NV's Snowflake Map Script

NV's Snowflake Map Script [ALPHA] map script

Install:

Copy the folder "NV_Balance_Maps" to your Mods for Civilization 6, typically: Documents » My Games » Sid Meier's Civilization VI » Mods.

Open Civilization 6.

Click "Other Content" in the main menu.

Make sure the checkbox next to "NycholusV's Snowflake Map" is marked.

Over the past few weeks I've spent hours a day making a custom map script for Civ 6. There's still a lot of work to do, but I decided to post what I did anyway just to get some feedback.

The first patch released for Civ 6 included the "Six-Arm Snowflake" map, which sounded promising, but we were disappointed to find out that it was actually a predefined map rather than a map script. So I decided to create an actual map script myself that randomly generates a balanced map with a "snowflake" template.

This map, once complete, I hope to see some use in the multiplayer community. It aims to solve several problems in multiplayer games:

Since the Pangea map is used almost entirely, naval combat has little use in multiplayer. Snowflake maps increase the ratio of coastlines to regions, encourage naval combat, and also separate players in such a way that naval combat is often preferable in terms of effectively conquering opponents.

Typically in multiplayer games, players will be isolated, making them more likely to win "out of control" games without other players being able to feasibly intervene. Likewise, more often than not, players will be in the corners of the map and close to other players, reducing the chance of players remaining competitive from scratch throughout the game. Snowflake maps ensure players are on an even keel in terms of proximity to other players.

Once I implement the resource balancing algorithm (I already have a method), the map will solve the problem of players with unbalanced starting positions. While this problem can be partially solved by using the "balance" parameter of the base game map script, I intend to do this so that the player's entire starting area is balanced, not just the capital.

Additionally, once I implement the resource balancing algorithm, I intend that the center of the map will be more fertile than the rest of the map, encouraging players to expand toward the center and compete.

You may have noticed that there are some natural wonders that appear in almost every game, some that almost never happen. This is due to changes in the restrictions applied to natural wonder spawning. Some natural wonders have very specific requirements, so there usually isn't a suitable location for that wonder anywhere on the map. This map script performs the natural wonder placement process in reverse - it selects the natural wonder to start with, and then "forces" a location to fit it.

There are several continent-related gameplay mechanics (mainly traits) in the game. The continental dividing lines on the Pangea map are actually arbitrary and have nothing to do with any tangible aspects of the map. This snowflake map is divided into seven continents. Each "wing" of the snowflake is its own continent, and the central area is also its own continent. Therefore, continents actually make sense and relate to the anatomy of the map, opening up the possibility of strategy around continent-based game mechanics that are often considered a matter of pure chance.

I'll outline how to generate the map:

The map script draws the map in the center of the map and assigns all tiles within the 10 tiles as part of the central continent, which I call the "Promised Land". All these plots will come to fruition.

Tiles between 11 and 17 tiles from the center are then assigned to their respective "wing" continents and set to land. There are six winged continents, one on each edge of the Promised Land. Massifs forming the boundaries between each wing continent were excluded and the chart retained.

The tiles between the center of the map and the center of each wing continent are assigned what I call the "red carpet," …