Random observations about mapmaking

[Endoperez]

It is possible to have an army attack any human-owned province on turn 2. How to do this:
1) Select a province, via #setland if you want the original defenders attacking (in addition to the ones you set)
2) If you want the attackers to be independent, add them before defining any owner for the province. You can add multiple commanders, give them items/units/bodyguards, name them, etc.
3) Set province owner via #owner command. Set the second army. Repeat 3 as many times as you wish, always changing the nation. The last nation will start as the province's owner, and will have the forces you defined after the last #owner command. Next turn, all the other forces will attack that province.

As far as I know this isn't used in any map, but it could make an interesting addition to scenario description. As an example, a scenario of the fall of Ermor could have weak-ish undead forces attacking all provinces. Ermor would have enough money to build temple into each province it caught, because it would get income from them for as long as their dominion doesn't touch that province. And after the temple has been build, their dominion will spread.... Imagine miniature Ermors breeding all over the map like cancer.

[Endoperez]

Even more interesting than attack-in-the-second-turn would be the enemy attacking in the first turn, and a message to accompany it. I have thought of making a tutorial using a predefined pretender and modified Clash of Titans map, using these two tricks.

Of course, no map-editing commands are able to send you messages, not in the beginning nor in the end. But we don't have to use a map, because we can share an already-generated game. No scenario to my knowledge does this, but there is no reason not to. If you play the first turn or two yourself, appoint a prophet and send in-game message or messages to all nations, you can achieve interesting results. Example:
You give a province number Xthe following information:
#land X
#landname X "Sacred Hill"
#victorypoints 1
#owner 0
#commander Demonbred
#unit 10 Abysian Infantry
#unit 10 Humanbred
#owner 4
#commander High Priest
#commander High Priest
#commander High Priest
#temple
#defense 5
#knownfeature "Glowing Hill"
#knownfeature "White Man Hill"

You make a new game for this map, winning condition being victorypoints but with no random VPs at all, and start it. In the first turn, you name a prophet (probably from pre-set commander that fits the scenario, be it High Priest, or Fire Lord, or Harbringer) and send yourself a message. The message would tell how a (beautiful being/brave hero/holy man) appeared and told how foul Abysians attacked the most holy site on the entire world, massacred the priests, and how you would have to get it back. Now host it, and Ta-da! You have a scenario that is little more than the others.

The "first" turn reads that it is a second, but starts with a fight where Abysians massacre three poorly-defended High Priests, and the messages tell you both the story behind this, and that the message-bringer is your Prophet. If this is a tutorial, you could have sent another message, in which you tell what kind of general strategy to follow, and even give hints about hard provinces. As you can just copy the game files into another folder and play that copy, you can just play a few turns to be sure there is no Inkpot End anywhere, as well as host the first turn again if the priests got away.

[shovah]

sounds fun, sign me up . does sound pretty cool though (i wish i had time for map makeing)

[Endoperez]

shovah said:
sounds fun, sign me up . does sound pretty cool though (i wish i had time for map makeing)

My thoughts exactly. These came up in map-related project, but I weren't exactly trying to make a map. At least, nothing as simple as this example here...