SemiRandomizer is a great program that can read special province settings from text files, and then add these provinces into exiting Dominions maps. Aran with random provinces tough enough to work as chokepoints? Independent castles with powerful defenders in both sides of the walls? Robin Hood and his merry men? Bunch of Abysians defending a fire site? It can be done. It isn't easy, though, so I though I'd start an idea mill and then translate the ones I like to the correct format. I probably won't be able to do quite that many this weekend, but I hope there will be quite a few ideas next weekend when I have more time.
Now, what tools you can use when desigining your provinces:
ANYTHING in the mapediting document. This means:
- adding to, or replacing, the original defenders
- adding any unit as a commander, with the spesific magic paths, items, amount of experience and name you want
- giving any unit(s) to a commander already in the province (you always have to add at least one commander), as either normal troops or bodyguards
- adding any existing magic site, either hidden (normal) or pre-searched
- adding any fort and/or a lab and/or a temple to the province
- defining different troops for inside and outside of the castle. Technically, one will be besieging the other, so the ones inside the castle need items to avoid supply problems.
- set the owner of the province, as well as its poptype, population amount, starting unrest and PD (if it's owned by a nation).
In addition, RanDom/SemiRandom allows these advanced options:
- randomly choosing this province instead of it always being in the exact same province of the one map you added it to (with various values such as terrain affecting where it can appear)
- adding "any one of [a list]" instead of "this one", whether we're talking about a name, a unit, an item or a castle. You can define the lists and use them in multiple instances. An example of a list would be three different sets of equipment for a thug.
- giving an AI player a pre-determined god
What you CAN'T use:
- mods. No modded units, no modded sites, no modded nations, because the special province would crash the game unless the spesific mod was active.
That's it. Please, post your ideas. Here're two examples of what the result will look like:
example 1: Robin Hood and his Merry Men
only available in medium and large forests
Has a Longbowman commander with 150 points of experience (3 stars). His name is Robin Hood, and he has a Longbow of Accuracy. He leads a group of 20 Longbowmen, 20 Woodsmen (with shortbows), and 20 Villains.
The province also has a known magic site called "Hall of Ancient Oaks", and the following commanders:
-a Monk given H2, Endless bag of Vine and a Cauldron of Broth. His name would be Tuck.
-a Ranger Captain (LA Ulm crossbowman) named Red Will,
-a Warrior Maiden (of EA Ulm) named Marian,
-and a Light Bandar Archer named Little John.
All of them have 100 points of experience (2 stars). Little John would have 50% chance of having a Storm Bow. There would be a 25% chance for Maid Marian to have Nature 2.
This would be made as:
filename: Endo8_R_U_N_FST_.gan
eigth province made by Endo(perez), replaces the original defenders, is unique, appears in normal-sized forests.
Code:
#commander 59
#name "Robin Hood"
#xp 150
#additem "Longbow of Accuracy"
#units 20 59
#units 20 "Villain"
#units 20 "Woodsman"
#knownfeature "Hall of Ancient Oaks"
#commander "Monk"
#name "Tuck"
#xp 100
#additem "Endless Bag of Wine"
#additem "Cauldron of Broth"
#commander "Ranger Captain"
#name "Red Will"
#xp 100
#commander "Warrior Maiden"
#xp 100
#name "Marian"
@4
#mag_nature 2
- three times
- out of four
- she has no magic
#commander "Light Bandar Archer"
#xp 100
#name "Little John"
@2
#additem "Storm Bow"
- half the time, no bow
Examplem 2 (taken from the SemiRandom post in the mod forum):
Code:
#god 11 138 -- PANGAEA GORGON
#clearmagic
#mag_earth 9
#mag_nature 4
#dominionstr 11 10
#scale_chaos 11 3
#scale_lazy 11 1
#scale_cold 11 -1
#scale_death 11 -3
#scale_unluck 11 -2
#scale_unmagic 11 2
You could add items if you were feeling fancy:
Code:
#additem "Shield of Gleaming Gold" -- hand slot
#additem "Sword of Sharpness" -- hand slot
#additem "Black Steel Helmet" -- head slot
#additem "Robe of Invulnerability" -- body slot
#additem "Boots of the Messenger" -- feet slot
#additem "Amulet of Antimagic" -- misc slot
#additem "Amulet of Missile Protection" -- misc slot