ECL Map Design Contest

[teutonic_tanks]

Channel
(West Europe)
This map is representing the Channel between the British Islands and France

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

I know that watermaps aren't the most loved maps in age, but this isn't some random watermap, this THE perfect water map.

I'm using again direct_placement function like in 2 maps before the spawn the sea perfecty in between the players (either from Southwest to Northeast or Southeast to Northwest). Both teams have the same amount of dockable land-surface, the same amount of land (the same amount of wood as well!) and a save trade route. The fish is distributed evenly along the coast and the fish conecntration in middle is smaller than on the rest of the map (the fish in the middle water is usually barely used and just causing extra lag).

At home you got standart resources (to make MBL happy, the 4 main sheep spawn a tiny bit closer to the TC than usual). In 2v2 3v3 4v4 every side contains 2/3/4 relics and in 1v1 every landside has 2 relics.

Give this map a try, you won't find any fairer watermap!

 

[nimanoe]

Channel
(West Europe)
This map is representing the Channel between the British Islands and France

Throwback to WiC with Ancient Lake v2 11

 

[teutonic_tanks]

Agean_Islands
(Middle East)

This map represent the islands between Greece and Turkey

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

This is some sort of mixture of Islands and Goldrush. You only got 4 tiles of gold at home, while there is plenty of gold and a few relics between the ruins in the middle, that have been left behind by the Old Greeks. Outside there is plenty of evenly distributed fish and everything in middle is connected over Shallows

Strategies: i expect that agressive play with [email protected] towers and other sort of fwds might be very strong on this map. You only have 1 gold pile with 4 tiles of gold at home, if you lose control over that gold and mapcontrol too, then you're doomed. Else i have zero clue what exactly will be the meta, pkt might go for kts, since the map is pretty open and everybody is vulnerable. But then again the middle gold is perfectly controlable by water and you have to control your fish outside as well.

Resources: as said you have less gold than usual at home, pretty much all other resources are standart and you have a second fruit-bush patch (representing the fruit rich mediterrane climazone). Extra gold/relics in middle.

 

[teutonic_tanks]

Throwback to WiC with Ancient Lake v2 11

the thing is direct placement didnt exist back in time, awkward land shapes as in Ancient Lake arent possible anymore. On top of that there is better distributed and more fish than on ancient lake, since it's way way easier to snipe fish in WK with fires.

 

[teutonic_tanks]

[email protected]_Swamp
(Southeast Asia)
This map is represeting the archipel of Idonisia.

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

The idea behind this map was to create a mixture of LN, Nomad and Bog Islands.

On this map every player starts with an LN start (aka 3 vills and olny 200 wood), on top of that you have 3 water buffalos, an outposts and a transport ship.

The start might sound weird af, but give it a chance. While you try to collect enough wood for a tc, you can use the buffalos and transport ship to scout for extra Buffalos. Since African Kingdoms you can garrison herdables, such as buffalos, in trasport ships, so the transport ship can be used as taxi for Buffalos. Once you got enough wood for a tc it's up to you, where you gonna place it: on the island, where you are save from water raids or you go away from the islands to maybe some forrest next to shorefish for a faster start (since all Mangrove shallow terrain is buildable). Here the transport ship can be used again as taxi fo your vills!
Once you're u to feudal age you can use the transport ship for sneak tower, fwd on other players or simply as scout.

Resources: you only got 3 buffalos at start, 2 gold spots and a stone on your islands. All other resources are evenly distributed extra res: you can find deers, buffalos, extra gold, extra stone, berries and shorefish all along the map. There is only very few deepfish.
The Name: On top of that there are always 5 relics per player in total on this map (eg in 3v3, there will be 30 evenly distributed relics), this should be some juicy gold income, ofc only if the monk manages to get home in time.

Strategies: i expect mostly water play, but also some fwds and sneaky strats. The startegical decision making already starts when you build the tc. This map is perfect for masterminds such as TheMax or Viper. I cant wait for it

 

[wAkKo]

Agean_Islands
(Middle East)

This map represent the islands between Greece and Turkey
View attachment 157253

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

View attachment 157254

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

View attachment 157255

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

View attachment 157256

This is some sort of mixture of Islands and Goldrush. You only got 4 tiles of gold at home, while there is plenty of gold and a few relics between the ruins in the middle, that have been left behind by the Old Greeks. Outside there is plenty of evenly distributed fish and everything in middle is connected over Shallows

Strategies: i expect that agressive play with [email protected] towers and other sort of fwds might be very strong on this map. You only have 1 gold pile with 4 tiles of gold at home, if you lose control over that gold and mapcontrol too, then you're doomed. Else i have zero clue what exactly will be the meta, pkt might go for kts, since the map is pretty open and everybody is vulnerable. But then again the middle gold is perfectly controlable by water and you have to control your fish outside as well.

