World Map -unbalanced?

[NTJedi]

Next time I'm home I'll check... my work keeps me moving and busy. It shouldn't be that difficult to find I believe less than 5 world maps exist.

[Kristoffer O]

My original design might very well have been unbalanced, but this was hopefully remedied a bit by double starting locations. Haven't played on it since just after the release of dom2 though.

> This makes it virtually impossible to play a legitimate multiplayer game without using fixed starting locations.

Perhaps the maker of that particular map (me or someone else) intended the map to be used with fixed strating locations and though that it was reasonably well balanced if used with fixed starts.

[NTJedi]

Kristoffer O said:
My original design might very well have been unbalanced, but this was hopefully remedied a bit by double starting locations. Haven't played on it since just after the release of dom2 though.

> This makes it virtually impossible to play a legitimate multiplayer game without using fixed starting locations.

Perhaps the maker of that particular map (me or someone else) intended the map to be used with fixed strating locations and though that it was reasonably well balanced if used with fixed starts.

The map is still good for more challenging SP games... or new players looking for an easy map to use for learning.

[Oversway]

I'm confused, why not just use it with the fixed starting locations?

[NTJedi]

To start a map where every kingdom always starts in the same place quickly kills replay value of the map.

[Cainehill]

Doog Dog! Who would want to play the World map multiplayer more than once??? Nothing against Kristoffer's map - I guess a number of people like it for SP games, but I've found that most people, even those who said they loved huge maps, wound up hating MP games on World or Faerun.

If it isn't the level of micromanagement when multiple nations have 100+ provinces, then it's the way players drop out (often without even having the grace to go AI or notify of it). And if it isn't players dropping out, it's the bugs that crop up in the mid to late game on the huge maps, where you can no longer see what's in provinces despite having control of neighboring provinces or even spies in the province.

Not to mention, the game getting blown away when the hard unit limit is finally broken.

[NTJedi]

Cainehill said:
I've found that most people, even those who said they loved huge maps, wound up hating MP games on World or Faerun.

Yes I agree... even tho I love large maps I've learned the key to still enjoy playing them. Setting up capitals as victory points and usually we agree 40% of total victory points is the winner... sometimes more for longer games.

Cainehill said:
If it isn't the level of micromanagement when multiple nations have 100+ provinces, then it's the way players drop out (often without even having the grace to go AI or notify of it). And if it isn't players dropping out, i.....

Perhaps someone can start an unofficial Hall_of_Glory/Hall_of_Shame---list. This list will detail the players who played when they dropped out or turned AI and total provinces when they dropped out. Thus if someone drops out when they have only 1 province left they'll be more reliable compared with the fella who dropped out when he had 15 provinces remaining. This would be especially valuable when starting a game with teams... heck I wouldn't want to be teamed with the individual who drops out with 15 provinces remaining.

Cainehill said:
Not to mention, the game getting blown away when the hard unit limit is finally broken.

Yes I agree... hopefully this gets fixed in DOM_3.