the AI MAP project

[Gandalf Parker]

OK in this directory........
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...ons2/projects/
Im starting a new project. So far the working name is WE vs THEM. The idea is to create a map/game for multiplayer alliance.

Does this sound like an interesting project? I came up with this because I often leave R'lyeh, Ermor, Atlantis out of my games because I find them hard to play against. Unfortunately this means I have very little experience in trying to create them now for this map.

Check out the WvsTthumb.jpg which is a thumbnail of the map Ive chosen so far. There is also a larger jpg, the tga and the map files.

Here is the working description so far.......
#dom2title WE vs THEM
#imagefile WEvsTHEM.tga
#domVersion 2.02
#defaultzoom 1.0
#description "A harder game (hopefully) for those wanting smarter AI's. In the lower-left corner of this map there is the XXXXX alliance. It is Ermor sandwiched between Atantis and R'lyeh. They are all allied against you. To survive I highly recommend co-operation with the other nations."

I thought maybe an alliance name of
the Dark R'yeh Ermor Atlantis Dominions (D.R.E.A.D.) The DREAD Alliance.

OK now the idea is to make Ermor Atlantis and R'lyeh too tough to beat. Later I might do a "Them vs WE" Version pitting the high cleric nations against the high undead ones.

Im thinking of starting them each with 3 castle/lab/temple locations (9 in all) in that lower left corner. Extra starting units. Possibly some special provinces at important locations. None of the other nations will be able to start in that corner of the map.

Maybe specific scales and deitys if we can come up with some that would be better than the randomly created ones. I think now that you cannot pre-create a deity which exceeds the creation points, but the random AI ones do.

Come to think of it...
maybe I should give this up to someone else and do one with races I do know well. Anyone interested?

[Arralen]

I think it would be a nice idea. But maybe I'm biased because IMHO the random generated race suck big time, anyway... .

Some time ago I asked for suggestions for pre-made races, but got few responses .. so I would gladly borrow them from your project even when playing "normal games".

Ok, lets get back on topic:

I dunno if R'lyeh, Ermor and Atlantis make for a good combo: you can move only 1 prov/turn under water, so 2 water nations will have lots of trouble if they have to share underwater provinces. 'cause they'll have to expand onto land, and therefore stretch themselves out from their underwater starting provinces .. moving from capitol to front will take some time .. .

Furthermore, having one nation on land, on in the water, one flying would be much better, wouldn't it? This would mean either using Caelum (goes well with cold-loving Ermor and R'lyeh), or Vanheim (at least they could sail 'bout oceans, but sadly not those belonging to R'lyeh), or modding some other race ...

So maybe 2 land nations must do. But which?

A.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well I mostly chose it because it was the 3 I left off. I was originally thinking of a map where the water nations would completely block off Ermor and Ermor having enough territory to gain a huge army but nowhere to go with it. It would just keep getting bigger until all the people were dead there.

The map I ended up with
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion.../WvsTthumb.jpg
doesnt quite do that but I thought it offered a challenge. Ermor down in the corner. An ocean up the left side and another across the bottom. Seperate expansion areas for everyone. Plus there is an advantage to any map where the top or bottom can be marked nostart. Far easier than trying to mark off territory on either sides of the map. In this case I was thinking of making the entire bottom 1/3rd of the map as off-limits to players home castles.

Oh well, if there isnt more interest maybe I will just shelve this project for abit until I find a map that screams to me. Today Im going to try increasing the random map run back to 30 like it originally was and see if it doesnt blow up my machine.

[ January 24, 2004, 12:36: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]