Now this is interesting...

[FrostyBoy]

I just created a map of 362x362 (limit)

and I notice that the map generator actually works better the bigger the map gets.

This map looks more like an altnerative earth map rather than your typical scattered terrain.

[FrostyBoy]

So I decide to play it to see how fast it is, thinking it will be incredibly slow, I only put two civs in, america and russia

well, it goes very fast, just fine in fact. I knew there was a lot of land, so I built a few scouts - 10 actually! and in the 10 minutes of land searching I did, I had only discovered that tiny peninsula, that you see on the bottom right of the left continent in that map. and I thought to myself - holy crap! And then I thought, wouldn't this make for a great realistic game. Distance could now become a major factor, except for modern times of course. But if, say for example you wanted to wage a war on someone, then you would have to make sure you are prepared, coz you may have a long journey to get to your destination.

I'm going to have a go at it with 15 civs, but not on this map, I don't want to play a map I have already seen.

I'll just add all the new units that came with PTW and alter the movement rates of some of them

[vmxa1]

I can see it now, you have a scout out so far that it take 90 turns to get back to the empire.

[johncmcleod]

The problem is when you generate a giant map like that in the editor you already know where most of the stuff is, but if you play a regular game you don't know what the earth looks like. The solution is to get someone else to generate the map for you so you don't see what's on it.

[Jaybe]

John, Snoop is referring to creating a new random map in the game he will play, not with the editor.

Snoopy, don't forget the 512 city absolute limit in the game, ...
and (ahem!) how's that "major" project you were working on with your friend ronald (nudge, nudge ). I have games going on on both sides of the fence, too.

[GhengisFarb™]

Re: Now this is interesting...

Originally posted by Sn00py
I just created a map of 362x362 (limit)

and I notice that the map generator actually works better the bigger the map gets.

I've noticed that too, I have long since started playing on Large, Huge, and Big Huge (maxed out via the editor) games in Civ3.

[Theseus]

The map generator blows me away actually... there hasn't been all that much discussion of the algorithms, but they *feel* very sophisticated. It makes sense to me that the bigger the map, the better the result.

At some point, I'd like to do an AU game putting the player into the RL equivalent of southern Africa, South America, or Australia... where distance, terrain, etc., truly impact long-term success.

On a separate note, one of these days / years we'll play another big demo game (I mean BIG... like PTWDG or ISDG), and it might be interesting to use a truly huge map.

[Cruddy]

I've always felt the max map size should be about 700 X 350, to allow for the "distorted" isometric view.

Mind, you, I'm probably way off with this - and the 512 city limit would mean a lot of unpopulated jungles and mountains.

I can't say I'm surprised the map generator gets better with a high resolution - most graphics progs work best at high res.

Nice to see you're having fun and experimenting though.

[FrostyBoy]

no, this has nothing to do with how many dots there are on my screen

btw, 700 x 350? That is not possible, is it?

[FrostyBoy]

Oh, another thing I wanted to point out is that discovery of new land would be more realistic.


If you started on a huge piece of land with a whole lot of civ's, and were stuck on this land, believing that this is all there is, and then discovering new massive land miles away in the future, that would be much more exciting and interesting, and it would be a dangerous, long voyage back and forth between the old world and the new world. Now that would be fun!

[FrostyBoy]

Ok, I just generated a new map, 250x362 this time, and it just made a beautiful map, I am blown away by it now.


So it is true: the bigger the map size, the better the map structure will become.


Try it out yourself! I use continents btw!

[Theseus]

Can you post the one you made?

[FrostyBoy]

I did not make it, I just generated it, sorry.

[Theseus]

That's what I meant... the one you generated.

[FrostyBoy]

I've lost it, but why not just make one yourself? They pretty much all look excellent. That's the point I was making.