Civilization: Topaz
This map follows in the style of maps such as Civilization Sapphire, Ruby, and Emerald. It also has influences from the Civilization World style maps as well. This map is my attempt to make a "better" Civilization map and addresses what I consider to be flaws of current popular Civilization maps. It also incorporates concepts from the games Civilization 2 and 3 which I have played to death.

The basic idea is that you manage a new Civilization at the dawn of the (first) Stone Age. Starting from there, you expand your civilization, research new technologies, and engage in war with other players. Along the way, you will also have options to manage your government and construct Wonders of the World which grant special bonuses.



Specs and Basic Information
Players: 2-7 (higher is likely better.)
Terrain: Jungle, 256x256 fictional
Terrain by: Tempz
Typical Game Length: 60+ Minutes



Territories, Income and Technology
Beacons represent resources or territories and are captured by making a building next to them and destroying all other player's buildings near them. The neutral beacons are marked with buildings which indicate the relative strength and technology of the AI barbarians around them. From easiest to hardest:
- 2x Blank Beacons
- 2x Pylon Beacons
- 2x Cybernetics Core Beacons
- 1x Forge Beacon
- 2x Citadel of Adun Beacons
- 2x Templar Archive Beacons
- Larger, Varying AI City-States
For most of the starting locations, with the exception of the forge beacon, the beacons are placed such that easier ones are closer to the civilization's start and the more difficult ones are further away.

A countdown timer will run at the top of the screen. It is the amount of time left in the "year". Yearly, civilizations generate income and technology points. Each beacon gives 100 minerals per year, or 150 if the beacon has a Marketplace (Academy) next to it. The various government types also give a varying flat income bonus. Subtracted from this are your maintainence, corruption, and unit support costs. (explained later)

Technology (and age advancement by extension) is gained by owning certain buildings. These buildings are marked with green and orange numbers in their names. The green number specifies how many technology points the building adds each year. The orange number specificies the maximum of that building type which will provide technology. Of course, you can build more, but they will not add additional technology. The red number in certain technology buildings is the yearly maintainence cost for the building, which is subtracted from your income. Maintainence is a concept that I have not seen in a Civilization map and it creates a dichotomy between building a strong military or rushing advanced technology. A civilization that is having trouble keeping up with maintainence costs has the option of researching at reduced rates of 50% or 0%, a simplified version of the "tech slider" in Civilization 2/3.

The technology system is mathematically planned to require a minimum of 4 years between each age at the maximum tech rate.



Corruption and Unit Support
Corruption and Unit Support are concepts added to curtail large militaries and exponential rates of expansion. Of course, if two civilizations are identical except for one having more beacons, the larger one will do better, but it should not completely blow the other civilization out of the water.

The corruption a civilization experience increases as the amount of territory it controls goes up. I have not decided exactly what penalties high corruption will impose. The different forms of governments will better suited to controlling different amounts of territory, which will give an incentive to get more advanced forms of government and make the size of your empire an important factor for choosing a government type.

Unit support is upkeep imposed for controlling a large military. Each government type will allow support for a certain amount of units for free, and then will have to pay a fixed amount for every 10 units above the limit, rounded up. In other Civilization maps, there is usually not limit or units simply "rebel" and are given to the AI. The system here allows a player to have a large and powerful army but at a cost.



Governments
There are various government types which become available throughout the ages which add gameplay options and flavor to the map. There is no "best" government type; some governments types will be more suitable to particular types of civilizations.

For example, Democracy benefits from a peaceful environment and gives a high income bonus, but has high costs for supporting a large military. Facism does not provide as high of an income bonuses, but can support a large military at a much lower cost. Feudalism cannot govern a large civilization effectively and will face big problems from corruption, but will be a good government type for a smaller empire.

A change of government will impose two years of Anarchy on the civilization. No research will take place and income will be reduced. One must be careful when deciding to change government types.



Wonders / Improvements
Wonders and Improvements are optional purchases that become available to Civilizations at certain ages. They typically provide effects that can not be obtained through other means, such as providing free unit support.

Wonders of the World may only be purchased by one civilization, whereas Improvements are "small wonders" which may be purchased once by each civilization. Wonders are typically expensive, but powerful in the effects that they provide. Improvements are generally less expensive but still provide useful benefits.



