Realms Beyond Forum

So basically, I was just so sick of all the crap Brennus was getting that I had to make a game tailored to his strengths.

Okay, so the map isn't quite done, but it's more or less finished in form. As already seen in the vets' threads, the capital spots are actually very well tailored to OCC-style variant play, with lots of food and some happiness around, and also marble fourth ring. Here's the complete picture:




Directly on from the capital is a bog-standard wooded grassland area, where I'll probably add a few more resources. Nothing too inspiring. Going to the far end players will find gold, plains incense, and stone.



In between are two jungle areas loaded with more goodies, happy, and gems (another good shot of the stone area also included).



The other "middle" area is a floodplains bonanza, but it trades the awesome cottage land for a lack of resources or much good production. I need to balance these areas a bit better, I think.



Finally, I'm doubtfully that it's optimal play, but for those seeking water fun there is a heck of a fine Moai spot in between the E and W pairs. We'll call them East and West Indies in honor of Noble/Gaspar's nomenclature.



Thoughts on the map, or the picks thus far?

Yurp. I know Krill has a reputation for complaining, but he's right in this case, I was not thinking of the Sirian factor. So, ignore yonder spice islands, they are getting sunk. Spices move into the jungles silver...into somewhere, we'll see.

Contreversy stirs, and having never done a map with Krill in it I lack proper callibration for how outstated his complaints are. I certianly think that Agg/Rome and its terrified victims will have plenty of fighting on the map, but heck, OCCs aren't my usual game type.

Scooter's comment I particularly take to heart, if the start looks unfun then much must be changed, that's why we play these things, I'm not a sociopath here to inflict misery on everyone. I'd say despite the dearth of 5+ food tiles, there is a ton of food here for starts that want to go vertical anyway.

I'd just like to say that this concept reminds me a bit of a certain cities-deprived FFH game that has been running for a few months now

Humm,

AutomatedTeller Wrote:Financial is the ONLY trait that allows you to gain a tech advantage. Charismatic allows you some, with the extra happy, but that gets overcome with HR.

My math says you gain at most 60 commerce per turn assuming you settle for no overlap, all your tiles trigger FIN and you can work all of them at the same time. And that's not really that likely to happen at all. Assuming more probable ( and still distinctly optimisitc ) averaged 30 cpt over 200 turns game... 6000 extra commerce, mostly back-loaded... Really that strong?

I'm not sold. I'd somehow think wonders and GP bulbs will have much more impact on this game than tile yields.

Mist Wrote:My math says you gain at most 60 commerce per turn assuming you settle for no overlap, all your tiles trigger FIN and you can work all of them at the same time.

70. Bureaucracy. But seriously, that comes to 187 research with usual multipliers of library, university, observatory, academy everywhere, and Oxford in the capital. Even if it's 80 research averaged over a 200 turn game, that's 16000 research which is several techs. What other trait or wonder adds up to that much? Philo maybe, but not much else.

I still don't think this is going to be a viable game Commodore...

Okay I've figured out why every player is freaking out at the start.

You expect players to trek ten tiles across the map to plant their second and third cities. You expect this because 1) you know what the whole map looks like, and 2) you always plant your second city way farther than you should.

Instead, everyone else sees their starting screenshot and expects to plant three reasonably spaced cities. Not very overlapped like normal, but not more than 1-2 tiles between each BFC.

There's really no reason to force people to have a bunch of empty land in between their cities. Some people will plant properly, some people will plant their second city before scouting enough land to realize what the intended behavior on the map was. I assume the idea is to stretch supply lines, but it's just not good design. Oh and there's an even bigger flaw - most likely barbs will spawn in those far-flung city locations, so in order to kill the barbs you'd need production, which is difficult if you only have one city.

Might be an idea to actually playtest the (new) map with a few volunteers.