[request for help] unique provinces ideas

Jack_Trowell · #1 January 16th, 2007, 11:49 AM

For the next version of my map randomizer (see http://dominions.realites.org), I will have some province be assigned preset provinces, some uniques, choosend randomly in a list, with different terrain types as requirement.

The problem is that in order for that to work, I need a base list of such provinces and their required terrain types, and I lack the time to both do the programming and parse the units/sites lists to create those provinces.

So I ask the community for provinces ideas that I will use in my scripts.

Exemples (thanks Gandalf for the first 3 !) :

-------
Landname : BlackWood Forest (provinces with landnames are uniques and won't be used more that once)
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Centaur Hierophant" with "Black Bow" [x5]
-------
Landname : Forest of Shafts
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Centaur Hierophant" with "Bow of war" [x6]
-------
Landname : HarpaKazi
required terrains : forest
Commanders :
"Black Harpy" with "Medallion of Vengeance" [x8]
-------
Landname : Castle Morco
required terrains : none
Commanders :
"Commander" ("Duke Morco") with randomequip 4
and "tower guards" bodyguards [x5]
Fort in province (unspecified, will depend on terrain type)
-------
Landname : Sea of Storms
required terrains : deep, sea
Commanders :
<some underwater commander with bodyguards and units>
<some underwater air or water site>
poptype <some water poptype>
population 10000
-------

As you can see with the last exemple, I can set *any* site, commander or other feature to the province, I just lack the time to explore the units and sites lists to choose what's appropriate that's why I need your help

Note that a province can have multiple requirements (such as a witch cursed province that would need both forest and swamp)

I'm *not* limited to the exemples I gave : once again, my scripts can handle *any* map or commander command, provided I have the correct names/numbers, so feel free to make any suggestion, even extreme ones, such as a province with the "Nexus" as a known feature, guarded with several archmages and a few dragons (at least, you know that what you fight for), and I can also randomize part of the province if needed.

Gandalf Parker · #2 January 16th, 2007, 01:36 PM

If anyone is really good at organizing, there are many projects which could benefit from some databasing. If someone would go thru the monsters one at a time and create tags for everything they can think of. Such as
pretender?
monster?
summons?
commander?
troop?
solo?
maybe even make a judgement on better bodyguard than it is commander or troop?

Also:
avian? mammal? aquatic?
intelligent? mindless? undead?
dragon? were-creature? blob/slime? magical ball?

and of course:
forest? mountain? waste? swamp? farmland?

My thinking is that some projects could greatly benefit from such a list. This project would benefit from being able to get ideas by asking for all were's, or all avians, or all slimes, just to try and generate a special province.

And my randomizers would benefit wonderfully if I could randomize aqutics to the water, and mountain creatures to the mountains.

Agrajag · #3 January 16th, 2007, 04:18 PM

I think that when Edi will finish and publish his DB it will be much easier to come up with cool indepts since you wouldn't have to work from memory.

Especially my lame memory

Oh, and do you want troops as well, or just commanders? Because it could get pretty wierd if your Duke Morco ended up commanding some X tribe warriors :X

Gandalf Parker · #4 January 16th, 2007, 04:33 PM

Yes, I already provide routines for totally random placements of commander, bodyguard, and troops. It can be interesting to see a slinger with dragon bodyguards and monolith troops.. but obviously something that is random and ALSO abit more logical would be gratefully accepted by many players.

Jack_Trowell · #5 January 16th, 2007, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Agrajag said:
I think that when Edi will finish and publish his DB it will be much easier to come up with cool indepts since you wouldn't have to work from memory.

Yes, once the DB is released, I plan to import it in a mysql database, add my own additionnal informations, and start using it like mad. ^_^

Quote:

Especially my lame memory

Oh, and do you want troops as well, or just commanders? Because it could get pretty wierd if your Duke Morco ended up commanding some X tribe warriors :X

I can take any suggestion. Yes currently morco has no specific units, and has to do with the local poptype, but I can easily set the poptype (http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/Dom3_Poptypes.txt , maybe a random poptype beetween 48 an 56 ?)

