Fall From Heaven VII Map Thread (Help Needed!)

[Ravus Sol]

Okay so the players are getting antsy to start and Amelia didn't want to be the map maker anyway and is busy on top of it...

So I offered to help, while having never tried to make a map for a multiplayer game before *sigh*

From what Information i managed to wrangle I MAYBE just need to create a map in a one player game and then edit it for balance in worldbuilder then save as a worldbuilder file.

Turnorder SEEMS like it can be sorted out later either by a trick i don't know, or by manually editing the worldbuilder file.

...Help?

I'll post screen shots of the screens as i set up the map and then some screenshots of some maps that seem like they could be made workable

(Did someone think that this script was balanced? I've been looking at the different maps it shows up for a few minutes and allready i've seen some silly things like a nation having 3 grassland river golds RIGHT NEXT TO the capital starting location. In what universe is that balanced?)

[Ravus Sol]

Civilizations
Nicolae: Tebrim of Sheaim!
Kyan & Twinkletoes: Keelyn of the Balseraphs!
Brian : Einion of Elohim!
Gaspar: Arendel of Ljosfalar!
Acalostas & Mackoti: Cassiel of Grigori!
Rawkking: Rhoanna of Hippus!

Monarch Difficulty (I only selected it for the first player as human. Will the rest have to be modified later?)

Winning Conditions: All enabled

Map Script: Everything kept as Default

Additional Options:
No Tech Trading
Living World (Doubles the chance of events occuring)
All Unique Features (They can be moved later)
No Acheron (The Barbarian Red Dragon can be manually placed later if need be

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="4"]Possible Map #1[/SIZE]

This map turned up after a few Regeneration and seems like it could be easily enough balanced. It's a continent that has three sections. The Unique Features need moving around and the starting locations made balanced but it seems about okay to my inexperienced eyes.

The Far Right
can hold two players and could have a second connection to the main landmass added in the south so that both players have a way to explore...

It naturally placed the Elves and Sheaim here, Elves to the north-west and Sheaim to the North-East. Balance wise one should be moved to the south.

The Middle
Yes the Features look silly and need moving. But apart from that it seems okay. A player in the north and south. If the eastern Land area is connected in the south as well it could be a good spot.

It naturally placed the Hippus in the north and the Balseraphs in the south.

The Left
This probably needs nerfing slightly... I'm not too sure. The north has Tundra and the south has a snaky land area covered in jungle. It SEEMS like a larger area then the other two *shrug*

It naturally placed the Elohim and the Grigori here. The Elohim by the Yggdrasil (with three gold plain hills! oh that start so needs nerfing) and the Grigori south-west of the inland lake

-

Thoughts?

EDIT: Edited because I was saying the nations were in the wrong places

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]Possible Map #2[/SIZE]

This map could also work... It seems to have a snaky land mass that has a central core with bits branching off for players to have a safe starting or backfill area depending on how they are placed initially.

The South-East
The player could start slightly north-west of the Dragon bones and have a nice backfill area?

The North-East
This area has less backfill compared to the others. But the tundra section could be turned grassland if needed... The player should start south of there anyway

The South
The Player could start in the little offshoot to the far south or next to the current placement of the Pristin pass?

The North
A lot of bogus Tundra, the player should probably start just south of there and have the choice of backfilling... A good elf spot?

The North-West
A nice little backfill area. The player starts at the intersection?

The South-West
This area seems a little too powerful if it includes the island... It's actually TWO backfill area's if the player borders off the floodplain area. Maybe it needs nerfing? Or just the island removing?

-

Thoughts?

[Ravus Sol]

I'll start messing around with Possible Map #1 now I guess... unless someone with more experiance pops in to tell me otherwise. It seems the easiest to balance.

• Add in a South East Pass
  
• Balance the starting points for economics
  
• Balance the starting points for barbarian spawning dungeons
  
• Balance the Unique Features
  
• Add in the Red Dragon either alone or with a city? (Perhaps in one of the passes, centre of the map or a lone island)
  

[Ravus Sol]

Damn... I was going to try and put the worldbuilder files up but apparantly that is an invalid file. Guess i need to figure out how to zip it.

[Ravus Sol]

Here is the zip file of the Possible Map#1 Worldbuilder file:

Changes done:
Modified the starting locations for balanced resources (pictures to come)

Changes to do:
Modify Barbarian Spawns in some areas
Create the south land bridge
Change the South-West Peninsula into a island
Move around the Unique Features
Add in the Red-Dragon?

Needs:
Feedback on everything. Including whether i've messed things up so people can't play the save file. Yes i'm that clueless

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]Sheaim[/SIZE]

Before:

After:

The starting location wasn't that good. Plus the map script had the Elves JUST to the east of them. Leaving them cramped together. Bad bad bad.

Anyway I quickly dropped them deep into the south for space. They will have more expansion possibilities once the West passage opens up.

The "After" Image originally had lots of Jungle and 4 Wines. I deleted half the jungle and replaced the other half with burnt forest for a slight more flavour start for these world enders. I deleted half the Wines but left two seeing as the Sheaim have no food resources.

They have marsh around them naturally. I could delete it... They also have jungle surrounding them and will need bronze working to open that up. I could replace the jungle in one area with forest?

The Volcano i added in myself because well... Flavour i guess. And no one builds a city on a one-square piece of land in the ocean.

Overall:
The Sheaim get a slightly more flavour full start. They have a bit of space initially but as they are surrounded by Jungle they will need that to further expand.

They have the military resource of copper nearby and the Frigus Feature further west, which could count as another military resource if the Sheaim focus on Magic Users.

Needs:
Seems balanced resource wise...
Only has one visable barbarian producer, some nations have more. Thoughts?
They also have a second unique feature the "Dragon Bones" to the north. Should they loose one or the other or change them round?

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]Balseraphs[/SIZE]

Before:

After:

They start in the right sort of position but i'm not sure how to go about balancing this.

They have jungle to the south which stops expansion that way for awhile, yet powerful floodplains to the north, which they may even move into straight away.

The power of floodplains means i'm hesitant to add anything up there production wise or anything food wise near the start.

The amount of Unique features near this area needs to be nerfed but one could be left anyway. Mirror of Heaven seems appropriate lore wise.

Overall:
Not much flavour
No Military resources
No Major Food
No Major Production

Needs:
A lot
But i'm hesitant to add all or even some of it in fear of making this too overpowered.

Currently I'm tempted to add in Stone to the North and Horses to the south, along with deleting ALL the unique resources and leaving the Mirror of Heaven somewhere...

[Ravus Sol]

[SIZE="5"]Elohim[/SIZE]

Before:

After:

Euuughhhh yes you saw the Before picture right. This start tried to hand the Elohim the World Tree AND Three Golds. Seriously is the script biased towards good guys? When the players finish the game and read this i'm terribly sorry Brian but you CANNOT keep that start.

I moved them to the landmass junction to give them options of expansion. Lore wise it's amusing that they are near the Well. Might leave that there. But the Worldtree HAD to go.

I flattened the land near the new starting area. Gave them a CORN. Removed the Three GOLD and placed One back where they originally started.

After that i couldn't see what else to do...

Overall:
They have a lot of Food Resources if they are willing to have a sea start. Copper is nearby for military function and some nice expansion area.

On my second look now that i'm writing this i realise they have little commerce production with only a tiny river and the loss of the gold.

They also have NO Barbarians nearby.

Needs:
Some Commerce? They have Gold to the West and Furs to the North but that is late game.
Barbarians.
Someone to weigh in on leaving them the Well. (also Bridgit is in the North)