[SPOILERS] Lurkers only! Map and game discussion.

[Lord Parkin]

If you're playing in this game, begone now. Or else... I'll set Hyborem on you.

[Lord Parkin]

Here's what I told the players:

A few details on the world you'll be playing in:

- Magical Mystery Map!
- Impossible to fulfill map design requests: fulfilled (natural without being completely random, not biased toward any particular civ)
- Huge size (not reflective of true dimensions)
- Monarch difficulty
- Raging barbarians
- Human Infernals
- Human Basium
- Orthus off
- Acheron off
- Lairs off
- Huts off
- Wildlands
- Living World
- No vassals
- Tech trading off
- All unique features except for lairs (Maenalus, Bradeline's Well, Broken Sepulcher) and Guardian of Pristin Pass

I suggest a house rule banning the Tsunami spell.

[Lord Parkin]

If you want to spoil the map for yourself ahead of time, click below. Or else, choose to remain unspoiled and discover the map as the game unfolds.

Magical Mystery Map - WorldBuilder Save

I knew that design-wise I wanted a single continent that wrapped completely around the x axis, dividing the ocean into a separate North Sea and South Sea. It took quite a few generations to get something close though. Eventually I got lucky with a result from the Shuffle script which I could see potential in. Took quite some time to raise all the extra land required from the sea and make it blend in with the naturally generated land, but I think the end result was worth it.

I ended up with a somewhat larger amount of land per player than is typical, with 1529 tiles breaking down to 255 tiles per player (about 25% more land than the map originally had). I mitigated this somewhat with the addition of strategic chokepoint lakes down the centre of the map, but otherwise both Mardoc and I were happy to leave the map without shaving off any further land. Should add a nice little extra challenge with the Raging Barbarians, though I made sure everyone's capitals would be good enough to ward off early barbarian activity without too much trouble.

I deliberately made the starting areas plains-heavy and grassland-light to encourage chopping down the large central jungle for the sweet grassland underneath later in the game. Added one island per player for intercontinental trade routes, though they're spaced such that every island should be in contested territory. The 84 tile map width worked very nicely with multiples of 6 and 7, so the civs are all exactly equidistant - at least as the crow flies.

Map Stats:

Dimensions: 84x52
Number of Players: 6

Total number of tiles: 4368
Land tiles (without peaks): 1455
Water tiles: 2255
Impassable tiles (peaks + icebergs): 658
Average land tiles per player: 243
Percentage water: 51.63%

Number of land masses: 7
Large islands (>9 tiles): 1
Islands with 2-9 tiles: 6
One-tile islands: 0

Number of water bodies: 53
Saltwater lakes: 8
Lakes with 2-9 tiles: 11
One-tile lakes: 34

Size of largest land masses:
1413
7
7
7
7
7
7

Size of largest water bodies:
1061
1049
13
13
13
13
12
12

Wrap is cylindrical; ignore the N-S repeat in the images below.

Final version:



For comparison, the original map (generated via the Shuffle script):

Happy to answer any map-related questions.

[GermanJoey]

Very cool map, Parkin.

It was interesting to see Ellimist's starting settler move; he coulda grabbed the incense without burning a turn, but did so to grab the fresh water bonus. I'm not as experienced w/ FFH2 as I am with BTS, but that seems to confirm my suspicions to me that health is relatively way more important here than in the base game due to its scarcity. Happiness and food abound, but many early health resources are not improvable early (pastures, camps, seafood) and granaries are terrible unless you're an expansive civ.

[Mardoc]

Eh, I'm of the opinion that Ellimist just made a mistake. Not only did he give up the initial turn, he also gave up speed on his worker build, costing more turns down the line. It might not turn out to matter because it's a big map which gives him time to catch up with Warrens. But he's not going to be able to work the incense or cotton until about the time he's ready for a second city anyway.

Health isn't really all that important or hard to come by, though. I rarely find myself above the health cap, and when I do, it's often combined with a huge food surplus that I can't spend effectively. Remember Slavery is harder to get than in BtS, and Conquest competes with Agrarianism. Fresh water matters somewhat more than just health: it also unlocks Dereptus which is good for both cash and happy.

[The Black Sword]

What's the world wrap? My gut agrees with mardoc that it's a mistake, a plains hill plant is not trivial to give up, nor the 4 yield deer. I don't know the tech timings though, both the cotton and incense will be important to hook up quickly.

Also agreed on health, it does come up slightly more often than in BTS, but that's still not often. Food does abound but happiness usually does not, also forests tend to stick around longer.

[Mardoc]

World wrap is cylindrical. Monarch/Huge, I believe that puts Calendar around T30ish for the Orcs, maybe a bit later.

Agreed that those are both good to hook and the incense at least good to work, I just think it's less significant than the foodhammers he's giving up.

[Lord Parkin]

I actually thought he might be considering the plains-hill up the river as well. Swaps a Camp resource for a second Farm resource, adds a couple of riverside grasslands. Personally I would have probably settled in place despite the other opportunities, but then again I'm no expert at FFH.

[The Black Sword]

Cylindrical too, yeah, this doesn't sound like a map where commerce is absolutely critical(like 33). I think he'd be fine settling them for the second city.

[Aurorarcher]

Looks like Ellimist got a wolf rider now and just declared war against Dave. Interesting to see what he'll do with it.