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.
(June 13th, 2013, 21:36)TheHumanHydra Wrote: You guys might as well make a thread for it with this much interest.
I don't know. I feel like this is a very sensitive subject, and the utmost care must be taken so that nobody is offended. To prevent such disruptive escalation, maybe we should discuss the matter in a password-protected forum, where only the most established and mature members can have access?
Seriously. Enough with the self-censorship already. Just make a new thread and get it out in the open.
(June 13th, 2013, 21:36)TheHumanHydra Wrote: You guys might as well make a thread for it with this much interest.
I don't know. I feel like this is a very sensitive subject, and the utmost care must be taken so that nobody is offended. To prevent such disruptive escalation, maybe we should discuss the matter in a password-protected forum, where only the most established and mature members can have access?
Seriously. Enough with the self-censorship already. Just make a new thread and get it out in the open.
I disagree. An offsite blog is the appropriate venue for this discussion. There and only there, with maybe a forum post letting us know to read the blog for updates.
; played in Civ VI PBEM 4, 5, 15; DL suboptimal Civ VI PBEM 17
