Gandalf's Random Circus

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
Hmm, by looking at those maps I'd say you could almost use them in Dom II without any changes. The only thing that could be the problem are those dots in upper left corner.

Ive been considering trying to write a ghost script or a gimp script to do that. In its simplest form it could just overwrite the first 16 bits with a color for borders?

The rest seems to be just fine. If you could make RMG that wont make those dots you could have Dom II RMG. At least it looks that way to me.

There is source code available Online for the generator that created those maps. There are things that Dom 1 filled in automatically if it was missing in the MAP file that Dom 2 (for some reason) isnt going to be as forgiving about. But it should be fairly easy for someone to modify the old code. I think its written in C. If some C programmer doesnt eventually take a look at it maybe I will. Finding where the first 16 dots are put in and snipping that, then finding where it writes lines for the MAP file and adding a few, might not need real understanding of the language.

[Johan K]

There are minor things to think about though. Dom II doesn't detect whether a province is sea/large/small/mountain/forest or not. So these things would have to be entered in the map file as well.

And the reason Dom II is less good at guessing things is of course that it allows the artist much greater freedom when desining the maps. That 10 color limitation was a bit too much spectrum 48 for its own good.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Johan K:
There are minor things to think about though. Dom II doesn't detect whether a province is sea/large/small/mountain/forest or not. So these things would have to be entered in the map file as well.

So the maps generated by the dommap program cannot be used in Dom 2, but the TGA's it makes could be?

[Gandalf Parker]

Games Im having fun with now.....

Fast Start: Everyone gets 7 extra provinces besides the home province. Also my usual extra random commander with extra random bodyguards and extra random magic items. The first round becomes very important because the game automatically attacks extra provinces in the first round. You have to decide which provinces will do you the most good and beef up their defence in order to keep them.

Blind Luck: Luck can be good or bad. Im having alot of fun with this. Its about as extreme as I think I can get. Just about EVERYTHING has a CHANCE to be randomized. It runs thru the entire 424 provinces (I like big maps) and then goes thru each thing that can be randomized, randomly decides whether or not to pop it in there, and if it does then it picks a randomer for that item. The first is whether to mark the province with a #land or a #setland (land blanks the province before adding). Then comes population type, owner, and defence. Then whether to add structures such as castle, temple, lab. Then a chance for minor commander with minor equip and units. Then a chance for a major command with major equip and units. I havent worked in sites yet. So any province might have any combo of the things above. It might be completely empty and free to the fist person. It might have all the structures and alot of extra units. It might be owned by one of the races including you. These things are set just high enough that nearly every province gets something.

Of course the funnest thing about these is that if its not a feasable start I can always run the script again for a whole new layout.

[ October 14, 2003, 14:44: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]