Did some simming. This start is so slow. I honestly think Arabia is the worst civ in RB mod. Maybe Germany is worse sometimes, but I think I'd trade no uniques for hunting/mining to start.
Imp/Ind should be fun, however. Imp should allow us to recover from sending a lot of chops into the Pyramids, which I am leaning more and more towards. If we have stone, each chop, pre-Math is 50 hammers, so only 6 needed for the Pyramids, less if we slave into it or spend some natural production. The Oracle would be nice, too, but I think we will be very hard pressed to grabp it (or the Pyramids, really) with so many Ind leaders. No stone and no marble would kill so badly.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(October 29th, 2012, 03:45)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Germany gets kannon and factory replacement so not no uniques anymore
Ahh, I missed that somehow. UB is still the same (poor), but the UU is interesting. Hmm. Let's see. Yeah, I really can't think of any really bad civs besides Arabia. Russia isn't great, but it's okay; Byzantium has been nerfed pretty hard and was only decent to begin with; uhhh, the Vikings, Dutch, and Portugal are very situational (although I'd rather have any on this map); hmmm...I feel like Arabia needs some boost. I think I would probably give it Agr/Myst or something like that, but I'm sure Krill, etc. have their reasons. Maybe I'm underestimating the Madrassa. With the Pyramids, it could be very nice. It's not like Camel Archers are bad, either; they're just not great. Hmmm...maybe we can bulb up to guilds quickly, before our neighbors get pikemen.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(October 29th, 2012, 03:45)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Germany gets kannon and factory replacement so not no uniques anymore
Ahh, I missed that somehow. UB is still the same (poor), but the UU is interesting. Hmm. Let's see. Yeah, I really can't think of any really bad civs besides Arabia. Russia isn't great, but it's okay; Byzantium has been nerfed pretty hard and was only decent to begin with; uhhh, the Vikings, Dutch, and Portugal are very situational (although I'd rather have any on this map); hmmm...I feel like Arabia needs some boost. I think I would probably give it Agr/Myst or something like that, but I'm sure Krill, etc. have their reasons. Maybe I'm underestimating the Madrassa. With the Pyramids, it could be very nice. It's not like Camel Archers are bad, either; they're just not great. Hmmm...maybe we can bulb up to guilds quickly, before our neighbors get pikemen.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Quick realization (more thoughts later)-despite having everything else on normal speed, I was using the Pyramids quick speed cost. Man, it's going to be hard to get. I really hope we have stone.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I chatted a little with ad hoc-he thinks moving the scout 1S would be better. I was planning on simmming what each move would show, but haven't had the time yet. Does anyone know the exact rules for vision from units? I always get confused. I would check CFC, but I am on my phone.
Also, a quick set of guidelines for whipping in RB mod:
With granary: 1-pop whips as much as possible (excluding when We want to grow the city, of course). 2-pop whips when we don't have the spare happiness to have two 1-pop whips. 3+ -pop whips only when absolutely necessary to complete something on time (such as in a wonder race) or when we are whipping off unhappy citizens or when we are whipping off unimproved tiles and do not have the spare happy to run multiple lesser whips.
Without a granary: Less of everything, but especially less multiple-pop whips.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Alright, so while we're waiting for the game to go back up (ad hoc took a screenshot when he logged in, but he hasn't posted it yet, and I wasn't able to prior to the restart), I figured I might as well do an opponent preview. Lurkers like that, right ? I know I do when I'm lurking.
First, however, the change log, for reference:
(October 2nd, 2010, 16:42)Cyneheard Wrote: The idea for this project started before Civ5 came out, but with Civ5 seeing a mixed reception, I think there's still some life left in Civ4.
So, Krill and I have been talking about what might work for balance changes. This is meant primarily for MP play (the Flanking nerf in particular doesn't make much sense in SP play, where 50 unit stacks are REALLY rare short of Deity, instead of slightly rare). The AI will not be taught, for example, how to value the new civics.
