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

[Ballbarian]

I must apologize for rushing the release Sunday night.
I had intended to spend a little time on trying to determine the best default settings to cause users the least amount of trouble, but you know the saying about not being able to see the forest for the trees?

[Ballbarian]

I kept pushing Johan and Kristoffer to get a player to do the manual and Im very pleased with the results. By the time a programmer gets to releasing something he has beta-tested it to death so he can no longer think like a newbie.

Maybe someone who is just tackling your programs for the first time will keep good notes and post us a small documentation file.

I thought that I had tricked Honeybadger into handling the documentation awhile back. I dazzled him with my archaic readme files, but he came to his senses and wandered away.

[Ballbarian]

Attached to this post is a late addition.
VINESET.zip
Includes 3 new province files and an additional name set to support them.

To use:
1. Place the '.GAN' files in your GAN_BIN directory.
2. Place the '.txt' files in your NAME_VAULT directory.
3. Open the LIST_CRATE directory and open NameList.txt
4. Append the following lines:
UNOTMPFOREST_DATA1
UNOTMPFOREST_DATA2
5. Open the GanList.txt file and append the follwing lines:
VINESET1_HOT_M_R_OR_FST_S_N_L_
VINESET2_TMP_M_R_OR_FST_S_N_L_
VINESET3_CLD_M_R_OR_FST_S_N_L_


That's it.

I haven't had the pleasure of playing a map with these forest provinces in them yet, but hopefully the reward vs the fight are worthwhile without being too much.


Enjoy.

[dmentd]

I just tried your suggestions and it did work. I got the program to randomize a map again by adjusting the AI starts. Thanks.

[Ballbarian]

Great! Thanks for letting me know dmentd.

I will try to at least put in some filler gods for any future releases, and I will spend a few more brain cells on default settings to help make life a little easier for everyone.

[Stryke11]

What's a "name set"? That is, why is updating those three files more complicated than just putting the gans in the gan bin? For every gan I make I don't have to change the ganslist.txt and namelist.txt files do I?

PS I'm still trying to find a good fiddle ratio. I'm playing at 200% right now and at turn like 10 I have two provinces. It feels like an RPG. Every province is crazy strong. I sent my prophet and a full army to a province with just some heavy infantry and archers, and was completely decimated by a Lady of Storms and a bunch of Sylphs.

[Ballbarian]

A name set is just 2 files ("_DATA1" & "_DATA2") that SemiRandom uses to generate random names. There are several methods that it uses which I discussed in this thread.

When you add gan files (province files) with the Province Editor, it does the foot work for you, but if you download a gan file, you have to add it to the gan file list so that SemiRandom knows about it. (I couldn't find a simple way to read the directory with Yabasic.)

Name files are the same way. You have to let SemiRandom know that they are there by adding them to the name list.

With the provinces you have been submitting, the province name is stored within the province file itself. It is possible to use external name lists that can be utilized by other province files as well.

Oh, and SemiRandom should never place special provinces right next door to your capital. These neighbor provinces should all be marked as off limits if you are using it's internal start placement. (I suspect you are using the settings that let Dom3 handle start placement.)

I recommend the following method:

To use the custom start placements without using the custom AI gods:
1. Go to the 'Starts' tab
2. Uncheck 'Lock Player Counts to Nat Cfg'
3. Set 'Desired Num Players' to your desired number of players.
4. Go to the 'AI Gods' tab
5. Set 'AI Land Players' & 'AI Sea Players' to 0 (zero)

[Stryke11]

Well, I had fun...I loved it.

Thanks Ball!