Map generation is horrible

[Bozz 💀]

Hard to start a new game, I spend more time restarting a new game than playing, I mean the whole hyperlane and sectors is a great idea but badly implemented, it's all just corridors, most have only 2 hyperlanes, the small ones leading to dead ends, the big ones have 1 empire with only one connection to a small one... usually you are clustered in one corner of the galaxy and can just go one way...

I mean we need more hyperlane connections... or it's just not fun
More options for map generation like making one huge sector and a lot of small sectors around with hyperlane connection to the big one, that would be fun...

[Illauna]

You can set to single sector but otherwise sectors can have about 1-3 neighbors IIRC. Is your concern only the number of hyperlanes neighboring the sectors or is there other issues. Here is a little guide on the game setup.

Galaxy Size: Think of this like a pie. It's how big the pie is overall.
Number of Sectors: How many slices. However the person cutting the pie doesn't have a steady hand so some slices are larger than others. There is tiny, small, medium, large, huge sectors each can support different amount of AIs.
Star Frequency: How many stars in a sector.
Habitable Planets: Determines what color stars are in a sector. Lower habitable worlds = more white stars. Recommend Common or Uncommon here. Use Star Frequency to reduce planet count.
Resources - How many resources scattered throughout the game. Each system has a few layouts it can use. Then each resource is rolled to see if it stays.

Extreme Planets - Planets that require techs to unlock. Generally your second wave of colonization.

Hostile Entities - How many "shipyards" for pirates, monsters and sentinels are placed. If you set this to none you will see these spawned from artifacts and events.

Minor Races - How many minor civs which have a small homeworld and a fleet to spawn in. This does not obey Civ Proximity

Habitable world = Class 1 world or higher. Note this is a not a distribution between core and colonies. It's either a dead world or it's not.

Star Colors:
White - few planets lot of asteroids and durantium
Blue - thulium
Red - durantium
Purple - precursor worlds (worlds with unique special improvements) and promethion
Orange - good amount of habitable worlds
Yellow - more habitable worlds than orange
Civ Proximity - Think is a little trick and is tied to AI counts. It has nothing to do with spacing "inside" a sector. It's how civs are distributed outside.As I understand it from testing.
Close - bunch all the players together
Not Too Close - try and give everyone a neighbor. This is my personal preference.
Distant - Not sure think it tries to put empty sectors between the players
Far - tries to give everyone their own sector.
Note: It also has no effect on how far spaced from you with the exception of "Far" that got a special rule.
The spawn points are distributed and then your placed in one. So you might end up in a crowded sector.

I believe the game creates spawn points with more spawns in larger sectors and then places all the players in the spawn points.

Here is where you run into problems.

You have a game with 5 sectors and 25 AIs and you select Distant. Your expectation is everyone gets their own sector
1 Huge
5 Tiny
So 6 players get their own sector but still 9 players to allocate. Next the tiny sectors get another so 12 players assigned. The small sectors are at capacity so then it piles 13 more players in the huge sector.
You now have 15 players in a big sector and 10 players in the tiny sectors...two each. Now it assigns players. You have a 60% chance of being in this crowded sector.

Sorry this is a bit of a word salad but the game setup has a ton of quirks.

[Bozz 💀]

Yes it is only the number of hyperlanes, my issue is that usually they are 4-5 big sectors and a bunch of small sectors around but usually they will have very few connections which makes you traverse the whole galaxy to get to an ennemy.... I would like more connections between sectors which would open things up.
There is no options in the game settings for this which is a shame.

[Manhattan]

I am hoping for bigger and better map generation as well. Insane size!

[z|A|bik2]

Hey, first I want to commend Illauna in the extensive description if the map generation :)

In regards to more hyperlanes request and bigger maps I have noted it and will pass it on to the team

[Illauna]

Originally posted by Manhattan:

I am hoping for bigger and better map generation as well. Insane size!

Regarding mapsizes not to derail this post.

There is a mod created by one of the devs that increases the map size for this. The mod was also to showcase how moddable this is.

https://www.galciv4.com/mods/manager/download/64

It's hard to say if or when they will introduce larger map sizes. Some players with low end systems might try to push their systems to run the game at the extreme mapsizes and then report it as a bug when it crashes their systems when they run out of RAM. But its very easy to adjust the map to using this mod.

[Buster]

Is this games engine the same as the 3rd's? the more I look at screenshots in the screenshot section the more it looks to be the same in area's that din't change much like the ship maker kinda giving away that it is the exact same engine?

Then I see people complaining about map generation one of the biggest problems in the 3rd game that you have to mess around in the xml files to fix you could also increase the map size in the 3rd game too along with other parameters. Yet that seems to be an issue with the 4th game too? Making me think again same engine?

Seriously its just making me wonder if this is Just the 3rd game with new paint\few new mechanics and a AI civ generator, for 90$++ more. Trying to find a reason to buy this over the 3rd game at this price, and can't seem to as everything keeps pointing to me that is just another expansion to the 3rd game. Repackaged as a new game.

Someone care to explain whats actually new under the hood?

[Illauna]

There is elements of the old game but it's been completely revamped. I have about 1300 hrs in galciv 3 and 2400 in GalCiv 4. There is a LOT of changes. My recommendation is watch a recent playthrough to get an idea how it plays.

[Oat]

I have had a pair or map generations with a sector connection that hopped over two other connections to join up with a sector on the other side of the map. These were pretty neat games even if it was just a cosmetic thing for the most part.

With that said, having "shortcut" sectors or stable wormholes could provide for some interesting gameplay with chokepoints and trade.

[Bozz 💀]

All the maps are corridors, they should at least be Circle to allow for a more accesible map, which isolates a lot of civs who will never really interact with eachother.
This should be possible to change in map settings.
Also we should be able to choose if we want big or small sectors, I would like to have 5 even sized sectors for exemples, I see a lot of very small sectors generated with 2 civs that will fight for 15-20 systemes who have barely anything.

Honestly the map generation is one of the most important things in my opinioon and it's the only thing so far the game really does very badly.

[Problem Solver]

If they would add the galaxy map editor then the map generation would no longer be a problem. The player can create a galaxy that suits them.

[Charlemagne]

I actually like limited hyperlanes, because my play style is turtling and I don't want to worry about enemies all around. You can't please everyone I guess.

[Bozz 💀]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

I actually like limited hyperlanes, because my play style is turtling and I don't want to worry about enemies all around. :lunar2019grinningpig: You can't please everyone I guess.

With a slider you can