PBEM5 Map Thread

[uberfish]

Players and dedicated lurkers go away. I'll post the map this evening for balance feedback.

[Sciz]

I'm looking forward to see the map!

This is going to be the first FFH PBEM that i'll fully lurk from the beginning so this will be fun

[uberfish]

First: the world builder save

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19168036/1.CivBeyondSwordWBSave

[uberfish]

Ok, the initial script was Standard Pangaea, low sea level. I liked the map but there was too much space in the east, so I decided to wield the tectonic hammer and split part of the east off into subcontinents. As the players had requested islands to explore, I added some; they're all accessible without Optics, although I'm considering putting a bonus island somewhere out in the deep ocean with an item and a guard.

First, the orcs.



They start in the middle of everyone, in the jungle belt, on top of a large pile of resources many of which are jungled. If they choose to rush, they have no shortage of targets to choose from.

There used to be even more resources than you see here, I redistributed some and changed the Gold they started with to Gems...

To the south I added some islands with useful resources that the southern civs can compete for, and...



A certain dragon, guarding Letum Frigus; if anyone wants Snowfall for their Archmage heroes this game, they'll have to earn it. I think I gave the area quite a natural look.

Going clockwise we have the amurites:



They have a relatively isolated position, 2 wine and silk at the start, but their expansion to commerce resources isn't the best. They do have a good position for island access though with Yggdrasil on the western island and gold on the eastern one. Ilios suggested moving them a few tiles north.

Sidar:



Brigit turning up on that island was actually completely natural. Anyway Sidar have pretty good expansion prospects but probably won't get too involved in the island game. Maybe a bit too good? The northwest of the continent was pretty crappy before I engaged in some resource redistribution (aka: no gold+incense+dye sites in this game)

Luchuirp:



A number of different promising expansion directions to choose from. West or east would bring them into conflict with sidar/sheaim and south would get some nice floodplains and bring them into closer contact with Balseraph/orcs.

Sheaim:



To the top right you can see where part of the mainland was chopped off. An interesting start... with a slightly awkward feeling capital, but great access to strategic resources in the Sepulcher, Incense, copper and horses

And balseraphs:



Not the most impressive capital site ever, although Pool of Tears will give a happy - but the rice/floodplains/gold is one of the best 2nd city locations available on this map.

[Sciz]

You mention two wines for the Amurite start, but they are nowhere to be seen!

[Selrahc]

They just aren't showing up in the resource indicator. They're definitely there.

[Sciz]

Oh yeah now I can see them

[haphazard1]

I am a bit late to this thread. But it seems to me that the Clan, Amurites, and (to a bit lesser extent) the Luchuirp are disadvantaged by their forested starts. This can be a very significant problem, especially compared to the open riverside starts of the other civs.

The Clan also has very little early food. Some of the others are also rather light before Animal Husbandry, although not as badly as the orcs. And all that jungle...the Clan is going to have a tough time of it.

[Sciz]

Yeah all the jungle around the Orcs will make it hard for them, especially considering their much slower teching pace than the other civs.

Don't have much too comment on otherwise, not really good at balancing maps, never having created one before.

One thing i thought i'd bring up though, is mana nodes. It always sucks to have only one mana node in your civ, but too many isn't good either. So i have no real recommendation here, just thought i'd bring it up to see if anyone else can comment on number and placements of mana nodes on the map.

[haphazard1]

One thing i thought i'd bring up though, is mana nodes. It always sucks to have only one mana node in your civ, but too many isn't good either. So i have no real recommendation here, just thought i'd bring it up to see if anyone else can comment on number and placements of mana nodes on the map.

It looks like most of the civs have at least 2 mana nodes within the first couple rings, a couple have 3. The poor Amurites have only 1 which is also close to the orcs (visible from the screenshot, at least), but the Mirror of Heaven and Pyre of the Seraphic are nearby as sources. Overall the mana situation looks OK to me.

Mostly OT:

It always sucks to have only one mana node in your civ, but too many isn't good either.

In my latest SP FFH2 game, I would kill to have a mana node, any mana node. I have conquered two of my neighbors and now have 19 cities, and not a single mana node! Or unique feature providing mana, either.

Admittedly, this did make conquering them easier....