request for MAP testing
 

If you are into small maps with great graphics then you might as well leave now.

Firstly is the WEvsTHEM.zip 450 land and 50 water provinces.
A harder game (hopefully) for those wanting smarter AI's. In the lower-left corner of this map there is the Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh Ermor alliance. It is Ermor sandwiched between Atantis and R'lyeh. DARE is all allied against you. To survive I highly recommend co-operation with other nations.
(Ermor, Rlyeh, and Atlantis cannot be chosen)

Or the Indeps.zip 450 land and 50 water provinces.
The Independents have begun to form their own nation WITHOUT a Pretender! They have a headstart on you and have been joined by many angry deserters from other nations so you had better get busy. Their leaderless nation must not spread further!
(Man cannot be chosen)

These are considered half done and Im trying to get motivated to finish them. Please provide pros and cons, early impressions, mid impressions, final impressions. Even if its just "blahh average"

NOTE: these are MAPs not MODs

[ March 29, 2004, 22:00: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Ok I just downloaded the WEvsTHEM. I am trying out an ARCO - Golum Cult theme - its my answer to R'lyeh and Undead. Do you have a preference on settings you want this tested at? I was planning on trying AI set to difficult. You also mentioned that you should ally with the other AI's? Did I miss something? How can you do this other than not attcking them? If you send them gems or money does that actually make a difference? It always seemed to me that they just attack you if they think your borders are weak no matter what other threats are around them.

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Actually there have been discussions about diplomacy with the AIs. Such as sending Herald Lances to Marignon so they will destroy Ermor knowing well that the lnaces wont help them much against you later.

But on th WEvsTHEM map I meant human players. The map is designed to almost force co-op play between humans. If you are ready to test different alliances to see who would be most helpful to you in a multiplayer game then you can start the game with multiple human players and play them all at the same time. With Arco you might try Ulm as an ally (play both arcos and ulm), and maybe Caelum or Abyssia. I wouldnt recommend adding more AIs to either of these maps.

Re: request for MAP testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ok that makes more sense. I just finished my first 8 moves on this map. Here were my settings.

All AIs set to difficult
Indep - 6
5 starting prov
normal richness
normal random
50 magic sites
everthing else standard

Other comp AI's - Marignon, Man, Ulm and T'ien

I am Arcos with Golum cult - Rainbow Archmage

First impressions:
1.) WOW this map is Huge!!!
2.) This map needs eye candy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
3.) I think this is going to take months to finish lol

GP - I love the random map generator idea and I have downloaded a few from your site. I was wondering if I can take your maps and spice them up a little? You do not mind right? I have GIMP and a few other graphic programs and was about to try making a few maps.

Re: request for MAP testing
 

GP - I love the random map generator idea and I have downloaded a few from your site. I was wondering if I can take your maps and spice them up a little? You do not mind right? I have GIMP and a few other graphic programs and was about to try making a few maps.

No problem at all. I see the DomMap program as filling two different functions. One is generating starting ideas for people. I generate bunches of maps but only get excited when one of them has an ocean that looks like a dragon, or seems to divide itself naturally into 4 big sections. That will sparc me thinking. Unfortunately Im not too good at making it happen but I figure others will.

The other thing its good for is making the maximum huge maps so that we have some to play on since it will be rare that anyone will manually create maps to fill that niche.

One project I need to return to is changing the maps I run on my site to more random variations

[ February 28, 2004, 20:47: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

I won´t be at home this week, can you plz make a screenie??

I am very curious now!

Re: request for MAP testing
 

New map idea for insane-size since I havent heard much on the other two.

Mazes and Monsters:
450 land and 50 water standard random created map from the DomMap program. Yet Another Basic program which will re-randomize the .map file each day on my site. The monsters will be my standard routine to add small Groups of surprise units all over the map.

The mazes part will be a new routine to randomly remove neighbor lines. Random but Im figuring in the area of about every 5th one to start with. I will tweak the routine but the goal is to create a surprising bottlenecks and chokepoints in the file. Hopefully avoiding too many that are so locked out that they cant be reached without transport spells late in the game.

Im debating also adding random neighbor commands which will do far connections ending up with a map that resembles the old Chutes and Ladders game. Maybe that will be another project later.

-- WARNING: Flu symptoms have been detected. My Posts may begin to ramble and may result in garbage. Or feverish genius. Let me know which after I fully recover.

[ March 04, 2004, 22:20: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

I downloaded them but i wont check them out until tomorow/later today (its 02:45 am and I gotta work today/tomorow), they sound awsome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

To bad there is a 500 province limit...I would acually see that one dubbled or trippeled...and make a mod changeing all the units, ½ the strenght & ½ the price, but keep the income etc as it is so you would be able to have twice as many units on the battle field http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
I just want to see masses of little units running around killing each other....that why I like Ermor so much...it easy to scrape up a larger army constining of 1000+ longdeads (Pretty much cuz you need that many if you not using some big mean summons or other things http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

[ March 05, 2004, 01:09: Message edited by: AztraGoth ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

OK ready for testing: MAZES and MONSTERS
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...s/MazeMons.tga
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...s/MazeMons.map

Yeah I know thats a game of some sort but I like the name anyway. This is another epic sized map of 500 provinces (450 land and 50 water). Thats large enough to start a game with all 17 nations giving them all the maximum setting of 9 starting provinces and still have room for some expansion.

The program that makes this map is done alittle bit differently. It built an array of all of the nostart provinces, then randomly deleted a bunch of neighbor commands while adding those as nostart provinces also.

