Map: Eight Micro Islands With Bridges
Description:
Map with very small total land mass, for 2 players, for a relatively quick game. Eight micro size islands, with narrow land bridges between them. Race to capture as many islands as possible. Map has no Ports. Map has no Coal or Trees (grow your own trees and use Charcoal Kiln).
Comment by uploader:
Map with very small total land mass, for two players, for a relatively quick game.
Similar idea as my map "Micro Map: Three Islands With Bridges", but now extended to a network of eight islands that wraps around on all sides.
The islands are numbered for ease of navigation. The two players start at islands "1" and "2". The network (or lattice) of eight islands is as follows (depicted below with the wraparound rolled out to an infinite plane):
\ / \ / \ /
1 --- 2 1 --- 2 1 --- 2
/ \ / \ / \ /
--- 4 3 --- 4 3 --- 4 3 --- 4
\ / \ / \ / \
5 --- 6 5 --- 6 5 --- 6
/ \ / \ / \ /
--- 8 7 --- 8 7 --- 8 7 --- 8
\ / \ / \ / \
1 --- 2 1 --- 2 1 --- 2
/ \ / \ / \ /
--- 4 3 --- 4 3 --- 4 3 --- 4
\ / \ / \ / \
5 --- 6 5 --- 6 5 --- 6
/ \ / \ / \ /
--- 8 7 --- 8 7 --- 8 7 --- 8
\ / \ / \ / \
Possibly, this map could also be a nice test for the A.I. 
Comment and let me know what you think!
Basic Information:
| Author: | Menno Rubingh (2020) |
| World: | One World |
| Dimensions: | 64 x 64 |
| Max. Players: | 2 |
| Downloads: | 423 |
| Comments: | 5 |
| Rating: | |
| Upload: | by MRubingh at 2020-07-10, 00:15 |
Comments on this Map:
MRubingh |
Hello The-X ! Thank you ! I've only tested these maps playing against the AI. Mainly while playing Barbarians myself. I've now also uploaded two other versions of the same idea. (See my other two recent map uploads.) Note: I'm using a version of the game that is probably about 4-5 years old. (How do I get the game to tell me its version number?) The AI in my version of the game does not do a good job on maps of this kind, i.e. maps that are a network of multiple different paths that can be taken. Namely, the AI doesn't really expand into the other islands. Which makes the game trivially easy to win for the human player. I'm getting the impression that the AI in my version of the game doesn't really do planning of possible paths to take for expansion into different paths in the terrain. Has the AI been improved on this point in the past few years? How does the AI in your version of the game handle these maps? |
hessenfarmer |
tried this map yesterday with b21.
the AI at least expanded somehow. |
|
MRubingh |
Hello Hessenfarmer, Many thanks for your comment! Nice to hear that the new AI is better on this map than the old AI. On your suggestion: The starting locations are placed in this way entirely deliberately! The whole philosophy behind each of my 3 maps is to have early contact with the enemy, and simultaneously to also despite this to have "free space" for both players to expand into, despite the early contact. My rationale behind this is, that I find games where at the beginning of the game each player develops independently for a long time before there is any enemy contact, that I find those games somewhat boring. For me, the interesting part of the game is the enemy contact. I realize that this is an unusual sort of gameplay, but my maps are precisely targeted at exploring this unusual type of gameplay. Bring in a bit of variation. (continued below) |
|
MRubingh |
(continued from above:) To achieve this goal of early contact but still with open space left after initial contact, my method is to place the starting locations close together. As a result, the players come in contact quickly, i.e. they immediately have to find some strategy for how they want to deal with the enemy contact. After the initial contact, then two things happen simultaneously, namely (1) the continued enemy contact, and (2) the expansion into the free territory. The latter thing will probably generally be a race to control most territory, or to quickly cut off expansion paths for the enemy. |
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the-x
I like these Ideas (but have you tested this map really)