Hey. One-time RB MOO player and now avid RB Civ lurker checking in. I must say this map looks very promising. It should play quite differently from both the current Pitboss and the PBEM. You asked for comments, so here goes:
- The Great Lighthouse: A powerful wonder on this map, no doubt. But everyone has a coastal capital, so everyone has a fair shot. Plus, it's makes a very tempting target for conquest. It says "Here's 200 hammers I didn't spend on workers, settlers, and military." Ditto Colossus, to a much lesser degree.
- Strategic Resources: Someone mentioned that all strategic resources (copper, horses, iron...) would be placed on islands. I think it's a great idea and should be followed strictly. As I see it, Civ IV has a distinct bias against overseas colonization. That is to say, once the staring continent is fully occupied, it's generally safer to build a massive offensive force than to invest in exploratory and colonization missions, and spread defensive forces across several landmasses. Successful colonizers get a few fledgling fishing villages for their efforts, while successful militarists can snag a couple of mature cities from their neighbours. The only way around this is to force players to colonize islands in order to get the resources to build an effective military in the first place.
- Jungle Island: Choked with jungle and relatively low-quality (tile yield-wise) Calender resources, I'm not sure all that many players will bother to build cities here. Maybe you could sweeten the deal by putting ivory (and/or marble and stone) here? After all, ivory is a jungle resource...
- Military Alliances: In the same way that diplomacy in RBP1 soon collapsed into an us vs. them struggle between two large trading blocks, diplomacy in RBP2 *could* simplify into a struggle between large military alliances. I don't think this is a design flaw: players will be looking for security and eager to cut down on the number of directions from which they must defend, so it would be only natural. At the very least, such alliances will probably be more fluid, depending upon the fortunes of war.
Or so it looks from here...
- The Great Lighthouse: A powerful wonder on this map, no doubt. But everyone has a coastal capital, so everyone has a fair shot. Plus, it's makes a very tempting target for conquest. It says "Here's 200 hammers I didn't spend on workers, settlers, and military." Ditto Colossus, to a much lesser degree.
- Strategic Resources: Someone mentioned that all strategic resources (copper, horses, iron...) would be placed on islands. I think it's a great idea and should be followed strictly. As I see it, Civ IV has a distinct bias against overseas colonization. That is to say, once the staring continent is fully occupied, it's generally safer to build a massive offensive force than to invest in exploratory and colonization missions, and spread defensive forces across several landmasses. Successful colonizers get a few fledgling fishing villages for their efforts, while successful militarists can snag a couple of mature cities from their neighbours. The only way around this is to force players to colonize islands in order to get the resources to build an effective military in the first place.
- Jungle Island: Choked with jungle and relatively low-quality (tile yield-wise) Calender resources, I'm not sure all that many players will bother to build cities here. Maybe you could sweeten the deal by putting ivory (and/or marble and stone) here? After all, ivory is a jungle resource...
- Military Alliances: In the same way that diplomacy in RBP1 soon collapsed into an us vs. them struggle between two large trading blocks, diplomacy in RBP2 *could* simplify into a struggle between large military alliances. I don't think this is a design flaw: players will be looking for security and eager to cut down on the number of directions from which they must defend, so it would be only natural. At the very least, such alliances will probably be more fluid, depending upon the fortunes of war.
Or so it looks from here...