Let me know what you think, this is meant to be an RB Mod, not a Cyneheard and Krill mod. We'll consider any and all changes posted in the thread or PM'd or e-mailed to me at cyneheardegypt *at* gmail. At this point, talk to Krill about future changes. I'm not officially involved with the decision-making anymore.
Astronomy: requires Paper as a Mandatory Prerequisite.
Scouts: require no tech. Every player starts with a scout instead of a warrior.
The Draft: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 6 instead of size 5 (So size 8 to draft a rifle, size 7 to draft a musket).
Nationalism and Education Tech costs corrected (2700 base beakers per tech)
Traits:
Financial: +1 commerce on all non-river tiles that have 2+ commerce. +100% production of banks. Remember: A Golden Age cannot trigger Financial's bonus yield (as in the base game).
Expansive: No longer gets double-speed granaries, but gets double-speed grocers. +35% Worker Production, +35% work boat production.
Creative: Loses cheap Libs, regains +2 culture per city, half price theatres, Colluseums.
Charismatic: +2 happiness, but no longer gets +1 happy from Monuments.
Protective: Plus double-speed granaries, but loses double speed castles and drill 1 on archery and gunpowder units.
Imperialistic: Double-speed Custom Houses (At least this gives Imp something on water maps. For flavor, Custom Houses are very mercantile, which is what 17th century Imperialism was). +60% Settler Production.
Organized: Gains double speed libraries.
Civs:
Rebalancing:
Inca: Terraces now give +1 culture, Quechua loses combat 1.
Byzantium: Cataphracts are 11 strength.
Khmer: Ballista Elephants are 8 str, +50% vs. Mounted units, +25% vs. Knights, and still target Mounteds outside of a city (this buff was to make them better than regular WE against their nemesis, Knights).
Sumeria: Vultures now get +30% vs. Melee.
India: The Fast Worker is now 2 moves, but starts with Mobility (-1 Terrain Movement Costs), and now starts with Mysticism/Wheel, instead of Mysticism/Mining (slower start).
Celts: Dun now gives G2, not G1.
Portugal: Feitoria now costs 120h, from 180h.
Rome: Preat S7. Forum increased to +35% GPP generation.
Persia: Immortal is now a S5 spear replacement.
Carthage: Cothon decreased to 80 hammers. Numidian cav increased to S6, C1, loses melee bonus and F1 (and innate retreat chance).
France: Salon +1 free spec, -1 artist.
Germany: UU is now the Kannon, a cannon but at 80% cost.
US: UU: Minuteman, Rifle replacement, starts with Guerilla 1, Woodsman 1. UB: Mall, Grocer replacement, +1 happy from deer, sugar, Hit (Musical, Movie, Single).
Japan: UB: Pagoda: Observatory replacement, +10% hammers.
Civics:
Police State: Now Medium Cost (down from High).
Vassalage now provides free support for military units as well (meaning Pacifism is cheaper), and is Medium Upkeep.
Slavery: 30h for the 1st pop, 20h for the 2nd pop and subsequent pops. So, 30/50/70/90. On Quick speed, that's 20/33/46/60.
Serfdom: +75% Worker Speed, +1h for Watermills and Windmills.
Free Market: No longer provides -25% Corporate Costs. Now provides +25% Trade Route Yield.
Environmentalism: No longer provides +25% Corporate Costs, or +2 commerce to windmills. Provides +1 gold per specialist, +1c to farms and pastures, +2c to forest preserves, and Low upkeep. Swapped with Free Speech. Now available at Liberalism.
Free Speech: Now High Upkeep, swapped with Environmentalism. Now available at Scientific Method.
Wonders:
Rushmore: Now -50% WW, (from -25%).
Red Cross: 200h.
West Point: 550h, +5XP. Now requires a lvl 5 unit (17XP/13XP for Charismatic).
Great Lighthouse: Now +1 trade route instead of +2 trade routes, enabled at Masonry, but needs lighthouse and Sailing (no functional change in the tech requirements but makes F6 look less cluttered).
SoZ: no WW effect. Now +3XP, 200 hammers, no building prerequisites.
Cristo: +200% SPI production, -50% Anarchy instead of -100%.
