The Random Map Generator and Maps

[Pocus]

have you first checked that the file is not with read only attribs? It happens when you burn them on a cd.

if writable, then what is the message? Does windows say the file is still used by another app?

try anyway to reboot in safe mode (dont know how it is called in english, this is the mode without the drivers and terminate stay resident loaded).

[blackwulf]

Pocus,

I did indeed check for read only and I tried rebooting in safe mode. No matter what I try it comes back with the following message...

"Cannot Delete dommap:It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again"

I have been troubleshooting this for the Last six hours!

Blackwulf

[Pocus]

can you move the file to another place (I doubt, but try), tell me.
make a windows boot disk then and boot from him. Then browse (you'll need to knows DOS commands) to your file, and delete it del dommap.exe in DOS command. It should works.

if it dont works, well I dunno. You can use your task manager to see which processes are running, and kill all that appears TSR or superfluous to the system.

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
A good place to start might be with the source code for the old map generator.
http://www.ont.com/~keldon/dommap.html

Well, that might indeed be a good place to start, but instead I'm going to mostly ignore it and write a new program from the ground up in C++. Mostly because C++ has the STL and decent string handling routines, and OO design will allow me to write cleaner, more extensible code.

For those who haven't already guessed: this is an announcement that dom2map, a random map generator for Dominions II, is now in development. Some of you may know me from the newsgroup - I made some modifications to Keldon's Dom I RMG, including unique province names based on terrain (this may be unnecessary in Dom II but I'll wait and see), config file support, compressed Targa support and others I won't take up too much space by listing here.

Design goals for dom2map:

• Should be able to run on any system dom2 itself will run on. I hope to be able to achieve this easily by using standard C++ that will compile under a variety of freely available compilers for various platforms, and a command line interface (but see below).
• The first release Version will be able to generate playable maps. Probably the first Version will do no more map scripting than is necessary for playability, and increased scripting capabilities will be added in later Versions.
• As much as possible will be user-configurable using files that can be edited with common text editors (possibly XML, if I can find a good library for handling XML - does anyone here know of one?).
• To be added (hopefully) soon after release: support for wraparound maps, increased scripting capabilities (like some of the things Gandalf is talking about on this and other threads), island hop/sea tunnel links, land/sea borders drawn offshore (like most hand drawn maps), force pop/income/res/supply based on terrain/area (if possible).
• If there is demand I may try to write a frontend that makes it easier to modify some options and launch dom2map from the frontend. Such a frontend would probably be less portable, though - although I will try to use cross-platform libraries if I can. The frontend is definitely (for me) a lower priority than the generator itself, though.

I don't have a release date yet - obviously it will have to be sometime after I get my hands on the full DomII map specs, but I also have a lot of coding left to do.

[blackwulf]

Pocus,

The dos delete did the trick. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out with this. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out a solution.

Thank you once again!

Blackwulf

[Wick]

Yay Chris!

Do you think you'll be able to avoid the map with one mountain, one forest, one ocean tendency that the current generator has?

Do you think that province sizes could actually reflect the difficulty of moving (i.e. terrain type) in the province? To me this seems the obviously proper determinant of province size but I haven't seen anyone else mention it. A double row of tiny provinces could be a very effective mountain range, letting the occasional guerilla through but causing armies to stick to passes.

[Johan K]

I'm looking forward to trying out the dom2map random map generator.

Mountain and forest provinces are already more difficult to pass through in dom II, so it should not be necessary to reduce their size too.

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Johan K:
I'm looking forward to trying out the dom2map random map generator.

Mountain and forest provinces are already more difficult to pass through in dom II, so it should not be necessary to reduce their size too.

Well, that's good, because it might be tricky to add that to dom2map. I'll try to explain, but it may get technical. You have been warned.

Province size is based primarily on capitol placement - if there are a lot of other capitols nearby, the province will probably be small. Dommap tends to place provinces evenly (if you have the number of provinces set high relative to the spacing options), which results in provinces being roughly the same size (although the shape options can change this somewhat, making it more or less likely that a given province will grab more terrain from its neighbors - but this still doesn't result in an entire region of unusually small provinces).

Maybe I could meddle with the distance-from-capitol metric based on terrain (since I'm already planning to implement capitol avoidance from various things differently than dommap) - I might look at this later, but it's not a priority for the first release Version.

Glad to see there is some interest (and from Illwinter too! )

Wouldn't tiny mountain provinces have really low supply values, though (they get docked once because they're mountain, and again because they're tiny)? Or is that part of the point?

[Wick]

"Wouldn't tiny mountain provinces have really low supply values, though (they get docked once because they're mountain, and again because they're tiny)? Or is that part of the point?"

Definately. I specified a double line so only a few hardy explorers could cross the peaks. Where a range is only a single province thick would be a pass. A small pass would leave an army tired (aka starving) with more of the same if it has to retreat, a larger one would be safer to invade through.

Oh well, it appears Dom2 is going to handle it less elega^H^H differently. ;-)

[Pocus]

Blackwulf : thank you for the thanks

Chris : Congrats for starting this major project. Hope it will progresses well.
As of now, dont put to much focus on extended scripting capabilities, as I'm doing a utility on that. If I'm screwed or if I have no more time, then you will have to take up the flame and carry it to the end though