Please make sure there are options to keep large maps from spiraling out of control!

from Elemental Forums

The problem with most games is that the settings are always built for small maps. When you create large maps things grow out of control! Money, cities, resouces just start piling up like crazy. Make sure there are options that can reduce the growth of these say 25%-50% so things can slow down. This is a necessity with empire building games such as this!

elemental
4,186 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I suspect that the Goverance Penalties, mentioned earlier by Frogboy, may well fix this problem.

It may work like this:  Your Soveriegn is able to govern some number of cities, perhaps 10 (just guessing) with 100% efficiency.  After that each additional city would result in perhaps a 10% loss of efficiency in ALL cities, so soon a larger nation would crumble under its inefficient government.

From time to time the Soveriegn might be able to increase his goverance ability, thus ruling more cities.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting cleflar, reply 1
I suspect that the Goverance Penalties, mentioned earlier by Frogboy, may well fix this problem.

It may work like this:  Your Soveriegn is able to govern some number of cities, perhaps 10 (just guessing) with 100% efficiency.  After that each additional city would result in perhaps a 10% loss of efficiency in ALL cities, so soon a larger nation would crumble under its inefficient government.

From time to time the Soveriegn might be able to increase his goverance ability, thus ruling more cities.
End of cleflar's quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

Econ 101 FTW!

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't really mind a huge amount of micro management in a game, I loved that Civilization I was able to expand to my desire, where as I thought call to power destroyed the freedom of the game because you were only aloud a certain amount of city's before you started getting civil unrest, which isn't very realistic, Imagine telling a country of today they could only have 10 city's or the people would revolt against them. 

Although having a Sovereign only be able to govern a certain amount of area's themselves makes sense but even so they should be able to appoint governors, because having a huge map is kind of pointless if you cannot continue to expand to the point your control reaches across the world. or being able to control your government's state to increase your control effectiveness. but even mid-evil governments had huge area's of influence in the world at time's, and in reality, money and resource's pile up like mad when your sphere of control grows, as long as your government is decent.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Mogmoogle, reply 3
I don't really mind a huge amount of micro management in a game,
End of Mogmoogle's quote

Ever played with Dominions 3.? In huge MP games sometime it took 4+ hours to complete 1 turn when you had tons of provinces and armies. It was insane. :D

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Im not so much talking about micro management (which yes does need to be held in check) but having 9999999999999999999999999999 money and 99999999999999999999999999999 resources! (In other words unlimited power! In Dominions III there are options to cut money, resource, gem production in half which really helps with the giant maps! Helps to slow things down!

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting auboy105, reply 5
Im not so much talking about micro management (which yes does need to be held in check) but having 9999999999999999999999999999 money and 99999999999999999999999999999 resources! (In other words unlimited power! In Dominions III there are options to cut money, resource, gem production in half which really helps with the giant maps! Helps to slow things down!
End of auboy105's quote

Oh and my other point on this was that if you had unlimited resources you could build unlimited # of units which then would lead to the micro managment hell. But if you could limit the money and resources somehow then you can limit the number of units and this this fixes the micromanagment nightmares we all see in other games!

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Meh, the fun of large maps is trying to put together a huge, and stable, empire.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Rosco_P, reply 2

Quoting cleflar, reply 1I suspect that the Goverance Penalties, mentioned earlier by Frogboy, may well fix this problem.

It may work like this:  Your Soveriegn is able to govern some number of cities, perhaps 10 (just guessing) with 100% efficiency.  After that each additional city would result in perhaps a 10% loss of efficiency in ALL cities, so soon a larger nation would crumble under its inefficient government.

From time to time the Soveriegn might be able to increase his goverance ability, thus ruling more cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminishing_returns

Econ 101 FTW!
End of Rosco_P's quote

This has been done in CIV IV where your maintenance per city increases with the numer of cities. This will slow down city sprawling and force you to expand your existing cities in order to fund new ones. You can ofcourse have techs, skills and such that will diminish this penalty (CIV IV has this). CIV IV also have a distance to capital penalty.

Works great in CIV IV. Feel free to steal from them :)

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting SnallTrippin, reply 7
Meh, the fun of large maps is trying to put together a huge, and stable, empire.
End of SnallTrippin's quote

There's more than one kind of 'fun' for large maps, and for the fantasy genre in particular it seems important to have sustained and engaging game paths that are based on things other than the material luck of map placement or the mundane value of 'efficient management.'

But then again I'm not at all sure that I really understand auboy's concern and I could be just projecting my own interest in seeing Elemental overcome the TBS genre's tendency to cover maps with tediously similar cities/colonies/warrens/whatever...

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting SnallTrippin, reply 7
Meh, the fun of large maps is trying to put together a huge, and stable, empire.
End of SnallTrippin's quote

 

I have no problem with huge only with insanely out of control...

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Meh, the fun of large maps is trying to put together a huge, and stable, empire.
End of quote

He he! Agree. That is part of the fun. I loved doing that in Rome Total War.

I have no problems with having governance penalties. Just that i hope it doesn't artificially limit your ability to expand.

Example, i've conquered 50 cities. Uh oh, thats my limit. Oh no, there just this one annoying enemy city with important resource patch there but i can't conquer it because i've already hit my max number of cities. Damn!

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Meh, the fun of large maps is trying to put together a huge, and stable, empire.
End of quote

He he! Agree. That is part of the fun. I loved doing that in Rome Total War.

I have no problems with having governance penalties. Just that i hope it doesn't artificially limit your ability to expand.

Example, i've conquered 50 cities. Uh oh, thats my limit. Oh no, there just this one annoying enemy city with important resource patch there but i can't conquer it because i've already hit my max number of cities. Damn!