The effect of map size?

LionQ

Noble
Joined
Jun 25, 2002
Messages
367
Location
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I'm used to playing on the Huge map size, and Marathon game speed, too. I'd usually gank a neighbour early, then settle down and go for a Space Race victory, with having Diplomatic Victory as a second option.

As this began to get kind of boring, I changed some settings around. I played on a Standard map instead with six opponents, and to my surprise this had a tremendous effect on the gameplay experience.

The AI was much more aggressive, and had no problems with keeping the technological pace up either. It felt like playing versus a way better AI, to be honest. It was performing well better than on a Huge map.

So this led me to wonder what the influence of the map size (and number of civilizations) actually is. What factors are influenced by this setting? Is the AI struggling to efficiently organize its empire on larger maps? Any information would be welcome.

Also, is it possible to set a random number of opponents somewhere when setting up a custom game?
 
From the WorldInfo.xml file, one can see the following parameters for each map size:

iDefaultPlayers, iUnitNameModifier, iTargetNumCities, iNumFreeBuildingBonuses, iBuildingClassPrereqModifier, iMaxConscriptModifier, iWarWearinessModifier, iGridWidth, iGridHeight, iTerrainGrainChange, iFeatureGrainChange, iResearchPercent, iTradeProfitPercent, iDistanceMaintenancePercent, iNumCitiesMaintenancePercent, iColonyMaintenancePercent, iCorporationMaintenancePercent, iNumCitiesAnarchyPercent, iAdvancedStartPointsMod.

It's the same as how the game gets scaled when played at different speeds. I suppose the out-lying speeds and sizes aren't scaled that perfectly---though one should feel the game to be different, after all, it's a different size.

Smaller maps mean earlier conflict, earlier contact and hence earlier trade. Bigger maps means more slack both in terms of space and time.

Though I've read a lot of people say Small is easier than Standard. I mostly play Small, having a little out-dated computer.
 
Well smaller maps sizes mean less people to beat, but thats the only difference in difficulty. Of course theres the question of whether you need 6,78 etc forges for and ironworks but that doesnt seem to matter in my games.
 
One large effect is tech speed-at least in the early game. Techs cost more on larger maps; by the late game you have a larger empire so the effect is compensated for, but early on you have the same number of cities you would have on any map and tech is slower. For example, try researching some tech at the very start- the time to research may change by a couple of turns depending on map size.
 
I think the effect of the poor city placement and bad city improvement is multiplied because they are more cities on large maps.
 
I'm used to playing on the Huge map size, and Marathon game speed, too. I'd usually gank a neighbour early, then settle down and go for a Space Race victory, with having Diplomatic Victory as a second option.

As this began to get kind of boring, I changed some settings around. I played on a Standard map instead with six opponents, and to my surprise this had a tremendous effect on the gameplay experience.

The AI was much more aggressive, and had no problems with keeping the technological pace up either. It felt like playing versus a way better AI, to be honest. It was performing well better than on a Huge map.

So this led me to wonder what the influence of the map size (and number of civilizations) actually is. What factors are influenced by this setting? Is the AI struggling to efficiently organize its empire on larger maps? Any information would be welcome.

Also, is it possible to set a random number of opponents somewhere when setting up a custom game?

Could try moving up a level... :crazyeye:

Unless you are on Deity already and therefore I would bow to you.

Also, IMO, 12 Civs (the default number for Huge Maps) is way way too low.... I think at least 14 is optimal.
 
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