Utility: RanDom v2.03 - Map gen & Semirandomizer... Updated

[Ballbarian]

Below is a screen shot of the new RanDom interface:

[Gandalf Parker]

Great program. Here are my favorite settings.
100,30,50,30,20,10,10,#TRUE#,1600,1200,150,#FALSE# ,50,100,50,255,20,30,110,200,100,200,20,100,40,120 ,200,100,100,15

Growing up in the plains Im abit bugged by dirt-colored plains.

[Ballbarian]

Replaced v200 with v201: Fixed a minor problem with the anti aliasing & normal mount check boxes when turning them on via a stg file.

Thanks Gandalf!
Trying out your settings brought a bug to my attention which is now fixed. (Why on earth VB wants to turn a boolean TRUE into "-1" instead of "1" is beyond me. )

Here is a thumb of Gandalf's settings:

[Ballbarian]

Since I have a little more time tonight, thought I would highlight some of what was added to the SemiRandom portion.

1. Map text color can now be set.
2. Random start distributions can be set.
3. God files can be added similar to the methods used for adding province files. At this point, I have only created 1-2 gods for each nation in EA with the exception of Tir na n'Og. Over time, I hope to have a variety for all nations of all eras, but I would really enjoy playing games with a variety of gods designed by other players.


Steps for setting up a game using custom gods:
1. Use RanDom to generate desired map (if one not already available).
2. Set SemiRand options within RanDom.
3. Hit "Semi Randomize" to execute the SemiRand settings.
4. Copy yourMapsName_SR.map from the SemiRandom directory to your dominions3/maps directory.
5. Start a new game in dom3, select the SR map. The only age available will be the one that was set in RanDom.
6. On the participants screen, hit <add new player> until it greys out. This is how many nations were "allowed" when start positions were generated. Note that this number may be less than numPlayers!
7. Select the human player's nation(s) from the available nations. (the others are AI nations). Do not select a nation that was set to AI in RanDom or you will crash Dominions!
8. Set or load human gods.
9. Adjust dom3 game settings.
10. Start game and boom. All set.


Sample GAN file:
BALL17_LK_M_A_N_SEA_.gan
Code:

---

@RANDOM landname LAKE

-- Landlocked Sea Populations

@3 poptype

65 --Ichtyids

72 --Mermen

85 --Kappa

---

Sample GOD file:
BALL1_11_A_EA_.god
Code:

---

#god 11 138 -- PANGAEA GORGON

@RANDOM comname COMMANDER

#clearmagic

#mag_earth 9

#mag_nature 4

#additem "Shield of Gleaming Gold" 	-- hand slot

#additem "Sword of Sharpness"		-- hand slot

#additem "Black Steel Helmet"		-- head slot

#additem "Robe of Invulnerability" 	-- body slot

#additem "Boots of the Messenger" 	-- feet slot

#additem "Amulet of Antimagic" 		-- misc slot

#additem "Amulet of Missile Protection" -- misc slot

#dominionstr 11 10

#scale_chaos 11 3

#scale_lazy 11 1

#scale_cold 11 -1

#scale_death 11 -3

#scale_unluck 11 -2

#scale_unmagic 11 2

-- 6 points left if we were dormant...

---

[Endoperez]

Wait - is the .god file something that gives AI nations intelligently designed pretenders? If it is, this must be one of the GREATEST tools available for a friend of single-player Dominions.

Why do you use a '@random #comname COMMANDER' for the Gorgon, when the game already has huge namelists defined for the various monsters, and uses a list that's probably more fitting than your general one?

Also, I think you can't have too many special provinces. It can be tedious to learn how to make new ones, so I'll start an idea thread and actualize some of the better ones myself. I don't think I'll have time to do any this weekend, but I should have time next week, so I'll go and start the tread now.

[Ballbarian]

The intention is to give AI nations intelligently designed pretenders, although I don't claim that the pretenders that I designed to act as examples are.

I used the @random for the commander names simply to show that you could use @random's in the god files. I intended to go back to the files and do a variety of improvements to the designs of the individual gods, but time always seems so short and I wanted to get to the finish line instead of letting it rot away on my hard drive.

I agree with you completely. The more special provinces that are available to select from, the better. No promises, but I am considering options for a simple GAN editor to hopefully make the process of creating and adding special province files a little easier.

[Gandalf Parker]

The thing holding me up is going back and forth between Edi's files and an editor. If the two could be merged then we might be on a roll.

[Ballbarian]

Gandalf Parker said:
Great program. Here are my favorite settings.
100,30,50,30,20,10,10,#TRUE#,1600,1200,150,#FALSE# ,50,100,50,255,20,30,110,200,100,200,20,100,40,120 ,200,100,100,15

Growing up in the plains Im abit bugged by dirt-colored plains.

Thanks for sharing this Gandalf. I am currently enjoying a challenging game on a map generated with these settings. It worked out perfectly. Playing EA Rlyeh and the map generated included two large, bodies of water (north & south) with an isthmus separating them. A serious mountain range runs through the center of the strip with many chokepoints and one-neighbor provinces that SemiRandom turned into caves. Perfect for my darkvision hordes. Trying desperately to cross the land to get to Atlantis so that I can lay claim to their body of water. (Even found a nice lake to slosh around in along the way. )

On another subject, I have found and squished a bug in SemiRandom that crept up. It involved start placements for water nations under some circumstances. Also am in the process of adding a check box that will apply changes in the RanDom nation sliders to the SemiRandom settings player counts. This appears to be working great, but I want to fiddle with it for a while longer to look for any problems it could introduce. Seems to really simplify setting up a game. For my current game, I just set all of the early era nations to AI except for Tir na n'Og which I disabled, and Rlyeh which I set to human. Then I just hit SemiRandomize and baboom, off and playing.

I should be able to release an updated version by this coming weekend.