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Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 20:10
by dansil92
Spent a few hours on this little map. Its currently just a scenario, home cities don't work and there are no triggers or AI function, but just a proof of concept.

I based the map off of southern Alberta in Canada, you start on either side of the South Saskatchewan river with two outposts, a saloon, and two extra wood crates. There is a single trade route post, and two Cree villages. The river has several shallow crossings, and a few fish. There are a massive number of available hunts and berries, but apart from your starting coin mine, the only ore on the map is exclusively in the mountain range to the West. Trees are spread out and far from your starting TC. Control of the coin supply, river choke points and the trading site will all be essential to maintaining map control. The cree villages and small amount of fish offer a small booming option for less economic civs, saloon start (i assume in a random map that would mean a firepit for warchief civs?) means you will already have a military building upon aging (and the knowledge of available mercenaries), and the outposts will make early rushes risky. Expect contains, and bloody fights for control of resources.

Let me know your thoughts!





Edit: new files and minimap:

alberta_competitive.age3Yscn
(127.5 KiB) Downloaded 20 times


Age of Empires III 2019-08-18 2_36_05 PM (2).png

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 20:45
by Mitoe
Looks pretty good!

Maybe the fords on the river should be a bit larger? Super small choke points can sometimes be a bit frustrating to play around

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:04
by Jerimuno
Does look nice indeedy.

Please mirror the left side with all the coin mines on the right half of the map though - similar to tassili i believe.
Here i feel like it would be too easy for a civ like Russia or Aztec to just fb on the opponent's second coin mine.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:27
by dansil92
But thats kinda the point of the map is to force aggression and containment for resources? If every map has 2 coin mines in base and 6 hunts under the TC every match plays out the same, this map would add something new? Maybe a tin mine by the cree villages would be alright tho

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:35
by WickedCossack
Yea I like it the way it is, forces aggression despite also having two towers at the TC! Very interesting map.

It doesn't necessairly favour the highly aggresive civs as though they control coin early they actually can't do that much damage with their army under towers, so maybe a middle speed civ could arrange a timing to take back the coin mine line?

One or two civs would probably come out on top after a while though, but that's hardly different from a lot of other ESOC maps.

I'll download it tommorow and give it a play. Would be interested to see this polished up and added to the pool.

Edit: ah wait homecities don't work? :sad:

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:39
by musketeer925
Single trade post is definitely an innovative idea I haven't seen before. Would love to see some high-level players on it!

Related idea, I'd love to see a sort of "promotional" map smackdown (smapdown?) anytime a new map is added to the ESOC set, maybe even played on an EP beta before the map gets released.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:45
by dansil92
musketeer925 wrote:Single trade post is definitely an innovative idea I haven't seen before. Would love to see some high-level players on it!


I would love to see what strategies develop since everyone starts with 200 extra wood there already is a point of contention- take the undefendable trading post at the risk of losing your explorer? And since the trees are fairly far from the TC this doesn't really favour India as much as it would otherwise

Edit: yes i cant get the home cities to work! I would love to have someone from the maps team give it a polish and make it playable

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 22:56
by EAGLEMUT
Would require making a Random Map Script from scratch, based on the design.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 23:25
by dansil92
EAGLEMUT wrote:Would require making a Random Map Script from scratch, based on the design.


So @Garja would be the one to talk to about that huh?

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 10 Nov 2018, 23:50
by zoom
It beats any ESOC map I've ever seen, that's for sure!

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 00:58
by deleted_user
Mmmm, I love one-coin-mine maps

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 01:43
by Cocaine
I live in Southern Alberta, Calgary. I don't wanna be fighting in my own back yard so this is a no for me.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 01:51
by bwinner
Nice map. Though starting with +200w and having only one TP on the middle is a bit akward, because every civ will want to take the TP and the one who don't get it is really fucked. I don't know how to solve this, one Idea could be to somehow enable to build the TP only in age 2 or after a given time but Idk if that's possible

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 01:53
by Jaeger
Really really cool! I love the idea of a 1 TP map. It has the potential to create a cool dynamic in matchups where both civs want a TP; it will be interesting to see how they adapt. Altough sadly I think in tournaments people will treat this as a no TP map.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 01:57
by dansil92
bwinner1 wrote:Nice map. Though starting with +200w and having only one TP on the middle is a bit akward, because every civ will want to take the TP and the one who don't get it is really fucked. I don't know how to solve this, one Idea could be to somehow enable to build the TP only in age 2 or after a given time but Idk if that's possible


If you miss it you can always take down their explorer while they build it or go for the cree village and cdb boom. One TP map is something that is really missing in the esoc map set

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 02:03
by Warno
IMO this map is beautiful but falls too short on balance.

