0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Merovech Wrote:Are the points from Stonehenge included in there?
Yeah, that's buried in there.
YossarianLives Wrote:... Also on T44, the Tropical Trolls got 6 points for a Tech (only took them 4 turns to complete, with only 3 total pop), and Menagerie got 16 points for a Wonder (Stonehenge).
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
There were no other score increases on Turn 45. It looks like the Tropical Trolls just got a 4-point score increase for a Pop Growth at the beginning of Turn 46.
In addition to the Troll's Pop growth (I think from their 2nd city going from size 1 to 2) on Turn 46, Menagerie also had some score changes. They 2-pop whipped something for -8, then got +10 for a Tech plus pop (I think size 4 to 2, then size 2 to 3).
So far on Turn 47, TEAM has gotten 10 points for a pop growth and tech.
Sorry about the long absence. Let me see if I can get us caught up with the turns. I'll just run through things for now, then maybe go back later to see if I can get more specific.
Turn 48 saw pop growths for TEAM and Pirates. This is TEAM's second pop growth in a row.
Turn 49 also had 2 teams grow, and also a tech completed. TEAM had a pop growth for the third consecutive turn. Trolls started the turn with a Pop Growth, then received another when they logged in to play. I'm still confused by how score increases are recorded on civstats with sequential turns, but I'm pretty sure this means they planted another city this turn. Pirates completed a tech this turn, and it took them 6 turns to research.
Turn 50 actually only saw scores going backwards. Menagerie whipped away 2 pop, while Pirates did a 1-pop whip.
Turn 51 only had one score increase, a tech for the Trolls. This one took them 7 turns to research.
And that brings us to Turn 52. So far, Menagerie has gained points for a pop growth, and the Pirates have lost points for a 1-pop whip.
Alright, another quick summary for right now, and then I'll go back and look at the past 5 or 6 turns to try to get more details.
Turn 52 had one more score change after we last left off. Pirates gained a Pop growth later in the turn, after having whipped away a pop earlier. I'll check to see what cities these were in (or if a new city was settled).
There were absolutely no score changes on Turn 53
So far on Turn 54, Pirates gained 14 points and the Trolls gained 22 points. These must be land points, since they both settled their second cities on T34, 20 turns ago. Since the Trolls got so many more points than Pirates, I'll check the math later to see if they also got something else, like a tech or a new pop growth.
Ok, I'm going to try to go back and fill out some of these details, but I must admit that I got confused at a few different points, so hopefully others can give feedback.
On Turn 48, I think TEAM grew their Cap to size 4. Last turn their Cap grew to size 3, so it seems they have a big food surplus and a granary here. Pirates grew their third city to size 2. All their cities are now size 2, and they are the only team with three cities.
On Turn 49, there was a 35k total population increase. TEAM gained one pop, and the Trolls got two pop points over the course of the turn. I had speculated that they built a city based on the way the second pop point came so much later than the first. TEAM must have grown their second city to size 2, leaving 30k population for the Troll's pop growths. This would make sense if they had two cities growing from size 2 to 3, but their cities are size 1 and 3, and there is no way to make the total increase work with them settling a city this turn. I must have messed something up back on T46 when I had their cap growing to size 3, so for now I'll put them down for two size-3 cities.
On Turn 50, We had 3 pop whipped away for a total population decrease of 41k. Menagerie lost two pop points, and since they had two cities at size 2, this must have been a pair of 1-pop whips (probably for Axemen?). That is a 10k decrease, leaving 31k for the Pirates' 1-pop whip. However, by my count the Pirates only have size 2 cities, so they couldn't go down more than 5k themselves. I really have no idea how to make that work. Any ideas?
On Turn 51, the Trolls researched a Tech. We have their graphs and it looks like they got a nice little power boost this turn, so I will put them down for Archery.
Turn 52 is really giving me trouble. The Demos are showing a total population increase of 57k. Menagerie grew 1 pop this turn. Since they had both their cities at size 1, this is probably them growing up to size 2 (only other option is them settling a city, but I really doubt this). The Pirates whipped this turn, then later they got a pop increase. By my count, they should have a size 1 city and a pair of size 2 cities. I really don't see how these pop changes could result in that 57k increase.
There weren't any score increases on Turn 53.
I said I would check about the land score increases from Turn 54. There were 21 new land tiles on Turn 34. There could only have been a maximum of 18 from the two cities that were settled, so there must have been a culture pop somewhere too. In order for Pirates to have gotten 14 points for land, their second city must have given them 9 new land tiles (makes sense if they "pink-dotted" Menagerie). If the Trolls had the other 12 land tiles from T34, then they would have gotten 18 points this turn. That means they must also have gotten a pop increase for 4 points. This is probably their capital growing to size 4.
Final thing, there was a question about who else could have Myst. Well, Trolls and Pirates started the game with Myst, and obviously Menagerie researched it at some point in order to build SH. That means everyone except TEAM definitely has Myst. However, Menagerie probably doesn't want to go for a religion right after building SH for the culture, and also Trolls are creative so they don't necessarily need a religion for culture. Then again, it's late enough that everyone is probably starting to eye the religion techs and think "why not?" There hasn't been a tech researched for a few turns, so if someone else is going this route already, they can probably beat us to the religion even though our GNP is higher.
Alright, dusting off the cobwebs here after almost a full month! Wow, sorry about the long absence guys. At least too many turns haven't passed by, only a dozen. I went through and updated the spreadsheet with all the score increases today. I'm just going to go over some of them very briefly tonight, and then hope to go over everything in more detail over the coming week. Turns have really been flying along recently, so I'll try my best to keep up, but can't make any promises.
We left off on Turn 55. This was the turn that Pirates lost their Gold city to M3. M3 gained 4 points for the new pop, but Pirates lost 18 points, since they had just received their 14 land points for this city last turn! The Trolls got a pop this turn, but I haven't checked the demos numbers yet to see which city grew (or if they settled a new one). It was their 8th overall pop.
On Turn 56, TEAM lost a city to the Trolls. This is how Plako explained the situation in chat with Old Harry:
Plako Wrote:We got a city from TEAM in exchange of settler and workers. It was pretty even deal to get rid of the situation that was lose-lose to both of us.
On Turn 57, M3 got land points for settling their second city earlier, and Pirates got a pop growth. I think this was their 5th pop overall.
On Turn 58, TEAM got points for two pop, including a new city they got with Troll's settler. I think this makes 7 pop for them overall. M3 got 11 points this turn, which I can only think must be 3 pop. I could be wrong here, but if I'm right that should be 7 pop for them overall, too. Trolls got land points this turn.
On Turn 59, TEAM got land points and a Tech. This took them 12 turns to research, so I think it must be one of the more expensive techs, probably Writing.
On Turn 60, Menagerie and Pirates both got Techs. This one took M3 14 turns to complete, but I think they've had research off for awhile during their war. I'm giving them Pottery on the spreadsheet. Pirates took 11 turns to complete their tech, and right now I'm thinking Writing for them.
Ok, this is where I'm going to cut out tonight. I'll try to come back to it before too long.
