Roll map, reroll map, reroll map etc.
Then everytime you find a potential candidate for a map you want to play on, but need more info, you have to place the town center to send all your 12 starting people in all directions to explore. Either you keep it and play, or you move on.
The issue here is that not revealing the full map before placing your starting area serves no reason than being a pointless timesink. This is because you can just plop the towncenter anyway and suicide your colonists to check the map and restart/reroll.
So from a gameplay balance standpoint: It does nothing
From an immersive RP standpoint: It makes no sense your colonists didn’t scout the area (I mean it says they scouted the area but just a small piece not the full map)
It does not make the game easier, it does not make the harder, in fact the only thing it affects is just making it annoying. Having to send your colonists out 360’ to scout for a reroll/restart when you should be able to immediately see if you want to play on this map or not.
My settlers always arrive in a blizzard, or in a drunken haze, or in the middle of an argument. That way they get to stop and settle, and I get to explore…
Thanks! However I’m mostly scouting for aesthetically pleasing building prospects. Like a lake surrounded by mountain. A mountain bordering ocean. Huge islands. Super-tall mountains etc.
What a kind of you! Thx a lot!
My currently played map used to be viewed as of rich coal and poor clay. But now I see, there are more than 300k clay while only 60k coal! XD
Personally, I wouldn’t always want to start with a completely reveiled map. And when I do, I just use a mod. Like @pantolomin mentioned, not knowing and not having the perfect map and TC position can be interesting. But clearly there’s a demand from the playerbase for complete control over the starting location and map, so maybe being able to toggle FOW in the settings would be a nice option to add.
Then change the initially visible area from a central square they soon forget about to a broad path from one corner or side of the entire map to the centre. And let them not forget things completely after putting down the TC - the rest can be veiled, just not return to the blackness.
Not all explorers are like the drunken fools in a storm that Sophia leads.
Although, if they actually added a storm at the start, even the current setup would feel a little more immersive.
Or they could also allow the player to place their TC anywhere on the map if they start with FOW reveiled. I don’t think more player choice hurts anyone. You can play as the devs intended, or some other way. It’ll happen anyway thanks to mods. I mean, it’s already happening thanks to mods, even though they’re not supported yet and the title still in EA.
And that you can destroy your TC to build it somewhere else again, but not relocate it like most buildings, just seems made to annoy players, haha. The TC spot isn’t even permanently fixed that way, it’s just discouragingly costly to change its position later on (although probably not a problem for a your lategame eco).
FOW can’t go away. It adds suspense in regards to animals and raiders. I meant only before placing town center. Maybe animals spawning AFTER town center is set dunno. Or animal dens not visible only the terrain.
Though I guess it could be add to setting for those who wish it.