Here you have the TP and the gold on the west, control that and the game is over. One Cree TP to the East doesn't offset that.
At a minimum the TP should be on the opposite side of the gold.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 04:46
by dansil92
Warno wrote:IMO this map is beautiful but falls too short on balance.

Here you have the TP and the gold on the west, control that and the game is over. One Cree TP to the East doesn't offset that.
At a minimum the TP should be on the opposite side of the gold.


But that's the purpose of a map like this, to snowball little mistakes and loss of map control to keep the game fast paced and agressive. The mountains do run the full length of the map so controlling one mine would not be that difficult- or you could play aztec or iro and ignore the coin mines or dutch so its less important. Many different ways to make it work

@Mitoe yeah now that i look at the shallows they are pretty narrow that could probably use a tweak

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 10:24
by bwinner
dansil92 wrote:
bwinner1 wrote:Nice map. Though starting with +200w and having only one TP on the middle is a bit akward, because every civ will want to take the TP and the one who don't get it is really fucked. I don't know how to solve this, one Idea could be to somehow enable to build the TP only in age 2 or after a given time but Idk if that's possible


If you miss it you can always take down their explorer while they build it or go for the cree village and cdb boom. One TP map is something that is really missing in the esoc map set

Ok but that's still not as good as having the TP+I would just pick sioux all the time and have TP+go away ez

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 12:14
by yemshi
Then id outpost the mines and contain you while you only have 2k coin.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 11 Nov 2018, 13:15
by P i k i l i c
less talk, more play

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 19 Aug 2019, 05:25
by dansil92
okay i'm bumping this thread, me and @vividlyplain collaborated and made this mostly playable scenario- decks are stolen from kaiser, mitoe, hazza, diarouga, etc.

I think tcs don't provide population right now so thats an annoying bug i can't fix
Age of Empires III 2019-08-18 2_36_05 PM (2).png





alberta_competitive_esodecks.age3Yscn
(127.65 KiB) Downloaded 16 times



it is now much more balanced, has additional coin mines, a second TP, etc.

It is, of course, a scenario, not a random map so treasures, hunts and trees will be identical each time, but it does work! Any feedback is appreciated and once again, the Map Team is perfectly free to use this design freely, i'm hoping it will end up in the map pool someday! :love:

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 19 Aug 2019, 07:41
by I_HaRRiiSoN_I
I certainly like the additional 2nd TP, makes it more balanced for matches whee whoever gets the age 1 TP is decided by a coin flip. If a circular design was used then you could allow slightly more space on the left hand side as it looks a little tight. I get that section is to be tight, however if it is possible to reduce height of cliffs that might help the play-ability visually. I think if you are starting with 2 towers, then there should only be 1 in base coin mine, and leave the others exposed in the map in the north-east and the wall-able gold mines to the south-west.

Warno wrote:IMO this map is beautiful but falls too short on balance.
Here you have the TP and the gold on the west, control that and the game is over. One Cree TP to the East doesn't offset that.
At a minimum the TP should be on the opposite side of the gold.


This is a great idea, with a TP route going through a choke to prevent full walling on the top side.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 19 Aug 2019, 11:27
by Riotcoke
Please seperate the tp sockets, having both in the middle is bad, maybe just have it as a three tp

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 19 Aug 2019, 11:28
by edeholland
Riotcoke wrote:Please seperate the tp sockets, having both in the middle is bad, maybe just have it as a three tp
Then you have the same coin flip again. I kinda like seeing something different like an even amount in the center, for once.

Re: Map Prototype- Alberta

Posted: 19 Aug 2019, 11:35
by Riotcoke
edeholland wrote:
Riotcoke wrote:Please seperate the tp sockets, having both in the middle is bad, maybe just have it as a three tp
Then you have the same coin flip again. I kinda like seeing something different like an even amount in the center, for once.

It makes it so any civ that's able to control the middle easily has a massive advantage. Iro with their warhut is a good example they basically get the line for free.