Pitboss 13 Settings Discussion

[Commodore]

Thing is, random is considerably weaker, even in RBmod. While Wang Kon of Inca is still possible, most of the combos won't be synergy-tastic. I'm pretty sure Brick can roll to avoid giving you Spi or Inca; after all, in 11 the directive "Azza avoids Rome" was in effect without issue. Basically, I'd rather random or "random but Krill no Spi/Inca and Azza no Rome". If snake pick wins, though, we can snake.

Torusland has no sense of geography. I trust Brick's editting abilities for a B&S; Huge certainly has the room.

No objection at all to map size reading Large, though.

[Serdoa]

My vote goes to Torusworld.

[BRickAstley]

I have rolled some torusland maps of a size similar to suggested, and I just wanted to let you know that compared to an edited huge B&S style map, unedited Torusland maps have almost double the "Total Map Unfairness", according to novice's analysis tool. So if we want to use the torusland script, I think that would have either a significantly larger disparity between start position validity, or require more editing. Though I do agree that if we're giving each player a larger average land size, it might not be as big of a problem.

Big and Small Huge is really fricking huge, but since there's a lot of ocean there are currently fewer land tiles per person, each player would have in between 150-200 land tiles not counting islands. I could try rolling some maps with a low coastline, and that would probably push each person's land in the greater than 200 tiles land.

I kinda do prefer B&S for mentioned reasons, and because it feels like an actual world instead of a fantasy style playground, but since i'm not playing I'll be defering to the majority, I just wanted to play a bit of devils advocate.

I can start rolling some torusland maps as well as the B&S ones i was working on so I can get a good feel for both of them, and if after that I feel like one map type would be strictly superior to the other, I'll let you know.

[WilliamLP]

Basically I'll play anything that doesn't allow NAPs.

Votes:

• Random Civs / Leaders
  
• Events + Huts: On
  
• Go with majority on the map, but can the final candidate get more than one set of eyes for approval?
  
• No TT
  

I assume AI diplo is a given? Cultural victory is on? Is there any need to clarify when reloads are appropriate?

[BRickAstley]

Go with majority on the map, but can the final candidate get more than one set of eyes for approval?

I'll most certainly have at least 3 other people who've played at least a few games on RB vet the map before I give it the final seal of approval.

[Kurumi]

PB8 map was a beauty.
You can always replace jungle with plains/desert mosaic with occasional oasis thrown in...

[novice]

I have rolled some torusland maps of a size similar to suggested, and I just wanted to let you know that compared to an edited huge B&S style map, unedited Torusland maps have almost double the "Total Map Unfairness", according to novice's analysis tool.

I'm not sure how meaningful this is, I think what you see is mostly an effect of each player having more land tiles in the Torusland map.

So I would eyeball the calculated land quality for each player instead of relying on the TMU measure. The TMU measure is used for optimizing balance within one map when using the "rebalance starting positions" option, it's not meant for comparing one map to another. (At least not maps with different dimensions and settings.) My gut says that Torusland maps are more balanced than B&S maps.

I agree with Commodore though that Torusland maps have a somewhat bland geography. Maybe roll a 124x124 torusland map and add more oceans?

[Serdoa]

PB8 map was a beauty.

If you didn't have my start...

[pindicator]

Yeah, I prefer the geographic variance you get with a B&S type map. Perhaps even stitching together several smaller B&S maps would work (although that doesn't sound like a fun prospect)?

As for rules, the whole fun in these games is the random nature of it. But I definitely would not want to roll Bismark, Huayna Capac, Ethiopia or Zulu again. So I can understand people's reluctance for random. Still, the randomness helps add to the casual nature of the game, and anything that helps the casual spirit is a plus in my book.

So I would prefer true random. But I think a good compromise could be having a list of 27 - 34 leader/civ combinations randomly generated and then we pick from that in some kind of order.

Another possibility is to roll 2 or 3 combinations for each player and let them choose from those. This would mean we would potentially have duplicate leaders and/or civs but I think that would still be better than a snake pick.

Anyway, Scootinators votes:

Random Leader/Civ, or some variation of picking among random selections as a backup
Huts: On
Events: On
Barbs: On
Commodore as Neighbor: Off
No Tech Trading
Map is as Brick deems best for a fun, playable map. Don't care about the end all balance because this is a fun game and not a die-hard competition. As long as I feel like I have a decent shot and have some options. PB8 standards for food, luxury, and strategic resource was a good one IMO.

[Jowy]

AT dropped out so we are down to 17.