Map Forge Preview

[Illuminated One]

Does the program include a tool to distribute sites randomly/deterministically?
Say I wanted all forest province to have the same site? Or a random nature site?
If not you could maybe add a plugin compability (i.e. that you can run a program, dll or script on the map that does such things).

[chrispedersen]

Oooooh ..

May I request the Crisp Marches?

other ideas?
the neverending warrens?
The East/West Balbarians

(A (bad) pun... japanase would say balbalian.. so the east/west is balbarian...).

The lands of the Corograve Muskrats.
The Jaspar Conclave
The Meteoric Qatara

[Ballbarian]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

Does the program include a tool to distribute sites randomly/deterministically?
Say I wanted all forest province to have the same site? Or a random nature site?
If not you could maybe add a plugin compability (i.e. that you can run a program, dll or script on the map that does such things).

Not currently.
It should be simple enough to add plugin support. Would it be enough to pass command line parameters to an external app? Like map name and province count? What would you like to see?

[Ballbarian]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Oooooh ..

May I request the Crisp Marches?

other ideas?
the neverending warrens?
The East/West Balbarians

(A (bad) pun... japanase would say balbalian.. so the east/west is balbarian...).

The lands of the Corograve Muskrats.
The Jaspar Conclave
The Meteoric Qatara

You will be able to create your own custom .nam files. Below is the script for "Member Provinces.nam":

# Member Province Names
#
# Created for use with Map Forge by Ballbarian

:Start
1-2,[Member][Space][Obj]
3-4,[Member][Pos][Obj]
5-6,[Obj][OfThe][Member]
7-8,[Obj][Plural][OfThe][Member]
9-10,[Member][Pos][Obj][Plural]
11-15,[Affix][Space][Member][Suff]
16-20,[Member][Suff]


:Space
1, 

:Pos
1,'s 

:Plural
1,s

:OfThe
1, of the 
2, of 

:Obj
1,land
1,plain
1,field
1,prairie
1,home
1,fort
1,hold
1,horizon
1,Dell
1,Grassland
1,Sod
1,Meadow
1,Holding
1,Pasture
1,Range
1,Terra
1,Parkland
1,Steppe
1,Veldt
1,Flatland
1,Flat
1,Heath
1,Moor
1,Moorland
1,Plateau
1,Overland
1,Passage
1,Vale

:Member
1,Gandalf
1,Endoperez
1,llamabeast
1,Edi
1,Kristoffer
1,Johan
1,Sombre
1,lch
1,Alneyan
1,HoneyBadger
1,vfb
1,PashaDawg
1,chrispedersen
1,quantum_mechani
1,NTJedi
1,Ironhawk
1,Zeldor
1,Xietor
1,Nerfix
1,Aezeal
1,Lingchih
1,JimMorrison
1,archaeolept
1,Graeme Dice
1,Boron
1,Daynarr
1,Saber Cherry
1,MaxWilson
1,WraithLord
1,thejeff
1,Jazzepi
1,Taqwus
1,Arralen
1,DrPraetorious
1,Meglobob
1,Baalz
1,Richard
1,mac5732
1,Shovah32
1,Velusion
1,DonCorazon
1,rdonj
1,Foodstamp
1,Gregstrom
1,Agrajag
1,Strider
1,Tifone
1,Executor
1,Dedas
1,Argitoth
1,Ballbarian
1,Lazy_Perfectionist
1,Mindi
1,ano
1,Reverend Zombie
1,Annette
1,Micah
1,Burnsaber
1,Omnirizon
1,Morkilus
1,KissBlade
1,licker
1,Twan
1,Calahan
1,Folket
1,Hadrian_II
1,CUnknown
1,Amos
1,Tuidjy
1,Jurri
1,Amhazair
1,GrudgeBringer
1,AreaOfEffect
1,Trumanator
1,PhilD
1,calmon
1,Wrana
1,Azselendor
1,cleveland
1,Tim Brooks
1,Edratman
1,Bwaha
1,sum1lost
1,Psycho
1,Tyrant
1,johnarryn
1,Illuminated One
1,Sheap
1,jimkehn
1,djo
1,konming
1,Valerius
1,Squirrelloid
1,JaydedOne
1,Frozen Lama
1,Turin
1,VedalkenBear
1,Humakty
1,Hellboy
1,Jarkko
1,Pax
1,sector24
1,Juzza
1,RamsHead
1,BandarLover
1,paradoxharbinger
1,Psientist
1,Poopsi
1,coobe
1,Beorne
1,Quitti
1,OmikronWarrior
1,Tolkien
1,Jack_Trowell
1,Torin
1,SlipperyJim
1,Fantomen
1,Horst F. JENS
1,zepath
1,elmokki
1,das123
1,Panpiper
1,Adept
1,LDiCesare
1,DakaSha
1,vladikus

:Affix
1,east
1,high
1,lake
1,low
1,mount
1,new
1,north
1,old
1,port
1,south
1,west
1,fort

