Can anyone help me?
I’d like to create the largest map possible for just four players. How do I go about this? Is there any way to make a 16-player sized map with only 4 players on it?
1
If you have Premium account, then you can create games. The creator of the game becomes the game administrator. The game admin is required to be in the game, or else the game will not start. Shortcut key “O” is the options screen, where you can force start a game even if all empires player slots are not yet filled. Empty empires will be controlled by AI.
A game that has no password set will be public listed on the Join Game screen as a User Created Game.
A game that has a password set will not be public listed on the Join Game screen. You will need to share the hyperlink & password with your friends for them to join, or else share the hyperlink & password in this forum.
So you could create a 16 player game, ask your 3 friends to join with you, then force start the game with 12 AI.
2
There is another method to create a game setting 64 stars per empire, but I forgot how it works. I think @JayKyburz maybe concerned about overloading the server, but it probably is not a problem with four or five players. Maybe you could PM and ask @AnnanFay or @HULK could create the game for you ?
Also set 32 stars per empire.
If you created a game with 4 humans vs 12 AI, be aware that AI are programmed to hate the 1st place player on the Leaderboard. So be sure to first make your empire strong enough to defend yourselves before taking 1st place in star count. Search around in this forum about fighting against AI. These new AI behaviors were mostly coded around 2015 March.
Also because there are so many AI vs humans, you and your friends may want to consider turn based games.
It is also convenient to be able to Admin Pause the game, if you coordinate with your friends.