Radical Earth - 18civ (52x32 & 64x40)

[Craterus22]

Some more thoughts and comments:



- Oceans: contact between americas and the old world happens too soon. Heck Japan even settles Hawaii or something, while America wil settle Iceland if England doesn't do it first. This may or may not be your goal for this map, just thought I'd mention it. It'd be cool if the oceans were larger (while keeping the exact same landmasses) to make this contact come later.

- Rome: whoa. I just played my first ever game with the Romans where I decided to rush for Praetorians... All of Europe fell before 100 BC (except for England), then Russia lost their capital and 2 cities before 1000 AD. Too bad the AI never does a rush like that.

- Even though the map is really small, I still feel like it's a very big world. For most of the ancient and middle ages, I don't even care about what happens over in asia if I'm playing in Europe or Africa. It seems like they're so far away, and there's so much happening "locally". That's probably because there's so many civs in a crowded area. Good job

Thanks for all the comments - a couple of replies from me

oceans - when i made the map using the rhys tool... I "thought" I had more ocean space... the tool automatically puts in coast terrrain (rightfully so)... it was something I didn't think of at the time... I "may" try to make a wider map (perhaps 52x37?), but it may be a real headache (because I have made alot of post creation fixes).

rome (and france)... so far I have only played on settler so I don't expect too much action (except when using aggro - man that option is GREAT)... I was hoping to use it to figure out how to incent the ai to build in appropriate places (hence copper in north africa - trying to have mansa build north)... I have left room for them to build (and I was hoping low difficulty would provide the lack of war to let them build), but it hasnt worked.

The fact that the player can kick butt with Rome and France means it is possible, and perhaps those can be harder start areas for the player... (though I am still hoping to solve the problem of getting at least two cities for both those civs). Arabia - I am not so worried about (but there is room for the player to build three cities).

And yes I would love seeing the Ai put a rush on... I am hoping that it occurs at higher difficulty levels - anyone that plays at the higher levels please feel free to tell us the tale - it will be a while before I have time to play

Here is some great news for me. I down loaded the above map (64x40) and I have made it all the way to 1820 without a crash so far.

Never before have I got passes 1500AD before the game become unbearable with Hard Crashes and BSODs. So thanks for that I can now play the game.

If all goes well will try it again, who knows it may well be the only map I ever get to play on this game. Thanks again........

Good to hear - I may take a break from the 52x32 map after I download the patch and work on the bigger one (64x40) for a bit...

 

[narmox]

Whew playing as Germany is tough. I think I'll try Greece instead

No copper readily available for greece. Was that intentional?

 

[mtabacco]

no iron in north america?

 

[MrThing]

no iron in north america?

There is actually not much iron in the Americas.
There is not really any in Central and South America, which is perhaps a major reason why the Aztecs and Incas never got out of the bronze age.

 

[Craterus22]

Whew playing as Germany is tough. I think I'll try Greece instead

No copper readily available for greece. Was that intentional?

I have been working on the new 64x40 version - copper is present for greece - stone and marble all around the old world... if there isn't cpper in the tiny version - I will revisit resource placement.

no iron in america because they are loaded with other unique resources and tons of space...

EDIT - new version of 64x40 is up - I have only tested it a few times so feel free to leave contructive comment if you see a major error

 

[narmox]

Gonna try the new 64x40 version

 

[narmox]

Very nice indeed! The mountains and forest really add up to an Earth-like feel. Playing as Greece i'm dominating the greek/eastern europe areas.

Rome as usual was stuck to one city in Italy. I hope some modder eventually can slightly tweak Rome's AI to say "I got iron, it's PRAETORIAN RUSH TIME BUCKOS!"

Germany got annihilated by Russia. I'm not sure why, as I didn't see anything, I was too busy conquering the french cities in Eastern Europe...

EDIT:

forgot to say.. At least playing as Greece, the world seems MUCH bigger now. Bigger than I expected a 64x40 map to be compared to 54x32. Maybe it's just because that part of Europe that's much bigger than the previous map, as I notice Africa is pretty squished. Either way, spacing seems good. Now if only the aggressive Rome AI was actually aggressive lol. If only China wasn't stuck to a city or two, and if Mongolia would rush with those Keshiks when it mattered, not when I can bring 10 Phalanx to the defense against his.. 1 keshik.

 

[narmox]

Playing as Mongolia, Keshik rushed China and part of Russia then Persia.. Then my economy and culture was in shambles lost ALL of my experienced keshiks and archers to the strike till I got my economy back on and conquered Russia with new keshiks and catapults.. Whew.. now my economy is tattered again, and I'm more or less one age behind the other nations but so what, I got the biggest meanest territory and army

The new map just rocks

 

[Craterus22]

version 2Q is up for the tiny map - added copper to greek start

 

[Sutego]

I love this map! I have attached a version of the map that I enjoy playing with.

Features of my version:
1. All Leaders are enabled.
2. Starting positions are semi-random. Meaning that the civilization you choose can start at any of the starting positions for the other civilizations. So if you play the Russians your starting location may be where the Americans would normally start, or perhaps where the French normally start.

In order to have all leaders available, starting locations can't be fixed (as far as I know).

Also, game is currently setup to only allow victory by Culture or Conquest.

 

[Sutego]

I think the Germans are slow expanding in the 64x40 version because they don't have access to as many hammers initially as the other civs do. Since the AI usually seems to build 2x warriors, or 1x warrior and a scout, it takes them longer to do this before they move along to building a settler.

Just a thought.

 

[bigphesta]

GREAT Maps. I would like to see more ocean between the americas and the rest of the planet so that the lack of iron in the Americas is not exploited early (which I've foudn to be a bit of a problem). Other than that, the smaller map is VERY nice. Great work.

