Question about map size

[zowrath]

I've heard that this game, even if you make a Huge map, got really small maps all in all. A friend told me that he made a huge map, and it was like really tiny. Then he made a tiny map and it was so tiny he couldn't believe. Are there no way to get a monstrous enormous map? I love really large maps where you can use two days just to explore it all....

[Solver]

The Huge map is quite huge. Anyway, if you want an even bigger map, you can always change some files to get your map to a monstrous size.

[zowrath]

Talking to him on the phone right now, he says that during the first 15 minutes of the game he encountered 5 civilizations which all were pretty close to him. And when he scrolled the map around, in minimap, after 20 minutes he had almost explored 50% of it all on Huge. He restarted several times to check if there was some option he'd missed, but alas all options pointed to that it was going to be a huge map.

Personally I like building 40 cities if I can, and he said that if every civ built 10 cities on that map they're all gonna be interconnected. I am very unsure now :-/

[Japher]

if you're not going to take Solver's word and believe everything your friend says there is nothing we can do for you except tell you to get the game and see for yourself.

[zowrath]

Or I can wait and see if anyone else has any view on it. Maybe it is supposed to start small and get bigger for all I know. So I'll hang on for a bit.

[Stuie]

C'mon Japher! His friend played the game for at least an hour it sounds like. How long has this "Solver" person played it?

[Stuie]

Hey zowrath - was your friend judging this by looking at the minimap? Cause that is zoomed in at first and zooms out as you explore.

I'm playing a large map in my first game, and it "feels" pretty much like the larger maps in Civ3.

[Japher]

If "Solver" is a person, and not some post bot, I bet he works for Firaxis or Atari or whatever and is just spreading evil rumors.

[Solver]

By the way, if you set the map type so, say, Continents, you may not have contacts with half the civs until mid-game. If you play on Islands, encountering other civs will also be a very slow process.

[zowrath]

Originally posted by Stuie
Hey zowrath - was your friend judging this by looking at the minimap? Cause that is zoomed in at first and zooms out as you explore.

I'm playing a large map in my first game, and it "feels" pretty much like the larger maps in Civ3.

Not sure as we hung up. But if what you say is the case, and the map gets "bigger" as you explore then I'm gonna be a happy puppy indeed :-) Though weird that he encountered so many civilizations that all settled within short distance of him when playing on huge though. Ahwell, I feel a lot better now that you have pointed out that it is infact larger than it might seem. I thank you for your informative reply. :-)

[Willem]

Re: Question about map size

Originally posted by zowrath
Are there no way to get a monstrous enormous map? I love really large maps where you can use two days just to explore it all....

I've read that there's a setting called Terra that will give you a very large map. It was mentioned in Sulla's walkthrough and he stated that it was larger than Huge in Civ 3.

[Locutus]

If you want to know how large the map really is, open up the World Builder: Ctrl-W. That reveals the entire map. The minimap is meaningless because it zooms as you explore the map until fairly late in the game (Astronomy? I forgot).

[linkhan]

I had the same interpretation problem as well.
Being used to the old minimap that was the actual size of the world, it's actually only the size of your known areas.

I haven't tried Ctrl-W, but the original impression left me thinking I wouldn't see more than 10 cities on a standard map.

[My PitBull Tank]

yes, to confirm, open builder and you will see. clicking on the globe in bottom right only shows you known world...

the maps are big, no worries.

[Apocalypse Cow]

Originally posted by zowrath
And when he scrolled the map around, IN MINIMAP , after 20 minutes he had almost explored 50% of it all on Huge. He restarted several times to check if there was some option he'd missed, but alas all options pointed to that it was going to be a huge map.

To answer other people's questions, it apparently was in minimap.(not to be confused with mini me)