Resources: as said you have less gold than usual at home, pretty much all other resources are standart and you have a second fruit-bush patch (representing the fruit rich mediterrane climazone). Extra gold/relics in middle.

Beautiful!!

 

[teutonic_tanks]

And the last one:

Vulkankrater
(engl: volcanic crater) (East Asia)
This map represents a old volcanic crater somewhere between mongolia and china.

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

I simply couldnt give this map an english name, the german name was too good and it will be funny to see casters/player trying to pronounce it Keepo.
Beside the fancy sounding german name, this map can be a real mess. You start on top of a volcanic crater very close next to each other. In the middle there is the crater with it's very fertile soil: on it there grow plenty of berry bushes and deers. In the very middle there are the boars in form of rhinosaurs (all just for Larry <3), always 2 for each player. To keep everything fair i used direct_placement once again with a very, very special engine, making it possible to spawn player in an octagon, keeping the distance to the middle 100% the same for every player. Only the distance between the players can vary a little bit depending on the amount of players, but even there it's as constant as possible.
All this together is making this map way fairer as eg Border dsipute.

Resources: besinde the rhinosaurs/deer/berries in the middle, everyone got 3 buffalos close to his tcs. Behind the tcs on the crater there are some single buffalos spread around. You can find only very small bamboo forests on the crater. Outside of the crater there is extra gold/sone/forest to reboom.
To prevent this map from being a towerrush-fest there is no stone and only 2 gold spots on the crater for each player. This means you can only put 1 tower, so use your 200 stone wisely!

Strategies: there will be action from the first second, first the rush to the rhinos in the middle, then everyone will try to get extra buffalos and gather as much as possible from the middle. Since stone is far away outside, UUs are still an option for the very long run, but for the early game, everyone gonna make archers/skirms/scouts. This gonna be great fun to watch and very difficult to play.

Only perfect teamplay and microing can win on this map, since this map can be very unforgiving.

EDIT: i updated the map again, but the name remains the same, pls del the old version. I only increased the amount of wood a little bit in the middle to make the spawns fairer.

 

[Cicero]

Adriatic (West Europe)
Made possible with direct_placement; sort of like Baltic with the water shifted into one corner, and players positioned around it. This should make land aggression more feasible (and therefore more important) than on Baltic without reducing the size of the water or the importance of fish. I'd expect to see simultaneous land and water aggression on each side of the map.
Also, the layout of the map will make things interesting for when teams start trading since they would both want to compete for the same corner. The extra resources will also be in this direction, so players cannot forgo land control for too long.
Note: doesn't work in the map editor - test by loading a game in singleplayer or multiplayer. Only works with two equal teams.

Standard Resources

Spoiler: 1v1

Spoiler: 2v2

Spoiler: 3v3

Spoiler: 4v4

Himalayan (East Asia)
The key feature of this map is the numerous mountains scattered across the map which cannot be built on. They can, however, give an elevation bonus to any armies stationed on them. There is likely to be a decent amount of extra gold and stone in the valleys between.
Gaining map control with castles and forward buildings would be more difficult as there would be mountains on either side, so I'm hoping armies would be more important for securing map control. Armies must travel with care to not to be caught out in these valleys. Team walling is probably not feasible (though not impossible).

Player Resources: 6 water buffalo, 2 rhinos, 4 forage bushes, 4 deer, 11 (7+4) tiles gold, 9 (3x3) tiles stone
Extra Resources: 8 (2x4) tiles gold per player max (5x4 total for 1v1), 3 tiles stone per player max (3x3 total for 1v1)

Spoiler: 1v1

Spoiler: 2v2

Spoiler: 3v3

Spoiler: 4v4

 

[dodageka]

Just a potential idea if anybody plans to make more maps. After the discussion about Indian pocket vs flank in the qualifiers, I think it could be cool to see a map that has fixed player positions (like 1,2,7,8 as flanks and 3,4,5,6 as pockets). What do people think?

