[Lurkers] Putting the Old Fogeys into a List

[BRickAstley]

If Noble and Gaspar don’t reveal The List, maybe we need to dedicate this thread to making our own lists of whatever is relevant.

[Thoth]

We should put both of them on a List.

[naufragar]

A List of Listmakers.


Re: the game at hand, I'm very excited for this. I wasn't playing when these folks were, but I was certainly lurking their games all the way back then. The longevity of this community is awesome.

[Mjmd]

I don't know hardly any of these old fogeys, but this is already a blast to lurk. Love reading Serdoa's stuff.

[pindicator]

Okay lurkers, I'm putting you to work.

Here are my first draft on starting positions.  Only looking at within 2 tiles of the scout & settler for each player:

Bobchillingworth

superKilCavalry

Lewwyn

Serdoa

Rusten & Hitru

NobleGas

Please give me as much criticism as you can!  I'm hoping to get these to the players within 10 hours.

[pindicator]

As far as the map itself, I went through a couple ideas in what seemed like an endless reroll of maps before I decided "screw it, I'll draw it myself".  What I settled on here is a pangaea script set to Rocky climate and Natural shoreline / High sea levels.  I then drew in a lot of land (I'll let you guess where - I haven't polished much outside of starting areas) to round out the continent.  Then I started cutting fjords into the continent and adding inland lakes.  Eventually I plan on making two or three large inland lakes - not large enough for their own islands, but large enough to encourage navy on the interior - similar to PB52 but not as large.  I'm hoping that the fjords & lakes combined will make for interesting border decisions without making it easy for one player to box another player out entirely.  Adding to this there will be islands around the edge of the continent in areas between the players.  I'm also considering adding islands to connect Bobchillworth on the far west coast and NobleGas on the far east coast; however, I may not do this as I do not want to diminish Optics as a path to circumnavigation.



As a reminder on turn order, the numbers are

1) Bobchillingworth
2) superKilCavalry
3) Lewwyn
4) Serdoa
5) Rusten & Hitru
6) NobleGas

Any feedback you can give at this point will be welcome. I know it's not too granular yet, but as I get more detail and polish on the map I'll upload more pictures and ask for more detailed input.

[Commodore]

So besides the lack of copper nobody's start looks unplayable and these ungrateful wretches will hate on anything you give them; that said, unless you want literally every one of them to wander I'd give everyone a plains hill. Just speeds up the snowball into the more interesting part of the game faster. Serdoa looks to have peaks in his initial BFC which is a no-no typically.

On the general shape, 2 and 5 have extra bordering rivals, so maybe in compensation give them nice relatively secure islands while having the other four all fight over a single big island? Means you'd have to give up on the optics gate but c-nav isn't super-powered or exclusive anymore.

[civac2]

Rusten + Hitru do have copper nearby.

[Kurumi]

Yeah, I'd say those plains sheep are in a big danger of being settled upon. Since all players seem to have 1 peak each in the BFC, Serdoa has one too much. Lewwyn's tundra is... the only tundra around. Serdoa has some tundra close by, but it is naturally a backline spot, while Lewwyn has some from each side.

Also adding to civac2 not only they do have copper & horse (SIP BFC!!!!!) nearby, it is in a very naturally defensive spot.

Another: Serdoa seems to be suffering from lack of rivers. Lewwyn has lots of them.

[pindicator]

I plan on making copper available to everybody in a first-ring site. Likely not in the same direction as their neighbors.

Sheep on the plains hill was intentional, they will have to settle on it to have the 2h start. It's just a cute thing, it's still right for them to settle on it. I suppose its too gimicky. Some other players have a 3f plant option as well, but not all players and I'm not sure if this is a great idea of mine or if I need to give it to everyone.