Re: On being a noob in MP
 

Heh. Isn't that what this thread is all about, people wishing they could give strategic advice to their opponent (the AI) for a more challenging game?

By the way, how do you test strategies requiring spells/gems on the mini-map? Since #startspell only works for one turn you can't wait for gems to accumulate. It occurred to me just now that you could mod in a site giving lots of gems, but until now I haven't used the minimap much because of that.

-Max

Re: On being a noob in MP
 

There are units that tend to show up with lots of gems. I dont remember what they are but adding them in would give you someone to snag the gems off of. You could use the All_Units game to go thru the different units and see what they show up with.

Battle simulator
 

For spells I just add some researchers (which I may want in the battle anyway), set research on fast, and hit host until it's at the level I need. As long as one dominion doesn't overpower the other this is pretty safe and really doesn't take that long. Random events rare helps too.

Re: Battle simulator
 

It would be quicker to just mod the spells so they're at 1 gem, research level 1.

Re: Battle simulator
 

I didn't think of setting spell research to 1, that's a good idea! But you might want to avoid changing the number of gems, since that will affect how the spells are cast in the battle.

Re: Battle simulator
 

For what it's worth, the next version of RanDom will accomodate custom gods. I am in the middle of a test game with a set of pre made gods using builds and scales that I have seen on the forums (including Gorgzilla, a E9N4 Gorgon with 10 dominion) and it has made for a more challenging game. I created the custom god files within a set of house rules where the god for the given nation was one available to that nation and the points available were as if the god were dormant. Also, I kit the god with items that I would use on my own god, only the AI begins the game with these items (artifacts excluded). It will also be possible to include custom starting units and sites if the designer / player so chooses.

Re: Battle simulator
 

Sounds awesome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Battle simulator
 

I was considering the comments about no-indepents on the maps. Do you end up with no army to fight to take an indept province? Of course I could blank all the provinces on a map and then assign an army to each one but the way I do it that would be pretty haphazard.

On the other hand, we could create a set for RanDom. Make province sets that said
terrain:forest
@ 3
elephants & slingers
forest archers
wolf clan

Something like that. Well basically for each terrain have a few sets of the type of army you could usually expect there. Then set RanDom for 100% fill. That way there would be no poptypes to recruit but still reasonable armies to fight.

Re: Battle simulator
 

My understanding is that armies are placed before poptypes are (re-) set. Therefore, the no-indie maps still have defending armies, even though you can't recruit there after you conquer it.

-Max

Re: Battle simulator
 

Gandalf, I believe we already discussed this one. When the game is generated, it assigns random poptype to each province, generates the indie defenders, magic sites and whatever else according to game settings.

Only after that does it parse the map file for the province specific scripts, which is where the poptype assignments go. If #setland is used, the indie defenders stay, but the poptype gets deleted. So you still need to fight the indies, you just can't recruit them.