 

[Cicero]

Just a potential idea if anybody plans to make more maps. After the discussion about Indian pocket vs flank in the qualifiers, I think it could be cool to see a map that has fixed player positions (like 1,2,7,8 as flanks and 3,4,5,6 as pockets). What do people think?

The fixed team colour pools mean that this might actually be more feasible to implement. Potential downsides include:
- Players would have to switch colours to change position - which is currently prohibited.
- These maps (if I'm not mistaken) would have to use direct_placement instead of random_placement - which removes a lot of the natural variance in player positions. I've used direct_placement a couple of times but only when necessary for the design of the map. To implement this feature in other maps would take away some of the randomness from those maps.
- It takes a fair amount of time to 'convert' a map to allow fixed player positions.

I definitely like the idea, and would love to see a tournament based on this in the future. However, I think its more trouble than its worth to just use it on a select few maps in this tournament.

 

[Chrazini]

Submission moved to this post.

 

[dodageka]

Thanks for the feed

The fixed team colour pools mean that this might actually be more feasible to implement. Potential downsides include:
- Players would have to switch colours to change position - which is currently prohibited.
- These maps (if I'm not mistaken) would have to use direct_placement instead of random_placement - which removes a lot of the natural variance in player positions. I've used direct_placement a couple of times but only when necessary for the design of the map. To implement this feature in other maps would take away some of the randomness from those maps.
- It takes a fair amount of time to 'convert' a map to allow fixed player positions.

I definitely like the idea, and would love to see a tournament based on this in the future. However, I think its more trouble than its worth to just use it on a select few maps in this tournament.

Thanks for the feedback! Given that a few people submitted maps with fixed player positions, maybe those maps could be cases where fixed pockets and flanks make sense?

I also think that changing player colors isn’t a big issue, one could either make an exception for this maps or the players have to choose the colors for this set based on their positions in the map.

 

[Cicero]

Thanks for the feedback! Given that a few people submitted maps with fixed player positions, maybe those maps could be cases where fixed pockets and flanks make sense?

Maybe my Adriatic (above) would be a good example for this - since that map will have only one 'flank' per team, and player positions could be pretty important.
Fixed player positions is kind of different though; personally I'd rather see it implemented tournament-wide or not at all. It would change the relative strengths of civs (since civs that are only good in certain positions would be stronger) and it would change how the teams used the civ draft. For this reason I think it would be better to see this tested out properly in its own tournament - I'd be interested to see how much support this would have from top players.
There are many more things that can be done with direct_placement too. Flanks could be moved back level with the pockets, or the pockets moved further forward. You could set it so that every player has an enemy on both sides, or you could have all players arranged in a straight line across the map. Some of these ideas are maybe a bit too different for ECL, but there are so many possibilities for other events.

 

[Tarsiz]

@Cicero I was very interested in trying your maps and got to play a couple of games on Valley of Kings, Adriatic and New World. We played Valley of Kings on weird settings (2v2v2v2 King of the Hill) so we can't really infer anything from that but got 1v1 games on the other two maps.

I figured maybe you'd be interested in the recs to see by yourself how the game plays out, in light of further improvements/adjustments.

Adriatic
New World

I really like how your maps look and the idea behind Adriatic. For this one it is really easy to wall off the side because of the thickness of the forests. On New World, it appears it could be possible the fish/pound distribution is a bit unfair (the lakes were closer to my side than robo's).

 

[Henkdesupernerd]

Rice Fields
South East Asian style (1v1, 3v3)

Context:
This map idea is based on the terraces that are used to cultivate rice in mountainous areas in South East Asia. Flat surfaces make small steps in the landscape, allowing for standing water and for rice to grow on otherwise steep hillslopes.

Map description:
Players start on a small island in the swampy low elevations. Team_together forces teammates to spawn nearby on the same island. The islands are connected by a large bog, situated in the valley in the middle of the map. The water here contains some deep-fish. Because of the presence of shallow in the lake, fish can be somewhat far out for your fishing ships (docks are placed on beach-water, or beach-shallow transitions).
On the sides there will be two large hills with terraces. The flat areas will be ~6tiles wide: which makes it wide enough to support large buildings such as castles or Town. On the higher elevation the neutral gold and stones can be found, as well as some hungry tigers.

