Maximize map score

[Noxus]

Hey everyone,

This discussion is mostly about how you guys manage to get the highest scores on maps, specifically the larger ones.

I've played "Continental Large" twice and never got anywhere close to 4400. My two scores have been 3800 and 4100.

In the 4100 game (1st one), I even had empty spaces, 8-tile biomes instead of 12, and some other misplaced things, and I still managed to get to 4100.

In the 3800 game (2nd one), I had absolutely every tile in the game filled, including lakes, rivers, natural wonders, and all the 12-tile biomes with 3 different animals each, and I still didn't even get to silver...

So, what am I missing? If I played what I consider a perfect game, in which there were no gaps and all the biomes matched, how is it possible that I scored fewer points than in an imperfect game with its gaps and its badly placed things?

I appreciate your help, best regards to everyone

[oldladygreybun]

You have to dig deeper into the scoring rules to get top-of-leaderboard kinds of scores. At the upper end, it's all about tradeoffs in how you use your cells.

In the Guides section here on the game forum, there's a guide made by tv1/nikopol that has, amongst other things, scoring tables for the various biomes/maps sizes. Which can be useful in thinking about alternative cell uses and tradeoffs.

At the upper end, especially in the Medium and Large maps, there is quite a lot of complexity in the game and scoring rules. And can take some time, and replays, to get a feel for the totality of it.

Best wishes - hope you're having fun in the game :-)

[Noxus]

Oooooh, is there a guide? I'm sure it'll be very helpful, I'll check it out. I've been searching on YouTube and forums and never thought to check out the Steam guides 🤣

Thanks so much for your quick response. I'm loving the game, it helps me relax when I get off work 😇

[oldladygreybun]

Yes, I love this for unwinding to, too :-) I love the replayability value, and the calm and peaceful, and just enough 'thinky' to engage the brain and sink into, but still being able to do a run within a reasonable timeframe. (I'm a huge fan, I guess it shows, lol)

[oldladygreybun]

Just on a general note: the bronze, silver, gold levels of the game achievements are by intention 'doable' without having to dig deep into every tiny scoring detail, and even Gold is a fair bit less demanding than maxed-out scores for the map type.

But in general, to get from around 4000-ish and up, on the Large here, you have to think through various 'bonus' potentials, and which cell-uses give more or less points. And keeping an eye on your cards, so keeping your playstyle directional ('deliberate') but also flexible.

But, yes, you can often enough get a better total score in this one even if you end up with a few empty cells, IF the reason you've run out of cards in the end is that you've optimised the balance of using landscape cards to both make many 12-habitats with 3-unique animals AND using landscape cards to 'buy' Wonder cards for your habitats.
For example.
But there's a balance in there, too : if you're badly running out of landscape cards at the end, then likely you're buying too many Wonders, and would be a better tradeoff to use more of the landscape cards on the ground and instead making more-than-12-sized habitats in under a Wonder.

And ponds are high value, so make sure they're fully surrounded by habitat, so you get the full 'adjacency' pts for them. And think about your river placement too - long?, short?, many?, few?, and thinking through so you're getting the most out of your 'adjacency' pts for river too.
Stuff like that....

[Noxus]

Well, it seems you really know the game 🤣. With those little tweaks, it's clear to me that the goal of the game isn't so much filling in as many spaces as possible, but HOW those spaces are filled, a point I was overlooking on all the maps.

For example, on my 3800 map, there was literally only one river, and thanks to the guide you mentioned, I saw that I need to include more of those.

I also saw that an "optimal" configuration is to have 15 complete 12-tile biomes, instead of the 17 I had, and to make those 15 larger or smaller by taking advantage of the wonders.

The truth is that despite being a relaxing game, it makes you want to get competitive and earn all the achievements. I hope to achieve it :P

Thanks again for your help! 😇

[oldladygreybun]

Originally posted by Noxus:

(...) it's clear to me that the goal of the game isn't so much filling in as many spaces as possible, but HOW those spaces are filled, a point I was overlooking on all the maps (...)

Yes! This !!

[oldladygreybun]

And thanks for kind words, it's always nice to help someone who appreciates it :-)