SPOILERS-PBEM8 Map Creation Thread

[Tatan]

Alright, I have a rough draft. Here is the link [if I did it right]:

http://www.2shared.com/file/KAmnc9Kq/RB_PBEM8.html

Here are some pics.


The northwest.



The center north.



The northeast.



The southeast.



The southwest.



The center floodplains.



And of course, the goody hut.


I left most of the actual map alone, merely adding the starting points and mountain/lake choke points. The WB file will still of course have to be edited for various options still to be decided and for the right civs/leaders.

Thoughts/issues?

[Tatan]

@Bobchillingsworth: That could be pretty cool, but you run into issues like making sure each ivory city is equal in value, and if the player be expanding in that direction anyway or not, and the fact that I already went with the other idea and am very lazy. It is a cool concept though.

[Cyneheard]

Minor quibbles

1) Are the start locations equal? I think the Southeast is definitely weaker. And Northeast could be a lot stronger (+1 food from turn 1 means the initial worker comes out T13 instead of T15, even after losing a turn, and it cascades from there).
Northwest:
Fish, 5 regular coast, Pig, Jungle Sugar, 2 hills (including Iron), 2 plains, 2 river tiles.

Center North:
Likely to move 1SE (can't see the deer, and so might take the freshwater bonus). And 1SE is marginally worse. If the capital was on a hill, then it would be pretty obvious to stay in place.
In Place:
Pigs, Jungle Bananas, Deer, 3 hills (including Iron), 1 plains, 8 river tiles.
1SE:
Freshwater Bonus, Pigs, Jungle Bananas, 2 non-lighthouseable coast (), freshwater lake, 7 river tiles, 2 hills (including Iron), 2 plains.

Northeast:
I think the correct move is 1SW, onto the banana. Gains a pig, settles on a 3-food tile that won't be available for a long time for a very significant gain in food. Is the lake salt water or fresh? It's not navigable at 10 tiles. It's a wash: A lighthouse makes the 1 freshwater lake tile 3/0/2, but then again that's 60 hammers.

Southeast:
Freshwater corn, and not much else. No river, no second food, 5 plains tiles, 5 2/0/2 lake tiles.

The Southwest civ doesn't get a full 20 tiles in his BFC? He's definitely going to be moving 1NE. 2 corn, silks, lots of river tiles (but wouldn't be able to build a levee)...a nice city.

2) I'd spread those three pigs out a bit in the center region. That's an absurd city if it can grab all of those (think about how many specialists they can run...7 + 1/flood plain being worked pre-Bio, and 6-8 FP).

[dazedroyalty]

My only thought is that from a quick glance the extra desert on the east side makes that less appealling than the west.

[scooter]

Another note - I am not seeing the southeast player's iron...

[Tatan]

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm no expert in map-making and balancing, so I will make sure to change all the starting points with regards to your critiquing, Cyneheard.

Southeast
The main reason why the southeast isn't so good is that it was originally an entirely mountain/desert region, and I had to carve out the start from scratch; I will add more resources to/near the start, and also grassland in the southeast/east. [@scooter: the iron is 3S1W of the start; it doesn't have a marker over it]

Northeast
Yeah, I will move the banana to the jungle 2N of the oil. And you can really tell I wasn't paying attention here because those 3 pigs are ridiculous, I while have to delete/space them out.

North
I'll add a hill to the starting tile.

Northwest
Seems fine [?]

Southwest
I might move away one of the food resources and move the starting tile 1N.

Center
Some of those piggies will have to go.

[novice]

Do the southern civs have more room available than the northern ones? Maybe you should draw up the midlines between the starting locations and count tiles, to make sure things are roughly balanced.

[Jabah]

The southeast.

There is a lot of mineral (which we can't identify since the ressource pointer is not working there) on the southern hills rows.

[Jabah]

Also need to double check the rule for sea/lake since you have plenty of 10-11 squares water body (with and without seafood).

The center-north seems to be a bit squized (space wise)

[Tatan]

Okay, I made a fair amount of changes. I don't have time to post a file, so I will just go through the edits by region. Just a warning, all the resources on the bottom row of the map won't have a pointer over them.

Southwest

I moved the start 1N and moved away the two bananas, leaving the start with one wheat [irrigated], one corn [irrigated], and one sugar. I also added some mountains to restrict land access somewhat, most notably blocking off part of the center in the south.


Southeast

I feel this area is vastly improved. I erased all traces of desert and added several resources and a river. The start now has a corn [which I forgot to irrigate ], a piggy, and a sugar. Those golds, which I didn't notice before [Thanks Jabah!], have been erased, and the only mineral resources are in the center.


Northwest

I don't actually really know why I posted this, as I didn't really change this region at all. The player has a fish, a piggy, and a sugar. Maybe a hill should be added to help the player see all these resources?


Northeast

I mainly just re-alligned the resources here to prevent the player from getting an uber-cap. Right now, they have a wheat [irrigated], a piggy, and a banana. I forgot to check about the status of that lake, though, which could affect things.


Center North

I added a hill to make sure the player saw all the resources; right now, they have a forest deer, a piggy, and a banana. To allay any land concerns, I erased a few mountains, mostly to the west. My main concern is if I erase too many mountains, the player will easily be able to grab the center. Sigh, the odd-man-out is always the hardest to balance in a map [just look at PBEM 1, where Dreylin dominated the trade routes].

Center

Mostly unchanged. I dispersed the piggies a bit.

There were a few other general edits I made. The strip of desert along the eastern edge is no more, and I made sure that each player has their own aluminum [insert an 'i' as needed]; it probably won't matter, but I realized that if the game actually got to the late stage aluminum would be critical. Some miscellaneous mountains were also added.

Thoughts? I probably won't be able to work on this again until tomorrow, unfortunately.