Which map settings will give me a unique experience?

[El Caballerion]

Hey guys,

About to wrap up an amazing game on marathon as the Egyptians (Immortal, Perfect World map).

Just wanted to ask what are some good suggestions for map feature additions for my next game? Which map features do you play on to make the game more unique and interesting? To be more clear, please note that I"m not asking just for script suggestions, but instead what clickable features do you use (for instance, 3 billion year world, sparse resources, high sea level etc.)? Which ones work well for which civ and which ones provide the biggest challenge for specific civs?

 

[Civking5]

I can suggest tilted axes map and ice age map for having a unique experience. Also lakes map and boreal can be intersting if you play with raging barbs.

 

[Ajuga]

I usually like maps to be as unpredictable as possible.
Often I will go for a random maptype or a maptype that creates highly random terrain.
This way it really feels like you are exploring a new world, you never know what to expect.

Same goes for resources, sure it's nice when it's balanced strategically but I find the thrill of discovering that I have no iron or coal at all a lot nicer. Damn, I need this stuff, where is it?
It often makes me go to war or settle in areas I would otherwise ignore.

Sometimes I throw raging barbarians in the mix too.

Other than that I keep it normal, even though I like randomness I do not like it when civilizations are even more unpredictable than they already are.

 

[El Caballerion]

Regarding resources, it does become a bit disappointing that the larger your empire gets, the more likely you'll discover the later resources are already in your boundaries. I kind of wish that CIV had an option to make parts of the world ONLY have certain resources. For instance, your continent could only have iron, giving you a good early advantage, but the oil/aluminum would be on another part of the world, far away. These resources would be clumped together a few tiles apart, making it prime land for attacks/invasions.

 

[El Caballerion]

One thing I don't like, are the maps that are just squares/rectangles with no wrap (arboreal is one of these, I think). It makes it way too easy if you settle it the corner of the map, and WAAY too hard if you settle in the middle.

 

[MarauderCH]

Regarding resources, it does become a bit disappointing that the larger your empire gets, the more likely you'll discover the later resources are already in your boundaries. I kind of wish that CIV had an option to make parts of the world ONLY have certain resources. For instance, your continent could only have iron, giving you a good early advantage, but the oil/aluminum would be on another part of the world, far away. These resources would be clumped together a few tiles apart, making it prime land for attacks/invasions.

Too often I've had games where resources like coal, oil, and aluminum are no where near my empire. It's like it was done on purpose to make me have to go to war to secure it. But at the same time, I'm at a disadvantage because I don't have those resources.

 

[comatosedragon]

Try a Low sea level, wet, Temeperate, 3 billion year old, Sparse resources Large Islands map. Turn on raging barbs turn off ruins and pick a random civ. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Exchequer]

Regarding resources, it does become a bit disappointing that the larger your empire gets, the more likely you'll discover the later resources are already in your boundaries. I kind of wish that CIV had an option to make parts of the world ONLY have certain resources. For instance, your continent could only have iron, giving you a good early advantage, but the oil/aluminum would be on another part of the world, far away. These resources would be clumped together a few tiles apart, making it prime land for attacks/invasions.

Some maps have that option, others only have "balanced" or "strategic".

 

[Alzadar]

Regarding resources, it does become a bit disappointing that the larger your empire gets, the more likely you'll discover the later resources are already in your boundaries. I kind of wish that CIV had an option to make parts of the world ONLY have certain resources. For instance, your continent could only have iron, giving you a good early advantage, but the oil/aluminum would be on another part of the world, far away. These resources would be clumped together a few tiles apart, making it prime land for attacks/invasions.

This seems to happen to me all of the time. I'll start up an island game planning for eventual Frigate-based conquest and have Iron Working long delayed since I don't need it until Navigation. Then I discover that there's no Iron within a 25-tile radius of my empire.

I just played a game where Russia seemed to own the only Iron on the whole map, which was fine for awhile but then she started to runaway and I had to fight her down an entire era with -8 Iron and a big Frigate fleet.

I'll agree that this makes for some exciting/interesting games.

 

[dashwinner]

could someone specify which settings do what?
i tend to do 3 billion (i read somewhere it made more mountains), low sea level (more land area).
but i've been doing it so long i kind of forgot why i do it.
would be nice if there was a list somewhere that said exactly what did what.

 

[gozpel]

I chose Fractal most of the time, you never know if you end up on a pangaea map or being isolated for a long time. Once I played Isabella and was isolated, found 2 wonders and ended up with 12 cities on my own continent. I won by science after RA's, when I finally met all those friendly civs.

Another time I played as Askia, hemmed in by a civ north and a mountain-range, could only build one more city. Luckily I had horses so I took a couple of cities and won by culture.

Every fractal map will be different and that's why I like them.

 

[comatosedragon]

could someone specify which settings do what?
i tend to do 3 billion (i read somewhere it made more mountains), low sea level (more land area).
but i've been doing it so long i kind of forgot why i do it.
would be nice if there was a list somewhere that said exactly what did what.

Which setting exactly do you have a question about? You seem to understand the age setting, which is I guess the only one that is not self-explanatory--

The Younger the world (3b) the more mountains and hills (and also bigger groups together), the older the world (5b) the more flat, less groupings of mountains and hills.
which other settings specificaly were you asking about?

 

[dashwinner]

Which setting exactly do you have a question about? You seem to understand the age setting, which is I guess the only one that is not self-explanatory--

The Younger the world (3b) the more mountains and hills (and also bigger groups together), the older the world (5b) the more flat, less groupings of mountains and hills.
which other settings specificaly were you asking about?

thanks for the quick answer!

well i kind of have a general idea. i guess i was just wondering if there was a page that listed the exact details. thanks for explaining world age. im guessing sea level means more or less land available? but what does that entail exactly? more islands or just less landmass?

and does choosing temperate vs wet or humid means the whole map will be of the same type, or will there just be more of an abundance...

 

[Syntax Error]

Low Sea Levels means larger landmasses.

 

[Matthew.]

I thought the sea level just determines how many "deep ocean" tiles there are, does it also affect land mass?

As for resources, I started putting it on strategic balance. The standard can be amusing in early game, trying to get a hold of horses and iron, but it gets ridiculous when 98% of the map is covered and coal is discovered and puts the deposits in far away isolated spots. That isn't "encouraging" a player to war/trade, that is just annoying and forces (typically the AI) to set-up cities on one tile snow spots in the middle of the ocean. After settling/dominating an entire continent, my "reward" is to get screwed over on late-game resources.

/mini-rant

 

[adhuin]

I can suggest tilted axes map and ice age map for having a unique experience.

I second this recommendation.

You can have fully half of the map covered in permanent Ice!
My scenario:
7 civilizations in small map, continents mainly on north (ice) side.
By 1000ad world had total of 10 cities, 3 of them controlled by me.

 

[ense7en]

I second this recommendation.

You can have fully half of the map covered in permanent Ice!
My scenario:
7 civilizations in small map, continents mainly on north (ice) side.
By 1000ad world had total of 10 cities, 3 of them controlled by me.

I need to try this map type [tilted axis] in single player.

Tried it in MP recently and got absolutely screwed with my starting land which was this horrible snaky landmass with basically NO production.
Will never again agree to playing that map type in MP as it was unbelievably bad compared to everyone else's spots.

Spoiler :