I know. I only mentioned it because I am disappointed that "Lots of new seed maps (particularly for medium and large)" translates to 9 maps, and those were only medium and large.

And like I said, no amount of maps will replace random maps (well, ok, maybe a few thousand maps each of any conceivable shape/continental distribution/size/...).

Good heavens... 

Yes, there was a thread about this under 'support', but it got locked. So let me say here: ladies and gentlemen, I am shocked! I really am! I don't care about map seeds. I don't care about pre-defined continent shapes. I want randomly generated maps!

Yes, they can be unbalanced. Yes, it can be a fair amount of work to get them at least slightly balanced. Yeeees, we can remove the seeds in the subdirectory (and regret it), but... really!

I cannot believe that the follow-up/replacement of MOM does not have truly random maps! I mean... I bought this game in far advance, upon hearing that you guys are creating it, meant as a MOM-replacement. You're programs so far have all been truly excellent (I especially love the whole GalCiv series). The modding-abilities in Elemental are a wonderful idea.

But. No. Truly. Random. Maps.   This means we'll either find a third-party program to generate them for us (you cannot tell me you're incapable of integrating something like this in your code, really!), or will simply stop playing in a couple of months, because... because we know all the maps.  

Damn. I'll stop playing now and see some kind of funny movie to get my mind of this catastrophe. No, really. This spoils the whole concept of the game for me.  

Ciao,

Klaus

Having written a few map scripts for Civ myself I just wanted to say that what Cesare is saying is 100% correct. Also having participated in beta I know that they were dealing with problems linking rivers to coasts, and having mountains and forests look reasonable to anyone who's ever looked at a map.

I love Brad and most of the stuff he does but they dropped the ball here and should open it to the community cause this was a problem they couldn't solve; this wasn't lack of resources or time this was a knowledge gap problem.

That's not the point.  The game box states "each game produces a new randomly generated world."  No, it does not.  We just want what the box says is included.

I just ran into the same map, and thought that the rules of quantum physics went out the window for a second (no pun intended). Now i read this, and it makes me very, very sad

Hey, if you remove all the seed maps, it does generate a random map.   It just checked it works.   Try it.  Just move any files with the words seed in the title from the game map directory (<installdirectory>\data\Maps), then start a new game.   Voila random map.   Try it you'll like it.   They won't be balanced (but you do start with fertile ground close by at least in all mine I did).

Good luck!

Not too happy to see that random maps didn't make it the final release and no plan to add in later.

On the plus side, I've been playing with the Map Editor, it's not that hard to used so I think we will see more custom maps (player created) after things settle out a bit. The Map Editor does have a random map generator, which serves as a good starting point in creating your own maps.

I wouldn't think it would be too hard to do a reliable random map generator. Basically, it would lay out like a giant grid, placing resources at least 6-8 units apart, after it's done that it would wrap it all with land. At least, that's how it would work in my mind.

I'm certain there will be some sort of update to fix this issue. Stardock doesn't normally leave people like this.

Yes, because random map generation is minor for a 4X game, and open flaming is the best response to those who are rightfully upset about it.  Way to go! :salute:  At the very least, try to at least be creative, your "internet tough guy" routine fails miserably.

Not to worried about this myself, as either SD or the community will take care of this in the end, and my game library is already too large.  Still rather sad that it seems like they pushed to hard to make this release date

In Other News:  Chicken Little has reported that the Sky is indeed falling!!

This is easily the worst launch in my memory as a gamer from the early 80s on my TI-994A "Personal Computer" - not for the Product, or Support, but for the Customers.

Stardock moves relatively quickly to reasonable suggestions, and Stardock doesn't have any "Abandonware" that I know of.  So please take a placebo and relax.

No random maps is a big game breaker for me, I won't play even my first game of Elemental.  Don't want to ruin the first impressions with an unpatched fully realized game.  ((I bought the limited edition)).  Stardock will add it though! They always do!