[PB64] Lurking Randomly

[Mjmd]

Events and huts on. Random map. Those crazies.

[Mjmd]

Few questions as a first time map roller:

1) How do I set everyone to Monarch?
2) Does anyone have a good checklist for things I should be checking for? Copper, Iron, & Horse are the obvious. On a randomly rolled map do I care about anything else?
3) I swear I had more questions last night.........

[Mjmd]

Oh how do you zoom out to see whole world? I could do in sections using flying camera.

Also, I assume I'm not balancing starts at all....... I call this map clam map because a lot of people started with clams, but there are a couple people who got a fish over a clam (and there is one wet corn start but I feel bad for that player).

[Mjmd]

Oh how do I set the size to standard? I rolled it as tiny, but for tech costs was going to change. It ended up about 128 tiles / player, which is maybe a little large, but this is not the grassland fields of a lot of Realms maps so I think that is fine.

[civac2]

You could open the file in a text editor to do this possibly.

As for horses, iron, copper, are you supposed to balance them? Hyperrandom and all that?

Edit: There appears to be a setting for difficulty for each player in the wb file. So you set that too with a text editor.

[Mjmd]

SD

idk about the rest, but so long as we all get copper/horse/iron im fine.

I think that is reasonable. There were a couple of starts that didn't have them anywhere near.

Thanks I'll try that tonight.

[Mjmd]

No one ever answered my question on how to get a picture of the whole map, but I figure vagaries are better anyways.

Obviously I just advanced one turn so you could see it all, but will send T0 unsettled.



From left to right on top:
Commodore - Lincoln (Phi/Cha) of the Celts
Superdeath - Victoria (Imp/Fin) of Carthage
Amicalola - Mao (Exp/Pro) of Persia


From left to right on bottom:
Ginger - Charlemagne (Imp/Pro) of Greece
Gavagai - Shaka (Agr/Exp) of Ethiopia
Nowfrogger - Darius (Fin/Org) of Sumeria

IF I had been given a little leeway I would have sliced off the little peninsula next to Amica and moved it to Ginger, probably so Ginger would border by coast Nowfrogger. But alas. I rolled a lot of maps to get something that looked even this good. The only changes I made as described in setup thread were to cut through some of the top and bottom tundra. Specifically below Sumeria and above Carthage. If there were resources on the tundra I did move them onto the existing landmass as I thought it was unfair if I took them away. It did create situations where there are a lot of resources there...... but as in general there is very little food and a city could have gotten them within a cross anyways I think its fine. I also placed copper for each player because I actually don't think anyone had within like 7 tiles. 

For the record SD it was set to "wet" settings. He definitely got a lot of plains.

Ginger got screwed most on land, like I said I definitely would have changed some random landmasses around if able. I would have loved to add a land bridge between Amica and SD as well.

[Mjmd]

While I'm waiting for reply to my question on how to get map to Ramk question, wanted to quote Nauf.

People forget how often truly random Civ4 maps can just straight up screw a player.

Other than this map being aesthetically pleasing, there aren't any starts that are either bonkers or unplayable (really the 2 things I was looking for). A lot of people are going to be complaining about switching AH and Hunting resources again though as the map generator really liked seafood + AH, which is also my least favorite combo of resources as a player, but again that is the pain they get for random. Commodore's triple clam is a blessing in that way lol.

Map is food poor especially in-between players, which is to be expected. That means cities aren't going to overlap culture nearly as much making cities easier to take and hold.

There is more space than I would like in between some players and tile count is at about 125 / player. I suspect there may be some complaints there, but considering how food poor a lot of those spaces are it isn't like I think people will be packing cities in. Again I do regret not being able modify more, but this at least looks good and won't be too bad on balance considering......

My main consolation is that it looks 1000% better than any totestra map I rolled.

[chumchu]

I'm concerned for the greek starting position as it has small backlines and can easilt be boxed in by celts, carthage and/or ethiopia. I would maybe add a small Island to the sourhwest or southeast to give it more land and options.

[Mjmd]

I would 100% love to, but they wanted a random map....... It actually isn't as bad as it looks though. He almost has the same number of total food resources as some of the larger areas.

Again, I rolled a lot of random maps to get one to look this good. Its a little larger than I wanted / I think they wanted, but I sincerely think its the best script for their overall request.