Starting spots that are just cruel

[The Almighty dF]

I just got off a series of just... mean starting locations on Multiplayer. Various map styles, all huge, marathon, both balanced and original resources.

Basically... this is what was encountered:
1. ALL TREES. NOTHING BUT TREES. middle of continent, no rivers or anything.
2. ALL ICE. ice everywhere. Why didn't we listen to Al Gore?!

Anyone else experienced the map generator being more sadistic than usual?

 

[Ammar]

He seems to place more value on forests this time around, but I really don't think this belongs in the Bug Reports.

 

[The Almighty dF]

At first I didn't think it did either, then it kept occuring.
Since this wasn't this bad until I got BtS, I assumed it was a BtS issue.

 

[Pyrion]

Yup. I've nabbed starting spots that are nothing but trees, or all ice, that's why you have the option to MOVE YOUR SETTLER to better terrain before plunking down your first city.

 

[ainwood]

Is this a specific map script? How often (%age-wise) does it happen? Inclined to say "not a bug"....

 

[IronCrown]

Yup. I've nabbed starting spots that are nothing but trees, or all ice, that's why you have the option to MOVE YOUR SETTLER to better terrain before plunking down your first city.

Nonsense. If you have to move for 10+ turns to get a playable starting position, you've lost already. Unless you play against much weaker opponents.

 

[The Almighty dF]

Nothing specific. As stated I've tried various different map settings and I repeatedly get the same result.
It seems to only be on multiplayer maps, though.
Single player? I get good positions.

My theory is that something was added to the multiplayer map generator to prevent the issue of human players being too close to each other.
This would also explain why the other human player and I would always be on exact opposites of the map.

Therefore, possibly not a bug and just an annoying new feature/fix that can lead to repeated bad starting spots.

Worth nothing, the enemies seem to be void of this bug, as they get the usual (atleast one of each (production, commerce, food) and atleast 3 resources).

 

[heihojin]

I know that it has been a long time since this issue was first reported - however, it is the only thread that is relevant to my current issue.

I administrate multiple PBEM games, two of which are BtS games. One game was started in v3.13, and the other in v3.17. In each of those two, several players' starting positions were located ridiculously close to each other. In one game, my Settler started in a position 5-6 tiles away from my closest neighbor; our capital cities' radii overlap!

Both games were Standard-size, Continents maps. I have 15 other Civ 4 non-scenario, non-BtS PBEM games running and I have never seen starting positions like this. Hence I am pretty sure that this is a BtS issue. I'm delaying starting any more BtS games until I can find a resolution for this issue, as it seriously detracts from the players' enjoyment to have to compete for land so early with their neighbors.

Does anyone else have similar experience with multiplayer BtS, or have any suggestions for resolving it?

 

[PieceOfMind]

It has long been known that there is some very strange code that was introduced in BtS (I think) relating to the normalisation code for capital BFCs.

It has debated in great depth whether it really is a bug, but in the code it checks the value of the start location, and if it feels it needs to add things of value it will appear to keep adding forests over and over before it considers whether to add another resource. But, by the time it considers resources to add, all the squares have forests on them and so it finishes the routine.

This is why when you have a forest heavy start, you can pretty much guarantee any non-forest tile will have a resource underneath.