[Freeciv-Dev] Re: External Map Generator

[Karen Yeats <kayeats@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 iquin@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Hello List,
>
> Sorry for not following closely on the mailing list.
> I read about Ross' recent mail about the patch in the archive,
> but I am unable to find the original mail.

He attached it again to one of his comments on PR #3489.  Take a look.
More interest in external map generation is more chance that it will
actually come to be soon.

I'm not convinced that that patch should be the final word on external map
generators, but then again I'm not doing anything to further my take on it
at the moment, so I really shouldn't talk.

> I also read about some "snake" creating small islands (not sure if
> I get it right).

I was suggesting that a connected snake (making one big island with
peninsulas) might be a way to make something which played like PR #3489
but didn't look quite so artificial.  It was just an idea among many, but
the intent was quite the opposite of many small islands (I tried doing
that with a snake once, it worked alright, but wasn't anything special).

> My experiece is that it may seem to be a good idea
> to create small islands which makes the map more realistic, it
> greatly disturbs the game balance by making sea techs far more
> important.

I think that having different generators which balance the game
differently is part of the fun.  For a long time I played on a generator
of my own which made very spongy continents.  Often the whole world could
be navigated by trireme; this had a huge effect on game play which I
enjoyed.  If you don't want small islands then don't use a gen which gives
them.  No one is suggesting taking away existing generators.

Karen