game with a mostly vanilla setup (K-Mod) and god I forgot how small the game feels with default civ numbers and map sizes.

 

[SnipedSoul]

I play Hemispheres maps with massive continents. The continents are indeed massive so there's room to expand. I like having multiple continents so that navies are relevant.

 

[Orion Pax]

I play Hemispheres maps with massive continents. The continents are indeed massive so there's room to expand. I like having multiple continents so that navies are relevant.

I like those qualities a lot. I am usually disappointed by the lack of islands though?