Continents, please >sniff<

[Adalbertus]

Does anybody know how to get larger size continents? I usually play huge (or large) maps, average erosive forces, 50%-70% ocean coverage, and mostly end up on a little island which is explored with two scouts well before 2120. I want to have more space for expanding and find it extemely annoying to have to start over ten times before I get something remotely to my liking. Does anybody know the alphax.txt setting to get a similar effect as the "large continent" in good old Civ? The comments in the file are not too helpful, unfortunately.

[RedFred]

I hope I am not saying anything too blindingly obvious, but why not just back off on your ocean coverage. No guarantees, but if you like random maps, your odds will be better of hitting a continent.

[Blake]

Lower Ocean Coverage = Larger Continents
Lower Eroision = Larger Continents

[Flubber]

My only suggestions have been covered but might I ask why you restart if you don't like the start. In SP the CHALLENGE is in taking a bad start and still crushing the AI quickly. Personally I would never restart . . . a bad start is about the only way the game can throw a curve at you and make you change your tech beelines and strategies. Stuck on an island ?? -- well beeline to doc flex and get out of there.

The SP game is easy enough to win as it is . . . why make it easier or morte predictable??

[Adalbertus]

Hm. I'm not sure if small islands make it a bigger challenge. Mostly, the AI is also on small islands and all the loading/unloading makes it simply more annoying without being a bigger challenge. And somehow, I play SMAX a bit like Sim City ...

With blind research (which I almost always do) it is more a sort of bumblebeelining to DocFlex

[Petek]

I prefer starting locations similar to yours. I used to experiment with changing the Alphax.txt entries in the "Worldbuilder" section. However, I found that making radical changes in this section caused imbalances in the game (such as rivers appearing and disappearing at random). You might want to try setting the "Islands" entry to 1 (default value is 36). This yields a planet with a single continent (or something similar, haven't tried this recently).

HTH

Petek

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
Hm. I'm not sure if small islands make it a bigger challenge. Mostly, the AI is also on small islands and all the loading/unloading makes it simply more annoying without being a bigger challenge. And somehow, I play SMAX a bit like Sim City ...

With blind research (which I almost always do) it is more a sort of bumblebeelining to DocFlex

. . . and for me thats the challenge - the only SP game I lost in the last 50 I played was when I was Miriam with double-blind research on a small island. I lived there in utter isolation for about 100 years until a heavily armed AI cleaned my clock-- But I learned a lesson from that-- if on an island get the WP secret project and build land ( often 2-3 strategic landraises will link you with other lands)-- Was the game the most fun ?? well . . . no. But for me, part of the challenge is taking the game as it comes . . . If the SPartans come calling against your Morganites in 2106, just deal with it-- looking back there are usually ways to pull out the win against the AI in even the worst starts

[bondetamp]

I rarely play to be challenged. I usually restart untill I have a small continent that is just about large enough that I can fit 5-10 bases around the edges with no overlap. I've spent too many hours with micromanaging to want another 200+ bases game.

[GM Blues]

I have the same preference you do. I like one mega-continent w/ everyone on it. Setting low erosion (fewer moons) will do the trick, methinks.

[Jac de Molay]

I like the concept of building the small island nation-perhaps 4 to 5 main bases with a second expansion much later in the game. Too often, in my limited experience with the game, the generator makes one big glob of land or a bunch of stringy continents. Yech.

DAve

[Method]

that's what i don't like about the SMAC map maker. when you make a map with 30-50% ocean, you get one huge stringy continent which is about 10 tiles wide, but snakes along the enitre globe. the kind of map i like is a map of planet-ish map with a few large continents and no small uninhabited islands. about the only thing i liked about Civ3 (let us never speak of it again) was that you got to choose if you wanted archipelago, continents, or pangea.

[Adalbertus]

about the only thing i liked about Civ3 (let us never speak of it again) was that you got to choose if you wanted archipelago, continents, or pangea.

You don't need to speak of it, Civ1 already had this choice. I really don't understand why it isn't offered in SMACX.

[Googlie]

My pet gripe is when you want to play on a humungous map - say 256 x 256 - and choose 50% to 70% water, you get a great distribution of around 30 or so small continents/large islands ........

but .....

the game engine crowds all seven factions into maybe 1/4 of the map, sometimes with another faction on your same landmass.

That's a real pain

G.

[Jac de Molay]

Ah well, at least that's good for pod popping as theres a ton of "vacant" land for the length of the game. Or than that you're right, it sux.

DAve