Setting valid start provinces...
 

I have been working on a small 2-4 player map. I did not want to limit players to a specific nation, and did not want to set specific start provinces for specific nations. Thought that I would be slick and set all but 4 provinces to #nostart with the idea that the starting provinces could easily be changed by the user later by simply commenting out the nostart's to enable a province, or uncommenting others to disable them.

When creating a game, get the "Can't find valid starting province" error. I assume that it is trying to place specific nations on specific terrain types??? For example, Ermor on wasteland, or Ctis in the swamp? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Any confirmation and/or solutions would be much appreciated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Ugh, answered my own question. Started with the following:
#nostart 1
-- #nostart 2
#nostart 3
#nostart 4

That won't work, but the following method will:
#nostart 1
-- nostart 2
#nostart 3
#nostart 4

So as not to waste a perfectly good thread, here's a small preview of the map that I am working on. Have been working on a hex map editor for dominions2 and made this as a small test map:
http://www.freewebs.com/ballbariansw/HxMpScr.jpg

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Nice to see that you got that to work. Also nice to see the proof of a working tool that allows even art-challenged people to create maps! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

What's the program you used?

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

He has been working on a hex editor. I understood that as him programming a new hex editor that can be used to make Dominions maps, instead of just working with an existing hex editor.

Isn't English fun for non-native speakers?

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Jyah.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Abso-freaking-lutely. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

@ Nerf & Endo

He said he's working on a hex map editor, not a hex editor. Google for "hex editor" and you'll notice the slight difference in use ... . http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


@ Ballbarian

Why don't you use either

6.4 #start <province nbr>
By creating at least one start location for each player,
every player will start at one of these locations.

6.5 #specstart <nation nbr> <province nbr>
Use this command to assign a specific nation to a specific
start location. Nation nbr can be found in table 1.

Table 1: Nation numbers
0 Abysia
1 Atlantis
2 Pythium
3 Man
4 Ulm
5 Ctis
6 Arcoscephale
7 Caelum
8 Ermor
9 Marignon
10 Pangaea
11 Vanheim
12 Jotun
13 R’lyeh
14 Mictlan
15 T’ien Chi
16 Machaka

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Sorry for any confusion that I have caused.
I have been building a visual basic program which was intended to be, as Endoperez stated: "a working tool that allows even art-challenged people to create maps!"

I have been designing it to use custom hex tile sets and overlay sets which are defined via an external text file. Allows placement or painting of tiles and transparent overlays, customizable borders & rivers, province markers, and text. The drawing portion is pretty much complete, but I was also developing the ability to edit the .MAP files themselves. Currently, it will locate and number provinces, guess neighbors and retain terrain information. Eventually I would like it to be able to read/edit existing .MAP files as well. The hardest and most time consuming part has been the building of a database to allow for sorting through all of the units, spells & equipment from within the editor without having to go to seperate sources for that information. If I ever finish all of that, my ultimate goal was to be able to generate complete random maps, but that is a long way off.

@ Arralen,

Thank you, but this map is so small that it would be impossible to set up fair starting positions for every nation. Also, because of the style of the map itself, it is divided into north and south with a central chokepoint and a strategically critical central island (Isle of Thrones). For these reasons, it will be limited to 2 OR 4 nations to insure a north/south split.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Then simply use
#start <province nbr> :
"By creating at least one start location for each player, every player will start at one of these locations."

Simply mark 2 or 4 provinces as starting provinces and you're done.
Dunno why everyone thinks he has to mark every other province as nostart ... . Unless you want really random starting provinces, but some corner provinces or those with only 1 neighbour taken from the list of possible draws.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

*slaps forehead*
I knew that, but for some stupid (no sleep) reason, I was thinking that my only other option was #specstart. That is what I get for not just sleeping on it before I run to the forums. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
Thank you!

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Ballbarian, your editor program sounds very interesting. I've been entertaining the idea of making the Dom3 databases for units, weapons etc as an SQL database (and perhaps import some queries to make an Excel quickref list). If you intend to convert the program for Dom3 when it comes out, would that sort of a DB make it easier for you to do the unit manipulation? True enough that it'd be an external source, but I'm just asking for future reference.

Edi

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

It would definately make my life easier. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
I have been using Access97 (mdb), but VB is very flexible when it comes to databases. One of the biggest items on my wish list would be a dataset that included unit sprites, but without Illwinter making them available as a download, it's just too big a project to try and attain them manually. Anyhow, I think that would be a great resource Edi.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

I have also fancied making a map randomiser, which would set #poptypes, defenders etc depending on terrain and other features.

I also hoped to have it allow different settings, like equivalents of randomly equipping independent commanders with items from custom lists (no Snake Bladder Sticks or Bane Venom Charms), choosing random special provinces (group of Abysians and Salamanders guarding a Mountain province with a Volcano) and generating kingdoms (1 "capital" province with special provinces, defenders and sites (2 lizard Shamans, 3 Barbarian Commanders, Lizards, Barbarians, few Tribal Archers and Warriors, few Horse Brothers) with themed neighbours near it (normal Barbarians, Lizards, Tribal warriors/archers with Shamans in addition to the other commanders).

I think many have dreamed of having such a program. It can be done independently on a map creator. No one has managed to get a map graphics creator this far, AFAIK. Even if the other plans for map randomizer have failed, I think you should first get the map creation part working. Add the other stuff after that.

BTW, you might've quessed that my map randomizer isn't complete. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif In fact, it does almost nothing; it might be able to write few correct # lines, but even that doesn't yet work. However, I have free time until June, and even after that I have most of the summer and autumn to myself... I just haven't programmed for half a year.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

Endo, are you especially keen on doing a GUI for your randomizer? If not, I may be able to provide you with an almost finished user interface written in Tcl/Tk, which would be able to call any .exe using command line parameters. (as it does with dom2.exe) atm.

It's just that I haven't got to write any map generating code up to now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif[/img] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Btw, I can oc wrap it up into an .exe with some .dlls, .tcls and .exes attached in subfolders.

Re: Setting valid start provinces...
 

First, I'll have to warn you, it might take a month or two before I can whip myself to starting the project again. Then Dom3 will appear, and I'll waste too much time on that. So this might be vaporware already.

I'm doing Java. I'm at the very basics. My program is effectively text editor. It chooses things from random lists. The lists themselves are read from text files (e.g. the poptypes are in a text file). I haven't used the Java command line parameters at all IIRC, but I'm not very keen on doing a GUI... If and when I get to work on that particular project again, I'd prefer a ready GUI a lot, even if it means having to learn command line parameters. They should be much easier to learn that trying to do GUI. Besides, at this point it shouldn't be that hard to add in some command line parameters... Just shows how much there is still to do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif