'Soft-Coded' Map Sizes
GalCiv3 Forums
"Bigger is better" - Everyone, 100,000 BCE-2013 CE
I like big maps. Lots of people like big maps. Stardock understands this and is including maps sizes an order of magnitude above the current maximum in GCII;Immense,which is 21 X 21 Sectors I believe, for a total of 441 sectors. I have no idea what the largest map size will be in GCIII, but I am sure of one thing; it will not stand the test of time.
I will, alongside others, eventually grow complacent with the map size, saying "It's just not big enough!" and we will be forced to wait for Stardock to include another, larger size of map in an expansion or patch (like how Immense was included with Twilight of the Arnor). This is all fine and dandy, but it is imperfect.
It would be much better if the map parameters (i.e dimensions)were programmable, or soft-coded, and not hard-coded as they are right now. For instance, I could order up a map (A rectangle here)with dimensions 1x1, to get a single sector map. Or I could order up a 81x81 map with 6561 sectors total. Or I could write in "3x3" or "15x15" to get a custom map size or whatever.No reason we couldn't write in asymmetrical maps either, like 3x15. or 20x30 etc...
Apply this to the hexagons of GCIII and we can have virtually unlimited map hexes, with our only limiting factor being computer performance.
In my opinion, this should be implemented in place of the current pre-set map sizes; presets should be abolished entirely. It's always better to let the players choose they way they play.
EDIT: A forum goer named "rnichter" inspired me to make this post, this is the post that got to me in particular. Thanks dude!
As a long time player of all 4x games I need to say, I would KILL for an "option" to directly mod the scripts and size options for creating maps. It seems that the map sizes and/or scripts for building the maps are always hard coded.
What happens is that 2, (ect) years after the game is released the next generation gamming system comes out that is 2-4x more powerful then the previous, yet you have no option to actually take advantage of that extra boost in computing and graphical power. From my point of view, it should be possible to make this a player moddiable function so if you have a 16 CPU core SSD system, with 128GB of RAM and 8gig 4x SLI GPU, you can max that out with a map so big you will never reach the other side if you so feel like it. Considering the replay value of this series, this is something I would like to se seriously considered.
I would also LOVE an "observer mode". For example. I can set up a game with 16 AI players, assign each a core and a block of ram and just let the game run and see what happens, just for the fun of it. Again, it seems like something that should be relatively "simple" to program as an option and would love to see.
