request for MAP testing

[Gandalf Parker]

OK I think Im going to have to give way to the wishes of the people. I'm referring to the WE vs THEM stronger AI's scenario, the Independents War, and the Mazes and Monsters scenario.

The ideas for these might be good but the epic map size I like might be too much. So I am considering re-working them into a different size map. The choices are:
TINY <5 each, or less than 85 total provinces.
SMALL 5 each, or 85 total provinces. Best done as 75 land and 10 water.
MEDIUM 10 each, or 170 total provinces. Best done as 150 land and 20 water.
LARGE 15 each, or 255 total provinces. Best done as 225 land and 30 water.
HUGE 20 each, or 340 total provinces. Best done as 300 land and 20 water.
EPIC 25 or more each, maybe to the maximum 500 total provinces. Something like 450 land and 50 water.
These sizes and other map factors are discussed in the MAP thoughts file at my (soon to be working) www.dom2minions.com site.

Comments? Requests? What size would be more playable? I suppose since its created by a program that it wouldnt be too hard to do a Version of each size eventually. But what would be a good starting point?

[ March 29, 2004, 21:10: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Good News! With the new patch it seems that maps can again "cheat" in creating gods for the AIs. So these projects will be moving forward again. The "Independents War" and "WEvsTHEM" mostly. For a writeup on these visit my site at www.dom2minions.com

Hmmm I just thought of "the War for Independents". Cute pun. I think I will change the name on that one

[ April 09, 2004, 19:39: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Gandalf Parker]

OK we are getting back to where we were with Dom1 of having daily runs of different sizes of maps. I still prefer the really big ones but I have heard the call for variety. Here is what we have so far.....
Random Generated Maps

[ April 17, 2004, 18:21: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[PvK]

Nice. Some constructive suggestions:

Is it possible to adjust your map generator to specify that all of the edge provinces should be water types?

If so, running some or all that way might give more varied land shapes, and would give a reason for the map edges. As they are now, the maps are bounded by arbitrary map edges.

Another idea might be to have the edges give way to barren/mountainous/impassible terrain.

PvK

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by PvK:
Is it possible to adjust your map generator to specify that all of the edge provinces should be water types?

Another idea might be to have the edges give way to barren/mountainous/impassible terrain.

Good ideas but the generator doesnt support it as far as I know. Im doing another Category now which uses a program to randomize all the settings on each map and save the settings it uses. That might show some interesting things the generator can do. They are playable but if anyone wants to use one as a starting point for some manual touchup that would be better.

Leif runs something pretty random then prettys it with GIMP. http://home.Online.no/~rmoldskr/Domi...nion_maps.html
He gets a varied number of maps each day since some of the randoms wont work with each other and bomb that map.

Targa runs a batch of blanks (just land and water) and I might do somthing like that.
http://www.dom2minions.com/~targa/blanks/

[Gandalf Parker]

OK this mornings automated run worked fine. There are batches of 30 each for tiny, small, medium, large, huge, and epic sized maps. Random Maps
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion...andomMaps.html

They are all playable and Im actually quite pleased with this mornings results. I see many different playing styles well represented. Ocean down the side, ocean splitting the map in two, multiple oceans creating multiple areas, tight starting position at bottom or bottom left, tight starting position at top or top-right of map (easier to program around).

I will be working on other variations of maps but at least now everyone has plenty of maps of whatever size they prefer playing. And lots of starting maps for anyone who might want to try editing one.

[ April 18, 2004, 13:37: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]