Maps too small or opponents spawning too near each other?

I've had this happen in a game of mine.  I had contact with 5 AIs on turn 20.  After I explored for a while, I attributed it to the 7-8 wildlands that had pretty much blanketed the West and South part of the map.  If you have many wildlands on a random map, that may be it.

The wildlands should be between the factions them. The faction would have to defeat the wildlands instead of each other at first. It would solve the current problems of the wildlands being a completely optional and useless feature.

Maybe the algorithms that created the maps should have a revision before release.

Thvaz, I feel your pain.  In the last several months, I have noted (in more than one Discussion Thread), that E:FE is like a 4X game, with an RPG game overlaying it.  But the combining of elements of both a 4X game, and a Role-Playing-Game, is truly an uneasy, unlikely, and unwieldly fusion.  One result is that underlying 4X game has at least two X'es (the first two) that have been partially,purposely  twisted and crippled.  The eXplore component is severely reduced/truncated; and the eXpand component is unusually difficult.

However I think we are pretty much stuck here; and have to acknowledge, that the density of impediments (monsters, wildlands, competing kingdoms and empires) is part of the intentional Design of E:FE.  This game is simply much more about monster-fighting, questing, and warfare; than it is about eXploring and eXpanding (and micro-managing) a growing empire, with a rising level of Civilization.  We are not in Sid Meier land here ... 

On the other hand, I still love this game; and there are some things we can individually do to bolster the 4X quality of the game.  For one thing, I routinely play this game with fewer competing kingdoms and empires, than the default suggests.  On small maps I play against one less competitor (2, not 3); and on medium maps I sometimes play with two less competitors.  (While I am at it, I usually select the  specific  competitors.  That way, I have a better idea what to expect in a given game; although I use different competitors in subsequent games, for the sake of variety and completeness.)  Obviously, another tool for enhancing the eXploration component is to reduce the density of monsters, in the pre-game choices.  (But I don't do this, because I like to have lots of monsters, to speed up the leveling of my sovereign and champions.)   

There are some other things you can do, to tweak the quality of the game too ... Give yourself the Master Scouts ability; reduce the wildlands frequency in the pre-game choices; select a desert map (it is less time-consuming to eXplore a desert map, than one that is dense with forests); etc.  The good news is that there are a number of choices that you can make, to tweak the flavor of the game.  The bad news is that I don't think the E:FE Design Team has any interest in changing the basic design of the game.  But, the good news here (and the game, in general) greatly outweighs the bad news ... at least, IMHO ...       

You can control how many players you're up against.  I find on a large map, 5 players feels pretty good to have a large empire.

If you are looking for magic Civilization, I'm not sure the Elemental games are quite that. They do blend role playing and strategy nicely. But the city management is somewhat simpler which seems to be the intent since unlike Civilization, so much of the player's attention is spent on their characters out in the field.

You do have a lot of control over the experience. If you don't like monsters you can turn them pretty much off and have a more traditional 4X experience.

I dump all 7 of them in on a Normal map. Lot's of room to play. I'm around turn 100 and have wiped out 2 empires....wasn't much to them. Have come across 2 more now that will eventaully share the same fate.

You didn't understand, I like the rpg part of the game as much as the 4x part. But they aren't working.

The rpg part should merge with the explore part of the 4x genre. You should fight the world to make room for your civilization to growth. there goes the expand part. This usually works well for the first dozen turns...but then you meet the other factions, and they are already taking all the room. They don't seem to meet the same hostile world you do.

The immersion is then broken. Because what should be a razed world is soon filled again with cities. I think much of this is because the maps are small or the players are getting crowded because of the wildlands - and as the wildlands are very difficult to conquer, the players turn against each other.

I notice another thing - when monsters lairs are inside a faction border´s, they usually start to roam- but they rarely wander the AI's borders. Instead, if my borders are close, they will wander inside my borders, sometimes attacking my resources and cities.