Will you switch to the Big-and-Small map?

so far big and small is my favorite map. it provides a good mix of land so if your starting position is less then what you desire or it is crowded, you can settle new overseas cities.
 
futurehermit said:
I'm playing a game now with hemispheres (2 continents) and am LOVING it.

New favourite map by far!!!

Reasons:

1) You can assign exactly 2 continents, which is what I always wanted when playing regular continents but would get 3-4 often

2) There are a number of islands which you can settle which makes optics-astronomy just as appealing as liberalism!!! GREAT!!!
Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of hemispheres w/ 2 continents - I got some really cool maps with it. I started beefing up the number of total players beyond the default though... I usually play a standard size which defaults to 7 players (I think), but everyone was building these absolutely huge empires, so I upped the players to 10 - that made things more cramped and interesting.
 
Can any of you playing on the Hemisphere maps tell me if you've seen something different? Namely this: I went poking around AI territory in a game last night (with Spies and a Merchant), just out of habit. What I found was at least two (maybe all three- it was late) of all the capitols I saw were underderveloped-- in the 19th century! Not the usual Cottages on Hills, or Farms on Flood Plains . . I mean no development on 3-4 Grassland tiles in the city BFC. (No roads through Forests either, but that's fairly normal.)

Granted this was on Noble, but I still expect to see AI homelands well developed after 350+ turns. I'll try a Big and Small map next and see if something similar happens.
 
uncarved block said:
Can any of you playing on the Hemisphere maps tell me if you've seen something different? Namely this: I went poking around AI territory in a game last night (with Spies and a Merchant), just out of habit. What I found was at least two (maybe all three- it was late) of all the capitols I saw were underderveloped-- in the 19th century! Not the usual Cottages on Hills, or Farms on Flood Plains . . I mean no development on 3-4 Grassland tiles in the city BFC. (No roads through Forests either, but that's fairly normal.)

Granted this was on Noble, but I still expect to see AI homelands well developed after 350+ turns. I'll try a Big and Small map next and see if something similar happens.
Click to expand...

I usually play on Noble and I haven't noticed the AI being underdeveloped - in fact, in one of my games that haven't finished yet (it's on hemispheres), I just hit the industrial age and was feeling like I had a pretty comfortable lead after a few wars on my own continent... siezing a bunch of land (good times) - then I discovered Darius on the other continent and he was beating me! Well, his score was higher, anyway - and after some shrewd map trading with Hattie using my mad negotiation skills, I got some insight on that second continent and Darius was looking pretty well developed - had tons of cities / improvements everywhere. Hattie was looking good too. I personally haven't really noticed any major shortcomings with the BTS AI.
 
In that same game, Shaka's on that second continent as well and it looks like he's taken a beating from someone - Probably Darius judging by the size of his empire.
 
I guess I'll post my question here as it seems pointless to start new thread about Big-and-Small.

I've been playing B&S at standard size and unless my memory fails me each and every time I've been on a smallish (i.e. smaller than continents in Continents map script were) continent with exactly one other civilization. Each time the rest of the civs were unreachable before Galleons. Is this the norm or have I just been unlucky.
 
Just check the current ALC; Sisiutil used a B&S, began on a moderate island with one other civ but all other civs reachable by galleys
 
kuukkeli said:
I guess I'll post my question here as it seems pointless to start new thread about Big-and-Small.

I've been playing B&S at standard size and unless my memory fails me each and every time I've been on a smallish (i.e. smaller than continents in Continents map script were) continent with exactly one other civilization. Each time the rest of the civs were unreachable before Galleons. Is this the norm or have I just been unlucky.
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed that, but then again, I play on Large size with Low sea level, with 12 civs. Usually, I have 2 or 3 neighbors on my continent, although I occasionally start with just 1 neighbor on a large island. Most times, I can sail to meet all or nearly all of the other civs with just triremes (and open-border agreements).

Try a lower sea level, with a few extra civs, would be my advice on curing your civ "loneliness" problem. ;)
 
Has anyone noticed any difference when you change the sea level of B&S maps? If there is any difference it sure is small.

Also the amount of land is far greater than say on a fractal map. I used to get about 50 cities total in a small fractal low sea level game, but that seems to have risen to about 75 with B&S.

There are probably some balance issues here. I had a fairly easy culture victory with Suryavarman as it was simple to spam cathedrals with the small map settings (only 2 temples required, I believe) and more cities. I suppose I'll have to up the number of civs for this map.

I'm waiting on more RAM to arrive - it will be interesting to see how many civs can fit comfortably on a large B&S map.
 
Thrasybulus, I've noticed everything you just stated.

There is a ton of land and when I raise the sea level to high it seems to be the exact same amount of land as low/medium.
 
uncarved block said:
Can any of you playing on the Hemisphere maps tell me if you've seen something different? Namely this: I went poking around AI territory in a game last night (with Spies and a Merchant), just out of habit. What I found was at least two (maybe all three- it was late) of all the capitols I saw were underderveloped-- in the 19th century! Not the usual Cottages on Hills, or Farms on Flood Plains . . I mean no development on 3-4 Grassland tiles in the city BFC. (No roads through Forests either, but that's fairly normal.)

Granted this was on Noble, but I still expect to see AI homelands well developed after 350+ turns. I'll try a Big and Small map next and see if something similar happens.
Click to expand...
My guess is that they were at war with one another and pillaging each other.
 
Big/Small is certainly unpredictable, but also seems to have some oddities which may screw with the balance. Firstly there is a LOT more land that on the other map types for the same given sea level. Second there is an increased tendency for continents that span the entire map from ice cap to ice cap, which makes navigation somewhat - irritating. Third the AI seems to struggle with the strange snaky continents (which turn up even when the map is not set to them).

An interesting map type, but produces far too strange setups to end up as the standard. I think I'll stick to fractal.
 
No, Carver, IIRC at least two of them had been at peace the entire game. I looked at the current save in Sisiutil's second Frederick ALC, and saw something very similar (look at the Indian heartland.) It will require more games, but my first impression is that tiles that overlap between two cities are somehow being given lower priority, or are even ignored by AI Workers.

Another question: has anyone gotten a Big and Small map that was more like a snaky Pangaea? I've had two out of the 8 or 10 that B&S (normal continents, islands mixed in) I've played so far, and it really changes the dynamic. At least I don't think I missed checking out of the default option of separate islands . . .
 
sigmakan said:
The new maps have too much land for my liking, even with high sea-level it feels like there is way too much space to expand. I'm bad at REXing and would prefer to have enemies fairly close to lay seige on.

I do think they are pretty well balanced, just TOO much land.
Click to expand...

Try Hemispheres and set continents to "snakey".
 
I've been doing hemispheres the whole time with a few pangeas thrown in.
 
InvisibleStalke, I've never seen that in one of my games-- is that something in Solver's patch?

Did a little poking around in Sisiutil's latest ALC, to have an example most folks can check right at hand. Gandhi was a tech leader, but he still had tons of undeveloped tiles in the heartland, especially around the city of Vijayananagara. Indian Workers, when the saves were made, tended to be building for Hammers and not commerce-- and there seemed to be less Workers than usual, but that could be because of war with Toku. Forgot to check the other AIs- do that tomorrow, maybe- but if the AI is prioritizing military (and Spies) over Workers, that may help explain a bit.
 
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