Best World Options

[DK36]

Here's a topic everyone has been avoiding for some reason (am I the only one who starts in crappy places?) I've been doing a lot of testing, and want to know what people have found too.

I know that probably about 95% of it depends on luck in your starting location, but how would you tweak it to the max? Is the "middle way" the best way or is there something sweeter?

Also, is there an influence on the terrain by the difficulty settings? I know this is probably rotten luck again, but my starting locations suck a big one under higher difficulties? Can anyone clarify this for me?

So far, my testing shows that changing it from middle is too extreme. It VERY drastically changes everything. Put your world on cold, all you have is tundra, put it on wet, jungles, dry, deserts, etc etc..

Oh, and by starting locations I mean the terrain of course, not the resources which are 100% random or starting next to a river or not (unless you know something I don't?) . I guess this also depends on what terrain people prefer to use, but I'm going for no jungles, tundra, deserts etc.. and all grasslands with a little forestry and maybe few mountains\hills around as the ideal location.

Well, let's hear what some of you other have been finding out!

[Monoriu]

I don't think difficulty level has anything to do with the terrain. I just started a game on Emperor level and it was a great spot: a cattle, a wheat, river, coast, some grassland, some forest, some hills, and 2 furs nearby.

[jack_frost]

wow. How many times did you restart to get that spot?

[Monoriu]

I normally restart if the starting spot sucks, but that one was the first time I started a game on Emperor.....I was surprised as well.

[jack_frost]

The only preference I have on this stuff is I like the most continential arhepeligo (sp). It usually makes three continents which remain isolated till around early middle age. And gives a nice tech reward to whoever decides to explore the oceans first. (First contact = huge trade oppertunities).

[Dis]

OK I haven't tried pangea. not my style

I have tried the largest archipelago setting. but this was on a huge map today. and the turns were taking too long with 16 civs. I had a great starting posistion though. Unbelievable really. There was a little bit of tundra south of my capitol but everything else was grassland/hills and 2 mountains.

I have also tried the 2 smaller continents settings. I enjoyed both of those as well. Those were on standard maps. One time I started on a river with flood plains. but flood plains aren't bad. I had hills for good production. I ended up going to war and expanding out of my small corner anyways.

So my recomendation ist the 2 smaller continents settings, or the largest land mass archipelago setting.

And you are probably right. For temperature, and precipitation use the middle setting.

I also recommend 5 billion years old to prevent getting huge splotches of alike terrain (tundra/desert/mountains/hills etc.). It does seem to have more variety at 5 bill years.

[Arrian]

I've been using Normal/Large Maps, Continents (60-70% water on "normal" size, 70-80% on "large"), normal/normal/5billion. I restart maybe about half the time.

My best starting spot yet was on a large/continents/80%water/normal/normal/5billion. FIVE CATTLE (three in the initial radius, two more once it grew), River, 3 hills, and 3 dye just out of the city radius to the east. I did rather well in that game, but oddly enough, not really because of expansion. The other civs started so close to me that I got boxed in pretty quickly. So I pumped out a bunch of Mounted Warriors and wasted 'em.

-Arrian

[quinalla]

I usually like to set everything on random because then it is a suprise. However, you can always restart the game if you have a really crappy starting place, though sometimes it is fun to see if you can conquer that desert, tundra or jungle.

-quinalla

[DK36]

Okay, thanks to the civ3 editor, I am almost positive that diffulcty does NOT affect terrain.

[Sauron07]

Im sure it is just random luck, but I have been playing random settings recently and seem to get much better starting locations and more overall resources on random than when I pick a particular setting from within the menu.

My 2 cents.

[tmarcl]

Originally posted by DK36
Okay, thanks to the civ3 editor, I am almost positive that diffulcty does NOT affect terrain.

That's odd. I've found that the higher my difficulty level, the worse my starting position. Hell, I've chosen middle ground all the way, and wound up surrounded by tundra on Regent.

Marc

[Blaupanzer]

Most likely, world size, the number of civs, and land mass most affect starting positions. The AI get good spots and so will you, if there are enough of them based on the algorithm by which Civ III places civs. Five Billion years is best, the middle settings otherwise with large map and continental archipelago and 8 civs. Other settings increase the hassle without providing any identifiable reward, as far as I can see. Warmongers might like smaller maps and pangea (sp?), but this game is way more than a wargame-in-disguise (finally!).