Gedemon,
How do you change the TSL for the vanilla TSL Earth?
Also, is there a way to increase the spawning of resources?
Lastly, is there a way to selectively choose City States?
I cannot seem to find the folder for the vanilla TSL Earth. In the maps folder under the YnAMP, I see the following folders:
- GiantEarth
- GreatestEarthMap
- LargestEarth
- PlayEuropeAgain
- TerraMap
Honestly speaking, after playing on the brilliant Giant Earth map in CiV and CiVI, I never thought I would ever return to the vanilla earth especially considering the fact that it allows a maximum of 12 civilizations. However, after playing a couple of games on the Giant Earth map for CiVI, I realized that it is not currently ideal for people who prefer to play on marathon mode; the turn times are too long even though my laptop specs are above average (Core i7-6700HQ, CPU 2.60GHz, RAM 16GB). I remember that turn times were ~5 minutes at around turn 850 (without barbarians) when I was playing with 20 civilizations on the Giant Earth in CiVI; this made me disillusioned since it was not practical and ruined all the fun. Around this time, I came across your RED mod-pack for CiV so I returned to CiV and started a new game on the Giant Earth map. Using the quick turn mod, the turn time in CiV at 2500 turns was between 1:15 - 1:30 minutes on the Giant Earth map. What a difference! Unfortunately, the quick turn mod for CiVI is currently premature and unreliable.
More importantly, with the news of the Rise and Fall expansion pack coming on Feb 8, I returned to CiVI and started to test the various maps to see which ones would be best suited for marathon games with as many civilizations as possible. I readily ignored vanilla earth because of its 12 player limit. However, the vanilla TSL Earth caught my attention because it can harbor all the civilizations in a single game. I quickly noticed that the order of the civilizations (selected in the early game setup) directly influenced who settled on the TSL and who was forced to relocate nearby. Moreover, because of the size of the map, each city played the role of a state, province, or country in terms of size relative to the map region. There is still a cap on City States with a maximum of 12 CS allowed. I have no problem with that limit given the size of the map. However, I am curious to know if there is a way to select the city states you want to include in the game and somehow delete the others to prevent them from appearing in the game (keeping a backup copy of the file just in case).
Based on my early game testing, the turn times on the vanilla TSL Earth map with all the civilizations was very small and reasonable. However, because the map was originally intended for a maximum of 12 players, bonus and luxury resources are too few which translates into low amenities and hinders early expansion. Even if one can manage to get access to duplicate resources, no one else has duplicates to trade. This in turn leads me to wonder, is there a way to increase the spawning of luxury resources for the vanilla TSL Earth like all the other modded maps?
Personally, I see great potential in the vanilla TSL Earth map for the upcoming Rise and Fall expansion pack.
The map is small and allows the inclusion of all the civilizations in a single game.
Small map with +25 players means that civilizations will be constantly grappling for land giving birth to conflict.
Conflict on a small map (whether on religion or for resources) will more readily trigger the "emergencies" in the Rise and Fall expansion.
"Emergencies" have a time limit and completing the goals is expected to be easier on a smaller map (wherein it is easier to reach other civilizations and for them to reach you).
Once the CiVI Rise and Fall expansion pack is released and the TSL updated for the vanilla Earth map, I intend to play a large game with
at least 25 civilizations on marathon mode.
I would be happy to inform you on the time statistics. I understand that the turn times are expected to improve down the road. Once the turn times improve (due to code optimization, mods, system enhancements, etc.), I intend to upgrade to the next viable map type for marathon mode (probably Greatest Earth Map or Giant Earth Map). In the meantime, I would like to explore alternative routes for marathon play and the vanilla TSL Earth looks very attractive and promising.
On a final note, I would like to thank you for your continuous and brilliant share of contribution towards the R.E.D. and the YnAMP mod-packs.
Your ongoing support and continuous effort is much appreciated!
Many thanks!
