What is wrong with the AI?

[vfb]

I didn't think of setting spell research to 1, that's a good idea! But you might want to avoid changing the number of gems, since that will affect how the spells are cast in the battle.

[Ballbarian]

For what it's worth, the next version of RanDom will accomodate custom gods. I am in the middle of a test game with a set of pre made gods using builds and scales that I have seen on the forums (including Gorgzilla, a E9N4 Gorgon with 10 dominion) and it has made for a more challenging game. I created the custom god files within a set of house rules where the god for the given nation was one available to that nation and the points available were as if the god were dormant. Also, I kit the god with items that I would use on my own god, only the AI begins the game with these items (artifacts excluded). It will also be possible to include custom starting units and sites if the designer / player so chooses.

[Foodstamp]

Ballbarian said:
For what it's worth, the next version of RanDom will accomodate custom gods. I am in the middle of a test game with a set of pre made gods using builds and scales that I have seen on the forums (including Gorgzilla, a E9N4 Gorgon with 10 dominion) and it has made for a more challenging game. I created the custom god files within a set of house rules where the god for the given nation was one available to that nation and the points available were as if the god were dormant. Also, I kit the god with items that I would use on my own god, only the AI begins the game with these items (artifacts excluded). It will also be possible to include custom starting units and sites if the designer / player so chooses.

Sounds awesome

[Gandalf Parker]

I was considering the comments about no-indepents on the maps. Do you end up with no army to fight to take an indept province? Of course I could blank all the provinces on a map and then assign an army to each one but the way I do it that would be pretty haphazard.

On the other hand, we could create a set for RanDom. Make province sets that said
terrain:forest
@ 3
elephants & slingers
forest archers
wolf clan

Something like that. Well basically for each terrain have a few sets of the type of army you could usually expect there. Then set RanDom for 100% fill. That way there would be no poptypes to recruit but still reasonable armies to fight.

[MaxWilson]

My understanding is that armies are placed before poptypes are (re-) set. Therefore, the no-indie maps still have defending armies, even though you can't recruit there after you conquer it.

-Max

[Edi]

Gandalf Parker said:
I was considering the comments about no-indepents on the maps. Do you end up with no army to fight to take an indept province? Of course I could blank all the provinces on a map and then assign an army to each one but the way I do it that would be pretty haphazard.

On the other hand, we could create a set for RanDom. Make province sets that said
terrain:forest
@ 3
elephants & slingers
forest archers
wolf clan

Something like that. Well basically for each terrain have a few sets of the type of army you could usually expect there. Then set RanDom for 100% fill. That way there would be no poptypes to recruit but still reasonable armies to fight.

Gandalf, I believe we already discussed this one. When the game is generated, it assigns random poptype to each province, generates the indie defenders, magic sites and whatever else according to game settings.

Only after that does it parse the map file for the province specific scripts, which is where the poptype assignments go. If #setland is used, the indie defenders stay, but the poptype gets deleted. So you still need to fight the indies, you just can't recruit them.

[Sombre]

I hope people here are willing to give the NI maps a go. They really are quite fun and they change the game more than you'd think.

[Gandalf Parker]

Edi said:

Gandalf, I believe we already discussed this one. When the game is generated, it assigns random poptype to each province, generates the indie defenders, magic sites and whatever else according to game settings.

Only after that does it parse the map file for the province specific scripts, which is where the poptype assignments go. If #setland is used, the indie defenders stay, but the poptype gets deleted. So you still need to fight the indies, you just can't recruit them.

It would still be worth doing thru RanDom. It would give the person doing it a chance to select the defenders, and how often they occur. You could also select appropriate magic items, include summons, and have special groups for islands lakes volcanoes(lonely mountains) etc. In a no-indepts map some people might prefer alot more knight groups with mage backups.

[Edi]

I've not played around with RanDom, so I wouldn't know about that. I've had my hands too full to even start getting familiar with all of the nifty little things we have seen here. I'll take your word for it.

[Gandalf Parker]

RanDom is way cool. Its a take-off on my chaos maps for Dom2. I would randomly fill a map with structures like stray castles, and strange armies with equipment. I re-randomized them daily for new playing experiences. They went over well but the way I did it was too random. The armies might be made up of low units, summons, even pretenders. Sometimes water units on land and land units in water.

I suggested at the time, something called Semi-Random. Designed provinces that could be randomly placed. Such as
Terrain: forest
poptype: Deer Tribal
commander: deer shaman
units: deer tribe warriors
units: deer tribe archers
commander: centaur hierophant
equipment: black bow
units: centaur archers
magic site: that one that allows recruiting centaurs

That would be one file. Many such files could be placed by having the program look for proper terrains. Put mountain provinces in mountains, small town things in farmland, waste, swamp, etc etc. Since then, RanDom now also recognizes island, lake, volcano(lonely mountain), penninsula. And it allows sub-randoms so that you can have your designed province have some slight variety in it. Such as I could list Black Bow, Longbow of Accuracy, Bow of War as randoms for the centaur leader..

Just wandering thru the magic sites gives you plenty of reason to design provinces. So that you fight the mages that a site will allow recruiting, or create a dragons cave, or a lost village of the undead with sites to get undead. I think that everyone should donate a few provinces to the project. Lots of them would be great. Then processing a map thru it would give you a really fun map to play on that isnt quite as insane as my old program used to create.