Cradle of Zen (.map file) and a question!

I have modified the Cradle of Dominions map from the great Jason Lutes who has so graciously allowed me to change the .map file for his map. Listed below are some of the changes as well as reasons for the changes.

Find it HERE!

1.) Some of the Multiplayer issues with the Cradle of Dominions maps was the liberal use of terrain flags. While fantastic for diversity cut alot of the options for mobility for alot of nations. Certain nations (Read: Caelum) had a significant advantage of mobility over other nations with viable 2 strat move troops.

I have modified the terrain to have 'avenues' of high speed terrain (plains and farmland) where it was not overtly obvious what the terrain was intended to be (I.E. Forest or Sea). This should keep with the clumped bits of terrain motif of the map while allowing nations to use the their more mobile troops and units that were reduced to 1-strat move/turn positions.

2.) