If you are reading this, you are not here for Civ IV lessons, obviously. You'd be on the other threads if you wanted those. You are here for something else. What is it that you're looking for, I can't tell it myself.
So, let's talk naming scheme. I considered using the names of the Adventure Gamebooks by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone as my city names. Here are some nice examples:
01. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
02. The Citadel of Chaos
03. The Forest of Doom
04. Starship Traveller
05. City of Thieves
06. Deathtrap Dungeon
07. Island of the Lizard King
08. Scorpion Swamp
09. Caverns of the Snow Witch
10. House of Hell
11. Talisman of Death
12. Space Assassin
But I decided to innovate upon it. I'll create my own adventure book titles for my cities. The rules are that I need to come up with the most generic fantasy names possible. I could create my own names (like "Manor of Despair") or roll two numbers between 1 and 60 (number of Adventure Gamebooks written) and combine them. Like, 12 and 11 would become "Space of Death", 10 and 6, "House of Dungeon", 4 and 8, Starship Swamp.
(May 20th, 2013, 10:30)pindicator Wrote: Definitely the second option!
Btw, I'm here to root for the eventual winner of pbem50
Well, Seven's yet to create his thread, right. You can stay here in the meantime.
Here's the full list of Adventure Gamebooks:
01. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
02. The Citadel of Chaos
03. The Forest of Doom
04. Starship Traveller
05. City of Thieves
06. Deathtrap Dungeon
07. Island of the Lizard King
08. Scorpion Swamp
09. Caverns of the Snow Witch 10. House of Hell
11. Talisman of Death
12. Space Assassin
13. Freeway Fighter
14. Temple of Terror
15. The Rings of Kether
16. Seas of Blood
17. Appointment with F.E.A.R. 18. Rebel Planet
19. Demons of the Deep
20. Sword of the Samurai
21. Trial of Champions
22. Robot Commando
23. Masks of Mayhem
24. Creature of Havoc
25. Beneath Nightmare Castle
26. Crypt of the Sorcerer
27. Star Strider
28. Phantoms of Fear
29. Midnight Rogue
30. Chasms of Malice
31. Battleblade Warrior
32. Slaves of the Abyss
33. Sky Lord
34. Stealer of Souls
35. Daggers of Darkness
36. Armies of Death 37. Portal of Evil 38. Vault of the Vampire
39. Fangs of Fury
40. Dead of Night
41. Master of Chaos 42. Black Vein Prophecy
43. The Keep of the Lich-Lord
44. Legend of the Shadow Warriors 45. Spectral Stalkers
46. Tower of Destruction
47. The Crimson Tide 48. Moonrunner
49. Siege of Sardath
50. Return to Firetop Mountain
51. Island of the Undead
52. Night Dragon 53. Spellbreaker 54. Legend of Zagor
55. Deathmoor
56. Knights of Doom
57. Magehunter
58. Revenge of the Vampire
59. Curse of the Mummy
60. Bloodbones
I'll roll the name of the Capital now. The numbers are 45 and 1. So, my Capital will be SpectralMountain. unfortunately, that doesn't fit. So we could use WarlockStalkers, SpectralFiretop or SpectralWarlock. Which one do you guys prefer?
SpectralFiretop, imo. That or WarlockStalkers, if you want a comedic touch.
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.
On lesser matters than my incredibly creative naming scheme, the pick list was made public. In order to nerf the likely winner of this game, they gave me the last pick, obviously. Whatever, give me Toku or any other leader, the outcome won't change.
Alexander (Agg, Phi)of China (Agriculture, Mining)
Louis XIV (Cre, Ind)of Persia (Agriculture, Hunting)
Genghis Khan (Agg, Imp) of France (Agriculture, The Wheel)
Napoleon (Cha, Org)of Rome (Fishing, Mining)
Julius Caesar (Imp, Org)of Viking (Hunting, Fishing)
Charles de Gaulle (Ind, Cha)of England (Fishing, Mining)
Justinian (Spi, Imp)of Spain (Fishing, Mysticism)
Zara Yaqob (Cre, Org) of Celts (Hunting, Mysticism)
Only one Expansive, and I was fancying playing an EXP leader. That won't be possible, someone will grab Sury before me (or I can hope to be the only one with deer tiles). Well, Germany is like having standard units with reasonable starting techs. Hunting and Minin isn't that bad. So, I'll scratch Sury of my possible list (because others will pick them for sure).
I don't think Agressive leaders will be picked, so i'll probably have acess to those. Essentialy, you get a good civ (china or france), with only one trait, Imp or Phi. These traits aren't good enough to be picked on their own (if it was AGG/FIN or AGG/EXP it'd be a different deal), so I'll scratch them out of my possible pick list.
I don't want to play with de Gaulle again, so i'll scratch him due to unfunness.
I think Asoka will be picked without a doubt before my turn. Both Thoth and Seven value Org highly and Spi is useful or powerful, depending on who's using it. So, it's a solid combination. Netherlands isn't that bad as a Civ, too. Seven's mapscript seems to be water-light, but the UU could give a big edge to control the inland seas if we are still playing when Astronomy comes (likely, due to powerful and competitive players).
The next pick which I think won't reach me is Julius Ceasar of Vikings. Vikings have bad starting techs, hunting and fishing, but good players can get around those, or at least luck out on a deer/fish tile to play with. The power of vikings come from the UB, which allows some creative usage of galleons (bonus: Org doubles the production of the UB). The UU is also interesting, it can be used for water attacks too. Imp/Org has the necessary economy + expansion combination and I don't think people will let it pass.
So, we reach the following list, from where likely two more will be taken:
Augustus (Imp, Ind) of Babylon (Agriculture, The Wheel)
Louis XIV (Cre, Ind)of Persia (Agriculture, Hunting)
Napoleon (Cha, Org)of Rome (Fishing, Mining)
Justinian (Spi, Imp)of Spain (Fishing, Mysticism)
Zara Yaqob (Cre, Org) of Celts (Hunting, Mysticism)
I believe Louis will be picked too, since the Civ is reasonable and the leader can be good. I rate him as a higher chance of being picked than the other IND leaders (Augustus and du Gaulle). It's also possible that someone will try to overcome the really bad Celt civ and pick the good Zara Yakob. So, my possible pick list is:
Augustus (Imp, Ind) of Babylon (Agriculture, The Wheel)
From the pick list, my favorite is Justinian as a leader. I probably should go with Napoleon, since most of his benefits are passive and easier to use, but I think Justinian is more fun.
Problem is, spain starting techs suck. I could get away with it if I have a lake fishing start or something. But that's highly unlikely. And even then, the Mining/Fishing start from Rome could end up being way better.
(May 20th, 2013, 15:02)pindicator Wrote: Haven't you been Justinian like a dozen times now?
No, I played Victoria of Byzantium on PBEM38, Hannibal of Mali on PB6 and De Gaulle of India on PBEM 45v. I already played with an IMP leader, but never with a SPI one.
