I do like to play Pangea maps (70% land/one continent) but increasingly long for larger lakes and inland seas. From the past few maps I have rolled, there tend to be a couple stringy lakes along the edges of the continent with a mix of coast and ocean tiles. Personally, it would make more sense for inland seas to be, well, further inland, and probably primarily coast. We can just add this to my laundry list of ways to magnify my favorite geographic features from our planet.

Agree/disagree? I would probably be happy with deep bays and indented coastlines, too.

I also like to play pangea (it seems best for resource distribution), but I don't have a strong opinion on the lakes. So why do you want more lakes and seas? What do you want to do with them? 

For me, if I have them, I like the way they break up the terrain to create more chokepoints, etc. But I never want to build harbors or anything on them since they're usually too small.

Lakes right now seem to generate largely as small bodies of water, even when I choose big lakes in map options. Now this could easily be because maps were never intended to generate inland seas--so be it. That said, what is the difference between the extremes of lake size, then? I also think the narrow, coastal lakes I have seen with a mix of coast and ocean do not seem eminently usable.

To answer your question, then: Inland bodies of water can help break up the large blocks of land. This adds visual interest to the already stunning terrain as well as strategic implications like chokepoints, as you mention. I do think it would be interesting to have inland seas reminiscent of the Caspian or the Mediterranean that would allow for maritime trade instead of the long overland routes or the very long circumnavigating ones so common to the script already. Additionally, I think primarily coastal inland bodies of water would be more economically useful for a city even if not connected to an ocean.

Would you be more likely to build harbors and engage in trade if there were inland seas? It could also add more regional structure to early combat. A map with continents seems less able to absorb inland seas, whereas Huge Pangea maps are beautifully enormous and could stand to benefit from some regional variation, even if that meant a new map script rather than options.

Now that you mention it, yes, if the lakes were big enough to accommodate trade routes, I'd be for them. I wish we had a bit more control over the path trade routes take - hope that's coming in a future update.

You're right, I only see small lakes.

Come to think of it, this would pair nicely as an update appended to a trade DLC *nudge, nudge* Just think, we could even have a new luxury resource--sturgeon/caviar that spawns in inland seas! Though might have to shelve that idea for the time being...

One problem I observe rolling maps is how territories are "drawn." Right now, a large lake could be twenty tiles large, but three of those tiles may very well be a whole territory in the middle of the lake! This kind of "dead space" is already an issue with coastal territories and lakes to a lesser extent. I think lakes probably serve to visually break up the terrain, but I am curious how others make use of them. I lack technical insights here, but it's plausible inland seas would exacerbate issues with territory generation.