The Internet: now a wonder. 2k cost, +15% beakers in every city. No longer a project
SDI: No longer intercepts nukes (irrelevant as nukes no longer).
Base unit changes:
Scouts: require no tech. Every player starts with a scout instead of a warrior.
War Elephants: now 7 str, +50% vs. Mounted units, and +25% vs. Knights.
SAM Infantry: 75% interception chance (up form 40%)
Destroyer: now enabled at Artillery (not Combustion) (requires Oil OR Uranium)
Transport: now enabled at Artillery (not Combustion) (requires Oil OR Uranium)
Mobile Artillery: can now load guided Missiles and Tac Nukes (as Submarines and Missile Cruisers do). No longer require oil.
Gunships decreased to 3 moves.
ICBM: No longer unlimited range, but long enough so that they will out distance your army and navy easily, and they can be rebased. Loses the nuke tag. Does not need Manhattern project to be built.
iCost: 900h
iAirCombatLimit: 75
iAirCombat: 160
iCollateralDamageLimit: 75%
iCollateralDamageMaxUnits: 12
iAirRange: 36
Tactical Nukes: no longer nukes according to the code, now S80 1shot units that can bombard units, cause collateral damage to 5 units, cannot be intercepted. Cost 300 hammers. Loses the nuke tag. Does not need Manhattern project to be built. Full list of changes:
iCost: 300h
iAirCombatLimit: 75
iAirCombat: 80
iCollateralDamageLimit: 75%
iCollateralDamageMaxUnits: 5
iAirRange: 4
Guided Missiles: can bombard units, tiles and cultural defence, cause collateral damage to 2 units, cannot be intercepted. Cost 75 hammers. Full list of changes (underline means original stat, for comparison):
iCost: 75h
iBombRate: 16
iAirCombatLimit: 75
iAirCombat: 40
iCollateralDamage: 100
iCollateralDamageLimit: 50%
iCollateralDamageMaxUnits: 1
iAirRange: 4
Flanking:
Horse Archer (and replacements): do 50% flanking damage to Catapults and Trebuchet.
Knight (and replacements): do 50% flanking damage to Catapults and Trebuchet.
Cuirassier (and replacements): do 50% flanking damage to Catapults and Trebuchet and Cannon.
Cavalry (and replacements): do 50% flanking damage to Catapults and Trebuchet and Cannon.
Gunships: do 50% flanking damage to Cannon, Artillery and Trebuchet.
Buildings:
Jails: now -50% War Weariness.
Castles (and replacement UB): no longer decrease bombardment rate of catapults or trebuchets.
Technology:
Hunting: enables pastures, cost increased by 50% from 40 to 60. No longer enables camps.
Animal Husbandry: enables camps. No longer enables pastures.
Archery: base tech cost decreased by two thirds, from 60 to 40.
Astronomy: requires Paper as a Mandatory Prerequisite.
Espionage:
Switch Civic and Switch Religion now require Future Tech.
Spies now spawn with "Secretive", and cannot see tiles except the one they're standing on.
The No Espionage game option now works properly:
GSpy points are converted into Great Merchant points.
Espionage no longer gets converted into culture.
Cultural expansion now happens at normal values.
Spies cannot be built.
Graphs are always visible on contact.
Tile Changes:
Watermills: +1 base hammers, no longer receives +1h at Rep Parts.
Workshops: +1 base hammers, no longer receives +1h at Chemistry.
Mines: +1h at Rep Parts.
Whaling Boats: Enabled at Sailing, not Optics. Otherwise unchanged.
Game Mechanics:
The Draft: Rifles now cost 2 pop to draft. A city must now end a draft at size 6 instead of size 5 (So size 8 to draft a rifle, size 7 to draft a musket).
Corporations: Completely removed from the game.
Culture Victory: 33K, 50K, 75K, 150K on Quick/Normal/Epic/Marathon.
Miscellaneous:
Coastal Blockade now has a range of 1 square around the blockader, instead of 3 squares
Barracks: increased cost to 60 hammers, +1 culture.
