Starting location - a new aspect of difficulty

[Optimizer]

Anyone who want to call themself a hard-core civer, should have read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. That book gives a credible explanation why a few countries in western Europe could defeat most other nations on the world.

The geography of Europe - and to some extent the Far East - is simply better fit for building up a powerful empire than places like Australia or sub-Saharan Africa.

The difficulty settings in Civ 4 should allow a novice player to start in a good spot - for instance a fertile territory with plenty of resources and calm seas. A higher difficulty level would place the player in the middle of the Amazonas without any metals or good crops.

[Brent]

I hear about that book a lot, and I agree with you.

[Akenaten]

I thought of that book the other day when I started as the Egyptians and landed on a continent without horses. No war chariots for me. Diamond talks about how Mesoamericans had the wheel but no animals to pull anything.
Interesting idea.

[Kuciwalker]

This shouldn't be a component of difficulty level, but rather just another map setting, so you can mix and match at will.

Oh, and wrt "Guns, Germs, and Steel": there used to be a game being developed here under that name (it was supposedly going to be based at least loosely on the book) but it died of apathy. They got rid of the forum (I think it may be archived though).

[Optimizer]

I believe that this feature shouldnt be so hard to implement. Each terrain type and resource would be given a "location score", and in the beginning of the game you would be able to choose whether to start in a good, mediocre or poor location.

[Sandman]

I wouldn't mind being able to choose to start as an island civ - and not just on island maps either.

[vamp07]

"Guns, Germs and Steel"

Wish I could find this book as an ebook.

[Adagio]

Sounds like a great idea

[Modo44]

As long as it is a map setting - fine. Still I prefer to just restart random maps, if I am looking for a challenge.

If it would be the part of a difficulty level - wrong.

You see, only a few kinds of terrain can be called "bad" or "good". Most are labelled "it depends". A simple scoring system will run into trouble trying to handle this correctly. Especially since you are not talking only about the starting spot, but also about the not-so-close surroundings. Not just one city in Europe, but the whole Europe.

[Shogun Gunner]

I agree that it will be difficul to quantify and score a starting position. When you toss in the civ selection, barb level, and all the other settings, it's not such a clear cut, mathematical exercise.

However, the concept of strong civilizations emerging from certain conditions, as relayed in the OP, is an interesting area of research for Cultural Geography.

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
This shouldn't be a component of difficulty level, but rather just another map setting

[Bkeela]

As a map setting this would be nice. Sometimes I want to play Civ to build a large and peaceful nation. Sometimes I want a challenge.