Random worlds make things…interesting

Is the the biggest map size we will ever see?  Or can we go something crazy with the map generator?  You know, like a world as big as The Elder Scrolls?

The continents are maybe a little too square-shaped (I see that rotating helps much). But still, really nice maps!

What are the dimensions of those big squares?

They look a litttle square and why is there a little island?  No boats

Small islands are starting locations for really hardcore players. I mean really.

Haha, that made me laugh.  Well done.

Or where players will be started on harder difficulty settings if Brad can't make the AI strong enough

Islands are for cowards. I start in the water.

I thought units could move across water Civ 5 style?

Naval stuff is my biggest request for an added feature for the 2nd expansion right now though.

Who needs boats when you can just summon land Populous style!  Then I summon my knight and burn your castles!

Those are some serious choke points. Question - if locked in by another faction's ZOC, what was the mechanic decided in FE to pass through their ZOC? For example in WOM, big bad arse AI faction wants to kill me but can't pass through wussy AI's ZOC to get to me. I think I remember something about rights of passage being discussed awhile ago.

Just concerned the AI will get "ZOC-locked" and gimp their roll. Peace out, homies. Booyaa!

Looks a lot better than the previous random map pictures. It's much less blocky and squarey. Would be great if the shoreline could be smoothed out a bit from the current jagged system, but that might be asking too much.

The blue player's starting position in the second screenshot is a bit off though. Distance between red and blue is out of proportion to distance between any other two players. Then again that could just be fun variety if you can end up starting really close by someone else.

16x16 making the top map @ 60x60 & the bottom @ 80x60 = TINY maps, I'm loving the farther away from starting locations you go the more dangerous & more rewarding, adds alot to the questing 'feel', will make my '400x400' map quite interesting & the size of the Wildlands is also nice, really gives them presence

Sort of related, do we know if this will be able to use 4GB+ of RAM?   I know that it is probably not going to be 64bit  :( , but I would guess the RAM usage is going to be the biggest limiter on the map size.  

murteas, unless it is 64 bit the MAX ram use (unless LAA enabled during compile) will be 2gb, BUT 64 bit and it is a HUGE ball park to play in, not just the tiny 2gb back yard at present

harpo

You can pass through ZOC. The AI might even let you depending on whether it determines it is in its best interest.

Yep. The map size I was testing out was medium in the screenshots.

Larger is...well larger.

Memory remains the constraint here plus the time to generate the worlds.

Brad - just to clarify. Separate AI's will ignore each other's ZOC or they will allow passage for each other? Thanks.

Brad- will there be any chance for multiple underground level of the map? or it just going to be locked down to one level (the surface)

What make you think Civ5 style transports are a good idea for the Elemental games? This is not a one unit per tile game.

Yes, agreed, you are absolutely correct.  I realize that 64 bits is required to use more than the < 3GB limit that 32 bit has.  Not sure what I was really trying to get at there as I know that 64 bit was not coming out.   Let's just chalk it up as a Rick Perry moment.  

On another note, I love large maps, but I never seem to be able to finish them.  I always start large maps but then tend to restart again after a little while.   Maybe this time I'll actually play all the way through on large map with all the AI players enabled.

My understanding is that ZOC will not be a barrier to passage.   The owning empire/kingdom may ask you to leave, but you can choose to ignore their demand (at the risk of starting a war), or they may not care and just ignore your breach of etiquette.

It avoids the building of transports, which are clinky and an AI problem.  Streamlining it just makes sense to me, provided the units can get blown out of the water by warships.

Boats will not be in FE. But if and when they do come to Elemental, Brad is pushing for CivV style boats. There is a whole thread somewhere about it. 

Well, the CivV boats would be the easiest way to do them, I guess.  And not to hate on CivV, there were other, older and just as hardcore TBS games that also did this.  There has to be a way to balance this out.  The AI needs a way to  be able to cross water effectively, but not so easy that terrain advantage is completely mitigated.

I think they would make it so that you needed to find a coast to embark. If the random maps are capable of limiting coastal space, it would be a good way to keep terrain advantages nominal. It would also be nice to see some warships. It all depends on balance.