10-09-2004 15:13									#1
	The Map of SP-Demogame III Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Warning: this thread contains spoiler pictures of the map...

The Map
As you probably know, the map for Demogame III (the single player game with Apolyton playing the Vikings) was made by Togas and me. It is my firm belief that human-made maps can be much more fun because a mapmaker can put all sorts of ... little tricks into it. And that is exactly what we did. And the Vikings fell for them, too!

This is a walk-through of that map. I'll explain which considerations we had to make when putting it together, which tricks we put in, and why or why not they worked.

The map itself can be found here:
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php...apDemogame3.zip

And the 4000 BC savegame here:
http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php..._Save4000BC.zip (might or might not be on the right level)


The Game
The game was to be a single-player demo-game, with 15 civs, on a Large (130x130) map. It started in September, 2003. The difficulty level being Deity would prove this to be a very tough game.
The people of Apolyton demanded the Vikings to be their civ, and our map should take that into account.


The Beginning
Togas and I didn't have much time to put the map together, because 4000 BC was very near (in other words: people were eager to start the game!). Fortunately, we had worked on another map project before, so we knew what to do.



(spoiler pictures start here)
------------------------------------------------






Map for SP Demogame III

Map lay-out
The start of such a project comprises the lay-out of the map, and the positions of the civs. We had to go with several islands, since that's what Vikings like best. This meant that we couldn't have one too large group of civs together, otherwise, they would gain too big a tech lead.
We decided to go with several groups of civs put together, while leaving plenty empty areas to explore.

The AI civs miraculously contacted each other across the ocean in the middle game, so the tech race was lost for Poly before it had really begun...


Initial lay-out of the civs

We also sketched a (different) map to place the positions of the continents.


Worked-out map

Civ1 was later dropped to reduce the number of players to 15. Apart from Apolyton's group of 4 civs, and the special civ to the west, the other civs were ultimately divided into groups of 3, 2, 2, 2 and 1.


Final lay-out of the civs


Poly's group of civs -- Spanish (east), Persians (west) and Egyptians (north)

Last edited by BigFurryMonster on 21-09-2004 at 01:17

	10-09-2004 15:23									#2
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The Viking Nation of Apolyton
The starting position of 'Poly should be tough, but not impossible, especially on this level (Deity). We scared the hell out of even the bravest Viking by putting their closest neighbour, Spain, only two tiles away, across a straight. This meant that the diplomacy people had to go to work immediately with the Spanish.

Poly decided to move their initial settler to gain better land to the west.



Apolyton's Main Island -- The gems on the other side of the straight make a nice view from the Palace


The Promised Land
One of the main choices that Apolyton had to make was to settle their own island, which had relatively bad land, or to go for the richer island in the south, which we called Paradise Island, or the Promised Land. We put a few good resources along the coast, to 'aid' in this matter.

It turned out that, due to the difficulty level, the Egyptians, Persians and Spanish would settle this island even before Apolyton could set foot ashore. In the end, though, this island was mostly Viking-settled.


The Promised Land -- yes, that is an Arrow...


The Pirates
No journey without peril! That explains the presence of the Pirate islands to the east of Poly's island -- hard to beat and quite annoying when transporting settlers to the other side.


The Lonely Bonus Hut
This bonus hut can be seen from the beginning, but not reached.

Poly eventually popped it by cultural expansion, but would make sure not to get a settler from it, since they would need to build a boat to get it back to their island!


Pirates and Lonely Hut


Lookout Mountain
To find their northern neighbours before they could find each other, we gave Poly a mountain on the northern tip of their island. A guard stationed on this 'Lookout Mountain' could see to the other side and spot two different civs.

The Vikings did and named this mountain 'Kloreep Mountain'. This gave them a bit of an advantage in trade, before boats were developed by all neighbours.


Lookout Mountain -- the large islands to the north-west and north can be seen from here


Bonus Peninsula
This little peninsula on Poly's starting island is sealed off by Barbarians.

Poly took a chance by beating them early in the game, but didn't settle until the Persians invaded.


The Peninsula

Last edited by BigFurryMonster on 10-09-2004 at 16:07

	10-09-2004 15:33									#3
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The Civ in the West
One of the main special effects on this map is the presence of a relatively weak civ in the west, on a huge continent left to explore and settle. Since the parallel with the native people of America was apparent, we decided to shape the continent like the USA. To ensure that this civ would remain weak, we put a moat around their capital to make sure they did not found any other cities before reaching mapmaking.

This worked out badly, since the AI player didn't even research mapmaking, and if it had done so, would probably have not built any boats anyway. In the test runs we had, they miracously left their island, though.

The moat-construction reminded us of the great city of Tenochtitlan, so we put the Aztecs on this continent.


The Aztec "Empire"...


...and what became of it


The Sea Maze
Apolyton, of course, should be rewarded for exploring the map. One of the rewards was the existence of a Sea Maze - or actually a large sea area dotted with coastal spots. A boat, even a Galley, would be able to make it through this maze to the other side, where Apolyton would find the good lands to found their colonies on, and gather the rich resources.

The great nation of the Vikings decided to embark on this journey the other way round, after first learning of this continent from other civs, gaining a city on the other side, and then making it back to the Apolyton homelands through the maze!!


The Sea Maze -- can you spot the way through?


The Uber Crossing
On the other side of their islands, we put in what we call the 'Uber Crossing'. This is a series of islands who are slightly too far apart to be used for a Galley, but a chain of galleys and some luck might do the trick. The Uber Crossing was named after Uber Island from Demo Game I, which had the same properties.
The Crossing would allow Poly to make contact with the civ group to the south-east before Navigation.