PS, I would LOVE a Duel sized map of this. Where only the "big" civs have two cities. Like US and Russia and China and India and that's about it.

 

[GIO888]

I play the 64x40 size map, it's brilliant. No, it's Uberbrilliant!

Anyway I can get to play against Victoria, Bismarck, Napoleon, Mao? These guys have NEVER shown up in any game, only the other Leaderhead.

Hope it's not a dumb question.

Again, superb Mod!

CIV ON!

 

[Craterus22]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words!

GREAT Maps. I would like to see more ocean between the americas and the rest of the planet so that the lack of iron in the Americas is not exploited early (which I've foudn to be a bit of a problem). Other than that, the smaller map is VERY nice. Great work.

PS, I would LOVE a Duel sized map of this. Where only the "big" civs have two cities. Like US and Russia and China and India and that's about it.

Yeah - as mentioned earlier... I made a mistake when first making the tiny map regarding ocean distance... unfortunatley, I am a bit worn out... it is absolutely mind numbing to work on maps with the tools that have been provided. It is unlikely I will work on a duel sized map... please feel free to do one yourself. If when complete - you think these maps were an influence - just add a link to this thread making a note of it.

BTW - I will take this opportunity to add again that these maps were inspired by my versions of TheRaz' original map (link available in the Razzicle Earth map thread)...

Anyway I can get to play against Victoria, Bismarck, Napoleon, Mao? These guys have NEVER shown up in any game, only the other Leaderhead.

Hope it's not a dumb question.

Not dumb at all... as sutego mentioned - it does not appear that firaxis gave us the ability to make maps with starting location set while also letting us choose different leaders...

If you prefer a certain group of leaders I have tried to have different leaders in the small and tiny maps... open up the file using notepad (rightclick on the file and use the "openwith" option... scroll down a little ways and you can see were you can substitute your prefered leaders.


Regarding alt maps:
Feel free to make any changes and add them to this thread (or start a new thread if the map is a big enough change and put a link in the first post back to this thread).

ps- nice alternative of random start locations sutego...
ps2 - I will keep updating these over time as I continue to play them (and with any feedback)
ps3 - thanks for the note about hammers and germany... I will take a look at it

 

[ahigh]

It looks like the Americans have a solid advatage on this map. If you use your first settler to build a city down in Mexico, your cultural border can effectively seal off all of North America for you, giving you room for 2-3 more cities than the other nations. Perhaps the Aztecs should be further North.

 

[kandalf]

Do any coders here know if you can add a script to a certain tile on a map so that the value that the AI assigns that tile when calculating viable city spots is increased? If so, that would be incredibly useful in getting the AI to create cities in specific places.

 

[niffweed17]

the americas are too large, and with too few civs. i would enlarge western europe and western africa, and move the americas to the west a little bit. also shrink the northwestern part of north america. as you will be able to see, the three civs which you need to give more space to are france, rome, and arabia, while you can get away with taking some space away from america, the aztecs, and possibly russia and germany. i would also move the american starting position further north.

 

[Craterus22]

the americas are too large, and with too few civs. i would enlarge western europe and western africa, and move the americas to the west a little bit. also shrink the northwestern part of north america. as you will be able to see, the three civs which you need to give more space to are france, rome, and arabia, while you can get away with taking some space away from america, the aztecs, and possibly russia and germany. i would also move the american starting position further north.

There is actually room for rome and france to build (limited though it is)- they just don't build. I give america room to build because I want them to have the potential to be dominant in the later game, I tried to balance that by NOT giving them the "good" early resources. In addition, I tried to keep them closer to the center of the east coast because I want england to get the chance to sneak into the north while spain has the chance to sneak into cuba and the more southern islands on the map.

I am not sure if they fixed the bug where the AI can see the hammers that undiscovered resources produce... if they did - I suspect there may be some changes in city placement...

I will be visiting this map again in the next couple of weeks after that bug is confirmed to be squashed.

 

[narmox]

I think I found a simple way (on the 64x40 map) to give Germany a fighting chance. I've been playing as Germany the past 2 games (my first 2 games ever at Prince, boy it's way tougher than Noble): I simply settle one tile south of where I start.

that way, when borders expand, I have access to a forest which gives me food and production and allows my city to grow and build and at least give me a fighting chance while I settle better areas. Not sure how the AI would handle this...

 

[Bobolini]

There is actually not much iron in the Americas.
There is not really any in Central and South America, which is perhaps a major reason why the Aztecs and Incas never got out of the bronze age.

I disagree with you, here is an exerpt from John Steele Gordon on American History.

"The coming of the steam age transformed the iron industry. The demand for rolled iron for boilers increased exponentially. And between 1830 and 1861 more than thirty thousand miles of railroad were built in the United States, providing an enormous market for iron rails and allowing the creation of a national market for manufactured goods. This vast increase in demand caused iron mills to grow quickly into major enterprises.

Pennsylvania had been a leader in the American iron industry since revolutionary days. With the discovery of very large deposits of anthracite coal in that state and its substitution for charcoal in smelting after 1840, Pennsylvania solidified its position as the nation's leading state in the iron industry.

In 1844 U.S. government surveyors discovered the first of the great iron ore deposits in the Great Lakes states. By the late 1850s these were being aggressively exploited. The abundance of rich iron ore around Lake Superior, the anthracite of Pennsylvania, and the cheap water transport available on the Great Lakes ensured that this area would be the center of the American iron and steel industry thereafter. As the production of iron and steel became the driving force of the Industrial Revolution, the Midwest became the center of American heavy industry."