Your Favorite Map Settings

[Gooblah]

This thread will serve as a way for people to recommend maps, both user-created and in-game. Personally, I like..

Fractal or Rainforest, Standard, High Seas
Fractal's random, so its always new, while Rainforest has tons of jungles, large deserts here and there, rivers bigger than the Amazon, etc. It's amazing!

So, please feel free to post!

 

[Verge]

Big_and_Small with Islands Mixed In is my favorite map setting. It gives a wonderfully varied world, with big contents, nice archipelagos, and everything in between.

 

[TerryM]

Pangea...navy is just a by-product

 

[Elkad]

Fractal random random. Huge, 18civs, no tech brokering, aggressiveAI, random personalities.

I change the map type from time to time, but I always play with the same other settings. If I go for an all-land map (inlandsea, rainforest, highlands), I drop it to large/18players to keep it crowded.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I'm mostly playing hemispheres atm with random continent type, number of continents and islands. Usually low sea levels, temperate and 18 civs.

 

[martin026]

My favorite map type is hemispheres, varied continents (2), islands, standard size.

The pros:
Varied continents gives a fractal feeling without the chance of pangea style narrow land strip. Even if you are isolated there are usually islands around with decent city potential (and colony). The age of exploration is always fun.

Some maps have ranged from isolation to crowded continent with 5 civs. My favorite so far has been a game with Japan where I started on a roundish island with room for 6 good cities. The island was surrounded by three smaller islands that all had potential for good cities. My second favorite was a Jao game with me and Darius on a good chunk of land. A chariot rush left me alone with a string of small islands with some larger ones mixed in. The chain circled around from the south to the north. Really interesting.

The islands really lead to some interesting barb activity.


Cons:

So far in one game, I was completely isolated on a larger island that was mostly tundra. There were few resources and there were no islands around to try to jump to better land or grab resources. But that was once in many many maps.


Basically, I used to play fractal, but that seemed somewhat predictable. This has a very random feeling and a different map everytime.

 

[cabert]

I like duel terra maps .

Just kidding, this setting is for HoF super high levels, where I just can't play right, and need the AI to be really close by.

 

[Munch]

Big_and_Small with Islands Mixed In is my favorite map setting. It gives a wonderfully varied world, with big contents, nice archipelagos, and everything in between.

seconded.

 

[Bleys]

No Warlords or BTS here, but I prefer Custom Continents, 2, standard, and I usually add a civ for a total of 8 including the player.

This usually results in a 4/4 or 5/3 split, so I get some "pangaea" feel and some "Naval Invasion/warfare" stuff mixed in.

Saddly, my last 2 games with this map have resulted in a 7/1 and a 6/2 split, which ends up being almost totally like Pangaea, since the 1 and 2's were relegated to the frozen wastelands with almost no grasslands or even plains.

Ultimately, I think the map I would prefer the most would be a duel type map, with 2 largish continents side by side, each with 4 civs.

 

[Alsn]

I'll have to agree with Verge and Munch, Big and Small with islands mixed in is just superb. A big continent to play land-wars with and enough islands/water that you need to balance your land force with a strong navy.

 

[litmanen]

I particularly enjoy playing on Terra, as the run for the new world is always a nice challenge!

 

[Matjillam1]

I got three words for you guys:

Hemispheres, hemispheres, hemispheres!

U get continental fun, with a lot of stratetic challenges for wars AND a lot of fun colonization and wars over islands with nice resources!

A tip: use snaky continents and islands That's a blast for you!

 

[ICNP]

Pangea and land maps. Keeps me out of the headache of navy and puny islands. (If it doesn't have at least 3/4 of a BFC then it is too tiny for my tastes).

 

[DragonHawk]

Big/Medium Small snaky continents with islands sprinkled in

Big enough lands for early REX/wars, plus water for mid game exploration

 

[CivMcNut]

I find fractal maps to be fun cause you don't know what to expect. I'll have to look into this big / small one sounds like it's won a lot of people over.

 

[lilnev]

I've played a lot on the Tectonics custom script, either 70% or 60% water, random climate. I really like the landmasses, but not necessarily the river generator; and isolated starts are a bit too common, too. Lately I'm looking into PerfectWorld, but I haven't played it enough to have a real opinion yet.

Either standard or large, and often with 1-3 extra AIs to raise the war quotient a bit.

peace,
lilnev

 

[Snapman]

Fractal, with Random sea level/climate.

You never know what to expect, which I like. Big/Small is also great.

 

[humbe]

Recently been playing archipelago maps with high sea levels on marathon and lots of civilizations and no tech trading. Suddenly all the naval stuff is important. No 'all cities in continent' wonders are overpowered. You can't waltz over an opponent in a few turns.

It's a bit cumbersome to move units from island to island. Woulda been nice if you could set a boat with carrying capacity as bridge (standing in one shoresquare, declaring it bridge to another shoresquare), and then you could just use goto on your units and it would understand it could use the bridging boat to get the next island, and the boat and unit would automatically move.

 

[A_Hamster]

Tectonics custom script, Inland sea, Temperate, & Standard. It makes a more "mediterraean"-like map than the Inland Sea script that comes with the game. I've also started using Planet Generator .068 since it gives you a lot of control over the initial settings (including forbidding 1 tile islands).

As regards climate, I usually play temperate, but often I play Tropical and select all civs for a "Dawn of Time" feel to the game. So Aztec, Egypt, India etcetera, but no England, America or Germany.

 

[TriPp]

Map: All standard single player designed map scripts except for Inland Sea, Archipeligo and Fractal.

Size: Small-Large (Ussually standard, occasionally small, rarely large)

Climate: Temperate/Tropical/Random

Sealevel: Medium/High/Random

Heres the options that will most likely be in place for any map i play.

-Raging Barbs
-Aggresive AI
-Choose Religion
-No Tech Brokering
-No Vassal States

Ussually throw in another 1-3 AI depending on size and map.