He said it would be balanced not fun![tongue]

Well, I hadn't rbeen online thta week too much.

Anyway, let's agree to get over it, ok! Better luck next time :) .

About a new game:
Of course the weekend was soaked up by tough home rearrangement issues. I shoudl be able to test host soon, though.


Balanced maps, imho, can be acheived quite easily:
-Make sure there are an equal number of players on each continent
-Make the starting positions fairly equal

That's it, I guess. Rest can be random.
An exactly equal first 22 is, imho, a good idea.

Oh, and treasure islands suck.


Of course, tech trading is off. However, there is also the option of allowing tech trading, but not tech brokering. I have no experience with ti, but I can imagine it might work (if there are equal players on each continent). Does anyone have experience with it?

Tech trading with or without brokering its very different when it comes to human vs human since you can form tech alliances.

i think tech brokering might work nicely, it allows tech trading but only if you've actually researched the tech. admitedly it'll still lead to massive alliances but perhaps more early war which everyone likes!

Well, tech trading including brokering seems to be a big nono for almost every one (me the fool included).

And I can indeed see a massive alliance forming. But there might very well be a chance that it makes it just a better game. I guees it wpould work best if a tech can only be sold once. Is that an option?

No there is no option for that. If you get a core group of 3 or 4 in an alliance the no brokering is meaningless. The only positive i can see is that people without an alliance would have more chance of receiving techs because they have no way of passing it on to another alliance, but more often then not they would end up dead anyway.

As much as it is nice to swap techs, humans know how to exploit this to the fullest which leads to a set pattern of play. Have no tech trades not only leads to weaker alliances but also adds to the strategy of what to research.

if no techs are on i'd prefer a smaller map then, war was so less likely in the last game as no-one really had a need for it.

Well. No tech trading at all then. I'm just looking to find a way to get it right, without it being expoited.

Besides, what this game has proven is that alliances can't be too weak. [tongue]

I think a pangaea with natural shores would be the best way to go. Equal amount of civs on each continent is rather boring. Another option is archipelago: one island per player.