Noob Map editing question

[Xietor]

I made a random map, and I am trying to edit out all of the waste squares. I go to edit map, add the name, Big map" and proceed to uncheck all of the squares where it has waste marked. Then I hit save map and give the map a new name. The map appears in my map files, but when i go to create a new game, the edited map is not given as an option.

So I have 4 questions:

1. What is the step by step procedure to get rid of waste squares on a randomly generated map.

2. Can I change a land square to water on a randomly created map? If so will the terrain feature change on the edited map so that it looks like water?

3. When creating a random map, is there any way to minimize waste squares?

4. Starting capital: is there any way to designate the starting human player capital on the map?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

[Ballbarian]

I made a random map, and I am trying to edit out all of the waste squares. I go to edit map, add the name, Big map" and proceed to uncheck all of the squares where it has waste marked. Then I hit save map and give the map a new name. The map appears in my map files, but when i go to create a new game, the edited map is not given as an option.

Try closing and restarting Dom3. This should refresh the list.

1. Unless I am misreading the first part of your post, you are doing it correctly.

2. You can change the terrain type, but the map image will not change.

3. You have 2 options. One is to use commandline switches to change the terrain distribution for waste to a low value, or you can use my RanDom tool to set the terrain distributions. Both of these methods are done prior to random map generation. RanDom can be found in this post.


4. You can designate nation specific start locations with the #specstart map command, and generic start positions with #start. There is also a #owner command. See mapedit.pdf in your dominions3/doc folder for more information on map editing.

[Gandalf Parker]

If you look at the .map file in any word processor (wordpad works well) then you might see whats going on. You can also change things there to play with the results. I often use the map generator and map editor but usually the final changes I do in a word processor using the map_edit manual to see what I should change.

[Xietor]

Thanks for the help. I got the method down for editing, but the terrain does not change. And I tried the program suggested, but I do not have the Visual basic program yet.

Does anyone have a large (275 or so) province map already made? Basically I like the 3600 x 2000(oblong shape) with many choke points for easy defense. Typically i also have about 25 water squares, but try and avoid 1 big water area.

I am going to look into buying the VB program and try to make 1 myself.

[Gandalf Parker]

You can generate one within the game at the game tools. That allows for most of the options. Other options can be gotten by using notepad to write a script for it. That can also be used to create a script that would make a couple dozen maps while you sleep so you can look them over in the morning. Thats how I do mine.

[Ballbarian]

You do not need to buy VB in order to run RanDom. You just need the support files which may already be on your pc. I believe WinXP comes with them, but if you are using Win95-98 (not sure about WinME), you can find the run time files required by VB programs here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

For a quick map with those dimensions and many choke points, as Gandalf pointed out, you can just go to the random map creator in Dom3's game tools and adjust the mountain percentage higher and be sure to use the impassable mountains option.