Spoiler: Resources on the Map

Resources on player lands (similar to bog-islands)
- 4 starting water buffalo (150food) underneath TC
- 3 Rhinos (400f each)
- ~roughly 5 small patches of wood.
- some straggler trees
- 3 piles of gold (4 tiles each)
- 2 piles of stone (4 tiles each)

Neutral resources:
- deepfish in the middle
- gold and stone piles on the higher elevation
- relics spread around the map
- tigers on the higher elevation

Spoiler: Screenshot: RiceFields 1v1

Spoiler: Screenshot: RiceFields 2v2

Spoiler: Screenshot: RiceFields 3v3

Spoiler: Screenshot: RiceFields 4v4

The map needs further testing but I already notice interesting gameplay, and a wide variety of strategies that this map will support:

Spoiler: Strategies

Tests have shown that control of water will be crucial. The starting islands can provide just enough cover to withstand an overwhelming enemy fleet, especially with a castle or some walls (you can wall the corridors of mangrove shallows, preventing the enemy boats from coming in and surrounding your island). If all control of the starting area is lost, the player can find their final resort in the higher areas which are not connected to the bog in the middle and which can grant enough resources to make a come-back in the late game.

Since the stating islands are also connected via land, raiding with land-army can still be effective. A defender could fully wall his base, which would be allowed by the mangrove shallow terrain. The small woodlines in the starting area will force the players away from their starting island eventually, where they will be exposed to raiding fromm both water- and landarmy.

I believe this map will result in a unique and balanced water meta:

Although fish-income can be somewhat mediocre - especially when shared with allies (and foes) - it is very important to take control of the water early on. I expect (fire)galley rushes, just to take map control, or to kill enemy fish.

The layout of the map requires careful planning of the type of warships you invest into:

• Galleys can be lethal in large quantities, and will be efficient both in the bog, where they can kite back, as well as in the small corridors where they will be hard to reach for enemy fire galleys. Once water control is established a large number of galleys can easily harass the enemy starting area, killing lumberjacks and denying building space. Adding walls with gates can even make them more effective in the defense, giving them safety to retreat to and allowing them to fire back at their persuaders.
• Fire galleys are very efficient to destroy the enemy fishing ships in the early game and can help to get map control in small numbers. They can reach some land areas where they could even range some exposed wood lines. They will remain a solid choice, and can be combined with galleys to have a strong and balanced fleet.
• Demolition ships will be especially valuable throughout the game on this map: with docks always nearby, it is easy to counter enemy attacks by popping out a demo or two. they will be useful to defend the fish in the (early) feudal age, and continue to play an important role in late game where they can do big damage against massed war galleys, that can't kite away easily in the small alleys of water. Also, if the opponent decides to bring over land army, the demolition ships can be a real thread for the army when it iss crossing the amphibious mangrove shallow terrain!

EDIT: added straggler trees in neutral lands, and added relics in neutral lands:

Spoiler: screenshots: 1v1 updated version

 

[Cicero]

@Tarsiz (deleting my previous reply to avoid taking up too much space.)
I reduced both the number of ponds and shorefish in New World. The pond distribution can still be uneven (this is unavoidable), but it shouldn't matter too much in team games, which is what I expect the map to be used for.
For Adriatic, I removed the islands and hills, made the forest spawn in smaller clumps, made the water slightly smaller for the 1v1 map size, and ensured that at least one gold will always be forward in 1v1. Its still usually pretty easy to wall in 1v1, which I think this is unavoidable, so the start of the game is likely to be mostly water control. For land and water aggression from the start, I have my other map Anatolia (which is probably the more difficult map).
I might also make a separate 'gold rush' variant of Adriatic (with the gold in the corner opposite the water), which might be the better map in 1v1.
Thanks for the feedback.

 

[AlgernonR]

ECL Maps

Waterhole
(Africa Event)

Spoiler: MAP FOR 1v1

Spoiler: MAP FOR 2v2

Spoiler: MAP FOR 3V3

Spoiler: MAP FOR 4V4

The idea behind this map was to create an aggressive team game map using new terrains and units from the African Kingdoms-expansions and working around the theme of a small forested sanctuary in the middle of the african desert. The elephants gather around the waterhole and since they are all forward its more or less a scramble to get their precious meat.

Players have three gold spots and the main one is fairly close, while woodlines are all quite far from TC and difficult to protect. There is no stone in the player bases, but one stone each can be found in the desert outside the forest.
The desert around the oasis can be used for late game trade if it were to come to that point.

