[PB76] Map-making thread

[Tarkeel]

Put the barb cities on hills (and make sure to give longbows defense mission? I think I remember this is possible) and just rough up the terrain via jungle and hills for like 4-5 tiles wide around them.

Yeah, hills and longbows was the plan. They were meant to slow down expansion in that direction and force an un-even split of the border, but as Krill points out they don't really slow down an attack.

Another thing that could help against HA rushes is just making the coppers flatland. Combined with your moving the horses farther away seems fine.

The ivory is there for war elephants as well, but yeah copper should probably ble flatland riverside. Although the original idea was to force to go for either horses or copper, so I'll probably redo the core starting area as well.

Just looking at islands make sure there are two ocean tiles between.

Indeed; Even though it looks like one, there is two ocean tiles inbetween.

[Krill]

Pur the horse under the barb cities and on the islands.

[Ginger*]

I’d say keep the horse in a normal position near the start but just give everyone two extra scouts (NOT explorers which could create some fucked up chokes)
That way if someone wants to whip a couple horse archers early they can do so but giving players more vision means counterplay

In online games ha rushes sometimes happen but they’re pretty bad bc elephants are easy to make

[Krill]

You can settle on visible horse and get a HA out by T5, and in someone's face by T10.

War elephants only work if the defender settles on them T1.

[Tarkeel]

I’d say keep the horse in a normal position near the start but just give everyone two extra scouts (NOT explorers which could create some fucked up chokes)

I'm all for swapping the explorer into two scouts, but I'll let the players decide.

[Ginger*]

You can settle on visible horse and get a HA out by T5, and in someone's face by T10.

War elephants only work if the defender settles on them T1.

Then the map probably should be bigger, a single HA turn 15 won’t do anything to an aware player

[Krill]

Eh, I think the issue is less that players are close, but that it's a ring style map. If it was a hub or wheel and spoke style I think it might be more managable. You know that two players can't interfere with you, there's no tech cost, and if horse is just there (and the map is relatively high yield), what's the cost? If you don't settle on resources you might get rushed yourself. Because once borders get settled the games usually become quite staid: hold one side, attack the other, never make the first move...just reinforces the need to act decisively earlier on.

[Qgqqqqq]

Make sure either every barb city has copper underneath the city tile, or none. When you were describing the map, I thought you were thinking of a filled-in donut, which would give additional access between players early.

I'm not sure if any player will rush, but it is worth bearing in mind.

[Tarkeel]

Make sure either every barb city has copper underneath the city tile, or none. When you were describing the map, I thought you were thinking of a filled-in donut, which would give additional access between players early.

I'm not sure if any player will rush, but it is worth bearing in mind.

I haven't quite decided how I want the center to be, but it might be an idea to have some sort of cross-map access here, especially if they go for banning Vikings. Toroidal wrap would also solve some of the contact issue, but without it I don't think there should be any significant island in the outer sea.

Currently I have a very barren star-island in the middle purely for the strategic value.

[Tarkeel]

Based on feedback (and no advanced start) I'm changing up the starts a lil bit. Instead of having two capital locations to chose between copper and horses, I'll have one settler on the coast and the other two tiles inland. Notable features should be:
Island with grassforest-deer; horses will be visible once borders expand.
Capital fish as the only 6f tile outside of barb-city corn; the reason for lack of 6f tiles is to slightly limit PHI
Twin rivers arching in different directions, with a 5f1h tile in each direction



I was thinking of having neither settler starting on a tile you'd want to settle, since most people will eat the first turn on revolting, but I decided to give SPI the small boost.

As for the middle, I'm thinking there should be a small continent there, reachable only from "your starting island", and have it mostly jungled.