Alas, Poly never ventured this way.


Uber Crossing -- tricky, but rewarding

Last edited by BigFurryMonster on 10-09-2004 at 16:29

	10-09-2004 15:42									#4
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The Other Civs
Some other civs were just your ordinary other civs, but we put some special properties in there:

• The Spanish had a realm which consisted of a string of small land masses (much like Key West) filled with jungle and lakes. We had hoped for a bit of guerilla warfare on this terrain, should Poly attack Spain. Especially with Madrid so close by...
  
• The Babylonians had a small continent split in two, but they were located centrally on the map, and had some key resources.
  
• The continent of the Eastern civs, Korea and Japan, is shaped like a Yin-Yang or Dragon figure.
  
• The Celts' island in the north looks like Spain.
  
• The two Giants in the north-west, America and Russia, had plenty of land to them, but only few resources. In the end, America and Russia fought long and hard over it.
  

Spain's Island Realm in 1250 AD


The Persians in 1250 AD


Stuck in the Middle?


Yin and Yang


Celts? Or Spain?


Arrow Island

This was our deepest trick. We put in two arrows (made of mountains, yes, the Gods can do that) that would signal the presence of a 'hidden' treasure island to the far south-east. A line drawn from the tips of the arrows intersects right in the middle of this island.

It took quite a while for Poly to find the first arrow, though, and when they did, they interpreted its significance to mean 'sail east'...!


Arrow 1...


...Arrow 2...


...and the Treasure!


The Badlands

In the far north-east, the land is barren, but full of aluminium resources.

However, the stupid AI settles here from the beginning, so there was little left to explore once Poly would even get there.


Brrrr....


Resources
One of the most important features of this map is that the resources are rather clumped together. This opens up trade possibilities and rewards the settling of far-away colonies. Some resources can only be found on remote islands or continents! The big continent in the north-west doesn't even have any luxury resources!

Last edited by BigFurryMonster on 10-09-2004 at 16:35

	10-09-2004 16:35									#5
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Final Thoughts
Put all together, I'm quite satisfied with the map and the way things worked out. It's not an easy job to come up with a map that is both fun, a challenge, and balanced, especially for Deity level.
It would be nice to use this map with a fresh group of players, who have not seen it before, and see how they adjust to its peculiarities. Maybe on a different civilization fan site ..?

And for the Vikings? The last we heard is that they are still struggling to survive, in the year of 1330 AD...

Many thanks to Togas for willing to engage this project with me!


Exploring in 600 AD



Viking Realm 1250 AD - north


Viking Realm 1250 AD - south


Viking Realm 1250 AD - west


Power Graph for 1250 AD


The Authors

	10-09-2004 22:08									#6
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MUCH THANKS to BFM for doing this very detailed write up!

I'd like to point out that making this map was a very interesting collaborative effort, where we bounced ideas back and forth first via email, then with crude diagrams, and then by sending the map save back and forth for each of us to handle different aspects of it.

Personally, my favorite part of the mapmaking was the geography creation, trying to create unique looking land masses out of our crude diagrams. I'm proud of how this map turned out.

And I truely have to give credit to BFM for his excellent balancing skills and playtesting. He's make sure that some of the crazy ideas we had worked. We're just not sure why the Aztec AI didn't research mapmaking or build boats, as it eventualy did in the playtest he ran.

--Togas

	11-09-2004 13:11									#7
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indeed a great job and a great challenge presented to us

thanks for the effort that you both put into this game

it was a hoot

	15-09-2004 16:55									#8
	Got spare money?

this looks fabulous!

i'll give it a try on emperor or demigod if i find time. too bad i've seen some spoiler images (aluminium island, etc).

well done, BFM!

and well done to the DG-players. i havn't followed any DG for quite a while because after the finnish guy left during DG, no maps were available. this may just make me pick it up again

	16-09-2004 22:32									#9
	Put an end to popups!

This is great stuff.

I got in at the tail end so I never completely understood all of this.

Thanks

	17-09-2004 00:10									#10
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BigFurryMonster, why don't you post this map in the creation forum... without the screenshots ?

	18-09-2004 10:14									#11
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Thanks for the map. I'm going to try an emperor game too although I have read the spoilers.
Great job, T&B!

	19-09-2004 20:25									#12
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Thanks for the map.

	21-09-2004 01:18									#13
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Added warning for spoilers. I have posted a thread pointing to this one in the creation forum, by the way.

	04-10-2004 11:58									#14
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Thanks for doing this great write-up.

quote: Originally posted by Togas And I truely have to give credit to BFM for his excellent balancing skills and playtesting. He's make sure that some of the crazy ideas we had worked. We're just not sure why the Aztec AI didn't research mapmaking or build boats, as it eventualy did in the playtest he ran.

Was the moat-lake originally bigger?

	04-10-2004 12:11									#15
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No, it was the exact same thing. Maybe I set the difficulty level differently but that should not make a difference....

	04-10-2004 22:22									#16
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My thinking is that if a lake is small enough, you cannot put boats in it because it is counted as fresh water.

Were there any huts they might have popped to get a free settler on the other side?

	04-10-2004 23:11									#17
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That MIGHT have happened, though I think cheating on the AI's part also might have been the case.

	09-10-2004 10:54									#18
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AI cheat? HAHAHA(tm)


Thanks you two. It was hell trying to stay even with the other Civ's though. In a diety game you have to get the upper hand rather early or never at all.