I can set *anything* that is allowed by map commands, and even add a little random touch if needed.

I can set the population, the poptype, have only the chosen units in the province or keep the normal poptype units, I can put any site or building, any set of commanders/bodyguards/units/items, all I need is for some ideas, as I don't have currently enough time to both program and do the needed research for units,sites,... names or IDs.

I could make a lengendary province, for exemple "Nexus", guarded by several archmages and dragons, with the unique magic site of the same name, maybe a swamp waste "burial of the ancient kings", guarded by C'tis undeads, mummies, and a mighty saurolich, and with the site that allow a death mage to summon mummies, maybe a province with one of the sites with a magic bonus, guarded by some powerful titans or demons, ...

The only thing : those provinces, as they are harder to conquer, should all give the player some bonus (in the base system, all such provinces will have the "manysites" flag, but a specific magic site thematically sound, and more or less powerful depending on the defense would make for a great reward)

Jack_Trowell · #6 January 16th, 2007, 05:04 PM

I just had an idea : we cannot add province descriptions that could have made unique province more flavorful, buth I could give each unique province a description and add it to the map description.

That way when you're about to start the game, you would have the list of uniques provinces and their background/description/backstory.

What do you think ?

Gandalf Parker · #7 January 16th, 2007, 05:20 PM

The descripts would need to be pretty short but Ive seen other maps do that without it being too bad. On the other hand, should a randomly improved map tell me ahead of time that "the wondrous wizards academy" is somewhere on the map?

Gandalf Parker · #8 January 16th, 2007, 05:44 PM

Idea Sparkers
Arent you irritated when you take a province expecting there to be a magic site or something that explains why there were so many xxxxxxx there? Only to find nothing that made sense? This is your chance to create that province. Where SHOULD they be living? WHY are they there? Is there a magic site or structure that they were all drawn to? Or a specific commander with a specific item? Can you create a province that makes sense AND would be an "interesting" surprise to whoever attacks it?

If you could name and build a province specifically selecting units, population type, buildings, monsters, any equipment on the commanders, and any magic sites.
Then what comes to mind for a province built around a

Temple:
or shrine
grove
altar
stonehenge
Forts:
Wizards Tower
Dark Citadel
Jeweled City
Lab:
in the forest
on a lonely mountain
experimental lab in a swamp
Poptype:
raptors
hoburg
crystal amazon
atavi apes
trolls
groups:
paladin
rangers
druids
clerics
thieves
items:
black hearts
whip of command
thunder bow and lightning spear
slave and master matrix
Monsters:
hydra
gorgon
mother of monsters
undead such as ghosts or wights
king of the deep
spiders
living plants
devils

Lists are available at
http://www.Dom3Minions.com/docs
Think what it would be like if we all created just unique province.

HoneyBadger · #9 January 17th, 2007, 02:45 AM

I think it would also be a really good idea to go through and do screen captures of all the units in the game as well, for modding purposes. I'm not sure I'm willing to volunteer for such a gigantic task, but maybe if everyone takes one Nation in an age group, with over 50 nations, that'd be a big start. I'd certainly volunteer to take for instance Abyssia EA or whatever. That's what I'm playing now.

Jack_Trowell · #10 January 17th, 2007, 05:47 AM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
I think it would also be a really good idea to go through and do screen captures of all the units in the game as well, for modding purposes. I'm not sure I'm willing to volunteer for such a gigantic task, but maybe if everyone takes one Nation in an age group, with over 50 nations, that'd be a big start. I'd certainly volunteer to take for instance Abyssia EA or whatever. That's what I'm playing now.

Give me a database with all units stats, number and the corresponding images, and I'll make an online tool that will allow to create mods from scratch. ^_^