NOTE: On 1v1 the waterhole has dried up, to at least balance it a bit (otherwise it could potentially spawn 3 elephants on one side of the water and 1 elephant on the other side) - but this map is not really intended for 1v1 so I havent made any further adjustments.


Andean Ridge
(America Event)

Spoiler: MAP FOR 1v1

Spoiler: MAP FOR 2v2

Spoiler: MAP FOR 4v4

The theme of this map is the Andean Mountains in South America and the search for the Incan gold hidden in those mountains.
Teams start on one side of the mountains and compete to secure the ridge and the many gold spots positioned there.
The idea behind this was to make a gold rush kind of map, with the gold spread out a bit more.

Players also start with 2 berries and a few llamas spread around, as well as boars. The woodlines are big and should provide good opportunities to team wall if thats what you want to do. A bit less gold than usual, only having the main and secondary golds. At some point you really have to take the mountain - or at the very least pass it.

If anyone happen to try the games out, please leave any feedback here for me.

[EDITED TO INCLUDE LATER MAP SUGGESTION TO ZIPFILE]

(Note: Was gonna add a 3v3 Map Print for Andean Ridge cause I initially thought only the player counts used for the event in question was needed, but there is a limit of 10 attachments. So if anyone want to see the 3v3-print pls just ask me.)

 

[Chrazini]

Instead of making a bunch of posts in this one thread I decided to include all my maps in one PDF file - so to review and download my ECL map submissions, simply follow this link:
http://christianamdi.com/remain/MapShowcase.pdf (227 MB)

If this format is not suitable to properly enter the competition, please let me know.
Thank you very much!

 

[Manu]

Adriatic looks really nice and different, I hope to see how the dynamics work with pro player on it @Cicero
@Chrazini y u make me dl 227Mo ? :'(

 

[Henkdesupernerd]

Treasure Islands

American Style (2v2, 4v4)

[EDIT: fixed resources not spawning (main gold/stone), and brushed up and added more clarity to mapscript]

Context:
After the discovery of America by the Europeans at the end of the 15th century, the interest for colonizing these lands began to grow. An abundance of natural resources such as gold and silver was especially appealing to the greedy European colonists. Conflicts with the aboriginal people from the Central American lands was inevitable. The oppressive way of living together with local peoples and slavery remained a major problem until the 20th century, and even now racism and inequality can be seen as an ultimate product of this disharmonious way of seizing foreign lands. The (central) American culture was a rich culture with a well-developed society and profound religions. The European colonists suppressed these folks and much of their culture has vanished.

The Map:
Each player will start on an island shared with an enemy. Each island will have plenty of resources, with dense jungle and a standard amount of food, stone and gold (per player). In the middle of each island there is a treasure: some ancient relics (2 per island), and some gold ore (9 tiles per island). Players can contest these resources by training substantial land armies, or they can rather focus on taking control of the seas, which are abundant in fish, and which will give access to the other islands.
The islands are large enough to be safe from naval fire, although by giving up water control a large portion of the island (the shorelines) will be vulnerable. All islands will be completely surrounded by water.

Spoiler: The treasure in the middle of the island

Full map screenshots:

Spoiler: Screenshot 1v1

Spoiler: Screenshot 2v2

Spoiler: Screenshot 3v3

Spoiler: Screenshot 4v4

This concept is very similar to the special map: enemy archipelago (link). The limitations of that special map are that it is only playable on a 8-player map size, and it has less random features compared this map. Also 'TreasureIslands' will have some unique extras such as a treasure on each map, and a jungle theme.

Spoiler: Map layout:

This map script uses an extensive and complex algorithm to generate islands, ensuring each player to share an island with an enemy player. This requires the direct_placement function, brought by UserPatch, along with randomnumber generation for variability in the exact position.
Since there is no ‘enemy_together’ command valid in scripting I had to design the islands myself. To do this I connect two player lands with a neutral land. With the assign-to-team function along with the fixed player position it is possible for each 'shared island' to assign one player position to team1 and the other player position to team2. In order to add a bit randomness in the spawning position, I added random generators and used the rnd(x,y) command. More random generators define whether the map layout is vertical or horizontal (for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3) or in which diagonal direction the islands are stretched in 4v4. Also the size of both player lands and the neutral land of each island is slightly randomized, as well as the distance to other lands, to create more ragged shapes and a varying width of the water channels between the lands.

