Tectonics maps

[Bast]

I've been trying these maps out on Monarch. I actually got my first win ever on the level with Asoka - a surprise diplomatic win.

Anyway, I hate these maps. If you go 70% water, there's too little land and if you're stuck on a pangea like map, forget it, you'll be lucky to get like 2 other cities. If you go 30% water (lakes), the map even though it's the same size seems ridiculously huge. It's almost like you're isolated. I went in worldbuilder and found rows and rows of mountains.

And that's the other thing, too many mountains and plains and not enough good land for food.

I'm questioning whether I'll play another game on these maps. Monarch itself is hard enough without having to contend with such difficult maps.

What do you guys think?

 

[Gooblah]

Well, i dunno about that.

I"ve played two 70% Water Tectonics map at Prince/Epic, and both have been awesome, but get boring after a while. Beeline for AH or BW, settle near the resource, pump out Axes or Chariots, and slay the other two people on your continet by 1000 BC. Then, pack in cities extremely tight, build the GLH, take advantage of the masses of rivers, and settle into a CE. Finally, beeline for Rifling/Astronomy with a late Liberalism to take either one, then convert half your cities to Workshop/Watermill production powerhouses. Pump out Galleons and units, then win a Conquest.

I'm with you on the map style though. Maybe taking it down to 60% water would help?

Edit: I'd recommend cephalo's PerfectWorld, Bast.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Edit: I'd recommend cephalo's PerfectWorld, Bast.

 

[Stoney the I]

I love tectonics. It really feels like a world that isnt created for the player to settle on. You have to make the most of it somehow, and that measn making some hard choices about where and how many cities you want to settle. I play it on 60% land, wet climate.

Also the mountain ranges are beautifull and sometimes make strategic bottlenecks.

But I also agree with the guys posting above me, Perfectworld(2) makes nice maps as well.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

1. Competent humans can adjust to poor land far better than the AI (tectonics is probably easier for this!).

2. In recent patches there's a 60% water option

3. You can use "wet" to make the terrain more green

4. Expect more hills/mountain ridges, and the tactics relevant to those.

 

[Gooblah]

1. Competent humans can adjust to poor land far better than the AI (tectonics is probably easier for this!).

2. In recent patches there's a 60% water option

3. You can use "wet" to make the terrain more green

4. Expect more hills/mountain ridges, and the tactics relevant to those.

Oh no, it's a TON easier, and the land tends to be incredibly rich - grasslands, rivers, etc; the 60% water option IME hasn't changed it much; slightly larger continents (12 cities, not 10! Oh joy! ), but still incredibly far apart and prone to mass-scale rushing for an isolated start. I have yet to see an epic mountain range or something on that scale, but that's just by my experiences.

 

[bestbrian]

If you go 60% water plus Wet climate, you'll have more green. However, this map tends to create ALOT of useless tiles in the form of deserts and mountains. Alot of useless plains tiles (no food resource and way too far from water to ever be irrigated). Scimpy on the seafood as well. They look cool, but that's about it.

I find that Archipelago with Snaky continents is giving me intersesting and fun maps with lots of chokepoints, and the green stuff + seafood to make them viable.

 

[Bast]

Well, i dunno about that.

I"ve played two 70% Water Tectonics map at Prince/Epic, and both have been awesome, but get boring after a while. Beeline for AH or BW, settle near the resource, pump out Axes or Chariots, and slay the other two people on your continet by 1000 BC. Then, pack in cities extremely tight, build the GLH, take advantage of the masses of rivers, and settle into a CE. Finally, beeline for Rifling/Astronomy with a late Liberalism to take either one, then convert half your cities to Workshop/Watermill production powerhouses. Pump out Galleons and units, then win a Conquest.

I'm with you on the map style though. Maybe taking it down to 60% water would help?

Edit: I'd recommend cephalo's PerfectWorld, Bast.

Thanks. I'm trying it right now. It looks better. I like the concept of Old Wold and New World and how those are the only options to pick. Not this 70% or 30% water crap.

It's a lot more realistic option imo.

 

[Scoottr]

I've been playing around with Smartmap...lets you select alot of options.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Tectonics is not for everyone. I think it's neat the default option is the 70% water map (like Earth). Also, the mountain ranges, while large, are certainly more interesting than the dotted peaks that appear in most of the normal mapscripts. Mountain ranges are significant geological/geographical (?) features of landmasses and I think Tectonics does a fantastic job of simulating this.

Also, the landmass shapes are so unique from game to game that playing Tectonics always gives a new challenge each game. It's not the most balanced of maps - often you get a better or worse than average start.

I actually prefer Tectonics over the PerfectWorld script because PerfectWorld (a) takes so long to create maps and (b) PerfectWorld makes too much desert (as realistic as it is).

 

[Bast]

Tectonics is not for everyone. I think it's neat the default option is the 70% water map (like Earth). Also, the mountain ranges, while large, are certainly more interesting than the dotted peaks that appear in most of the normal mapscripts. Mountain ranges are significant geological/geographical (?) features of landmasses and I think Tectonics does a fantastic job of simulating this.

Also, the landmass shapes are so unique from game to game that playing Tectonics always gives a new challenge each game. It's not the most balanced of maps - often you get a better or worse than average start.

I actually prefer Tectonics over the PerfectWorld script because PerfectWorld (a) takes so long to create maps and (b) PerfectWorld makes too much desert (as realistic as it is).

It does take long(er) but not that long or maybe I just have have a fast computer. I like deserts actually. I'm really loving all realistic and Earthlike this map really is.

There's a lot of desert but there's also a lot of fertile land. You need that. I found it ridiculous how Tectonics had no many plains.

 

[Neoclast]

I play on the tectonics maps all the time. I love the mountain ranges and the vast plains and so forth. It did take me a while to get the settings just right to where there was enough land vs players though. Instead of the wet option I use the no ice option. I typically play large maps with 14-16 players total. I usually go with 16 as it generally allows for about 4-6 cities to be built out before I have to go to war to get the rest.