SPOILERS-PBEM8 Map Creation Thread

[Tatan]

First post empty to prevent mouse-over spoilers.

[Tatan]

So, since all these PBEMers want something completely different, I thought I'd go a bit wild. Specifically, I plan to use the Rainforest script. When I've run it before, it seems to place you in the middle of a clearing, with jungle on all sides, and the occasional mountain range or lake. The resources will require heavy rebalancing, as the strat resources are weird in the script and I will probably just have to take out all the ivory. But I think it will make an interesting game if the players start with crappy initial land, but as more and more jungle is chopped down, the land gets lusher and lusher.

Thoughts?

Barring any unexpected occurences, I hope to have a rough draft by tonight.

[Square Leg]

Sounds good - the other option is to leave ivory in but make sure everyone starts with it at their capitals. It does decend in a WE fest though.... :

[Bobchillingworth]

Rainforest is one of my personal favorite scripts, I think it's a good choice


The biggest issue is probably the large zone of FP that the map tends to spawn; I would roll maps until it's roughly in the center, to give players something to fight over & prevent anyone from settling it early and gaining a crushing advantage. Perhaps partially surround it with lakes and/or mountains to create a few artificial chokepoints.

[Square Leg]

Question about the script.

Do the FP's usually spawn on the western edge?

If so - why not start everyone on the right and they can race over there? Perhaps use mountains or a lake to keep them apart for a little longer.

[Tatan]

@Square Leg: While that would make for a very... interesting game, here is what I had in mind:

--Lake------------Player---------Lake--
Player-------------Lake----------Player
--Mt. Range-----FLOOD----Mt.Range--
------------------PLAINS----------------
Player-------------Lake-----------Player

5 players is a weird number for a map, but I think this is moderately balanced. I actually had the same idea as Bobchillingsworth, with everybody relatively equidistant from the flood-plained center. Jungle will, of course, fill the space between everyone's starts. Regarding early strat resources, I was thinking have everyone need to work for horses and copper, but also have iron at all the caps to avoid screwing over everyone [IW will be a critical tech anyway, what with the jungle and all]. A few ivories might go in the center, along with some other late game strat resource; maybe uranium?

Any help balancing this would be greatly appreciated.

[scooter]

Some thoughts... I like the idea of removing ivory from near where the player starts, but perhaps sticking it quite a ways away where they have to gamble a bit and really reach for it. This means no one gets them too early, but there's the risk/reward of pushing cities towards the middle of the map. It could also create a bit of conflict - if someone grabs ivory, another player might try to raze the ivory city before it's used against them. Anything that sets up tough risk/reward decisions is a plus in my mind - it's what makes these games fun .

I would be careful with late-game resources like coal and oil in particular. I would make sure each player is going to get their own source of those at least... The uranium isn't a bad idea though, as it's a bit different from the other two.

Another thing that I thought of was stone... If you remember the farmers adventure way back like a year ago - it was on rainforest, and the variant was you had to farm everything. The move to make was to get the Pyramids for all the specialists, meaning stone was valuable. I don't think Pyramids will be quite the "must-have" like it was in that game (cottages will be great here), but several players may target it because the map will be nice for specialists. Because of that, I think we either need to make sure either nobody gets stone, everyone gets it fairly close by, or everyone gets it but they have to really reach for it. Just consistency on that resource in particular is what I'm saying...

[dazedroyalty]

Tatan, I like the idea! It will definitely push a different focus than most maps. Wasn't it in PB2 that some players had gone what seemed like ages without researching IW? That won't happen on this map.

I think you're layout for players is good. What were you thinking about in terms of world wrap? I'm assuming flat.

[Tatan]

@scooter: Yeah, I thought about it some more and uranium is probably the best resource to be in the center [plus ivories]. I thought about stone and marble for a little bit, and since a builder or farmer gambit is going to be inherently better on this map, what if there were NO STONE OR MARBLE AT ALL?! It would certainly surprise people.

@dazedroyalty: The map is definitely going to be flat.

[Bobchillingworth]

What about sticking a single Ivory exactly (or close to it) equidistant from each civilizations capital, between every civ, so that they're faced with a choice whether to try to expand toward the wealth of the center, or rush for the ultimate strategic resource in the short-term useless jungle before their neighbor(s) seize it first?


Also entirely removing stone or marble is probably a good idea... they're really unbalancing if one player gets industrious and one of the only sources of either.