That array was used to assign random commanders with random equipment, and random forts/labs/temples. The result is that the map should contain enough lost neighbor connections to make the map rather more maze-like. More choke-points. Plus each of those may have special structures and commanders. If this goes over well I will zip the two files together and offer them. I will also setup a nightly re-write of the map file with all new randoms.

Possible changes:
I might play abit with the numbers of choke-points, structures, commanders.
I might add bodyguards and units.
I might change the map to a different one.
I might do a smaller Version (much fewer provinces)
I might add a chance of adding to a province the setting to boost the number of magic sites randomly assigned by the game but since this involves changing the terrain setting that means creating a whole new array to track.
I might lose interest and move onto something else if it looks like the only person interested in playing such a map is me.

[ March 23, 2004, 19:38: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

This looks very, very cool, Gandalf - I for one will be testing this out tonight! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: request for MAP testing
 

I believe that the dropped neighbor commands are more fun with more regular provinces, as the map used is rather confusing in that regard.

I like the maze-idea, but I think it'd work better when the map consists of quadrate provinces, like a boardgame. Or hex provinces, like a good boardgame. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: request for MAP testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are these just indeps who can only spread by random events, or did you somehow hijack Man and turn them into an independent nation without a pretender somehow without modding?

PvK

Re: request for MAP testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are these just indeps who can only spread by random events, or did you somehow hijack Man and turn them into an independent nation without a pretender somehow without modding?

PvK </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Good catch. Yes the second is true. By removing all of Mans special sites he becomes basically an Independent nation. Well he still has Bard but everything else is pretty much independent type units. The lack of pretender Im actually having some problems with. In Dom1 I did it by assigning Man a water-triton troop as a god. He drowns. Even if they pray him back, he drowns again. Unfortunately in Dom2 that "Man is cheating" message comes up and replaces him. So far all I can achieve is a standard unit with a blank name that can blend into the army unnoticed. No magic or powers. But Im still trying tricks to create one that will die off automatically without using MODs.

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Very clever! The "fish out of water" pretender is really hilarious! However, it seems appropriate to me for them to just have a non-magical king or pope who serves as a pretender. Resurrecting just means appointing a replacement.

PvK

Re: request for MAP testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I also "hid" the mini-pretender another way. I renamed the capital province to something generic and downgraded all its settings like population and defence. Then I assigned another province to Man and named that one "Man" while upgrading those settings. The effect is that the pretender will never be in what appears to be the capital province.

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Grin!

Well, I'm sold. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Next game I start will be using one of your maps. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

PvK

Re: request for MAP testing
 

OK I think Im going to have to give way to the wishes of the people. I'm referring to the WE vs THEM stronger AI's scenario, the Independents War, and the Mazes and Monsters scenario.

The ideas for these might be good but the epic map size I like might be too much. So I am considering re-working them into a different size map. The choices are:
TINY <5 each, or less than 85 total provinces.
SMALL 5 each, or 85 total provinces. Best done as 75 land and 10 water.
MEDIUM 10 each, or 170 total provinces. Best done as 150 land and 20 water.
LARGE 15 each, or 255 total provinces. Best done as 225 land and 30 water.
HUGE 20 each, or 340 total provinces. Best done as 300 land and 20 water.
EPIC 25 or more each, maybe to the maximum 500 total provinces. Something like 450 land and 50 water.
These sizes and other map factors are discussed in the MAP thoughts file at my (soon to be working) www.dom2minions.com site.

Comments? Requests? What size would be more playable? I suppose since its created by a program that it wouldnt be too hard to do a Version of each size eventually. But what would be a good starting point?

[ March 29, 2004, 21:10: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Good News! With the new patch it seems that maps can again "cheat" in creating gods for the AIs. So these projects will be moving forward again. The "Independents War" and "WEvsTHEM" mostly. For a writeup on these visit my site at www.dom2minions.com

Hmmm I just thought of "the War for Independents". Cute pun. I think I will change the name on that one

[ April 09, 2004, 19:39: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

OK we are getting back to where we were with Dom1 of having daily runs of different sizes of maps. I still prefer the really big ones but I have heard the call for variety. Here is what we have so far.....
Random Generated Maps

[ April 17, 2004, 18:21: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: request for MAP testing
 

Nice. Some constructive suggestions:

Is it possible to adjust your map generator to specify that all of the edge provinces should be water types?

If so, running some or all that way might give more varied land shapes, and would give a reason for the map edges. As they are now, the maps are bounded by arbitrary map edges.

Another idea might be to have the edges give way to barren/mountainous/impassible terrain.

PvK

Re: request for MAP testing
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Good ideas but the generator doesnt support it as far as I know. Im doing another Category now which uses a program to randomize all the settings on each map and save the settings it uses. That might show some interesting things the generator can do. They are playable but if anyone wants to use one as a starting point for some manual touchup that would be better.

Leif runs something pretty random then prettys it with GIMP. http://home.Online.no/~rmoldskr/Domi...nion_maps.html
He gets a varied number of maps each day since some of the randoms wont work with each other and bomb that map.

Targa runs a batch of blanks (just land and water) and I might do somthing like that.
http://www.dom2minions.com/~targa/blanks/

Re: request for MAP testing
 

OK this mornings automated run worked fine. There are batches of 30 each for tiny, small, medium, large, huge, and epic sized maps. Random Maps
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html

They are all playable and Im actually quite pleased with this mornings results. I see many different playing styles well represented. Ocean down the side, ocean splitting the map in two, multiple oceans creating multiple areas, tight starting position at bottom or bottom left, tight starting position at top or top-right of map (easier to program around).

I will be working on other variations of maps but at least now everyone has plenty of maps of whatever size they prefer playing. And lots of starting maps for anyone who might want to try editing one.

[ April 18, 2004, 13:37: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]