Map: Poke in the Eye

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmm I was going to bump the thread on this but realized that there wasnt one. Most of the conversation on it is in the Dom2 forum. Surprising considering the number of downloads its still getting.

So to provide some background. My map for Poke in the Eye is a fast little download because there is no image file. The info file on it Poke_Eye_v3.map uses the eye.tga (the Desert Eye map)file which is included with the game. The description on the Poke in the Eye version is...:
#description "A wraparound map with 125 provinces, 17 of these are under water.
Suitable for 8-13 insanely bored players.

Two connected continents surrounded by seas and filled with monsters.
This might be Era Zero. The world where every province might hold a
wannabe pretender trying to rally the independents to follow them.
Scout carefully."

http://www.dom3minions.com/RandomMaps/Poke_Eye_v35.zip

[Gandalf Parker]

more background...
I use a program (written in basic) to generate the .map fresh each time I want to. It copies the original map info of terrains and neighbors, then it runs sequentially thru the full number of provinces (125) and for each one it randomly decides to assign
A) structures (castle, lab, temple, any combo) about a 1 in 50 chance
B) for each province it randomly selects a commander from all of the units in the game (1809 as of last patch) and assigns it there, then it randomly picks another unit and assigns 2-10 bodyguards of that type, then randomly picks another unit and assigns 5 to 12 as a squad. Oh, and the commander gets random magical equipment.
C) it also randomly sets alliances between the nations (only kicks in if they are AI). Hmmm I just noticed that it only sets the first 17 (Dom2 code) so I need to fix that.

[Gandalf Parker]

Problem:
I tried to fix the indept castle to not be so easy to take using Endoperez's wonderful tip about setting the owner to 23. Unfortuntely the early attempt made things worse by setting 23 (indept nation) as the owner of everything. You had to fight for the ownership of your home castle, and in turn one everyone died.

So Im thinking that I need to know which provinces to NOT do. That could also kill the assignment of a random army to the players (Im not sure if that was enjoyed or not).

If I set approved start locations into the map, and then add a list of those to the program saying "do not touch these" then it might work. The game could still randomly (and with some game logic) assign the home provinces of all human players. Not sure if it affects AI players tho. I would still want to give the AI players the random boost I think.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

What makes independent castles so easy to take?

If its starvation, I have an idea for that I can go into.
If its not enough defense, ditto.

Without knowing the details of the particular problem, I'll be brief.
Create a 'cauldron' commander to assign to every province and supply food. Perhaps a fortress defense bonus as well? But otherwise, a nonfunctional though highly damage resistant unit.

[Gandalf Parker]

Lazy_Perfectionist said:
What makes independent castles so easy to take?

If its starvation, I have an idea for that I can go into.
If its not enough defense, ditto.

Without knowing the details of the particular problem, I'll be brief.
Create a 'cauldron' commander to assign to every province and supply food. Perhaps a siege bonus as well? But otherwise, a nonfunctional though highly damage resistant unit.

Its an old old complaint (since Dom1?) which is the lack of a #patrol command for maps. At the moment, randomly dropping a castle in a province puts everyone inside it. That means that I can run around the map with scouts attacking castles I find to claim the province, then when I reach it with my army I can siege it with no combat. It doesnt make adding castles such a good thing.

Of course, the reason is also gone I suppose. This was back when the AI didnt build castles so giving it some to take as it expanded helped that.

Endoperez had a fix which was to drop the castle, and some units, then assign that province the ownership of a nation and every unit dropped there after that was owned by that nation. I had used it to create castles that were being seiged by player nations. But surprisingly I had never tried using the nation number for Indepts (23). That works well but now I have to skip the player nations.

[Gandalf Parker]

OK just to start catching up on some things...

the Poke in the Eye map has been updated to version 3.5

This gives you a VERY different game of Dominions.
The old stuff has always included...
A) You can get a new VERY different starting army.
B) Everyone else gets one also. Including Independents so scout carefully.
C) There is lots of equipment already in the game so this is alot of fun to play with a nation that has seducers.
D) There are independent owned castles and labs scattered around
E) There are random alliances which can affect the AIs.

Added to this version:
F) The independent castles defend AND patrol.
G) Your scouts can be discovered, even by independents.
H) Magic sites have also been extra-randomly scattered for some more surprises.
I) Temples have randomly sprung up. You might even get one.
J) Unrest is everywhere.

As usual for my chaotic maps, this map will be re-randomized every day. If you find the map interesting to play but it gets old, just download a new copy.

http://www.dom3minions.com/RandomMaps/Poke_Eye_v35.zip

[Gandalf Parker]

AARRGGHHH
I am horrible at math. Thats why I like randoms.

If the range is 80 (0-79) for alliances. And it only needs to be named in one direction (ally 1 5 automatically does ally 5 1) then what is a good number of alliances to create?

Im not going to bother checking for dupes.

And Im thinking of just trusting to the god of randoms to insure that there is some in each age.

edited: ARRGGHH I cant do that. Then most of them will be assigned cross-ages (arly age allied with late age) which wouldnt make much sense (unless they are playing with my Single_Age mod)

Never mind. I will have to have 3 loops and its easy for me to come up with a decent range

Edited by Gandalf Parker (09/11/07 11:50 AM)

[PvK]

Very cool that you have updated this, Gandalf!

[Gandalf Parker]

Maybe it will spark Johan abit if I mention that as far as I can figure out, I might have maxxed out everything I can possibly do with it using map commands.

[llamabeast]

Where's the image for this map?