[removed, new game in same session issue]

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253737137

We've got a river going into the ocean below.

River going into an inland lake.

Mountains blocking off resources.

Mountains just blocking land.

Also, I didn't get a screenshot of it because I ran into the end of turn crash, but the island itself took up a lot less room than  was available in the map size.  Like, it was about half the size of what I would consider a "normal" island.

River running into the lake. Forgot to hit printscreen. 1253737883

Is this too close to an opponent?  On this map I also started right next to a spiderweb.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253751923

Edited: It's worse than I thought, I explored a few more moves and found another opponent close by.  See second screen shot.

Another sunken river: 1253751478

This screen shot is from the 1st turn, I have an opponent right next to me.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253762105

Again, opponent pretty close.  This is on turn 2.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253762546

Rivers running too far into the sea.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253764696

You should use the "sight 100" unit, in order to see the whole map on turn 2

3 contiguous shards! lucky ( a bit too much IMO)!!!!

  Map Random Seed: 1253771608

1253798940

Enemy sovereign starts within 4 tiles

River delta in the ocean

A bit TOO fertile, IMHO. (Don't worry about the odd coloring: It's mine, not the game's). 1253834931

With the .23 patch.  River flowing too far into a lake:

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253838308

With version 0.23

Random seed: 1253839614

This map is a little too small...

 Map Random Seed: 1253841184

River running into ocean.

.23 build again.  I don't know if the devs consider this a bad starting location, but just in case - it's right next to a troll - this is turn 1.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253854550

River running into sea: 1253889773
(no screenshot as the game didn't respond anymore after a while :P)

Playing as Yoren my start point was right on top of crate making me have to move before I built city #1

Debug Message:  Stamp Quantity: 13
Debug Message:  Land Mass Size: 10
Debug Message:  Land Mass Min Spawns: 4
Debug Message:  Land Mass Max Spawns: 8
Debug Message:  Forest Quantity: 5
Debug Message:  Mountain Generation Option: 1
Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253897518
Debug Message:  ---------------------------------------------
Debug Message:  ---------------------------------------------
Debug Message:  Map Size:
Debug Message:   Sectors: 9 x 7
Debug Message:   Tiles: 144 x 112
Debug Message:  Tile Vertex Resolution: 3 x 3 vertices
Debug Message:  ---------------------------------------------
Debug Message:  ---------------------------------------------

Map Random Seed: 1253922641

Turn 1, used the Ctrl+U trick to remove fog of war.

My starting location was right next to a Troll and a Troll Leader.

I also noticed another sovereign had an odd start:

I think the circle indicates the existence of a small pool of water, but it's hard to tell because I'm also getting this:

Notice how the textures don't match the coastline very well. Makes it hard to tell what's water and what's not, sometimes.

I think there's some progress being made here.  I just started 20 games, used Ctrl-U to remove the fog of war, and didn't see a single bad starting location (other than the river problems which you've said you don't need any more reports of).  Either I've hit an incredible run of luck, or things are very different from a day or two ago.  

Well, I was gunna come in here posting about rivers but I see we don't need to anymore   My efforts were not fruitless however, because . . .

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253970179

This map (2.3) ended up being waaay too small, again unless in a later version we'll be able to fly/sail and there's more across the lake I can't see.

Here's an opponent walled off from the rest of the map by mountains.

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1253986747

What's that, another map?

Debug Message:  Map Random Seed: 1254073401

Start locations this time.  The whole map below with the four "problem locations" circled.

And a closer picture.

They're all pretty close together and make no use of the right side of the map.

[removed, lost the random seed.....]

Scoutdog do you have the Map Random Seed Number for that map?