[No players] Big epic lurking - PB74

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[Krill]

Cat pictures are great, even when they are judging us for our stupidity.




Here is Monty wondering why everyone is playing another dumb game and not giving him more food. I'd be lying if I said I didn't see his point.

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Big and Small options:
(All with island regions mixed in, not tiny islands.)

Snaky continents:

Normal continents:

Massive continents:

Of these, I'm thinking Normal Continents strikes the right balance, and produces the most interesting landmasses. Of course, need to be very careful, as all settings produce a lot of dud starts.

Waiting for final player count before starting to generate.

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Totestra produces interesting maps, but also ones where some people are totally isolated:



For fun, this is how Novice's tool sees that map:

• Total map unfairness (standard deviation in weighted land quality): 34872
  
• One player has 58 land tiles, one 475

Though to be fair, this is the start of the player with 475 tiles:

And the start on the next one I generated:


I think, unfortunately for Commodore, we're going to again give Totestra a miss

[Mjmd]

Honestly I like that snaky continent quite a bit. As a reminder the biggest problem with these big games is how big things end up being, so I would aim for 100-105 tiles per player ish. Can always sink some land in areas where novices tool shows too much.

I can understand why Lewwyn made one continent and copied it for PB59 though. I've been rolling some maps for fun since I don't have games to play and the neighbor balance is going to be tough even with some modification. Again, that snaky continent looked better than most of what I rolled. And no matter what it looks like Great Lighthouse and Colossus are going to be super powerful.

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This is the players in random order:

    4. Gavagai
    13. Superdeath (grumpily)
    5. Greenline
    11. Magic Science
    1. Commodore
    7. Dreylin
    18. Plemo
    6. Scooter
    14. Bing
    3. Piccadilly
    9. Miguelito
    16. Tarkeel
    12. General Kill Cavalry
    8. GT
    2. Pindicator
    19. Hubabl
    10. Xist10
    15. Donovan Zoi
    17. Amicalola

Which means the civ combos are:

Gavagai is Huyana Capac of Maya
Superdeath is Frederick of Native America
Greenline is Mao Zedong of Persia
Magic Science is Ramssess II of Mali
Commodore is Justinian I of Carthage
Dreylin is Mehmed II of Portugal
Plemo is Stalin of Firaxis Scandinavia
Scooter is Pericles of Japan
Bing is Alexander of Babylon
Piccadilly is Tokugawa of India
Miguelito is Hatsheput of Egypt
Tarkeel is San Martin (CRE/CHA) of Germany
General Kill Cavalry is Nebuchadnezzar (PHI/IND) of France
GT is Brennus of Zululand
Pindicator is Shaka of Sumeria
Hubabl is De Gaulle of Khemer
Xist10 is Pacal II of Rome
Donovan Zoi is Boudica of Inca
Amicalola is Gandhi of Arabia

I had to find a new civ for Plemo

Post this to the main thread if they confirm this is what they were meaning.

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MJMD, we can always go for a lower sea level if we want to aim for fewer tiles. I'm reluctant for Snaky, as it favours water even more than is already the case.

No one's said too much about how the map should be put together, so I'm happy for you to do some more editing if you'd prefer.

[Mjmd]

Ya if you want to do map roll and do capitals. I dont mind trying to tweak neighbor / land balance.

[klops]

admit it, fireaxis for plemo was intended :D


The snaky continents look cool, although I am not really into map-making

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Normal continents

• Template, the first one up above: (a couple of absolute duds, especially Rome); balance: Total map unfairness (standard deviation in weighted land quality): 25718
  

• Map 1 - man I love that continent shape. Some people really crammed but no start looks terrible (zoomed out).
  
  3050 tiles. Balance checker: 25444
  
  
• Map 2 - looks more crammed to some extent, way more continents.
  
  3021 tiles. Balance checker: 18578
  
  
• Map 3 - one continent, kind of uninteresting setup, quite a bit of variety
  
  3143 tiles. Balance checker: 21155
  
  
• Map 4 - interesting shape and several continents, but lots of variety in how tight people are
  
  3131 tiles. Balance checker: 25901
  
  
• Map 5 - a bit of a mixed bag, some people starting alone, some dud starts
  
  3073 tiles. Balance checker: 23711
  
  
• Map 6 - mostly one continent, two people on islands (one pretty bad), but it gets a positive overall review for some reason
  
  3035 tiles. Balance checker: 17111
  
  
• Map 7 - interesting map shape but wildly different starts so only really an option if we want to move starts around
  
  3005 tiles. Balance checker: 23448
  
  
• Map 8 - I really like this map but it gets a terrible grade, I think the balancer doesn't really like islands, worth considering
  
  3112 tiles. Balance checker: 23448
  

(A really terrible map - one of lots I just skipped past:

My favorite is possibly Map 2, maybe Map 8. Map 1 is cool but not as much balance. Interested in thoughts.


Snaky continents - there are a lot more duds that I have to throw out:

• Map 1 - some kinda duds, but the first one that works, interesting shape.
  
  3077 tiles. Balance checker: 16844
  
  
• Map 2 - I really like this setup, less snaky, a fair amount of dynamic continents. Surprisingly 'fair' too.
  
  2816 tiles. Balance checker: 12532
  
  
• Map 3 - Lots of broken up shapes, seems okay balance (terrible rating tho), kinda blah.
  
  3042 tiles Balance checker: 25649
  
  
• Map 4 - Fine setup, some isolated a little bit but more coherent than the other one.
  
  ~3000 tiles. Balance checker: 22488
  

I don't like these as much but probably Map 2 or maybe Map 1.