Start 1 and 7 have roads under their settler/scout combo.
If you wanted to weaken Krill's start a tad, you could try removing the river from 2W of the start up to about the iron and get that to connect into the lake or the other river. You could also remove the 2nd Eastern river from south of the horses.
Also, Start 5 and 6 don't have copper or horse in the BFC if they settle in place. Every other start does. Start 5 is particularly bad on this front.
I might not have been clear: Krill's start definitely doesn't need nerfing. He is correct that his capital is very slow to set up. Painfully slow, actually, as he points out. I'm just thinking that everything else balances it out.
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 actually made a mistake with novice's capital. Azza correctly pointed out the existence of a plains hill to the south onto which he could move and keep his food resources, but we both missed the one to the SW. I'm really torn about changing that now. It's definitely unbalanced.
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'm not sure what to do about novice's capital. Either of the southern plains hills looks superior to what the others can get with their capitals, and I can't see any solutions that don't involve altering what they can already see.
If you're ok with changing what they can see, you could swap the sheep with the copper. You'd still need to move the ivory and banana out of range of a bfc on the southeast plains hill, and the fish out of range of a bfc on the 2N plains hill, and maybe the cow for 2N1E ph. That leaves the hills to the SW pretty barren though...
Either way, you're going to have to make a tough call. But don't forget to move the ivory and banana out of range of the SE plains hill, since that'd probably still be too good.
(August 29th, 2013, 02:18)Azza Wrote: I'm not sure what to do about novice's capital. Either of the southern plains hills looks superior to what the others can get with their capitals, and I can't see any solutions that don't involve altering what they can already see.
If you're ok with changing what they can see, you could swap the sheep with the copper. You'd still need to move the ivory and banana out of range of a bfc on the southeast plains hill, and the fish out of range of a bfc on the 2N plains hill, and maybe the cow for 2N1E ph. That leaves the hills to the SW pretty barren though...
Either way, you're going to have to make a tough call. But don't forget to move the ivory and banana out of range of the SE plains hill, since that'd probably still be too good.
The argument against that is that its changing the actual tiles, rather than just rearranging it. Id consider that to be a more significant change than moving the sheep and more likely to have affected picks.
Its mean to change it on them, like pulling the rug out from under them, but I don't think they can be left with a plains hill plant that doesn't weaken their (visible) start.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
Why not tell them in thread its a mistake and just ask them to settle in place as the mapmaker intended? You are talking about one of the most mellow + honorable players at RB. I am sure he will be okay with it.
