haphazard1 Wrote:This is a good idea. With the warrior following the coastline SW-ish, the scout can circle the capital and reveal the nearby north and east in case there is something really tempting there for our second city. Sending the scout into the black to find our rivals is another option, but I would like to have at least our first ring region revealed before doing that.
Absolutely. My favorite quote about scouting goes something along the lines of "The primary goal of early scouting is to find one's first few city spots, and only once you have done that should one actively search for opponents and huts." The huts part is moot for this game, of course, but the idea still stands.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
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.
SevenSpirits Wrote:You available to execute, scooter?
Nah, still at work, though I see you got it.
Good stuff in the screenshots. I'm especially happy about the abundance of grass river tiles and what appears to be an enormous river. Cottage cheese it is. As for scouting moves:
Warrior: NW seems to be the choice here.
Scout: Not an obviously right choice here. I could see E-NE onto the cows to save the fog in this region for the warrior. That's probably the best for exploring all sides of our capital. Pushing further west is not completely ridiculous though. Thoughts? First though is circling back onto the cow is our best move, because the Wheat area is too far for our first city but the cow area is not.
Well, crossposted with Seven and we had completely different ideas for where to move . Scout NW-NE is probably better than moving directly onto the cow, so I see that. I guess for Warrior there actually isn't much difference between W and NW.
If ever we need it, i'm usually available to turnplay.
If anyone here hasn't already got me, feel free to add my gmail: peterofindia at gmail dot com. I'll happily chat anytime and you can poke me if i've managed not to notice anything important
Warrior W is only going to reveal 1 more water tile (presumed ocean). But I don't see any drawbacks at all. The only fogged tiles for him to reach are westwards of him; it's not like we will have to do a plain N move later if we don't go NW now.
![[Image: pd1t2_2.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1116194/pbem23pics/pd1t2_2.jpg)
![[Image: pd1t2_1.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1116194/pbem23pics/pd1t2_1.jpg)
. Scout NW-NE is probably better than moving directly onto the cow, so I see that. I guess for Warrior there actually isn't much difference between W and NW.