An additional advantage of having a neutral land connecting two players is that it allows to spawn objects exactly in the middle of this neutral land: right in between the two players that share an island. The treasure was therefore added in this location which would force players to fight for ‘map control’ of their own island, along with water control over the whole map. Also, I decided to have a scaling amount of relics: 2 relics per player land, both located in the middle, which is a convenient and fair way of ensuring a fair distribution of relics over this complex map. It might be a bit different having only 2 relics in a 1v1 and a whopping 8 relics in a 4v4. However, I don’t see relics as a very important element in water maps. Actually, I do like the additional relics for team games as a substitute for trade, since establishing trade will be difficult on this map (especially on the 4v4 map)

Depending on the number of players the map-layout will be designed like this:

For 1v1 the map only has 1 island, and looks like coastal (a bit smaller land area)

For 2v2 the map has two islands, which are next to one another, parallelly. The islands will be stretched vertically or horizontally. The map looks a bit like team islands, but with players of a different team sharing their islands. The position of the players is fixed, with a small variability (roughly players start in position (25,25); (25,75); (75,25); (75,75). Each island is completely surrounded by water, with a significant strip of water (~20tiles) between the islands. The teams are arranged that way that they are sharing one side of the map. (see image)

For 3v3 the map has 3 islands, stretching vertically or horizontally and positioned parallel to one another. This map generation has a similar layout as the 2v2 map, however lands are a bit slimmer and the players sharing the islands spawn a bit further away from one another. The distance between the islands is also reduced slightly (~17tiles)

For the 4v4 version the map is structured a bit differently, where teammates are not sharing one side of the map, but are shuffled around. Still two players of opposite team share an island, which is separated from other islands by water. Each island stretches diagonally, with a random orientation, leading to a complete random arrangement.

Distribution of teams:

The strategies on this map will be pretty straight forward: either go for early dominance on the water, and play defensive on the land, or go for land aggression and neglect water control (maybe start with a few fishing ships for early food income)
More interesting will be the late game where teamplay will come into play. (example of a pro-game on enemy archipelago)

Spoiler: Strategies:

Since fish is abundant it might be a good idea to start fishing as soon as possible to boost your economy. However, since the players are also connected and situated pretty close to one another, they might want to start their game with some dark-age or feudal age aggression by making land armies or towers.
Since teammates are separated from one another the game will play out as a bunch of 1v1’s. Still, by taking water control, one can support his allies with war ships or transport ships.
Double teaming an enemy is not impossible: you can send a transport with a drush or feudal army over to one enemy to double him, or have one player attack him on land, and the other on water.
The abundance of wood and gold on the map (with 1 relic per player) can facilitate long games, with plenty of naval units.

The resources on the map are very standard. The only differences are: a treasure in the middle of each island, granting relics (2 per island) and extra gold (9tiles per island). Apart from that there is plenty of fish and good wood lines.

Spoiler: Resources on the map:

Resources per player:

• Standard amount of berries (6)
• Standard amount of boar (2)
• Standard amount of gold (7+4+4)
• Standard amount of stone (5+4)
• Standard amount of deer (4)
• Standard amount of sheep (4+2+2)
• Some straggler trees around town center

Resources in neutral lands:

• Fish is abundant (Shore fish, Dorado, Dolphin)
• Sufficient wood lines (rainforest + oak forest)
• Many straggler trees (jungle bush)
• 3 jaguars per island in the neutral middle land: 1 guarding the treasure, 2 near the coast
• 2 relics per island, in the middle of the neutral land
• 9 tiles of gold, spread around the relics, in the middle of the neutral land

The map has been tested thoroughly and so far I haven't encountered many issues in the map generation. However more testing is needed to draw conclusions about balancing, and fair distribution of player starting locations (especially for the 4v4 map)

Spoiler: Issues and future changes:

• Relics or jaguar might be trapped in the gold, I don’t see this as a major issue
• Jaguar spawning in the middle can be somewhat close to the tc: a villager going out to wall or to lure the boar might aggro the jaguar.
• In 4v4 the random placement of players can be somewhat unfair: if teammates spawn near another they can have advantage of defending each other more easily.
• If this randomness is turning out to be fun, I can add this to the 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 version as well
• The tries to generate the treasure in a location that can be occupied by forests. As far as I’ve seen it might therefor be dislocated a bit and spawn next to this forest. I have not seen any instances yet where the objects (9gold, 2 relics, 1 jaguar) did not spawn at all.
• The remaining 2 jaguars have limited area to spawn on (25 tiles away from both player areas AND the middle of the neutral area) therefor I have seen one instance where the jaguar was not able to spawn, resulting in one island with only 3 jaguars. I don’t find this a big problem.
• Player resources: gold, stone, berries, sheep often spawn pretty close nearby forests, the chance for bugged maps might be slightly higher than maps such as Arabia. (but would be similar to team islands)
• The amount of straggler trees could hinder expanding your town, however since they are stragglers they can be easily chopped away, and they make the maps visually appealing.
• Even though, the exact position of players can vary, it is still pretty easy to predict the location of your enemy

