Ok, version 0.7 of the map is attached. The change-log and start locations are as follows.
Start Locations
Twenty one Land....
#1 --- 30
#2 --- 22 *** Too good?
#3 --- 65 *** Six adjoining, but two are wastes, and in fairly exposed spot.
#4 --- 66
#5 --- 67
#6 --- 76 *** Too good?
#7 --- 89 *** Connected 89 - 85 to ensure four adjoining.
#8 --- 140
#9 --- 152
#10 -- 153 *** Too safe?
#11 -- 157 *** Removed connection 157 - 161 to stop overlap with water capital at 139.
#12 -- 164 *** Only three adjoining. Will balance either by finding another adjoining, or give adjoining gold/resources mines, large province tags, add farmland etc.
#13 -- 167 *** Swamp start, can easily remove the swamp though.
#14 -- 202
#15 -- 206
#16 -- 207 *** Removed all the 'many sites' tags that were near here.
#17 -- 232 *** Connected 232-222 to ensure four adjoining.
#18 -- 247 *** Removed connection 247 - 245 to ensure three provinces between capital at 272
#19 -- 267
#20 -- 272
#21 -- 287
Three Water....
#1 --- 139 *** Removed connection with 168 to ensure only three adjoining, and to maintain distance from other water capitals.
#2 --- 265 *** Connected 265 - 7 and 265 - 251 (I advise enabling the neighbour connections UI option.)
#3 --- 33
All Land capitals should be between 3-4 provinces away (ie.Cap-Indy-Indy-Indy-Cap) from their nearest neighbour.
All Water capitals should be 6 provinces away from both other Water capitals. With approach access available from both sides, so all three can have 2-on-1 wars.
As you can see, I've made comments regarding several of the starting locations. These are not based on any testing, but more a gut feeling of unease I have about some starts being a bit better than others. This is just part of the game though, as no way for this to ever be solved unless you play on totally symmetrical / mirror imaged maps. I've made note of them though in case some are just too outside the norm. Will await feedback on these before I attempt to do anything about them.
Also commented on where I've had to change the default province connections and why. Here is the full change list regarding province connections, and the reasoning behind them.
New Water Connections
192 - 227 *** So that Water is wraparound.
227 - 266 *** So that Water is wraparound
265 - 251 *** So that Water is wraparound. Need to add a new river to the map for clarity.
5 - 266 *** So that Water is wraparound. Need to add a new river to the map for clarity.
265 - 7 *** So that the Water capital at 265 has three adjoining
176 - 171 *** To remove isolated water province, be consistent with river connections, and enable more tactical options. Easy enough to remove this connection though if people think it's unneeded or just simply a bad idea.
183 - 68 *** To remove isolated water province, be consistent with river connections, and enable more tactical options. Easy enough to remove this connection though if people think it's unneeded or just simply a bad idea.
Removed Water Connections
168 - 139 *** To ensure fairness with only three adjoining for Water capital at 139, and to maintain equal distance between all Water capitals.
Removed Water - Land Connections
161 - 157 *** To ensure that the Land capital at 157 does not share an adjoining capital province with the Water capital at 139.
New Land Connections
85 - 89 *** To ensure capital at 89 has four adjoining.
232 - 222 *** To ensure capital at 232 has four adjoining.
Removed Land Connections
245 - 247 *** To maintain minimum three province gap between capital at 272.
Almost all the changes to connections are for balance purposes. I've also tried to give the Water nations a fighting chance to get on land by giving their capitals Land adjoining provinces that are not part of a Land nations adjoining capital province. If that makes sense?!? I'm also hoping this will help slightly with the Dominion spread problem that Water nations often have when the water is elongated. (like it is on this map)
Install Instructions --- Unzip the attached file, called "Alexander_no_sites_for_YARG2.map", and put it into your "dominions3\maps" folder. Then when starting a new game, you should see the map selectable as "Alexander_No_Sites_for_YARG2".
The Alexander map itself can be found here....
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=37295
If you are visitng this thread, please thank Pashadawg for creating the map.
I think that's about it. Made a reasonable stab at balancing the starts. One or two I'm a little unhappy with, but 24 is a lot of nations as I've already noted. Also a little worried about the number of start locations that are in forests. Mainly because there are not that many forests on this map anyway, and a lot of nations like building forts on forests. So may add a few forests here or there. Most likely where there are forests already.
I hope I've listed all the changes I've made. Apologies if I've missed any though. (and let me know if I have)
Also, please please please provide feedback if you encounter any problems with the map, or indeed if I've made changes that you just don't like or agree with. For example connecting the isolated water provinces which weren't needed to make the water wraparound. I am more than happy to receive any sort of negative feedback, indeed it would be most welcome if it helps improve the map. One thing that won't help at all though is if you spot a problem, but then don't report it for some reason. If you see something, then post it or PM it to me, and I'll try and fix it. Once the game is up and running though, it will be a lot more hassle to fix things (if indeed they can be fixed at all by that stage).
Finally, and most importantly of all. If you are testing this map, and you see a starting location that isn't listed above under the list of "Twenty one Land" "Three Water", then contact me asap, since nations not starting where they should will really mess up the game. I've started about a dozen all EA nations games to test the starts, and so far they've always started exactly where they should. But like I said, if you experience differently, it's very important that you mention it before the game starts.
I hope to get the visual editing of the map done by the end of the weekend. It should play fine as it is, but want to have the map borders visually matching the changes I've made before we get underway. (you will all then have to download a ~35mb file to see the visual changes)
That's all for now folks
Re: YARG2 , Non-Newb EA RAND game [Enlisting 23/24]
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