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.
Quechas are going to be quite strong, too, you're right. Just like creative was strong in PBEM39 because it meant your pillaging warriors had odds on other people's pillaging warriors. Very annoying. At least the starting units are scouts... but it looks like growing the capital to start will be quite strong.
Only one pick left, so I decided it's time to compile everyone's picking scores! But first, a couple modifications regarding this map.
1) EXP's one turn bonus is less here. As I mentioned, it only saves 1 production turn and costs 7c, so let's call that -17c.
2) Meanwhile I think it's fair to say FIN is worth an additional 1b per turn for 30t (until an average FIN player finishes cottaging the capitals currently workable tiles) due to the Oasis, which is like a pre-improved tile that gets +1b from fin. That's like +18b.
[SIZE="4"]Serdoa[/SIZE]
Ramesses of Sumeria. That's 169 + 153 + let's say 26 for sumeria = 348, and I will award another 30 for synergy. Minus 4/5 of half a turn for going last, so -8.
Total: 370.
[SIZE="4"]Mackoti[/SIZE]
Mehmed of Inca. That's 195 + 154 + 44 = 389, and I realize I've already assumed the EXP/Inca synergy in my evaluation of Inca. But ORG also synergizes well with both (lots of cities), so I will add 10 for synergy. Minus 3/5 of half a turn for turn order is -6.
Total: 393.
[SIZE="4"]Nicolae[/SIZE]
Pacal of Egypt. That's 196 + 154 + let's say 9b for Egypt = 359. There is a little synergy between EXP and FIN (Pottery, basically) but also a couple beakers antisynergy as EXP works a forest over the FIN oasis. I think 5b for synergy. Minus 2/5 of half a turn for turn order is -4.
Total: 360.
[SIZE="4"]Seven[/SIZE]
Darius of India. That's 196 + 195 + 6 = 397. Poor synergy between traits IMO, but fast workers cover up their weakness nicely, so I think it deserves 8b for synergy. Minus 1/5 of half a turn for turn order is -2.
Total: 403.
[SIZE="4"]Novice[/SIZE]
Isabella of Ottomans. That's 169 + 154 + ? = 323 + 7. Synergy is solid (EXP + economy trait is good), so let's say 10b. No penalty for turn order.
Total: 340.
Ranking of picks:
Me
Mackoti
Serdoa
Nicolae
Novice
I guess it's good I got first in my own rankings of what I think is best. According to my judgment, the first two pickers got the two "good" civs (particularly inca), and that is the main thing distinguishing their relative positions from the other two. I'm the only one who got both of what I consider the "best" traits for this game.
Well the important thing to keep in mind is that in a 5-player game there are a lot of wonders per player, too many for one player to build all of them. Having two IND leaders doesn't necessarily make either of them worse off, if they can coordinate. For example the one picking Ramesses of Sumeria is clearly signalling Oracle. Maybe the other IND leader is De Gaulle of Egypt, who's probably going to build Stonehenge. In this case there's hardly any risk of them bothering each other. And since there are two of them, they may even be able to split all the wonders between them and wonder-starve the other players! With careful C&D on both their parts, they can tell which of them is first to any given tech and go opposite routes.
Just kidding, I would pull a number of beakers out of a hat, oh here is 8, and subtract it from their score.
You consider Sumeria to be significantly better than Egypt?
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.
In this setup, yes. Your outer ring of cities (just including the ones in "your" territory ends up costing ~10gpt upon founding. My (high-pop) moai city in pbem39 had 10 maintenance after applying the courthouse!
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.
SevenSpirits Wrote:Well, I decided I didn't want to pick CRE here given how I evaluated it, but ORG and FIN looked better than ever so I picked Darius. The synergy between is traits is low.
They do synergize, in the multiplier department. Org means lower expenses and a higher science slider, so you can put more of Financial's bonus through the library and academy and there is less need for cash multiplier buildings.
According to my judgment, the first two pickers got the two "good" civs (particularly inca), and that is the main thing distinguishing their relative positions from the other two. I'm the only one who got both of what I consider the "best" traits for this game.
![[Image: selfaware.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1116194/misc%20civpics/selfaware.jpg)
