[SPOILERS] Map Planning (no players!!)

[Jowy]

This is a place for lurkers to give comments on the map while it's still under
construction. Players, please leave this thread if you happened to stumble in.
In case of missclicks, here is a big random picture.



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[Jowy]

Now, to the juicy bits! This map is called "Cataclysm". It's generated by Pangaea map script, which I heavily edited afterwards. It has five corners, one for each player. In the middle of the pangaea is Ground Zero, divided by some peaks and jungle from the starting areas. It's a very fertile and rich area with a couple of unique resources. However, if everything goes as planned, it'll be a highly contested area since it's in the middle and settling there should be worth the trouble of defending. South from Ground Zero is The Great Bay, which is a sea with islands in a vortex-like shape. The islands are not the meat and potatoes of the map, but the middle island is as rich as Ground Zero and has some unique resources.



overall pic



inca start



ottoman start



mali start



india start



maya start



ground zero



the great bay




Alright. This is still work in progress! However, any feedback is welcome. The faster I get a second opinion on things the better. Things still to do:
- tweaking / balancing the starting areas (feedback is already welcome)
- tweak small details like coast/ocean, any accidental floodplains or shit
- strategical resources! atm. I have iron and copper somewhat near the starts, 2nd city should be able to grab a metal if it's visible. same with horses. I need help with the late-game strat. resources because I dont play much in the modern times.. atm. I have oil and coal on each starting area, but uranium and aluminium in the islands (except one aluminium in the middle that I seem to have forgot to delete). Any suggestions r welcome.

[Jowy]

ps. ottoman start needs some islands to connect it to the rest.

[SleepingMoogle]

Quick observations: The Mayans and Mali don't have a Marble or Rock resource on their slice of the main landmass. The other three do.

[regoarrarr]

One thing I noticed is that the Indian oil is on a flat grassland that is likely to have a town on it by the time we get to Sci Meth. Don't know if that's a good thing or not

[pocketbeetle]

Quick observations: The Mayans and Mali don't have a Marble or Rock resource on their slice of the main landmass. The other three do.

Agree with this.
Consider -moving- the duplicate stone from the centre up for Mali. 1 extra in the centre seems enough.
I'm glad you're not trying to make the sites 100% identical, I like the one-wonder-doubler-each idea.

Like the gold scattergun/incentive placement.
Inca may end up being the only civ not to get a gold however.
Is this balanced out by their slightly larger land allocation?

Also, Ottoman's start is too poor.
It looks like you've missed their 3rd food resource (farmable/land).
They seem to have the lowest number of hills out of all the starts, so may lack production. (Edit: Rechecking this, I may be wrong?)

Plus, their second city expansion choice is awful.
They can either settle the fish/clams 5E1N or they have to go all the way over to the 2 corn/sheep site.
There's very little other food at all on that landmass.
(Edit: Put another way, they're the only civ who can't get a copper + 2 food resource second city.)

Maybe move some of those corns/sheep inland?


Overall, Mali may have too much of an advantage.
They're the closest to the ground zero site, and also due to world wrap have a decent shot at the best island.
Bigger jungle belt maybe?


Like the map though, you've done a really nice one.

[dinamo]

Looking at this map is clear that is a big advantage for financial civ's.And beetle said that ottoman start is bad .They have a city with possible :2 corns, sheep and
Inca has more jungle than everyone. the great city is at 8 tile away.You can't find something similar on the map.And just my opinion you should do something that financial civs to don't have a big advantage.Perhaps just 1 sea food.
In my opinion Inca has the worse position : Its has the biggest distance to the center and the land itself no great comparing to other, you can't compare 2 irrigated corn with one jungle rice

[Shoot the Moon]

I don't know if it's just me, but having resources on a floodplains just looks weird.

One small note: there are only two sources of uranium on the map. If the game makes it to the nuclear age, that could be incredibly unbalanced.

[Jowy]

Thx for the comments guys, especially pocketbeetle!
Also, welcome to Realmsbeyond dinamo

I'm not gonna post all the pictures again since the tweaks are fairly minor and probably not anything interesting. But rest assured, I did fix all the issues that were brought up earlier. Who can spot the biggest difference?:

[scooter]

Is it just me or did Sylon sort of get screwed? He is the only one who can't use all three of his food resources in his capital...