New Kinda Noob game Starting

[Ragnars Wolves]

Looks like we have our group....I need to look for a map, any suggestions would be helpful.

Do we want some room to expand a little since we are playing nations we don't normally play and need to get used to, OR do we want this to be a frenzy tupe of game?

Personaly, I would like a medium map since I have NO idea what the heck I am doing with this nation.

I am shooting for the middle of the week as a start date. If anyone will be out of town or has a reason to put it off till the weekend let me know.

I am going to ask Groundworm to be CO-Admin so nothing will fall thru the cracks. While we will get together for important decisions, any delays, extensions stc either of us can make. This way I am sure one of us or both) will look at the forum a couple of times a day and of course you can PM us if need be.

Any suggestions or questions please ask.

One has come in.... Argatha, to be effective in expansion needs water, he doesn't want free run of all the seas, but a finite number I think will fill the bill. I just need help in the finite number , having never played Argatha before,

[Kobal2]

I'd suggest Land of Legends as a map. With 8 land nations, we'd get ~16 provinces each, Agartha would have no trouble getting its feet wet, and the map has an interesting gimmick: the central island has more magical sites than average, so getting in there nets you a) more magical gems and b) a dogpile.

ETA: although there's probably too much water in there if Agartha has free and unrestricted reign. Either we deal with it organically (by dogpiling Agartha), or by adding a 9th player as Oceania (a weak nation if I ever saw one), or, y'know, pick another map :}

[Groundworm]

I have been wanting to try Land of Legends for awhile. Seconded as map choice.

[attackdrone]

Land of Legends is one of my favorite maps. We could edit the map to make sea provinces poorer, there's a flag "Small Province" which reduces the number of inhabitants in a province, decreasing resources and income.

Another option is editing the map to reduce the number of sea provinces in total, 9 instead of 18 perhaps (each one larger). I'd be willing to do either, since I'm playing as Agartha, I'll just need to fire up my rusty modding skills.

The second option is preferable, because the first option does not reduce the number of magic sites in the sea.

Edit: I have the graphics done, I just need to recalculate the neighbors. Bleh I hope there's a way to not have to do this by hand.

[attackdrone]

I'm voting for the small provinces flag option. Redoing the Province IDs and adjacency information is... tedious at best. If I remove provinces then I'll need to go through the entire province list and redo adjacency and terrain information which could take a while.

Also, reducing the number of sea provinces will leave each remaining province with way too many adjacent land provinces to be reasonable. It's pretty hideous!

Or we can add Oceania! They're pretty weak especially with no clams available in CBM.

[Ragnars Wolves]

Hmmmmm, never thought I was opening that can of worms.

Sea provinces....we can just say Argatha can take so many (insert figure) sea provinces and can't change them around so they can 'mine' them. What they take is what they get and they better hang on to those.

Will the island in the middle be a game breaker for the person who gets it? What if we made that islan un-nappable...in other words it is like king of the hill and you can take it and hold it as long as you want, naps do NOT include that island (I kinda like that)

I can post for Oceania if you want.
I am more worried about preset starting positions (and have NO modding skills) than anything.

This is ALL of ours game, so while I may take the cvote, as long as we stick to the general premise I am game for anything that will make it better and more fun.

Last thing, I noticed in the vet game it said "NO hall of fame entry points) which I suppose that if you win this because of the nations involved you can't put your name on the wall.

I am inclined to think that may be fine for them but if I WIN this thing wirh Abysia (which I have never plaed before or even read a guide about), AND we are all NEW....I wanna put my name on the wall!! (Course I am like a 100 to 1 longshot, but a guy can dream). Modders...tell me what you can and can not do along with do you want to do it.

Last thing...thanks for the feedback!!

I will post for Oceania in the OP and in the forum and see if there is a taker either tonight or tomorrow.

[Ragnars Wolves]

I don't know how to change the Heading and get the word starting out of there

[attackdrone]

Also, with Oceania in the game we should ensure they do not start in one of the sea provinces which is only adjacent to two others (or the horrible tiny corner sea) as this would be crippling. This can easily be done by adding a "No Start" flag to the provinces in question.

Likewise most (though not all) of the map edge provinces should be flagged as "No Start." A capital adjacent to only two other provinces would cause me to despair. Personally I would recommend balancing out exactly as many available starting provinces as the number of players to ensure even distribution throughout the map.

This would be trivial to do.

As for the center island - I suspect it will be split between several players.

[Finalgenesis]

Corresponding the center island provinces can have the "many sites" flag taken out to make fixed start positioning much easier.

[attackdrone]

With three routes to the center island, the best I can do is place 6 of 8 land nations equally close to the ports. The other two start positions will be inferior. Therefore, I second the call to modify the map to remove the center island's "Many Sites" status.