AP Resolutions: Declare War (on a non-member), Force Peace (between two members), and Assign City are no longer eligible resolution actions.
Fail-gold: You never get fail-gold if you also completed the wonder somewhere else (so no National Wonder fail-gold, or doubling up on a wonder to guarantee yourself a paycheck. The game still informs you that you received "0 gold" from your hammers).
Hut techs: Can only gain techs from the first two rows of the tech screen
Tech Trading:
Known Tech Bonus changed to 50 (up from 30), enabled by Tech Trading (so there is no Known Tech Bonus until you research Paper)
Alphabet no longer enables tech trading, allows Open Borders
Writing enables Map trading, no longer enables OB
Paper enables Tech trading, no longer enables Map Trading. Requires Metal Casting, Literature and Code of Laws as mandatory prerequisites.
Corporation enables Tech Trading
Scientific Method enables Tech Trading
Cost of Education, Gunpowder, Printing Press, Astronomy and Nationalism increased by 50%
Cost of all subsequent techs increased by 100%
Techs prior to Paper in the tech tree can no longer be traded:
The untradeable techs are as follows: Fishing, The Wheel, Agriculture, Hunting, Mysticism, Mining, Sailing, Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Meditation, Polytheism, Masonry, Horseback Riding, Priesthood, Monotheism, Bronze Working, Writing, Metal Casting, Iron Working, Aesthetics, Mathematics, Alphabet, Monarchy, Compass, Literature, Calendar, Construction, Currency, Machinery, Drama, Engineering, Code of Laws, Feudalism, Optics, Music, Philosophy, Civil Service, Theology, Divine Right, Paper, Guilds, Banking
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Note: Placement predictions ignore ad hoc and me, since we are obviously going to win.
First up (going by current placement on the most recently posted list): Pindicator and scooter as Huyana Capac of the Zulu
scooter and Pindicator are both incredibly competent players-scooter occasionally has a tendency to go by gut instead of simming small details (see PB 5, where he built a few lighthouses before granaries in cities with multiple seafoods, but not enough to make a lighthouse more profitable), and Pindicator has a tendency to occasionally rush his turns if overwhelmed, but together, they are a formidable pair. On top of this, they have a solid leader (Fin's been nerfed hard, but is still okay; Ind is good normally, but not so much when everyone and their mothers have it) and a pretty good civ (same as in BTS, except non-Ikhanda barracks have been raised to the Ikhanda price, and all barracks give 1 culture per turn, and hunting is a much better starting tech. Actually, hunting/agriculture is probably the third best combo right now, after agriculture/mining and agriculture/wheel).
My prediction: Victors or second place, with a chance for third place. Lower than third place only if they are attacked really early in the game or have a very bad starting position.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Next up, everyone's favorite alien overlord: SpaceTyrantXenu plays Churchill of Portugal
I actually don't know too much about Xenu. He seems competent as a dedlurker in PBEM 44 and lost his cool in PB7. I didn't follow PB7 very closely, but I'm going to go on the assumption that he is armed and dangerous, with reasonable economic skills.
Churchill is quite a bit better in RB mod than in BTS, as he trades cheap castles and the free drill 1 on archery and gunpowder units for cheap granaries and no longer requires monuments for that second bonus happiness (this actually means he could end up with +3 happiness with a broadcast tower, but I somehow doubt that's going to happen, or matter too much if it does).
Basically, these means Xenu will have slightly less powerful units after the ancient era, but significantly better expansion prospects and the ability to manage whips exceptionally well...hmm. Portugal has been boosted a little, as feitorias are a bit cheaper, and they are pretty dangerous to begin with on a Big and Small map, with decent starting techs (Mining/Fishing) and early ocean transport capabilities. Not a huge long-term threat, I think, but definitely has the capability to break someone else's game (and I honestly wouldn't rule anyone completely out).
Prediction: Not in the top five.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(Placeholder-I have to do some work before finishing the predictions. These take a while, and I'm not even doing on-the-spot research or finding pictures!)
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
? I know I do when I'm lurking.