I played several random map multiplayer games this past weekend and noticed that the map generation of forests is excessive. On one Large 2v2 island map in particular forests were so abundant that I had to cut down trees in order to access berry bushes, gold & stone mines and open closed off paths. At the beginning of the game the only way to go from my starting location to the opposite side of the island was to walk the perimeter of the island due to the forests partially blocking several paths. I don’t remember having this problem when playing any of the earlier versions of the game before Update 10.
Has anyone else ran into the problem recently of over-abundant forests generated on random maps?
Remarkable. I just came forest short in my last game to finish it completely. That was a random huge 2v2v2v2 on hard (or hardest) which resulted in small island map (8 totally). I did use default resources setting. I had to use a lot of scouts to survive all the sea battles. Yet, none of the AI raided my island with transport ships (luckily). I managed to punch through to the center islands of two enemies, but lacked resources for all the others. My team mate AI was not so active or helpful in raiding the islands btw, yet he did draw away some heat of the sea battles.
It’s interesting that forests on island maps are unpredictable. Unfortunately I did not take a screenshot of the game settings, specifically the resources setting, at any point during the game. I joined and did not host. Perhaps it is worth experimenting with resource settings on Large (2v2) and Huge (4v4 or 2v2v2v2) random maps with island type to see the forest distribution. I assume random map generation is the same for single player as multiplayer.
Related question, @PCS70 have you noticed resources of different types in closer proximity to one another in the latest Update 10 or do you feel it has been the same as always?
Not really yet. At most times I played my games with a slightly larger map (like with 4 on a map for 6 players). I like to have more (battle field) space and free area to move around or settle a second base. The resources are still random enough to find them sometimes at the most annoying places. Like stone or gold placed partly or as whole on a hill between forest. Berry bushes close to forest/water or then with some random trees scattered around them (normal with certain map ground types).
For competitive play reasons I would always put necessary resources nearby the TC while all the others may be scattered around over the map.
I created about a dozen random Large Islands maps and none of them had forests blocking paths to the degree in my game this past weekend. However, resources being surrounded on 2-3 sides and resources being blocked by other resources with the High resources setting is fairly common. Next time I will pay closer attention to the game settings before joining.
In general I would say that berry bushes are seeded too much and that it would be nice if you could deliver the food from berry bushes to storage pits too. Either that or change the berry bushes seeding. Yeah, you really hit the jackpot with that second image.
Regarding the larger amount of berry bushes and their placement in general you are correct I think.
I remember having many cases of resources stuck in forests (or next to) during the beta and I posted a lot of screenshots back in the day in this forum.
I think nothing has changed about this since then.
One solution that I’d love would be to raise the wood amount of all trees. Currently I think its 40 wood for forest and 75 for individual trees. Trees all having 75 wood or more would mean forests could be smaller. Idk though since trees are what keep economies going in the late game and it sucks when they run out. They also create obstacles so attacks cant just come straight into your town.
Yet tt would take almost twice as long to chop things down which does slow down your expansion possibility too. Players who like to boom and used the chopped free space to expand their base will not like this for sure.
Then I see more fun in villagers that are able to reseed forests in small tilted square shaped areas for the cost of 40 food per square.
There have been quite some intense discussions on the forum about the pro’s and con’s of all the randomness bit in AOE. Although it’s a key thing for the AOE franchise this is actually in conflict of real competitive play, except for all the other things like recording games, better stats and ranking system etc. This is also the reason why pro’s only play ranked on certain map types and civ of their choice. I do think they should create a competitive MP mode which filters out a selected group of suitable maps for that and enables all tech, levels the strength of civilizations and so on. Actually this should evolve from people playing this game with certain custom made maps and settings.
I mean, yes as it’s random it can create unbalances but… about resources generation, I don’t remember games in Age1 where the resources could be so strangely/absurdely placed, AoE DE worsed the thing.