Victory
There are multiple ways to attain victory in Civilization Topaz.
Military Victory: Kill off all of the other civilizations. This is the self-explanatory victory condition that has been a standard in all Civilization maps.
Space Race Victory: The Space Race victory, inspired by Civilization 2/3, finds its way to this map. In the last age, the Arbiter Tribunal, representing a part of a spaceship, becomes available for construction. They are expensive and build slowly, but if a civilization completes ten of them, they automatically win the game.
Economic Victory? Unsure if this will be implemented, but I might automatically give victory to a Civilization which attains a ridiculous amount of money. (100k, 200k, more?)



Progress
- Bugs bugs bugs.
- Balancing is hopefully less terrible now?
- Wonders not implemented.
- Government Types not implemented.
- Map still under heavy construction.


Note: Alpha version documentation included if one wishes to track the progress of the map or imagine the horrors of early versions.



Screenshots

I vie for control of this beacon from the AI.


I just advanced to a new age as I take control of this beacon as well.


I've advanced in age again, and now I have Terran buildings and SCVs as well as Protoss.


Advancing once again to the Iron Age, I now have Terran buildings going on producing units.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Feb 26 2012, 1:21 am by Mini Moose 2707.

Pretty dang cool Moose. Should setup a date to play with some SEN'ers so I can join in and try it out

Thank you. We had a full house game of this at Map Night this Saturday. Hopefully, I can have a better and more complete version ready for playing by the next one. Eventually, there will be public testing, but currently I think the map is too incomplete and has too many problems.

Air OP

It would be cooler if this was actually the world, but you're trying to go for the Civilization way, also Instead of the Space Race you should make it whoever kills the Alien Mothership.

and for people with large empires, you could put in... Revolts, Starvation, Leader gets assassinated, Wealth needed to withstand the Empire, nation required to pay 5 or 10k every 5-10 years or face low life unit spawns more revolts more starvation and high corruption.

This is literally a suggestion to replace a technology victory with a different form of military victory. Also, no Alien Motherships here. It might be worth suggesting these in the Civ World thread.

Yeah, the trick is to do those properly. Things that don't involve income can end up being tricky. A good descent into Anarchy might be a good penalty for high corruption, but then I need to make sure that there are good options for the player to control Corruption. Which there will be, but I haven't decided on what those will be yet.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 22 2012, 3:34 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

I felt that Teching seems to always be the best strategy, but that may just be my low-level skills talking

Teching was very powerful in the Alpha 02 that you played. Overall, it's another symptom of the terrible balance which consisted of numbers that sounded reasonable off the top of my head without any testing. Teching was also too cheap/easy, even beyond the fact that the income triggers were broken. (using the wrong DCs, that is)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 23 2012, 12:58 am by Mini Moose 2707.

Can we get an SCMD map image?

Here's one, though the next version won't look like this. Also, many doodads need to be placed.
There aren't preplaced neutral units outside of the city-states and major settlements because they are placed in-game.

I like civilization maps at first where everything is simple and manageable. About 15 minutes in though if I haven't been hampered by opposing players at all, the size of my empire becomes is just too much to bear, and the game is no longer fun. It starts feeling like a chore having to still rebuild farms at that point, and all the other nuances make the whole thing unmanageable.

I know not everyone has this problem, and aciv 'pro' would probably just call me a newb and play a simpler game that my inferior mind can better handle. The thing is I really like the first 15 minutes of really any civilization game, and I'd like it to go further.

I don't know. I guess what I'd like to see in a diplo game is macro-automation of things I'd rather not be bothered with later in the game. I feel like I have no time to actually use my army.

Then I am pleased to inform you that you will never have to build a farm here.

Looks good! If I still played BW and could host I would definitely try it out.

maybe add a tutorial since that's what really got me in to the civ maps.

I'm most likely not going to do a tutorial, but I will add random tips that appear throughout the game, probably once per year at a certain amount on the timer. Some of them will not necessarily be random and will instead be based on things that are going on at the time, though. This will enable the map to present the proper tips as various complexities become relevant.

They key distinction of the gemstone maps is their lack of any options, such as wonders, governments, technology progression, etc. They effectively nothing more than modified campaign rules, making them quick and easy to play. This map appears to have far more in common with the world-style maps.

I think this map should get a playthrough with some senners just to test the waters.

It's been through quite a few. The bugs and incompleteness has made me decide that it isn't worth testing against until I'm finished with a newer version.

Mmk fair enough... good luck on the map.