[no players] Novel beginnings, standard outcomes: Map and Lurker thread.

[oledavy]

Aggressive: Observatory
Charismatic: Laboratory
Creative: Barracks
Expansive: Aqueduct
Financial: Customs House
Imperialistic: Theatre
Industrious: Intelligence Agency
Organized: Supermarket
Philosophical: Colosseum
Protective: Levee
Spiritual: Monument.

Going to try to break a few of these:

Aggressive - Take France (Free Artist with Salon). Play Alexander (PHI/AGG). Pop GA on Turn 12, ruin someone's day.

Charismatic - NH already broke this one.

Creative - AGG/CRE for shock Warriors right off the bat. Not necessarily unbalanced, just something to keep in mind when designing the map.

Expansive - Seems fine, though kinda bleh. EXP Ottomans anyone?

Financial - Seems alright.

Imperialistic - Access to artists that early is too powerful. You run with PHI/IMP, get out a super early GA, and go screw someone over.

Industrious - Awaiting answer to Plako's question.

Organized - Seems maybe a tad weak. What is the size/difficulty of this map going to be?

Philosophical - Seems alright. PHI Maya perhaps a good choice.

Protective - Interesting choice. Though, I'm beginning to wonder if any bonus will ever be sufficient to convince people to pick PRO. I would be in favor of putting a free airport for PRO. I loved the tactical opportunities it offered in PBEM32.

Spiritual - Seems a tad weak. Though, I do not have a good alternative in mind at the moment.


So, definitely should edit Aggressive, Charismatic, Imperialistic; and reconsider Creative, Organized (depending on map difficulty) and Spiritual.

[Commodore]

Nevermind, I like the puzzle once I started. Here's a first draft.

I'd turn the GLH to plains, the Ivory one tile east and put the Forest Preserve south of the worker by the by.

You have a pre-placed city with 5 culture; a scout; and a worker.
Depending on your civilization's starting techs, certain things will be changed about your start:

Fishing: Your city loses its 5 starting culture.
The Wheel: The village on the tundra is removed.
Agriculture: The whales are unnetted.
Hunting: Ivory loses the forest.
Mysticism: Rice becomes plains.
Mining: RR Hill becomes flatland.

Hrm. So generally:



My thought was that:
Fishing: City has 0 culture
Mining: Tile A becomes flatland
Agriculture: Tile B loses whale boats
Hunting: Tile C loses forest
The Wheel: Tile D, town becomes hamlet
Mysticism: Tile E becomes plains

[plako]

Wheel is a bit too appealing starting tech. That town shouldn't be worked in any opening. Changing it to plains or even grassland could make it a bit better.

[Commodore]

Wheel is a bit too appealing starting tech. That town shouldn't be worked in any opening. Changing it to plains or even grassland could make it a bit better.

Hrm, making it a plains but making the bump town -> cottage might be good. I am aware that Fishing, Wheel, Mysticism bumps are all pretty low, but each of them means slowing down AH, which is important for the "big food" pigs.

[Commodore]

So, definitely should edit Aggressive, Charismatic, Imperialistic; and reconsider Creative, Organized (depending on map difficulty) and Spiritual.

Noble difficulty last game, I think I'll bump it up to Prince, which on a toroid is a significant bump to Org and nerf to Imp.

So how about this:
Aggressive: University
Charismatic: +2 population and an Aqueduct
Creative: Barracks
Expansive: Harbor
Financial: Customs House
Imperialistic: Lighthouse (assuming they work when manually added to a lake city)
Industrious: Courthouse
Organized: Supermarket
Philosophical: Colosseum
Protective: Levee
Spiritual: Islamic Temple

[Gaspar]

Those choices might be more balanced but they're pretty boring. If you compare them to the choices for PBEM32 its a huge difference. I'll have a think on it.

[Sian]

Islamic temple? Huh?

how about Recylcing Center instead? ... its not strong early game, but if the game ends out being a longrunner its quite good

How about exchanging Charismatic to Baray instead? ... true its an UU instead of a normal building but who would choose Khmer anyways?

[Commodore]

Islamic Temple because Islam is generally the least-used religion. Didn't want overlap with the earlier religions.

I like the Baray idea, because with WE banned Khmer won't be picked, but that means Chm/Ottomen are in a funny place. Hrm. Actually, Chm getting a monument would be more valuable to Chm than any other trait.

[Commodore]

-double post-

[plako]

The current list seems pretty good although not giving much Great Person alternatives that would definately make things intresting. Only Spiritual feels a bit too synergetic and strong, when the trait itself is already very good value. I like building options that have some UB's to pair with them. I don't like the idea of giving someone elses UB and does it really work even? At least when capturing Barays are converted to Aqueducts.

If you want to make things more intresting you could raise everyones value e.g. via giving Protective Forge and then tune others based on this.