Random Map Generator
 

Todays improvement to the Random Map site.
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...humbnails.html
I think this is the way the sites will all be managed so make comments please. Targa, will this arrangment do for a daily run of "blanks"?

Also what direction next? These are all Large maps of 450 land and 50 water on images 2000x2000 pixels. Basically these are the "everyone gets 25 provinces before forcing a war" maps.

Should I try smaller maps? 1000x2000? 1000x1000? smaller?

Should I do directorys for medium and small? Lets see.. 300 land and 30 water? 200 and 20? 100 and 10? I dont feel a need for daily randoms of smaller maps since those come into the range of maps that can and will probably be done manually by others. Its the huge maps that are a gap needing filled.

Or now that the random .tga part is ironed out maybe I should shift back to the randomization of the .map files for more "energetic" play like Poke-in-the-Eye or Miirunst_X are.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Great addition in the Thumbnails

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You could probably try a few smaller maps. 200 - 20 is probably a good one.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes more akin to Poke in the Eye.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

Anyway those maps could use pictures of trees for forests, pictures of mud & plants for swamp, corn & barn for farmlands, etc. , etc...

The size of the maps are great... but they would really be great if random pictures of what I mentioned above could help identify the provinces. The small pixel dots really hurts the eyes after awhile.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It would be easier for me (if it's at all possible) for you to use whatever settings gave you those maps that were totally brown colored. Since I have to "select by color" and delete, the more different colors there are, the more work it is. If you'd have to change settings and all then don't worry about it. I don't see myself cranking out more than maybe 1 map per month at the current rate (which may slow down, since I haven't even had time to play Dom2 while working on this map).

The other questions are better answered by other, more knowledgable people.

Edit: Looks great, BTW!

[ February 05, 2004, 23:45: Message edited by: Targa ]

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">"Anything is possible, its a computer. Some things are just more trouble than they are worth"
Thats a common quote of mine. Lets see... if the iconic stuff were all saved as seperate image files against a transparent background then a program (C, Basic, Perl, whatever) could go thru the .map file to find the terrain markers and then use the imagemagick program to paste an appropriate image randomly selected from a group (tree1, tree2, tree3) for variety and... no, I think that can be someone elses project.

But if you want to then feel free to grab any that catch your eye and touch'em up. Make it your own offering to the community. Please do because that map will be gone tomorrow. Any paint program will do.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The best I can offer is that Im trying to get a way to "blur" the images. I think that makes them alittle more enjoyable.
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...s/WEvsTHEM.jpg

[ February 05, 2004, 23:57: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Wow, did you see the way the land province borders look on that (where they're "squiggly")? Quite an eye-catcher, I like it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah I like it too. Makes the map a comfortable background for play. Its real easy to do in GIMP. But Im not going to do it to 100 maps a night. Im trying to find a way to automate it.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">OK I did a run into your directory.
http://www.techno-mage.com/~targa/blanks/
No web pages yet. No automated run though it is a script so I can rerun it anytime. Each map has the .sh script that dommap used to make it. We can tweak the randoms to get it closer to what you want or more extreme for better shopping.
Its a start.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Any suggestions??... any paint programs which may have sample pictures I can use??


<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes the blurred images are better... I'll have to find some time to improve one of these existing maps.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Any suggestions??... any paint programs which may have sample pictures I can use??</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Even the free program with Windows can be used. Get Irfanview or some other program that can take images in/out of the TGA format.

GIMP is a free paint program but more powerful than most people can get used to (kindof like Dominions). The Devs use it and the iconic images (trees mountains etc) are easier to get from them for use in gimp. It also can generate beautiful random maps if you want to go thru the work of adding provinces and such to it.

If any of the random maps from my site catch your eye be sure to download the zip. A fresh 30 are made every day so the one that sparks a thought like "that sea looks like a dragon" will be gone tomorrow.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

I haven't totally given up on the random map generator... just on helping Targa run it on his Windows box http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

By playing with the -d switch, you can easily have more "uniform" provinces; that is, the brown/green/etc dots won't be so isolated. Easier on the eyes, if you ask me, though the result is still quite bland - anything nicer would clearly need some image processing, which can be done with the Gimp, but I don't have the courage to go through the Gimp documentation to learn how to do this.

I should add a switch to make the random generator output a single color for land, like it does for sea; that would probably make life easier on the "hand" creators, and would not be too much work. But then, I wonder - should I leave terrain in the .map file, or not?

Re: Random Map Generator
 

Any maps done by hand will require using the map editor from the game, so you don't even need a .map file at all.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

Ive been trying to get the maps blurred to be easier on the eye. But I cant get any way to blur while avoiding the white dots and borders. Is there any chance to...
A) write the targa, shell out to a blur command (imagemagick makes blur easy), then re-write the white dots?

or
B) write two copies of each map. The normal one, and then another of JUST the borders and capitals? I could blur the first then merge opague the second one.

In fact Im thinking that a black map with borders and capitals might be desired by some so they can decide what is water and what is land.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The .map file contains the adjacencies between provinces. If you don't have one, you'll have to set all of them yourself.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">All of this should be doable easily in Gimp. Gimp CAN be scripted (there's a -b switch for "run batch", and a -i for "no interface); it's just a matter of learning the right function names http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yep, Ive actually got a little 5-step routine that does it great (thanks to Arralen). Its how I made the example WEvsTHEM example. The scripting code does look fairly simple so I guess I could take a shot at making one and asking for each function one at a time in those forums.

Im also considering washing the image thru a simple format, maybe raw C code image storage, figure out the code for each of the 3 colors I want saved, then using SED to run thru it and replace all that is NOT the 3 colors to black or transparent, then merge it back after the original is blurred.

Re: Random Map Generator
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yep, which is why you have to use the game map editor (when it's fixed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ). ie: If making a map by hand and using a land/water "outline" from a randomly generated map, you add such things as mountains by hand, which create choke points, so you'd have to set neighbors by hand. Though now that I think about it, it would probably be a good idea to start with a .map file, then modify the neighbors. Hey....that may be a workaround for the current lockup in the map editor. Give it a .map file so it stops trying to fiddle w/neighbors...gonna go check that out.