Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...humbnails.html
In honor of the new DomMap code (thank you Lintman) which is not only much prettier but also creates non-crossable borders WHICH SHOW UP ON THE TGA IMAGE!

Anyway I did a quick run of the EPIC sized maps from my site. Eventually I will probably shift all of the sizes to make some use of the code though Im not sure if all of them will have impassable borders.

There are 3 runs (1-10, 11-20, 21-30) with different amounts of impassables. The program also allows for a 100%. Since it makes sure that all provinces are connected to each other somehow, that creates one huge giant maze. I didnt do one of those but its a neat feature.

If you want to discuss the dommap program then be sure to enter the DomMap thread. Im mostly just a "user"

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Interesting, thanks!

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

OK. One comment. I guess I will kick things up a notch then.
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html
Now all of the maps have a section done with the new program.
So.... anyone? anyone? are they downloaded? are they playable? too bright, too dark, too many impassable borders, not enough?

On the examples page wre there any that cought your eye?
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...p/00_index.jpg

Come on people, you got to feed the flow to keep it going.
I aint doin this for nuthin. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Teddy.gif[/img]

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Odd, I thought you were? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Well, since you're fishing for compliments, I guess we should thank you (some more). heh [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Fish.gif[/img]

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Heehee threw me a fish huh?

Its not so much compliments (In this case. Im not doing that well) but if no one comments then I just never seem to move on to the next step. Take a look at my site and how cluttered it is with started projects that havent moved forward. I can tell from logs if people have looked at stuff and downloaded stuff, but heck I see people looking/downloading the old Dom1 stuff that I havent updated in over a year. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Just keep on remembering about the way to pay for free things... I remembered it, and posted that two-word reply! I hope it will stay in my mind for little longer...

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

A question about the random maps...do they need to be modded to play with? I have never tried to mod a map, so I'm not sure what's involved, but I was under the impression that some work needs to be done before these maps will support a game.

Is this true?

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

The maps definately look a lot better than they did just a couple months ago when I Last looked at them. Kudos to both Gandalf and the people who modified the map-making program. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif They actually look nice enough to make me consider trying to get a MP game going on one.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Let me make this clear that they are completely playable exactly as they are. Im not yelling at you, I just have to be clear because Im about to wander off the subject abit.

I often use them as "starting points" for people who want to take a stab at making maps because sometimes there are "almost pretty close to being good". So they make a good base for someone to look at the .map file (which is plain ascii text) and try adding a few special things to it, play it, add some more, play it, etc etc etc. I think thats the problem. I cant seem to answer the first thing (YES they are playable) without wanting to go too much into the second thing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Hmmmmm obviously I should make use of the new impassable randoms in DomMap. Im considering maps like "Mazes and Monsters" or "Poke in the Eye" or "Miirunst X". The problem is that I used the random placement of monsters as a way o creating chokepoints. Having to go around provinces that had a pretender with another pretender as guards and another pretender as troops, or one with doom horrors, or treelords, etc etc created strategic chokepoints.

It may take some experimenting to find a balance between throwing in both extra monsters, and impassable borders, to keep from having something that can trap a player.

Im debating if its worth it. I should probably play the impassables abit and see how well they provide for a strategic chopkepoint game.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

I'm a big fan of your Poke in the Eye and Miirunst X projects. I was wondering if there was a way to create some kind of tool, spreadsheet or other way to randomize any kind of map in this way? I also wondered if you use all available units in the randomizer? And if there is a way to remove certain units from being used in it? While a dagon (in a robe of invulnerability), guarded by red dragons with a sons of the seas army is pretty fun to fight its also a bit frustrating in the long run. Making a lite Version that doesn't use high end units would be very welcome.

As for your randomly generated maps I haven't yet laid eyes upon one that more interesting than the "handcrafted". It's most likely because the maps available are a lot of fun and random maps look less balanced at first sight. I'll check them out more closely when I get download capabilities once more.

Thanks for your hard work. It is well appreciated.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Well there is a program which does it of course. Its written in a Version of BASIC. YABasic Yet Another Basic) to be exact. You can freely download that if you want to run my programs. It just adds the stuff I do onto the end of the .map file. But its easier for me to copy it and modify it to have the name of the file hard-coded rather than ask. I could do one that will work with random.map I guess (the default file that DomMap creates)

It does compile (create standalone EXE programs) and I have thought about making one for doing any map but thats more error-checking and UI programming than I like to do. If anyone else wants to tackle it then Im sure my basic routines would be easy to re-write into one of the harder programming Languages.

Yes it uses them all. The units are assigned by a number so its simple to have it add a-random-of-1-to-10 monsters whose ID number is a-random-number-from-1-to-1080. The sequence is how they were added to the game so its hard to chop out any. There is a nation, then some monsters, then some pretenders, then another nation, and more monsters, and later pretenders...

I have wanted to improve the routines. Not have land things put in water and no water things put on land so they all drown in the first turn. If someone wanted to make a database or spreadsheet of all the units and put flags for land, water, amphib, pretender, leader, troops, etc etc then I could program against that.

Everything has its pros and cons. Hand made maps are great and will never beat random ones. But random ones can be larger, and I can whip out a bach of them every day. If you dont like todays batch then check it tomorrow for a new batch. Eventually one may look good to you. Feel free to grab it, name it, add personal touches, and make a handcrafted out of it.


Thanks for your hard work. It is well appreciated.

[/quote]

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

I'm on it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif Shouldn't be too hard to make an spreadsheet considering Edi already listed all the units with all their abilities in a similar document.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Here is a bit of a writeup on it.
http://www.dom2minions.com/SemiRandom.shtml
If you can stand the colors. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif feel free to make suggestions on that also.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Here's a preliminary Version. I reckon it's full of mistakes and prehaps it might also be expanded (thinking along the lines of listing survival as well). Hope you can make any use of it.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Even if it has mistakes it will amount to a rare strange event instead of a 40% result of "did he mean to do that?"

Thank you. You are too quick.Now I gotta get off my asteroid (mean stop playing SEIV) and look at making this happen.

EDIT:
It did pick up nicely in my Open Office program. I exported it to a csv file so it looks like this...
0:Old Centurion:::::X::::::::::::-
1:Legionnaire:::::X::::::::::::
2:Old Standard:::::X::::::::::::
3:Serpent Cataphract:::::X::::::::::::cb
4:Serpent:::::X::::::::::::a, cb

Dont worry about me doing that. An xls file makes it easy for whoever is updating things, especially if they are using windows and have something like excel to use. Exporting it to text is a single step for me. I might write something to reformat it into a better format for me but thats easy to do once someone does the initial typing in. What you have provided is generically useful for many.

Re: Strategic Chokepoint MAPs
 

Ah well... Didn't think about the compability issue. I made another Version anyways. Hopefully it will be of some use. Makes it easy to see what units that are similar if you're going for wasteland survival or a toxic army strategy.