 

[JoshuaR]

Treasure Islands is a lovely and creative new concept. Looks pretty great for 2v2 or 3v3, especially. Could be some fun chaos in 4v4, as well.

 

[Huehuecoyotl22]

So many really beautiful maps so far.
Of course there are many maps that resemble other already existing maps to a degree, just with other terrains, trees etc., but I hope many of them will be used in future events, even if not selected for ECL.

 

[Cicero]

@Henkdesupernerd

Spoiler: Treasure Islands - Feedback

I considered trying to make Enemy Archipelago work for 2v2, 3v3, but wasn't going to get round to it - good to see someone has
The 4v4 map is really good, with enough built-in randomness to feel like a random map. I wouldn't worry too much about the potential unfairness - it's probably fairer than archipelago (which is already in the SE Asia stage).
Personally, I find that the 3v3 arrangement is a little too artificial, and doesn't look like a natural archipelago. I would prefer something like:

Spoiler: 3v3

don't laugh it took 30 secs

This arrangement could also be more fair since each island has equal access to the other two.
The 2v2 version could also have more variation between generations, but it's not such a big deal.

It would be nice to have a 'standard' version of the map as well (without the treasure) - I think it could become a standard map for tournaments. (You could submit it to the East Asia stage if you wanted.)

Having the treasure on an extra island in the middle of the map could be a fun variation also.

Ghostbusters (West Europe)
Frozen Decentring. All the fun aggressiveness of Socotra without the not-so-fun tower rushes. (At least in the middle. Hopefully.)
The starting 'islands' contain a large amount of gold, which incentivises holding on to them. Players will also need control of the outside for wood, however. Also, there is extra hunting on the outside, to compensate for the lack of fish.
Feel free to suggest a better name...

Player Resources: 6 sheep, 2 boar, 4 deer, 18 (3x6) tiles gold, 2 tiles stone
Extra Resources: 8 (2x4) tiles gold per player (5x4 total for 1v1), 6 (2x3) tiles stone per player (5x3 total for 1v1), groups of 6 deer, groups of 2 sheep

Spoiler: 1v1

Spoiler: 2v2

Spoiler: 3v3

Spoiler: 4v4

 

[aoewc]

Have you ever thought of a map called 'Continental Arena' though? I mean it's basically Arena though instead of the edge of the map consisting only of forests, there is water w/fish in the back so players have to fight with their land armies in the middle, and defend the back of their bases with navy.

I know that there is a map called 'Pond Arena'. 'Continental Arena' would be something like the opposite of Pond Arena I guess.

Just wanted to throw that out there, because I had this idea for that map a few days ago, but I absolutety do not know anything about the scenario editor in AoE!

 

[teutonic_tanks]

very last map:

Boiling_Lakes
(America)
This map represents volcanic lakes in middle-America.

Spoiler: Map for 1v1

Spoiler: Map for 2v2

Spoiler: Map for 3v3

As you can see from the pictures this map has always 9 lakes: one big lake in the middle and, 1 lake in each corner and 1 lake in the middle of each edge. All these lakes are connected by buildable shallowwater and contain a fair amount of deepfish.
Every player starts with a nomad start around the middle lake. Around it players can find turkeys for scouting and boars to obtain their villager production. In between the lakes there is always a jungle, where you can find gold, stone and deer packs.

Strategywise i expect nomad strats such as grush, FC kt, FC castle drop, trushes and maybe from time to time also flushes. It gonna be highly interesting to see how players play this map out, eg: where do you place your tc? Near the coast or mor in the mainland? How many of them will compete for the middle lake? How many will go for outside lakes? It's possible to wall of the crossings, but is that save enough, is it worth it? I also expect a lot of sneakdocks to deny enemy fish.

...and some small extra: i used the function weather_type to create the perfect atmosphere: it will feel like you're playing during the last hours before the sunset. The map will have a redish tint.