Easiest way to make the existing maps bigger.. Stardock, please read.

from Elemental Forums

Honestly the easiest way to make the maps bigger, while still keeping within the 32bit restrictions (for those nubs among us like myself), is to simply have..... *drumroll*

LESS FRIGGIN USELESS WATER!!!!! XO
I mean come on, in what way are the water tiles (often like 40-50% of the entire map!) useful? In NO way what so ever..
Okay so, they add landscape and variety, and a reason for making boats.
But come on, why not have say 4 water tiles in width absolute MAX, and have continents or islands between? Is there ANY reason to have up to 20x20 water tiles forming a huge open void that cant be used in anyway what so ever in gameplay terms?? No..

So my vote is to simply make the default seed maps have less water, 20% at max (absolute serious ultra-max). And never huge oceans, just surround the edges of the map with water, and basically have small lakes or wide rivers (no, not the river system, but done by the normal water brush) through the entire map to seperate continents, no more than 2-4 tiles in width. :hrmph:

That way, we'd still have variety in terms of map design, we'd still have a use for boats to cross between continents / islands, but we'd also have MORE gameplay space for the same memory usage, and MORE open sprawling landscapes in the same map sizes, MORE space to found cities, MORE resource locations (could help prevent 5 resources clustered up if they have more space to spread out?), more everything..

Really, do this, now. Or i'll just make my own seed maps and delete the vanilla ones (can you?)
I have spoken! |-)

elemental
3,864 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

No, it would not e the same memory usage nor would you get the same performance. 

 

A water tile just needs to know a handful of things. That it's water (and thus nothing should be on it other than a boat) and where it is. Land has a lot more attribute to factor in and keep track of since it's playable space. As well, more space to utilize also means that memory dependent things like creeps, cities, and what have you will be more plentiful.

 

As an analogy, think of swiss cheese. Filling in the holes in swiss cheese doesn't mean you have more cheese for the same weight.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I think the large maps are plenty big enough. I have around 12 cities in my current large map game which is already enough micro and 4/5ths of the map is still hidden.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting cwg009, reply 2
I think the large maps are plenty big enough. I have around 12 cities in my current large map game which is already enough micro and 4/5ths of the map is still hidden.
End of cwg009's quote

 

Yeah, there's that too. You can usually go a hundred turns and not see all the factions either. If there were bigger maps, I'd also want to see a bigger limit on factions so that there's always some one near by to interact with. As well, victory conditions that scaled better and/or more victory conditions. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sagittary, reply 1
No, it would not e the same memory usage nor would you get the same performance. 

A water tile just needs to know a handful of things. That it's water (and thus nothing should be on it other than a boat) and where it is. Land has a lot more attribute to factor in and keep track of since it's playable space. As well, more space to utilize also means that memory dependent things like creeps, cities, and what have you will be more plentiful.

As an analogy, think of swiss cheese. Filling in the holes in swiss cheese doesn't mean you have more cheese for the same weight.
End of sagittary's quote

 

Actually Op is correct, water is no different from land other than it is another type of tile.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

As far as performance goes I don't think it is a big deal. Once they fix the memory leaks and clean stuff up generally it should run fine on larger maps.

 

Making larger then large maps takes about 5 mins.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh, I don't think it would be hard to make huge maps. I just think that there is currently not enough content and balance to make playing on a huge map very much fun. You'd run out of techs alone before you've even explored a fraction of a map that size.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sagittary, reply 1
No, it would not e the same memory usage nor would you get the same performance. 

 

A water tile just needs to know a handful of things. That it's water (and thus nothing should be on it other than a boat) and where it is. Land has a lot more attribute to factor in and keep track of since it's playable space. As well, more space to utilize also means that memory dependent things like creeps, cities, and what have you will be more plentiful.

 

As an analogy, think of swiss cheese. Filling in the holes in swiss cheese doesn't mean you have more cheese for the same weight.
End of sagittary's quote

w/e, you'd still get more room to build on, more room for resources to spread out on, more open areas for movement and exploration, etc.
And what i meant by that was that you'd still have the same size maps, the same whatever by whatever total tiles in the Large map, in that sense, yes it would use the same memory. You'd have more playable area for the same size maps that are currently the largest size maps 32bit users can fit in the memory.

Even so, to be honest, an empty land tile is no different from an empty water tile (with no boats on it). Its not like you'd suddenly have 2x the resources, goodie huts, ai's or units on the map, the playable area is simply expanded..