MegaRandom was a lot more random in the past. If you played it many times, then you start to see the patterns. It isnt even that random. There are much more random maps, like hyper random. I wish they would include such map in the map pool. That sound really fun.
So instead of reducing the randomness in megarandom i suggest the increase the randomness on this map. It is called MegaRandom, but it doesnt really feel mega random to me.
Based on your suggestions on Nomad, you dont like these kind of maps. Not liking these maps it fine. For that reason they invented bans. So i will suggest to just use your bans for these maps if you dont like them.
You can have a budapest start. That map is an official map which has a 2 TC start. It can happen in MegaRandom as well.
And change the name to āMega, but not so Randomāā¦
Seriusly, no, embrace anything out of the build orders, or simply ban the map. Part of improving in game is understand why BO are the way they are, no just following them like a recipeā¦
I donāt follow build orders / I make my own/change as needed per map/enemy decisions, etc - I just do what I feel does well for me at any particular time while aiming for consistency with practice.
Water maps with a regular start? Yeah, thatās also a normal start and belongs in the regular starts queue. The thing is adaptability - how adaptable can you be with the same start yet different maps/settings
Land maps are also a regular starts type as long as the start is consistent.
I like megarandom, the different random terrian and generated resources is fun - I just donāt like the units and buildings suddenly increasing/decreasing/changing randomly while still being in the ranked queue for normal starts
Ranked is not just for ānormal startsā, ranked is for prove yourself and improving, and āgainā points that reflects that improveā¦ I think all maps should be in the map pool anyway, this way you can filter just land maps, or no nomad maps, just like normal lobbies. This way you could have the terrain randomess you want and keep MegaRandom with its core characteristic.
My conclusion: In your place, I would ask for more versatile map pool instead of cut off MegaRandom charm
What should happen in Mega Random is a reduction to civ wins. Maps with 12 deer and 3 boars, 12 sheep, or maps with 30 relics. Players always end up hoping for an easy civ win and for somethign thats supposed to be random there are some clear player-favorite civs.
There arent that many statistics on MegaRandom as its not played that much (900 games logged on aoestats this rotation)ā¦ But Mongols got picked 12% of the time (40% win rate). I guess everyone hope its one of the high hunt maps, as they are common enough but not the majority.
I am claiming that as you dont have info on which sort of map you will play, the players gamble on getting the maps with high hunt and pick mongols far too often (12%!), because its a civ win if you end up on that map.
I would rather reduce variation on aspects that promote strong early bonus to be even stronger (high hunt, high herdables) so we can have more variation on the civilizations.
Another option would be to remove civ picking from Mega Random, as well as position picking, adding another layer of randomness to the experience.
PS: This isnt at all relevant in general terms and there are several other things I would like to see improved. Just a comment in regards to Mongols always being played at this map.
I feel like people pick Mongols because they have a bonus that helps scouting, so unless you make it so that mega random also makes civs random (makes sense given the theme of the map) people would pick them for this reason even with less hunts.
Itās also quite a risk. Yesterday I had quite some mr games and like half of them had a nomad start. So the scouting bonus doesnāt give you a lot here and while the hunt bonus helps here itās not op (usually youād prefer more hunt to faster hunt on these maps in most situations). Then there was a map without hunt at all. So while Mongols can be insanenely strong on some mr geneations it can also be totally generic on others. I mean random civ would be cool but I donāt see the devs forcing random civs for certain maps in the pool while not for others.
The whole point of megarandom is that it is something different and you have to be prepared for an unusual dark age sometimes. Itās part of the appeal.
There used to be a mod called āMad Randomā which was an even more crazy version of Megarandom. You could start with a siege onager or a hero (Ghengis Khan for example). It was a lot of fun!