[SPOILERS - NO PLAYERS] The Final Clusterfuck: The PB38 Map and Lurker Thread

[RefSteel]

The hopefully-final versions of all 25 starts are attached. Taking, uploading, and linking screenshots is actually the most time-cosuming part of the process for me, so I'll do that tomorrow if nobody else does it sooner. I made a few more changes than planned, only partly because it appears I can't actually work on maps without fiddling with the aesthetics a bit. (For instance: I changed those of the Mangrove Lake starts that had 6/0 + 5/0 resources to 2x 5/1 or 6/0 + 4/2, because a second-ring forest elephant obviates nearly all the already-small utility of forestlake + fishing. I switched two or three other starts to corn+rice or pigs+sheep to compensate, with second-ring forest elephant in each case.)

[RefSteel]

Images for the starts in the saves posted above:

(About half of these are completely unchanged from the latest images above, and many of the others are unchanged except for the addition of a forest to the ivory tile, but at least now they're all in one spot.)

A:

B:

C:

D:

E:

F:

G:

H:

I:

J:

K:

L:

M:

N:

O:

P:

Q:

R:

S:

T:

U:

V:

W:

X:

Y:

If no one sees significant problems, we can randomize these and post them in people's threads (those who have threads; do we PM them to the other three?) along with the first rolled picks.

[EDIT: Ehhhhh ... looking over it again because I'm obsessive, I see a problem with T, caused or exacerbated by changing the sheep to a cow. It's relatively minor, but hooking the cows first speeds hooking up both food resources by 1t, slowing growth slightly but not enough to delay working both improved tiles, and trading some food for some hammers. The simplest fix would be to change the cow into a sheep, move it 1SE, and forest the elephants. To keep the number of cow/sheep/whatever starts unchanged, start U's sheep could also be turned into a cow, its tile swapped with the bare plains tile 1W, and its elephants deforested. ... Or rather: The simplest fix is to not fix it. Relatively minor in this case means 1 worker turn and ~2 foodhammers, so ... yeah, I guess I'd just leave it.]

[darrelljs]

It always amazes me when someone, out of the kindness of their heart, spends hours of their precious spare time to craft a map that will be pilloried by N-1 players (N if Krill happens to win) as the greatest atrocity since...well, since the election of Donald Trump (which has eclipsed all previous atrocities).

So for the record I think the map is great, and the players are all ungrateful jerks .

Darrell

[Mardoc]

If no one sees significant problems, we can randomize these and post them in people's threads

Random.org gave me this result:
a) Rusten
b) Boldly Going Nowhere
c) Pindicator
d) WilliamLP
e) Aretas (1st time player)
f) GermanJoey
g) 2metraninja
h) superdeath (1st time player)
i) Dreylin
j) B4ndit
k) AdrienIer + TruthBehindTheLies
l) OT4E + chumchu
m) Donovan Zoi
n) spacetyrantxenu
o) Gavagai
p) The Black Sword
q) Old Harry + Fintourist + shallow_thought + TheHumanHydra
r) elkad
s) plako
t) Mr. Cairo
u) Commodore
v) Dark Savant
w) naufrager (1st time player)
x) Dtay
y) Mackoti

Haven't had time to correlate these with the pick options.

I don't expect to have much time today but this weekend I ought to be able to help with the pick logistics and give opinion on base map.  Or alternately Cornflakes could just go with Ref's choice so we can start the hand editing.

(those who have threads; do we PM them to the other three?) along with the first rolled picks.

I'm inclined to say no PMs.  Four reasons, not sure which is more important:
a) Pitboss is a big time investment.  If they can't be bothered to invest enough to create a thread, then perhaps the time to look for replacement players is now, not in 15 turns when they start missing turns.  We've got at least two people who have expressed interest after signups were locked down; should be possible to replace people if need be.
b) Since we're doing this hot-potato style, PMs make it much less clear what the state of play is.  Posts in a thread make it clear to everyone who reads along what's going on.  No risk of someone responding to only me that they want a re-roll, right when I'm too busy to do anything about it, holding things up for a week.  Or worse, responding to everyone that they want a re-roll, then 5 minutes later to just me saying 'actually, never mind, I will keep leader X'.
c) PMs are more work to compile information from.  More chances for things to go wrong.  Also more of our time spent on logistics instead of map-improvement or lurking.
d) If you start acting like a game admin now...people will assume you've volunteered to help sort out the double-move situation that crops up in June .

yeah, I guess I'd just leave it.

I can't find anything I want to change at this point.

[Cornflakes]

screenshot for J is broken ... looks like copy-past of the link missed the "h" at the beginning of "http"

[RefSteel]

Mardoc, I agree on all points.

Thanks for catching that, Cornflakes; should be fixed now.

Given the above, if nobody beats me to it, I'll start posting people's picks and starts to their threads in an hour or two, after lunch.

[RefSteel]

So the question came up in the organizing thread: What's the game's nominal difficulty and world size? I found a summary Old Harry posted that said Monarch/Huge, but do something ("not sure what") about the early tech costs.

Krill (or anyone who has an opinion) was that what you intended to work with? (With the +1c starting tile helping some with the early techs, for instance?) Or were you planning on some other settings?

[Krill]

Monarch huge is right, the players will have to suck up the slow start, they decided against any intervention that would speed things up.

[RefSteel]

Cool; thanks for the confirmation.

[Krill]

Joey could go Spain on a lake but if he goes worker first the worker has nothing to do.

Charly isn't bad though.