Why do some #start commands fail?
 

I've starting manually placing start sites recently, but I find that some proportion of them just don't work. If I put 10 start sites down for a 10 player game, maybe 2 or 3 won't work, which results in more than one player starting in some of the other start sites, leading some players to be instantly dead.

What I can't work out is what's wrong with the sites which won't accept the #start. Anyone have any ideas?

Re: Why do some #start commands fail?
 

The only problem I had noticed involved Dom3 trying to place random AI sea nations on a 'land starts only' map. If all the players are human, make sure that the #start provinces terrain value does not include the 'no start' flag (512), and that you are not using a sea player with no sea #starts defined.

Re: Why do some #start commands fail?
 

Perhaps the map file has inherent #nostart commands for those same provinces?

Re: Why do some #start commands fail?
 

Okay, looks like it is terrain type 512 that is getting me. Strangely they seem to be quite liberally placed in Edi's fixed versions of both Parganos and Cradle of Dominions, which I've been placing start sites for. At least I know how to fix it now though (subtract 512 from the terrain type for the province) - thanks!

Re: Why do some #start commands fail?
 

Some map makers, including Edi, put down liberal amounts of #nostart provinces (or their terrain equivalent) to ensure that all the players have somewhat equal starting provinces. IIRC, they check out all provinces without at least 3 land neighbours (if land) or 2 sea neighbours (if sea), etc.