Newbie Slug Fest - Mose Hansen game - ENDED

[The Panther]

OK, with the addition of Aku and Curious Cat, and with Baboune declining and Pickles AWOL, we now have ten players in the game. But no water races. I wonder the significance of that...

Anyway, it seems that the map is pretty much the only major open question left now. Options are:
1. Aduria - 153 land + 34 water = 188 total
2. Cradle - 199 land + 22 water = 221 total
3. Europe - 134 total - I could not find the tga file on the net, but the map file on Zen's site says water nations have a significant advantage, so I doubt it works for us here with likely too much water places.
4. Karan - 142 land + 20 water = 162 total
5. Inland - 149 land + 5 water = 154 total

Cradle description says that players will not start on wasteland, swamp, magic site, or swamp. But there are no #nostart provinces on the list, so they must be hardcoded into the province type. I read somewhere that this does not always work on certain dom Versions. I tested it a small amount and this seemed to work as advertised, but I have not come close to knowing for sure. Anybody know the answer to this for certain?

Arduria says the intent is to be used with VPs, but this is not necessary. Puting in a province victory condition works just fine. There are 12 land and 2 sea starting locations on the map. Only one of these starting provinces is not very good (16). The only real problem with this map is that the starting locations near the poles have fairly poor-income adjacent provinces. But good for site searching, of course.

I know that Karan has a couple of few poor starting locations too, and it might need to be edited to even this out.

As for the lack of water race, both Aduria and Cradle have water mixed throughout the map with no blocks caused by lakes or oceans, making the lack of a water nation not overly important. Karan has most of the water bunched in the south.

Other map choices???

As for selecting the number of provinces required to win, you can generally pick a number ending in 0, 4, or 7. Sometimes 1, 3, and 6 are choices too. For example, here is a list of the options from 90 - 120:
91, 94, 97, 100, 104, 107, 110, 113, 117, 120

So, in conclusion, if we want a longer game, then the choice should be Cradle. If we want a shorter one, then Inland or Karan. Aduria is kind of a medium length map with its 188 provinces.

Right now, my vote is Cradle with about 125 provinces required for victory.

[Cainehill]

The Panther said:
Cradle description says that players will not start on wasteland, swamp, magic site, or swamp. But there are no #nostart provinces on the list, so they must be hardcoded into the province type. I read somewhere that this does not always work on certain dom Versions. I tested it a small amount and this seemed to work as advertised, but I have not come close to knowing for sure. Anybody know the answer to this for certain?

The problem with nostart being encoded into the province type is that it becomes more likely that some provinces will be mis-coded, especially if any updates are done to the map, and it's much more difficult to verify, since you can't just grep for '#nostart'. Unfortunately the map editor doesn't use '#nostart', which is apparently why most of the maps don't have it.

I haven't heard anything about the hardcoding not working with certain dominions Versions (which doesn't mean it's not possible) but in any case, all your players should be using the same, latest, Version, so that shouldn't be an issue either way.

Personally, I think you can't go wrong with the Cradle map - it's probably my favorite based both on aesthetics and gameplay, while Zen's Europe is also gorgeous and seems perfect for a smaller quicker game. (If y'all want quick and dirty, Europe might be good even without any water nations - it's recommended that you either have both or neither water nation.)

[Grim Knight]

I vote for Cradle.

Grim Knight.

[deccan]

I vote for cradle too. I already have it so I won't need to download another one. Heh. Better clarify which Version of the .map file we will be using though, as there seems to be several...

[Aku]

I am willing to switch to a water race if you want to do Europe map lol. I never used either water race in mp either.

For the map picks I have only played inland and karan. I have no idea what the other maps are so I will just let you guys decide on a map.

[The Panther]

Aku said:
I am willing to switch to a water race if you want to do Europe map lol. I never used either water race in mp either.

Cradle will work quite well for a water race, and probably even ought to have one. There is a nice collection of water provinces on the left side of the map and even a bay deep into the map interior.

[The Panther]

I think we are supposed to do the cradle2 Version, which supposedly fixes some bugs in the allowed start locations from the earlier Versions (1 and 1.4?). All my tests so far have been on Version 2 of the map, and I have yet to find a totally screwball starting spot. That does not mean they ain't there, though.

Grim, you, as the host, are the only one who really needs the map file. Look at the one on the illwinter site labeled 'PhilD's fixed map' and see if it is a later Version than the zencradle14 one.

Everyone else just needs the tga file, I believe.

Zen, if you read this, can you elaborate on your Version 1.4? Is the Version 2 better?

[Grim Knight]

The .tga file should be the same for all Versions, as far as the .map file the one that I am refering to is the Version modified by Zen.

zencradlev14.map

This file is kind of difficult to locate as it is not posted on any of the sites that have maps for download, to get it I had to do a search of the Boards to find the Thread in which it was posted.

For ease of access in this instance I will attach the file to this post. The attached file is only the .map file as the .tga is easily found for download from www.illwinter.com

Grim Knight

[Zen]

Zen is stingy with his maozzezz, precious. Precious, it burns us!