Oh, my mistake. I certainly don't want to get Sullla (or anybody else) in trouble!
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
*shrug* Not telling Sullla what he can or can't do, just trying to explain why he might not post any more pictures. Discussion TBH I don't see Firaxis getting annoyed about and calling the lawyers, but pictures...eh.
Cool, thanks! Well, they certainly made some nice visual changes prior to release.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I have hundreds of pre-release pictures that I've had sitting around for years. My hope has been to post some of them when Civ4 hits its 10 year anniversary in 2015. I believe that's when the non-disclosure agreement runs out, and I find it hard to believe that Firaxis would go after someone releasing screenshots from a game that old, but you never know. We'll see.
(June 27th, 2013, 12:06)Sullla Wrote: Poor Federal Reserve civic never made the final cut, and with good reason. (You received compound interest each turn on the gold in your treasury. It was either pathetically weak at like 2% compound interest, or laughably overpowered at like 10% compounding. We could never balance it. Poorly designed mechanic.)
Didn't anyone tell them that compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe?
(June 27th, 2013, 21:04)Sullla Wrote: I have hundreds of pre-release pictures that I've had sitting around for years. My hope has been to post some of them when Civ4 hits its 10 year anniversary in 2015. I believe that's when the non-disclosure agreement runs out, and I find it hard to believe that Firaxis would go after someone releasing screenshots from a game that old, but you never know. We'll see.
Considering that a beta version of the Civ 5 BNW expansion apparently was leaked to the public some weeks ago, I don't think Firaxis lawyers will be placing their eyes on you.
But until 2015, then. That'll be interesting. We'll be on, what, PBEM 100 and PB 25? What's certain is that we'll still be playing the ISDG 2012.
The worst of the labor civics, is, of course, Serfdom. Why did Firaxis never fixed it being almost useless, instead preferring the pointless nerfs to English and Russian UU's?
Because it's not useless. Try playing a late era start game on Quick speed, the way that Multiplayer ladder games are sometimes run. Serfdom is the best civic in the column by far. It's a highly situational civic, but not useless.
Also, the notion that the Cossack nerf was pointless is pretty amusing to anyone who played Renny 3 vs 3 games before the expansions came out.
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![[Image: scan_Cologne.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_Cologne.jpg)
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![[Image: scan_techtree.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_techtree.jpg)
![[Image: scan_findresource.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_findresource.jpg)
![[Image: scan_hinduism.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_hinduism.jpg)
![[Image: scan_BordersAndJapan.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_BordersAndJapan.jpg)
![[Image: scan_egypt.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_egypt.jpg)
![[Image: scan_landbridge.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_landbridge.jpg)
![[Image: scan_persepolis.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_persepolis.jpg)
![[Image: scan_freeview.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_freeview.jpg)
![[Image: scan_battle.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_battle.jpg)
![[Image: scan_bowmen.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_bowmen.jpg)
![[Image: scan_Coastline.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_Coastline.jpg)
![[Image: scan_countryside.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_countryside.jpg)
![[Image: scan_great_merchant.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_great_merchant.jpg)
![[Image: scan_Spearmen.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_Spearmen.jpg)
![[Image: scan_battle2.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87213001/First%20Civ4%20Screenshots/scan_battle2.jpg)
