Map Starting Locations Modifier

[DireAussie]

Sick of unfair maps that put you in a province with 3 neighbours while everyone else gets 5+? Sick of being a water nation and getting put in a lake surrounded by all land? Try my starting locations modifier.

Located at:

http://users.on.net/~dfidge/cgi-bin/dom3map.pl

This program allows you to modify a map's possible starting locations so that you are guaranteed a minimum number of neighbouring provinces in each starting spot. You choose a map file on your computer, set the minimum number of neighbours on the web page and click on submit. The program will then modify the map file and mark all provinces with less than the specified minimum number of neighbours as 'no start'. You will be prompted to save a file - overwrite the old .map file. All done! Your map is ready to play with better starting spots.

Any feedback appreciated.

[Gandalf Parker]

This was discussed before. The new unfairness it can create is having all of the starting points on one side of the map with only one on the other side of the map. Unless someone can create a program which will display a low-color image of the map with stars or something marking the starts, then you cant get a good idea if the change would be a good one or not.

[DireAussie]

The new unfairness it can create is having all of the starting points on one side of the map with only one on the other side of the map

Unless you use extreme values like 8 neighbours per province then its unlikely that you'll get an uneven spread, unless you're playing on a crazy map with lots of mountains and water. 4 or 5 are good settings and will produce good results - I believe it is more fair this way than having one or two players screwed for the rest of the game because they got a starting spot that stinks. Also, the default dominions starting province allocator seems to prefer separating players furthest away rather than giving them a fair starting spot, so its likely you wont see any difference in using this script except for a more balanced start for everyone.

Also, my script allows you to set parameters for sea-based races, so no more will you get the unfortunate R'lyeh player that starts in that 1 or 2 square ocean in the middle of the map.

Another potential use is for map makers who want to set specific starting locations - they can enter 99 for the minneighbours setting and the whole map will become 'nostart', then they can edit the map in the dom 3 editor and choose the starting provinces they desire.

[llamabeast]

Sounds good, DireAussie!

[Gandalf Parker]

Sounds useful. I particularly like that "99" thing. I could use that for my towers maps.

[Ballbarian]

Another potential use is for map makers who want to set specific starting locations - they can enter 99 for the minneighbours setting and the whole map will become 'nostart', then they can edit the map in the dom 3 editor and choose the starting provinces they desire.

Setting all provinces to 'nostart' is not necessary. Just use #start <provNbr> and the given province becomes a valid start location.

I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but I look forward to taking it for a spin tonight. Anxious to see how the results compare to my own hacked 'n' slap algorithm.