Sorry the first picture didn't load (which is why I asked).
I agree with your thoughts on popping but would actually advise
Turn 1: NE, N
Turn 2: SW, NW
to uncover more land. While the dot you mentioned was the first thing to jump out at me, I actually don't like it because if how many future cities (and especially ports) it stops us from planting. I think Wed be best served looking for a second somewhere that lets us fit more cities short term to get those tiles, and long term to have better naval power.
I agree that purple doesn't make much sense, particularly with ai diplo.
In general, do you want to scout around the capital for city sites, or go exploring for contacts? Barb animals should be spawning soon, so we should start putting him on defensive terrain soon.
Are you sure on the hut percentages BTW? I was sure is read somewhere that you couldn't pop techs with culture.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
Ok, for scout movement I'll go NE-N, and when I bring it back west I'll remain on defensive terrain from now on. In general for the scout I was thinking continue exploring on that north/west side rather than doubling back across the capital. The more I think about it the more I'm liking the idea of slowing down the settler by 2-turns to get out a warrior first that we can use to peek around the northeast and defend our settler against barb animals.
This is the site I referenced ... http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Nativ...age_(Civ4) ... It requites some math to correct the percentages to exclude the options that are invalid. Techs cannot be popped before your first city is founded (including with the founding of your first city). After that they are fair game, including with the settling of subsequent cities. EDIT: just to make certain I placed a ring of huts around the capital in the sandbox and did indeed pop a techs. Of the 12 huts: 1 scout, 1 map, 2 techs, and 8 golds popped. I'd like Wheel > any other tech > scout > gold > map.
Another location I was considering is 2N of the Ivory (where it can share the cows and can grow 4 cottages for the capital). It has no visible food of it's own, but there HAS to be seafood over there somewhere, or is it too much to ask for another corn on the other side of that hill?
It's prereq bonus. We get 8 from palace + 1 from city center + 1 [free] = 9 commerce + 1 free beaker = 10 base research * 1.4 = 14 "real" research. Add in 2 culture and 4 espionage and we get to 20 GNP.
I've been [strike]pissing my life away[/strike] (BTW how do you do strike tags?) doing some demographic work.
Here's what I know so far (just from land area figures):
I've of jowy(j)/BRick and Commodore (BC) settled with 2 coast tiles in the surroundings while the other is surrounded completely by land (9 and 7 land tiles in the first demographic)
Of the other 4 players there are 29 land tiles total, 6 in one player and divided either 7/8/8 or 7/7/9 between the rest.
Implications: at most there are 3 other players with land non-coastal capitals, meaning the GLH is unlikely to be easy to get.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
How much does each forest add to life expectancy?
Or how is life expectancy calculated?
From what I can discern, 3 rivals have 83le, and 3 have 87 le. Unfortunately this doesn't tie in with the T1 stats (which gave a stat of 87&81 le) so I'm assuming one of j/BC has had a forest growth, and that forests are worth 2 le each.
This ignores rivers/floodplains, which is why I'm not going to dissect that data yet.
Lurker question: how much is the starting life expectancy, and what are the individual changes worth each?
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
Life expectancy is based off city healthy faces (well, crosses) and unhealthy faces, empire-wide. Forests in a city's BF. add 0.40 health per tile; floodplains add 0.40 unhealth per tile. Floodplains (and probably also forests; I never checked them) in the second ring if a city's BFC will affect the city even if the city's borders have not yet popped. Both values are truncated (I believe that, technically, the final health and unhealth values are truncated, but this does not matter in non-modded BTS). If the city has access to fresh water, it gains a flat +2 health bonus.
I would grab you the exact formula for life expectancy, but I am on my phone, so for now you jus get what I know off the top of my head.
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.
![[Image: T2%20Demos.jpg]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/32496263/RB%20Screenshots/PB9/T2%20Demos.jpg)
it away from whoever does 
