Wes, generally I have played randomly-generated maps since the game came out. I find that if I know where the land is, the gameplay is affected (less exploration).
However, with CFC's bevy of scenarios available, I am hopeful of playing some. I am sure that I will be familiar with some of the maps there, but oh well.
I think one of the greater parts of the game is that you don't know how the surrounding looks like. Big or small island, good or bad terrain, any enemies nereby. So fixed maps makes the game less fun
Exploration's my favorite part of the game, and I like the challenges a random startup can throw at me.
I've had many disappointments with random maps in multiplayer, though. It's just no fun winning against someone when I know they were crippled and doomed by bad terrain, etc. from the start, and I can only derive so much sick pleasure being a pesky gnat against a robust enemy who has a giant, lush continent to bloat upon.
So I created a bunch of random maps, discarded the duds, and set all the start locations for game balance. They are random, but fair to all players. I hope people can use these maps in confidence.
Random maps are ok sometimes but I prefer to make my own. I use ones I haven't looked at in awhile which is good because then its basically all new to me. I have a few maps with balanced starts that are excellent for MP games.
I usually use random maps. I have played on the world map, but it takes away much of the fun of exploring an "unknown" map. Besides, its always interesting with a new map and 6-10 "extra" advances to see how bad off your position really is.
In the second game I ever played I used the medium or small world map I started on Iberian peninsula, then happened to go exploring into NW africa. I soon realized where I was and thought something along the lines of "I need to get a settler over to egypt so I can control access between eurasia and africa".
Random for all the previously stated reasons. I do like to customize it though. Young world, because I like the way that terrain types are layed out....large grasslands, deserts, mountain ranges, etc.
I liked the real world map. The thing I didn't like about random, is that I always seemed to get some sort of pagaea map, or islands with 1 large (and chaotic looking) continent. Islands (If I was lucky) were the best.
There is a menu where you can customise some factors of a random map and this allows you to choose whether it is mostly islands, continents or in between.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.