Very bad map generator

[morchuflex]

Hello.

I like to play archipelago worlds.
But unfortunately the map generator hardly ever gives me interesting worlds.
Much too often, several civs get stuck on small chunks of land, while others have whole continents for themselves.
I really wish there was a way to give everyone equal starting chances: an island of its own, one and only one luxury, usable fresh water (usable means not surrounded by non-irrigable terrain!), at least one river (for the Hoover Dam!), and roughly the same "land value", in terms of food, gold and shield output.

Alas, most so-called archipelago worlds turn out to look like the one you can see on this screenshot.
As you can see, playing as China (light blue, left side), I'm stuck on a miniscule island almost completely covered by jungle and marsh.
It is even worse for the light green civ.
The brown and amber ones (Carthage and England) fare hardly better (their island isn't connected to mine).
At the same time, three other civs enjoy huge islands with apparently fertile environments. It is not hard to guess that victory will probably be decided between them, while the others won't really count. This is really unpleasant. In Civ2, the map generator usually provided much more balanced games.

 

[Longasc]

Randomy Roughly The Same For Everyone - hard to do.

Simply restart. There will be no more change for Civ3 ever. It is really not that much of a problem if you use MAPFINDER or simply common sense, just restart when your situation is awful. The map generator could be more balanced, I agree. But it is not that difficult to deal with its flaws.

 

[kryszcztov]

Or you can join CDZ - Civ3 Duel Zone. Over there you'll be able to play pelago PBEMs if you're interested in PBEM, and people there will be happy to provide you with maps which may be the best ones in the world ! Our mapmakers are very skilled. And you'll find some of the best PBEM players over there. And we need more French players there !!

 

[microbe]

But it is not that difficult to deal with its flaws.

Not that difficult because you can restart when you realize the map is awful, normally at later Middle Ages?

 

[citizen001]

you should get at least one or two good maps out of say a dozen restarts.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Not that difficult because you can restart when you realize the map is awful, normally at later Middle Ages?

You don't, like, explore early? I usually discover whether my start loc sucks within the first half of the Ancient.

(And when I discover how awful it is, I most commonly play on anyway, but that's another story.)

 

[Longasc]

I usually know that I have a bad starting location after the first twenty turns. Usually I am not in the Middle Ages after twenty turns.

 

[morchuflex]

What is mapfinder?

 

[Longasc]

Take a look in the Customization and Creation Forum, look for HoF Mapfinder.

 

[Spatula]

There's something that hasn't been touched upon at all though. My favourite maps are Pangeal with 60% ocean. 4 time out of 10 the game will give me large continents. To me this is simply rediculous.

And before you say it, I have the latest patch.

 

[Longasc]

This was actually mentioned, that this setting might give you two large continents instead of one Pangea.

I agree, some more ways of telling the Map Generator what exactly you want would be nice...