What size map should I optimize for?

I prefer Large, personally, as I like the added strategic challenge of managing a larger territory.  That said, I'd recommend optimizing for the default, as that's a happy medium.  Ideally, of course, you tweak the settings for each size so that it plays well on all map sizes, but I understand that's something best done once the mechanics and balancing are nearing completion.

As I play Pariden a lot, I'm working with a magic-using race that takes a lot of time to get its spells and mana act together.  Long game's for Pariden.  I would think the length of the game is a strategic factor depending upon race.

I play on normal, generally, because I think it strikes a good balance between having an interesting number of factions and having a game that will end before the Second Coming.

Large methinks. Pretty please make a slider for monster aggresiveness The only thing that could ruin this game for me on the final few yards before release would be a tamer world. I assume the load save game crash bug and that stuff will be fixed as well

and now would be a good time to announce Umbers return.... 

I play exclusively small or medium, so that's where my vote is.

I run a middle of the road PC and play large pretty well. The endgame is slow, so maybe medium is the place to optimize for the general public. That said, large and medium are not that different in size. Perhaps choosing the middle option would translate better for everyone. If you optimize for small, large is left out in the cold afterall.

I mostly play on Medium size maps, the smaller ones feel too crammed and on the larger maps the game just drags a tad to long for my taste

The answer is Yes!  I hope that was helpful.   Actually I like large maps with maximum a.i. opponents in all games that I play.

I would say optimize for the middle since it seems a lot of the other settings seem to be done that way.  I'm playing small right now just to get the hang of the changes but will be likely be playing more mediums later.

I always play the largest maps avialable on all my strategy games.  However I have no problem with you using medium maps for optimizing the AI.

I don't think the average player would have the time or patience to play the kind of long drawn out games I like.

In any game like this, I always play on the largest map with the most players.  I've always enjoyed massive, sprawling games.

I consistently play on large and epic - i love me those sprawling, empire-building games

I will always play the largest size I can.

I've been using medium maps, trying to stick as close as personal taste allows to the default settings during the beta, as I believe most people will start using default settings.  Once the game's released, however, I'll probably play between medium and large maps.

I almost always play a large map.   I prefer this since it usually leads to a longer game.

Medium because it feels right. It is just the right size to allow you too fight multiple opponents and reach end game tech. Larger then that and it is just extra space to mop up. You can get large empires but nothing ridiculous like 50 cities. At max I want around a dozen, more is just annoying micro.

 Large maps for me. And I love long drawn out games.

I play on large size maps and wish we had an "extra large" choice as well!

I'm pretty much of the same mind as stein220, who I quoted above.  I have played most of my games on Small Maps, with an occasional game on a Medium Map.  One reason I play the Small Maps now, is to play as many games as I can, in the time available, so as to get the best feel for the game that I can get, in the short run.  Over the longer run, I expect that I will probably end up playing most of my games on Medium Size Maps.

Two Qualifications: I routinely play against one  LESS  opponent, than the default settings suggest, on both map sizes.  I believe this allows me to play a slightly easier game.  Also,  it helps (a little) to "improve" the feeling of the first two X'es (eXplore and eXpand) in this "quasi-4X" game that you have created.  Otherwise the first two X'es are under-represented.

Secondly, as I have a smaller, older, weaker PC at present, I think a Large Map would be too taxing (too slow) for my current configuration.  As far as that goes, I am not sure that I would ever really enjoy playing on a Large Map.  Like SciFi1950 suggests, the hard-core players, among the Beta Testers, may tend to play the largest possible maps; but the potenially larger, future audience for your game (of more casual players) may tend in the direction of Medium (or Small) Maps. 

So, Optimize for the Medium Maps. 

I vote for large. 

You are unlikely to work through the research tree(s) on Medium or smaller.  Therefore, large should be considered a full game thus the focus.

Small or medium.

Small and medium for testing. Medium and large for fun.

The largest size maps should be optimized. I also think it would be best for you to play larger maps to figure out the memory issues with them so that we can all play the size map we want without the slow downs in the later game..

Large.