New EitB PBEM

[RefSteel]

Oh, don't worry: I started working on the map as soon as I had a sense for what scale and I was dealing with and the broad lines of map type in which the players were interested. My latest questions were in anticipation of trying to build the starts themselves, hoping to finish them soon enough to post them in everyone's threads as soon as all the settings are decided, and then to have the map finished by the time everyone's picks are complete. Whether I'll succeed in that hope remains to be seen, but it's what I'm aiming for at least!

[mackoti]

Oh, don't worry: I started working on the map as soon as I had a sense for what scale and I was dealing with and the broad lines of map type in which the players were interested.  My latest questions were in anticipation of trying to build the starts themselves, hoping to finish them soon enough to post them in everyone's threads as soon as all the settings are decided, and then to have the map finished by the time everyone's picks are complete.  Whether I'll succeed in that hope remains to be seen, but it's what I'm aiming for at least!

Oh , Ty i have no games to play right now...., as i was playing on spanish site but that went off...

[coldrain]

Good to hear that the map is coming together! Map guidelines were decided earlier, but the rest of the settings should be locked in. Players, please inform if these settings are ok (copied from previous game):

• AI diplo
  
• Quick speed
  

• Emperor difficulty
  
• No tech trading
  
• No vassal states
  
• No espionage
  
• No Acheron
  
• No Orthus
  
• Wildlands
  
• Living world
  
• Tribal huts: no
  
• Lairs, barrows, graveyards, etc: yes
  
• Mana nodes: two guaranteed sources in starting area (previous game had one)
  
• Normal settler at start (no bonus vision or movement)
  

Feel free to add suggestions if anything is missing. Additionally, I think the consensus was to leave any bans for the map-makers to decide (Cultists or tsunami spell in a lake filled map for example).

[Ginger*]

I think I have a sense for what people are looking for in terms of map size.  It won't be possible to make everyone happy in that respect of course, but I'll do my best to at least make the map fun for everyone to play on, and with significantly more land tiles than in the previous game.  A couple other questions since I'll probably start building the starts soon:

1) Instead of the usual 5x5 square, I'm thinking of posting screenshots of what each player's units can actually see, and starting those units on different tiles in the starting area (like the game does for the player in SP games).  Alternatively, I considered leaving the units stacked and just revealing a larger-than-5x5 area for each player in the starting screen.  The idea in either case would be to give the players more information about their start prior to picking.  I'm not married to any of these though, and I'll defer to the player consensus - even if it's for "Let's make our picks start-unseen!"

2) I'm considering placing unusual tile types on the map, potentially including in the starting BFCs:  Things like forests on coast or lake tiles (representing "kelp forests" or "mangroves") or pre-placed tile improvements (like Torusland puts in) or even "weirder" possibilities.  I can imagine a range from "Sounds cool!" to "Please no; can we just have a mostly-normal map?" or "Sure, put in a few if you want, but not many and not at the start..." so I wanted to see what the consensus looks like on this sort of thing.

1) whatever flies is fine by me

2) How does forest affect naval unit movement and defense? Not saying it shouldn't, because hey that might be pretty cool, but just asking that the mapmaker keeps in mind that implication. As for ruins and "old" improvements, I love that sort of cutesy stuff if it doesn't warp the gameplay too much. Reminds me of the ruins in open world games like "someone was here before" 

[xist10]

2)
Very. Forest cost 2 movements and should give +50% for ships.

I have nothing to add to map or rules.
I'm open for nearly everything.

[Miguelito]

Forest defense is 25% in Eitb though (does it get added with coast 10% ?)

[coldrain]

Good to hear that the map is coming together! Map guidelines were decided earlier, but the rest of the settings should be locked in. Players, please inform if these settings are ok (copied from previous game):

• AI diplo
  
• Quick speed
  

• Emperor difficulty
  
• No tech trading
  
• No vassal states
  
• No espionage
  
• No Acheron
  
• No Orthus
  
• Wildlands
  
• Living world
  
• Tribal huts: no
  
• Lairs, barrows, graveyards, etc: yes
  
• Mana nodes: two guaranteed sources in starting area (previous game had one)
  
• Normal settler at start (no bonus vision or movement)
  

Feel free to add suggestions if anything is missing. Additionally, I think the consensus was to leave any bans for the map-makers to decide (Cultists or tsunami spell in a lake filled map for example).

No objections or suggestions from other players on these settings? Can we then give the green light for RefSteel to finish the starts for the map?

[Tarkeel]

Happy for you to take the lead on this one Ref, and help out as required. I definitely felt like the last map was quite small, though twice as big might be sizable.

I'll happily be another pair of eyes on the result/bouncing board for ideas, but as I still don't know the mod my input will be of the more general variety.

1) Instead of the usual 5x5 square, I'm thinking of posting screenshots of what each player's units can actually see, and starting those units on different tiles in the starting area (like the game does for the player in SP games). Alternatively, I considered leaving the units stacked and just revealing a larger-than-5x5 area for each player in the starting screen. The idea in either case would be to give the players more information about their start prior to picking. I'm not married to any of these though, and I'll defer to the player consensus - even if it's for "Let's make our picks start-unseen!"

I've done a few maps with slightly larger vision, like 7x5 and 7x7, and it can work out very well if you want to use that terrain to either tell a story or give multiple starting locations.

[RefSteel]

Thanks, Tarkeel - more eyes are always better! I'll get a map thread started shortly.

[RefSteel]

Forest defense is 25% in Eitb though (does it get added with coast 10% ?)

I haven't tested this thoroughly, but the mouse-over suggests that you just get the feature bonus in this case. So: Ocean = No Bonus; Coast = +10%; Forest OR Jungle on Ocean OR Coast: +25%; Ancient Forest on Ocean OR Coast: +50%.