Pitboss 36 Mapmaking and Lurker Thread

[Tasunke]

My first draft of the map as Medieval start was more in line with fun/ story telling and less in line with the near perfect scientific balance that makes for better mp games in actuality. I may save it for an SP challenge/ adventure or something.

This map I built with the explicit goal of fairness and balance, and we tweaked it as a collaborative effort, El Grillo made some changes to spice up the monotony in the beginning, and then I allowed his changes and added in on the fun. Saw some oddities, saw some imbalances .... and in the end I believe that we have a fairly well balanced map and I'm quite happy with it.

I will enjoy coming back in several months to see how all map elements played out in the reality of the MP experience

[spacetyrantxenu]

Did I miss where the map was posted?  Or someone please PM the finished map to me.

Edit:  Also, if we can get summarized settings to make this easy on me.  So far I see we're using monarch difficulty, Medieval start, barbs on, I assume NTT/NTB, no huts (map creation handles that), no events, no vassals.  Anything else?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Oh, one other major question, are we running this game with the "PB36 Mod" that was posted earlier?

[RefSteel]

Yes, the game will be running the mod linked here. The settings you listed sound correct to the best of my knowledge. I don't think anyone ever posted the map anywhere, and I can't find a way to include an attachment in a PM, so I'm attaching it here instead. (This the latest one Tasunke sent me by e-mail - I think yesterday morning.)

Thanks very much for your help setting this up, Xenu! (I know you won't be able to do anything with it for at least several hours now, but still....)

[spacetyrantxenu]

Thanks RefSteel, I just got your PM and replied. But to update everyone else I'll get the game hosted tonight now that I have the map and confirmed settings. Thanks to everyone who has worked to get this game going.

[Tasunke]

No prob Space

Thanks for hosting the game.

[spacetyrantxenu]

Sorry, I ran out of time before work the other night and went to bed afterward. Working on hosting this now.

[Fenn]

I wonder when people will take a crack at the barb cities. They look like they'll be a pain to attack, what with huge cultural presence, Castles, sitting across rivers and having enough hammers to churn out units. The cities seem to be placed in contested territory, not close to any one player too, so it might be a while before players can begin to consider conquering them as opposed to just settling a normal city.

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

This may depend on what the AI does with the units it generates. I'm wrapping up a SP game on this map. It would not be prudent to try to rush with a smallish stack of HAs. Also, there were several additional barb cities on the map because comp civs did a bad job expanding but I had to crack a 30 unit stack of rifles at one point when the other AI civs only had LBs. Barbs also won liberalism. I'm not sure what benefits the barb civ started with on this map but they appear to have been substantial. And there is one other thing I'll not yet comment on in case a player accidentally wanders into this thread but if the game that launched is the same as the map I played there is the possibility for some serious win more balance issues later on which have me rooting for the Barbs to hold those cities for as long as they can. And levees survived capture in the holy cities every time and I received the free hammers before entering having access to the tech. Another likely balance issue to come.

[Bobchillingworth]

I haven't been following this game at all, but it sounds like the map incorporates essentially every terrible idea I've ever had, so kudos.