Let's continue this discussion.
First off - I don't like GEM.
Three particular reasons I noted by playing just a couple of games with GEM:
- ability to found a city that is BOTH on Nile and on Red Sea
- tundra in all kinds of places, where the climate is very far from tundra
- blocking mountains in places where there should be none (Aghanistan was passed through by large armies multiple times in history, same for many other places, Mexico, etc)
However, the author claims the resources are very accurate and the detail is also good.
But, I think, there are other ways to expand the playable area of RFC.
I will not elaborate right now, because it would take too long to explain properly, but what I would like to know is - can you list all the map-related work that needs to be done if migrating to a different map (assuming the map itself is ready to use)?
What I know ATM:
- starting locations including scripted spawns for barbarian and independent cities
- settler maps
- stability maps
- war maps
- balancing (some of the mechanics need different modifiers due to larger map)
Additionally, I read that it is possible to change the DLL in such a way as to allow extra civs (up to 50?).
Could this be done for RFC, too?
It would allow independents be more granular and possibly also some extra historical civs.