[spoilers] - Pindicator makes America great again!

[pindicator]

Good sleuthing there, pardner.

Well, if this map is in Tectonics, we might be stuck in the ass end of it. At least, the jungle end:

Turn 016




Last turn I was a little concerned about seeing jungle to the northwest and northeast of the capital, but it appears that the jungle starts to taper out into regular trees in that river valley northeast of the capital. So I think we need to check that out with the scout and see if there's potentially a good site there.

Next turn I'll probably go onto the Ivory. Peer into the fog there and you can see that the Ivory jungle hill is coastal.

[scooter]

Another river! It's longer too. That's the first bit of good map news I've seen. I'm trying to read tile-bleeding via screenshot, and sadly I don't see any floodplains. Just looks like more hills, but hey, a river works. Also nice to see yet another luxury - that's the 5th one that's easily accessible.

As for map stuff - I didn't finish last night, but I did eliminate a couple other standard scripts that get nowhere near the 1,781 map tiles. That really is an unusually high number for Standard size water map. I was in the middle of messing with Global Highlands last night when I had to call it a night. The hills/barenness really fit the bill, it's 104x64 on Standard, and it's also got an unusually high number of land tiles. We've only seen a couple peaks so far, but that's not necessarily abnormal near starting locations, and the hills are definitely more frequent than normal. The problem is that this time it's got too many tiles, which is the first one yet to have that problem. I only generated probably 9-10 of them, but they consistently ranged between 1,870-1,940 or so rather than 1,780. It could be that I don't have one of the continental/peak settings right, so I'll check that out some more later.

So that's a firm maybe, but I'm skeptical until I find something that fits the land tiles profile. It's an important indicator, because most scripts fit into a pretty consistent range.

I'm also going to download and explore Totestra, which I see mentioned around here a lot nowadays, but I've never played a game on it before so I know nothing about it. My understanding is it's sort of a cousin/descendant to Tectonics, which is interesting because this looks a little like Tectonics but almost certainly can't be due to dimensions/size.

[pindicator]

Turn 017




Well, barren is seeming a more and more apt description for what we're finding. And I think that's kind of exciting; I've always wanted to play a more food-sparse MP game than what we typically get. (Although I rather agree with the argument that GermanJoey gave for food-lush maps: when there's more options there's more strategic thinking required and therefore we want to play on food-rich maps.)

Speaking of food, we have farmed our sugar. Yes, while other nations are looking to the sea to feed their population, or harvesting the wheat crop, or hunting the local game, us Americans have decided to feed our people on a diet of pure sugar. Why? Because freedom, that's why.

Another river! It's longer too. That's the first bit of good map news I've seen. I'm trying to read tile-bleeding via screenshot, and sadly I don't see any floodplains. Just looks like more hills, but hey, a river works. Also nice to see yet another luxury - that's the 5th one that's easily accessible.

I got a zoomed in screenshot, and took my best guess at what I saw:

[Miguelito]

Wow, didn't know you've got Aldi markets over there. I hope Trump does something about that.

[pindicator]

I can't say I've ever experienced an Aldi before. Guessing they're an east coast thing.

Turn 019

Starting to get some views of that river valley:




We're also the first to size 2! To be fair, we tied with REM, who also grew to 2 this last turn. I also missed the 2metra teched something last turn. Soldier points went up 4k, but he starts with Wheel already. Took him 7 turns, so I'm going to say it's Mining and he also finished the game's first warrior.

These are also the turns where my worker twiddles his thumbs, waiting for BW to finish. We're going to put 2 turns into a mine and then move to the forest on t21 so we can chop out worker #2 in time. I have no idea when I'm ever going to finish that mine though; I certainly haven't in any of my simming so far.

[pindicator]

Got a quick turnover so here's Turn 020

I'm starting to think IMP is going to be a shitty trait to have this game:




Also, are we on a peninusla here? Plan on scouting west to see if that continues on or dead-ends.

Lots of C&D stuff happening:

• Commodore grew to size 2 and got points for 5 land tiles
  
• OT4E grew to size 2
  
• Old Harry got points for 8 land tiles
  
• REM got points for 5 land tiles
  
• Mackoti teched Bronze Working and got points for 5 land tiles. Consider he's taken the same tech path as us, got Mining the same turn we did, yet beat us to BW by 2 turns, I think it's safe to note that he had a coastal fish help power him speed up BW.
  
• One of TBS, Old Harry, or REM built a warrior this turn.
  

Demos for turn 20:

[scooter]

I'm starting to think IMP is going to be a shitty trait to have this game:

At least you didn't pick Financial. Yeesh. Over/under 80 cottages built by all players the entire game?

[spacetyrantxenu]

FIN coasts? Or not in this version of the mod?

[scooter]

FIN coasts? Or not in this version of the mod?

Oops. I thought this version was FIN doesn't get the boost on water tiles, but it's actually river tiles. So just kidding - FIN is probably excellent here since 2/0/3 is an above-average tile on this map.

[pindicator]

I'm starting to think IMP is going to be a shitty trait to have this game:

At least you didn't pick Financial. Yeesh. Over/under 80 cottages built by all players the entire game?

Right now serfdom is looking like a winner. But that won't be until after Machinery and Feudalism so I'm not quite to the point of entertaining GE bulb plans. We still might find the land open up a bit; still a lot of scouting to do.