If your an SP player let me know if....

[Thanatus del Dragos]

I've enabled Private messages, this sounds like fun.

[Thanatus del Dragos]

Oh, and I would like to play as Fomoria, is that is alright and no one has chosen them.

[Hrum]

Maybe Doo will update the first post, but I think the summary so far is:

(Doo, if I've got any of the details wrong below please let me know.)

Patch v3.26 (are we using the new patch?)
Mod: Better Independents v2.1 (otherwise vanilla)
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39225

Map: *Alexander (290 provinces: 246 land, 44 sea)

*Doo is running the map through semi-rand to spice up the independents and buff the AIs, and maybe getting some additional ideas from NTJedi for some additional customization. End result, I don't think there's any need to download the map from the forums here - we'll be playing a fairly modified version of it which Doo (or Llamaserver) will distribute.

Early Age
5 players vs ? AIs (single team of AIs?)

Gold, resources and gems standard.

Score graphs on?
Hof 15?
Renaming on?

Player Nations:

? Doo
? Endomorphius
? Mauxe
Kailasa Hrum
Fomoria Thanatus del Dragos

[NTJedi]

One important piece of information: I will need at least one AI opponent(preferably two) with a fixed starting location. Otherwise there's very little I can do to help them.

The help I will provide the AI opponents will primarily be defensive... then any future maps I can make more challenging if desired.

[Doo]

Originally Posted by NTJedi

One important piece of information: I will need at least one AI opponent(preferably two) with a fixed starting location. Otherwise there's very little I can do to help them.

The help I will provide the AI opponents will primarily be defensive... then any future maps I can make more challenging if desired.

I'm hoping to fix all locations so this is ok.

Please head over to this thread in the Multiplayer section and post there. I've put the game parameters in the first post.

Please don't post in this thread anymore.

[Gandalf Parker]

I know you said to not post but this thread might still be a good place to post the "how and why" stuff to keep it separate from the "MP game and join up" stuff.

What you are creating is referred to as a "scenario" game. Where there is a story and goal other than just king-of-the-hill player-vs-player.

Some things to consider..

You can zone the map to make things easier for the players to cooperate. Not scatter the AIs in with the players. Since the game numbers provinces from bottom to top, this is easiest if the AI has control of the top or the bottom of the map (or both). Then a script can be created to easily mark a large portion of the top or bottom as "no start" allowing the players to be randomly placed within the zone still left open.

Some scenarios Ive had are D.A.R.E. (Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh and Ermor alliance) where Ermor was majorly entrenched on a southern island with Atlantis and Rlyeh in oceans protecting it. Since Ermor as allied it would not attack Atlantis and Rlyeh and they would not attack each other. So the wter nations tried to expand, while Ermor sat and researched. The goal was to take out Ermor before it hit some critical spells.

In NaV I created super-allied nations which used each others units. And gave them directions of attack across the map. (the AI hates separated castles and will concentrate on connecting them)

Ive also done "Independents Uprising" , and "Mother Nature is Pissed" (2 Oceania and 3 Pangaea allied, "the various nations of Man have begun to destroy the planet, Beware of Global Swarming"), and a very simple one called WE-vs-THEM which split the map and gave half to the AIs. Also one called "We Have Created a Pantheon" (bunch of gods dividing up jobs such as god of the air, god of the earth, god of the dead) which used pretenders born of the same mother.

Giving the AI immobile pretenders also helps avoid some problems. Also boosting their resources, and boosting their research, can put them more on par with human players. I would put add resource boost sites on the AIs main castle (to nudge it to make more of its elite units) and magic boost sites on its secondary castle.

[Gandalf Parker]

Oh and you can create allied teams among the computer players. I do it in my Chaos games.

I was also considering it for a scenario game. "The One God has arrisen and already has a One Enemy. We are trapped between them. Heathens and Pagans and Idols unite. Throw out your old personal gripes and form a single mission. To survive." which was going to use two of Anos modded nations. One built around angels had the top of the map and one that is built around devils had the bottom. Those were "aimed" at each other using no-neighbor provinces owned in the other AIs territory so their first goal would be to reach each other. The players were all randomly placed in the middle between the two opposing forces.

Oh and NT Jedi is a great choice for doing your AI setup. Especially if you are using LLamaServer since the AIs will have to be human started then turned AI. You lose and gain some options that way. You cant choose aggressive, defensive, standard as AI settings and you Im not sure if you can exceed human pretender build limitations. But you can do a god that is dormant or imprisoned.

[Doo]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

.....and you Im not sure if you can exceed human pretender build limitations. But you can do a god that is dormant or imprisoned.

Bummer, because thats a key factor of the SemiRand program, AI's with pretenders decked out in gear, wielding boosted magic levels and with happy scales.

I must investigate this.

[Gandalf Parker]

LLamaServer's menu just cant take in every possible thing about the game. If you are a creative person who tends to exceed menu'd lists then for some things you will probably always have to go to a server where you can choose absolutely anything.

The game is kindof "broken" as far as whether or not to use map-command gods or directly chosen gods. If it was working "right" it would only allow one or the other. Especially for downloadable scenarios. If there is a map-built god, then it should not allow someone to join as that nation. And if they do join and create a god then it should ignore all of the map commands.

But if Ermor has a map-command god, and someone joins as Ermor and sends in a god, what you end up with is alittle bit of both. I havent played with that much. Like I said I considered it broken. But if I remember right your uploaded god is used for the selection of the chasis and magic. The map commands for the scales. That might let you exceed build-limits. I dont know if it fails cheat check, and I dont know. about equip. But if I remember, it still wont do quite what you want.

[Doo]

Mauxe and Endomorphious, I've moved the discussion for this game to:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...126#post769126