Map is good and obvoiusly as balanced as it can be without being fully mirrored. It also corresponds the "order" very well. Of course we didn't fully understand what the order meant e.g. Concerning city maintenance, but can't really blame map for that and very lush land makes it bearable. So overall view is very positive.
For the future here are few minor things to critize:
* lack of stone and marble - sure they make certain early wonders very cheap, but maybe making availability bad would compensate this and does industrious really need this boost.
* Capital security - when settling in place is only option I would suggest positioning peeks lakes and hills so that there is enough time to build a warrior from the scratch. Especially at quick speed this is easy to arrange.
* Plentiful resources (not the amount but sortiment) - this typical for these lush small mirrored maps there is plentiful of health and happiness resources decreasing the value of charismatic (bad) and expansive (probably good). I think keeping cities both happy and healthy is a bit too easy.
Quote:I guess agreements in this game are - with this particular crowd of players - really worth not even the time it is needed to write them. First mackoti selling out those he forced into a war (when he himself was not smart enough and asked for hilariously bad troop movements) and now you obviously not sticking to the deal we made regarding city placement. Only thing that surprises me is why you think that YOU have a reason to be annoyed about MY city placement, when I didn't break any agreement with it, while you happily break the agreement we had about the placement of yours. Is it really only all talks you do, just to get yourself in a better position, or are you intending to stick to your word sometimes as well?
My response:
Quote:What deal you're talking about. If you mean the chat where you e.g.
gave me permission to settle pretty much the way I wanted, I don't see
any signed deal there just an idle intention to settle couple of
cities in that region and at that point I decided not annoying you was
the way to go and I thought that actually current positioning
accomplished that better than the original one.
I'm really doing you a favor here. At that point I was going to settle
2 cities in the region, but positioning of your cities especially gold
city made that positioning way too crowded. So instead of 2 I decided
to go with 1 city that also wastes least amount of tiles in the region
and fits perfectly also to positioning of your cities instead of e.g.
Me culturally threatening your corn tile near the gold.
His response including new deal suggestions. I'm not keen on signing any culture deal and signing yet another NAP sounds boring even if it probably would be in my benefit since Serdoa seems to be annoyed to Rome. Nevertheless I need to think about this:
Quote:yes I talk about our chat. I understood it as an agreement between us. After all I was told that I have to give up the land we agreed upon as "reparations" for our war. It seems more and more that mackoti lied to me at several occasions. Tbh I would have settled that deer-spot myself for sure if I had known that our chat was just idle talk, don't you think? But if you don't intend to settle another city down there, I am fine with that I guess. After all I tried to minimize our cultural battles as much as possible. You might have realized that I settled a city in your south / my north which I could have put one tile further north for a much better city for me - didn't do it because I was working under the impression that we'd rather help each other.
But you should have told me some turns earlier. I could have settled my city which is culturally pressured by you differently if I had known that you settle differently. Would have helped us both I think.
Anyway, can't be changed now. Still, I'd like us to agree to not pressure the other unnecessary on our border. For that reason, what do you think about agreeing to not build any wonders in our border cities? That surely should help minimize the cultural pressure one does to the other. I'd also be happy to couple that with an extension of our NAP, till T130 or T140 if you want (yes, I really want to work with you, I have others I feel deserve my wrath ).
Also I'll soon edit my comments to more readable format.
NobleHelium Wrote:I don't really have any idea what agreements you're talking about.
We're referring to a chat long ago after peace talks with Mackoti. Here it is:
Serdoa: hi plako, do you have time?
me: a Little
Serdoa: mack told me you want the deer spot - which tile to you want to settle exactly?
me: preferably a one where I can secure both e.g. S and W of them
Serdoa: make that instead 2E of your crabs and agree to gift me one deer resource and I am fine with it.
me: I'll check it
Not in a hill. I could also settle 1W from the western Deer, if your gold city won't prevent me putting a city in the jungled grassland hill W from the 4 high lake (1SE of Bananas)
We'll have a cultural fight there that you probably will win, but that is pretty much unavoidable in this map
Serdoa: well, but 1W of the western deer is even more of a fight. the spot at the bananas doesn't inflict anything with my gold btw, so that doesn't need to be taken into account imo
me: ok
Serdoa: I mean, lets be honest, you want a hill location for the defense bonus. but we are napped till T100 as far as I know and then we all will have catapults, so hill defense doesn't seem that important?
Serdoa: well, anyway, I want to get that over with. I was pressed into this war, now I am the one who has to give away stuff. I would like you to settle 2E of your crabs and am sure it would be better for our relations, but if you can't agree to that, go ahead and settle on that damned hill 1W,1S of those deers. I take it you agree to gift me one of the deer resources?
me: sry distracted. Too busy to really concentrate on this, but I guess 2E works for me to
Not in a hill is my main problem
I give deer
Serdoa: I understand that - I am fine with agreeing to a longer NAP between the two of us if that would help you plako. If not I am ok if you settle the spot directly S and W of the deer, I just think from a dotmap perspective the spot 2E is better for you and for me.
me: ok 2E it is then. I don't want an angry neighbor
Serdoa: thanks plako. Maybe we can get a better relation now that I no longer am requested to march in this war.
There was no further conversation/emails after this.
NobleHelium Wrote:Why does he need one of the deer? I thought he already settled his other deer, that was like the subject of 10 communications right after you met him.
That was the 1st border discussion before the war. He was not willing to sign a long NAP so we never signed a border deal back then. The deers to NE from his capital are taken by WK. I'll give him the deers after I get them improved. They're not gonna make any difference to neither of us unless we prolong our NAP.
Aesthetics finished. It seems I wasn't only one doing it and good guess is that Serdoa did it. Only other alternative is Mackoti since WK was collecting gold and TMIT almost certainly finished Calendar. It seems Serdoa really wants all wonders. I also checked and from the techs everyone except we have Sailing and IW so those are probably good targets for next techs to research after Meditation.
and very lush land makes it bearable. So overall view is very positive. 