Large could work, if the inner side of the habitat ring were deleted. Need to make it impossible to play the game without expanding to the island chains or the inner continent; that's the only way to keep the map balanced.
That said, I think 11 tiles between civs is OK. Distance between me and Dreylin was 22? That's too far for ancient era warfare to occur, and actually forces people to run a paper military. 10 actually allows people to settler 2 cities between caps. If they settle more, they won't have strat resources, and get rushed/choked (unless neighbour plays a bad game, in which case, why shouldn't hte aggressive pklayer win?). 11 tiles is enough along the rim without any overlap on either side, for any city.
2) is a fair point, but it doesn't matter because galleys are so expensive. Also, because moving on a diagonal is equivalent to moving on a lateral, they are identical. Problem is nearby islands, but tbh enough space kinda makes that OK, so long as they can never sail "through" and island.
That said, I think 11 tiles between civs is OK. Distance between me and Dreylin was 22? That's too far for ancient era warfare to occur, and actually forces people to run a paper military. 10 actually allows people to settler 2 cities between caps. If they settle more, they won't have strat resources, and get rushed/choked (unless neighbour plays a bad game, in which case, why shouldn't hte aggressive pklayer win?). 11 tiles is enough along the rim without any overlap on either side, for any city.
2) is a fair point, but it doesn't matter because galleys are so expensive. Also, because moving on a diagonal is equivalent to moving on a lateral, they are identical. Problem is nearby islands, but tbh enough space kinda makes that OK, so long as they can never sail "through" and island.