Questions about map sizes, types and max number of civ in a game

[Beltz]

1- I did not install any expansions yet although I own them. Will they have built-in settings for larger than huge maps? I find it fun when a map has like 500 cities instead of 100. I liked it in Civ 3 because it meant that while a war was costly, it was also mostly about capturing 10% of your enemy's territory for a long-term investment instead of just crushing them by taking 1 or 2 cities.

2- So far my continent and fractal maps have resulted in only 2 continents. I'm afraid of investing time into Archipelo since I imagine that means something like 50 small islands. In a game with say 12 civs, it would be fun if there were 3 main continents, with say 5 smaller ones, but I guess neither continents nor archipelo give that. Is there an in-between?

3- Is it possible to play a really, really huge map with every single civilization, and civ/leader combination on it? That sounds like a lot of fun, and probably easier in Civ 4 than Civ 3 since turn-loading times are minimal in comparison.

edit note : in #2, I meant 2 big continents with 5 SMALLER ones, not larger

[Willem]

Originally posted by Beltz
2- So far my continent and fractal maps have resulted in only 2 continents. I'm afraid of investing time into Archipelo since I imagine that means something like 50 small islands. In a game with say 12 civs, it would be fun if there were 3 main continents, with say 5 larger ones, but I guess neither continents nor archipelo give that. Is there an in-between?

BtS has a Hemispheres map script which can give you pretty much what you want. It will at least give you 3 continents if you want, and sometimes those will get broken up into several smaller sub-continents. You can have even more than that if you want. I think the highest is 8 hemispheres, maybe 6. That's my favourite map type now, though I only play with 2 hemispheres.

3- Is it possible to play a really, really huge map with every single civilization, and civ/leader combination on it? That sounds like a lot of fun, and probably easier in Civ 4 than Civ 3 since turn-loading times are minimal in comparison.

You need a very powerful computer to run that scenario well. By the late game your turn times would be horrendously long. And you wouldn't be able to have the various leader combinations, only one per civ. But it is possible to do it now. You need a special CvGameCoreDLL.dll file that allows for more than the default 18 civs and you can simply edit the map size yourself using the CIV4WorldInfo.xml file found in XML/GameInfo. Be sure to copy the file over to your Custom Assets first before you make any changes.

[Petek]

The XXL World map script provides what you're looking for: much larger maps and all civs/leaders in the game. Not all map types are supported, but I'm satisfied with the variety.

As noted above, you really need "big iron" to run the largest map size with 34 AIs. I have a pretty fair system and I get lag right from the beginning.

HTH

Petek