Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Hi folks,

I built a version of the map for this game with custom AI gods from SemiRandom, fixed starts based on the teams using method 2 above, and the extra starts for the AI's in the corners. I built it to test pretender designs and strategies. I discovered a problem.

Formoria won't start in the fixed location. Every time I started a game Formoria's start changed at random.

I reviewed the map commands with folks on IRC and it was suggested that Formoria requires a coast for it's start. Therefore, I edited one province beside Formoria's designated start as sea. That fixed the problem. So it looks like Sept or Gandalf will have to keep in mind that Formoria needs one sea. By the way, freshwater (lake) didn't work.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

3 of our 4 votes for method 2 is a majority. We are going with method 2 on the team nation assignments.

Captains may now OFFICIALLY put in their swap requests, first come, first served.

Chris, actual human team placement is planned to be done by a third party (most likely Gandalf if I can get him to do it, if not then by someone else not actively involved in the game).

This is done on purpose so that so no team will know which of the starting zones they are in (blue, white, red, etc). You will know the starts (they are listed on the doc file) but you will not know which team occupies them.

However, team captains will have the right to decide which of their nations will be placed in the two forward/center positions and which two will be placed in the rear/flank. This is all spelled out in the opening post btw. The default is the top 2 players on each team's player list (vet captain, and intermediate) in the forward positions, if you or anyone else prefers another arrangement, PM me.

Melnorjr, your right, they probably thought everyone else was going to grab hinnom, but why did'nt the other team captains do as DrP did and grab Neifel or Hinnom? Hmmm.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

This seems very odd. Did you use the option 1 or option 2 starting locations? I am going to contact Gandalf on this, maybe he knows more and see what can be done. Hopefully, this was just some quirk. Does anyone else know about Formoria requiring a coastal start?

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Yes, i know for a fact that they require a coast start. just like LA Mari

it has to do with the whole sailing thematicness of the nation

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Hmm, this could be an issue, if it can not be fixed by using a different terrain mask for either their start or a neighboring province (Maerlande have you tried applying a fresh water or swamp terrain mask to their start or a neighboring province?) or some other .map file adjustment, the mysterios will probably need to swap for Pangaea, Abysia or some other nation. If vanheim starts no problem, wonder why fomoria won't.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Yes Sept,

I tried freshwater and it failed. Sea worked. I didn't try deep sea. I simply changed the mask. I did not make any changes to the map picture, just the mask.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Well then, unless Gandalf, Ballbarian, or another expert knows of another way to adjust this via .map file wherever Formoria may start (maybe their is a terrain mask for coastal that is not listed in the mapedit documentation). We've got two options:

1. We can change the terrain mask of a neighboring province wherever Formoria starts to sea, it wouldn't look correct, but it is only a single province out of 240.

2. The Mysterios will need to swap for another nation. In which case they would receive priority for swaps since this issue was unknown to us.

At this stage I don't have time to generate another map with water and redefine starting locations.

So hold off on the swaps, till we decide this. I am fine either way, but Agema's choice will carry alot of weight here. As will the input of any experts.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Maerlande.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

It would be a simple task to change the .tga to make a single province look sea like. I volunteer.

Fomoria's unique starting requirements are going to make it more findable even if the .tga is unchanged. We all know where the starts are anyway so I don't see this as a big deal.

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

Yes, that could be done, if someone wanted to bother who's not participating in the game. It's only a cosmetic issue (though it may have some economic effects if Formoria's cap fort will not be able to draw income or their income would be reduced from a neighboring sea province, in which case we'd need to add an additional neighbor to compensate).

But Agema may decide he would simply rather swap.

I'm curious, what unique starting requirements will make them more findable other than altering the .rgb file to include something that would certainly point out their location? We will know that by default the #1 and #2 players will be placed forward, and we will know the starts, but we will not know which team is placed north, south, east, or west of the AI center. That is the way I'd like to keep it. :)

Re: Noobs & Vets: Rise of the AI Menace. EA, BI, Assignment, God Design, AI Creation.
 

You can see the terrain of all the provinces. Just look around the starting locations for a sea.

Really, by turn 5 I expect my team to know who and where all our opponents are (and probably who is playing who). Knowing where Fomoria is before the first turn isn't going to change things all that much.