:Suff
1,abbey
1,ant
1,arbor
1,bank
1,bluff
1,bourne
1,bridge
1,brook
1,burg
1,bury
1,by
1,caster
1,chester
1,cord
1,cot
1,crest
1,dale
1,dell
1,den
1,don
1,down
1,dun
1,end
1,ey
1,fall
1,field
1,ford
1,fort
1,gard
1,garth
1,gate
1,glen
1,green
1,grove
1,ham
1,haven
1,head
1,hill
1,hold
1,hurst
1,ia
1,ing
1,ington
1,keep
1,lan
1,land
1,ley
1,lin
1,march
1,mark
1,marsh
1,mead
1,mere
1,minster
1,mond
1,mont
1,moor
1,more
1,mouth
1,park
1,point
1,port
1,ridge
1,shire
1,stead
1,stock
1,ston
1,ter
1,ton
1,town
1,vale
1,view
1,ville
1,wall
1,way
1,well
1,wich
1,wick
1,worth

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by Ballbarian

Not currently.
It should be simple enough to add plugin support. Would it be enough to pass command line parameters to an external app? Like map name and province count? What would you like to see?

Yeah, that would be completely fine. I think maybe along the lines of save as a temp file, start app with command line (temp file name + whatever is helpful, maybe number of provinces or memory offsets), wait and reload it to see the changes immediately.
But having the functions inbuilt would be a lot better.

[Ballbarian]

Random commander & province name functionality appears to be working well.

Now toying with some rough tool scripting support. Nothing fancy, but here are some sample scripts:

=====================================
Sample script: "MarkNoStartTool.mfs"

# Mark all provinces nostart
:TOOL
  Mark all NoStart
:SELECT ALL PROVINCES
:THEN
  nostart = TRUE


=====================================
Sample script: "NoIndependentsTool.mfs"

# Make NI map (No Independents)
:TOOL
  Make NI Map
:SELECT ALL PROVINCES
:THEN
  poptype = 99

=====================================
Sample script: "MuddySeasTool.mfs"

# Make seas unattractive
:TOOL
  Muddy Seas
:SELECT PROVINCES WHERE
  tsea = TRUE
:THEN
  #kill is equiv to #land (clears province)
  kill = TRUE
  poptype = 99
  population = 0

The above scripts will likely come with MF. The following sample just gives a broader picture of what should be possible:

=====================================
Sample script: "SampleTool.mfs"

#sample script...
#comment line is ignored
:TOOL
  Sample Tool
:SELECT PROVINCES WHERE
  tplain = TRUE
  nostart = FALSE
:THEN
  #province data modified
  knownfeature = 268
  temple = TRUE
  lab = TRUE
  nostart = TRUE

:SELECT PROVINCES WHERE
  tforest = TRUE
:THEN
  #commander added to province
  comtype = 521
  comname = "Bob"
  bodyguard = 433
  bodyguardcount = 12
  item = "Thunder Whip"

Still a work in progress, but the idea is for you to be able to write your own simple tools and have them appear in a menu within Map Forge. Additional language elements may appear depending upon time and ease of implementation. I hope to be able to add simple functions for random selections. For example: 10-12 bodyguards, commander type 521,262,333 etc.

Thoughts?

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by Ballbarian

Random commander & province name functionality appears to be working well.


I hope to be able to add simple functions for random selections. For example: 10-12 bodyguards, commander type 521,262,333 etc.

Thoughts?

The random commander(s) for provinces is a great idea.
Allow the map maker to choose how many random commanders (1 thru 9). Perhaps a future version can include random equipment for the random commanders... yet some items such as the assassin heart and bane venom charm should not be included in the random list. Low_Random means 0 thru 2 random items, Medium_Random means 1 thru 4 random items or less, High_Random means 2 thru 6 random items and Max_Random means 3 thru 8 random items.


In regards to the bodyguards 10-12 seems high unless it's a powerful mage. A normal commander should probably have 1 or 2 bodyguards, a mounted commander 2 or 3 bodyguards, and mages 3 bodyguards for each mage level.
And each commander should have a 2% chance of having magic paths where 75% are level_1, 10% are level_2, 7% are level_3, 4% are level_4, 2% are level_5 and 2% are level_6 or higher.

Hope these ideas are helpful.

[chrispedersen]

+++

Hmm, even better than random would be random from a list of good ideas - ie., like some of the choices you and gandalf have originated.

[Foodstamp]

Hey Ball,

I was curious about the map you are using in the video. It looks like a map from Battle for Wesnoth. I was wondering how you extracted the map from the game. Also, did you have to manual insert the white dots for the provinces or is that a feature in the Map Forge, allowing you to specify where the provinces are? If you did do it manual, how did you map out the hexes to place the dots?

Thanks!

[NTJedi]

Any chance the map forge tool is ready?

Perhaps we can at least have the beta version, thus if something draws you away from Dominions_3 the community will at least have the current map forge tool.
Things which may unexpectedly drag you away from Dominions_3:
Another game, computer hardware failure, death/illness, career change, etc., etc.,