World Maps too small?

[MysticWind]

I have never played SMAX before, but I own SMAC, at least. In the games I've played, the large world map always seems rather small for a world. The distances between bases vary, but Planet always seems smaller that our Earth.

Does anyone else think that? Is Planet smaller than the world from the Civ games?

[fender]

I can't say about other Civ games, but I do agree that the standard planet is too small. Many people like smaller maps or tiny. War comes quicker and they can be more of a challenge. The turns go by much faster than on a huge maps, which is a bonus to many players. Not much fun for a builder though. Use a huge map for a builder type game.

[Dis]

they seem big enough for me. iirc you can set higher dimensions than civ2 (though you may have to go alpha.txt to increase the size of huge maps).

[Illuminatus]

How do you mean smaller than our Earth? Compared to Civ or as planet to planet? Chiron compared to Earth should be bigger, denser and more massive. Its surface area is 141 % of Earths surface.
I always play on huge map. I used to use even bigger map sizes, but it is far too unrealistic. Units take too long to traverse map then, but if I mod them to be faster, initial exploration is too fast. I wish if there was tag for technology that would increase unit movement.

[Chaos Theory]

I did some calculations for fun once, and either a quantum or singularity planet buster takes out about as much land as the entire continental US occupies, down a few kilometers. One of those should screw up the planet's orbit...

[fender]

Illuminatus makes good point. If you have a singularity rover it still doesn't get there any faster than a impact rover. I realize that you can have a drop version and later on comes hover, but I think moment is an issue in the game.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by fender
Illuminatus makes good point. If you have a singularity rover it still doesn't get there any faster than a impact rover. I realize that you can have a drop version and later on comes hover, but I think moment is an issue in the game.

I think movement is the way it is solely as a gameplay matter. To accurately reflect technology, you would need planes that could circumnavigate the globe several times in a year and could attack at places continents apart

[fender]

I think movement is the way it is solely as a gameplay matter. To accurately reflect technology, you would need planes that could circumnavigate the globe several times in a year and could attack at places continents apart

Well, on a tiny map you can pretty much do that anyway. As for really life. There is no fighter jet that can go any substantial distance much past they own borders without re-fueling with a carrier or in the air.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by fender


Well, on a tiny map you can pretty much do that anyway.

No you can't. I don't know any unit ( aside from orbital insertion or linked magtubes) that can reach anywhere on Chiron in a single year.

Originally posted by fender


As for really life. There is no fighter jet that can go any substantial distance much past they own borders without re-fueling with a carrier or in the air.

True. But in real life, the fighter can fly to the other side of the planet and engage in 200+ separate sorties in a YEAR

[Commy]

I think civ maps appear larger because they are square, while SMAC maps are rectangular...and smaller...

Lets see, the standard civ map, atleast with conquests, is 80 by 80, while a standard SMAC map is 80 by 40...big difference...

I think the movement problems in SMAC are okay for gameplay, but they really aren't realistic...then again, few games except maybe the Sims 2 are even close to being realistic...

[Dis]

sims 2 realistic?

It doesn't take me 1 hour to take a dump.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Dissident
sims 2 realistic?

It doesn't take me 1 hour to take a dump.

Not even after you ate that 3 pound block of cheese

[livid imp]

Of course the Sims is reallistic....I like to go down to the public pool and wrap some yellow "out of order" tape around the ladder of the pool. Unable to use the ladder to get out of the pool, all the little kids swim in circles until they die of exhaustion while I laugh and point at them. It's loads of fun....

[Commy]

Hey, I said it was the MOST realistic, don't think I ever said it WAS Realistic...I bet that game would get like the Darwin award or something...

[Whitering]

I ended up considering each SMAC turn as a week rather than a year. That still makes some of the travel pretty long but much more realistic. It's also quite possible to build a truck per week in today's real world, so it should be possible to do such things in SMAC. That was the best ratio I could come up with. 1 day seemed a little to silly from a building and population growth perspective.

The only thing that doesn't quite fit into the week paradigm is tech advances. I suppose if I turn on stagnation it might better reflect that, however in my societies as soon as free market hits, there is a tech advance every 2-3 weeks, which seems...a little fast.