new maps? or old maps?
 

OK for those who have been using www.dom2minions.com for random maps, PLEASE look at the ones being done by the new Version of DomMap (thank you Lintman and Leif amoung others).
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html

At the moment I daily run 30 each of sizes Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Epic. They are done in Groups of 10 (to avoid overloading the system they are on). Presently 1-20 are done with old dommap, and 21-30 with the new one.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

The new maps look so much better, it's easy. I voted 1-10 old, 11-30 new, but 1-5 and 6-30 would be better. Plus, I'm not sure it's really worth your while to run 30 daily HUGE or EPIC maps - even if someone wants a fresh map of this size very badly, what are the chance that they will run out of new ones?

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

I also like the news ones much more. The old ones might be better for those basing their maps on your maps, but the new ones are much easier to play on.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

Gandalf, are the new ones using my color scheme? It looks a little different from that one, and I think it's otherwise good, but the plains and forest colors are too similar, difficult to make out where the terrain changes. In any case better than the old ones, that scheme was too somber for my taste.

Edi

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

@PhilD:
Well one of the reasons I feel my maps page exists is because of the maximum sized maps. The Tiny Im almost tempted to force them to make their own. Small-Large are about the range being covered by the much better manually created ones. Im not sure that anyone is going to manually create an Epic sized map unless its done like the Faerun one was by finding a map and (painstakingly) putting in all of the capital, terrain, and neighbor commands.

@Endoperez:
Im considering adding a run like I did for Targa (not sure where he went off to). I still run it every night but Im not sure if I should update the DomMap its using or not without checking with him. The option for these "blanks" is programmed into the new Dommap. Check out the jpg's here...
http://www.dom2minions.com/~targa/blanks/

@Edi:
No its just using the newest compile Ive gotten with the old map-run settings. If I dive into changing parameters then there are alot I would change.

Im also considering a run using the "shadow rough" setting such as the upper-right example of this test run...
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...p/00_index.jpg
But for now Im mostly looking for whether anyone feels the old maps are worth keeping in the run. Hmmmm I should take a stab at seeing how close to the old style I can get with the new program and its improvements.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

I am all new to this "making maps" thing. Do people simply play on the random maps, or do they also use them as a "canvasses" that they then decorate?

Did folks like Targa use a regular paint program to make create maps?

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

I was wondering, would it be possible to randomly generate wrap-around maps?

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

@PashaDawg:
I think Targa (like the game developers, and many of us) uses GIMP. GIMP is free, GIMP is powerful, GIMP is a pain in the ASCII to learn. Its a programmers paint program.

But you can really use any paint program you are comfortable with. Even if it wont do TGA files its easy to get a free program to convert in and out of TGA.

@ Stab West:
We looked into it but it wasnt something that would be easy. What you can do is take one of the maps and cut it in half, then switch the positions of the two sections so that what was the middle is now the outer edges. Then edit the new middle so that the terrains and borders connect. If you want to do it north-south also then do the same splitting it across. Thats hard to describe but it does work.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

GIMP is LINUX, right? So, unless I am ready to dive into that world, it is not available to me, right?

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

GIMP is available to Windows too. A link: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

The development tends to be in Linux but there are ports over to other operating systems. There are Pros and Cons to that. The Windows Version is alittle behind the Linux Version, but the Win Version doesnt have to do the bug-hunts.
Actually its the Win Version that I use since I prefer not to GUI up my Linux server.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

Hmmm on the poll results:
are the people who are choosing 10/20 old/new split just being nice to the people who like the old Version. Or is there particular things about the old Version you like.

Most of the differences are controllable in the new Version. In fact, even more controllable. I might be able to get the new dommap to duplicate the old features with a few improvments and use that for the 1-10 run. So does someone care to mention what it is about the older style maps they like? No impassable borders? Easier on the eyes? pixellation over solid colored areas? Generally lighter colored? Less color variation?

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

I, atleast, were being nice to others. The impassable borders make it little harder if someone finds a good-looking map and wants to work with it but doesn't want impassable borders. And someone might prefer older colors. They are easier to the eyes, but the new maps look much better in many ways. I know the Last sentence doesn't make much sense, but it might be red borders/ lots of green making new maps look a bit aggressive.

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

Endoperez, if they implement as default the color scheme I used three days to come up with, the maps are going to look a lot better than eitehr of the varieties currently displayed on Gandalf's web pages. and if they don't, I can always post it up so people can use the values to get pretty maps without needing to spend hours trying to mix and match colors to get a pleasant whole.

Edi

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

OK I have split the maps 3 ways. Old DomMap, New DomMap with my colors, New DomMap with Edi's colors. Each size group generates 30new maps every day so Ive set them for 10 each of these 3 color sets within each size group.

I havent decided what to do with blanks yet but the Targa files are still being generated daily so people can check those. And there are also Lief's maps still being generated daily.
Gandalf's
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html
Targa's
http://www.dom2minions.com/~targa/blanks/
Lief's
http://home.Online.no/~rmoldskr/Domi...nion_maps.html

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

Wow, your site really look great! I like all of the tree maps, in fact - It is much easier to play on a simple map, but seeing the terrains looks better and sometimes speeds the play. And with two different color schemes... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Wonderful!

Re: new maps? or old maps?
 

Yep - great stuff, Gandalf!

PvK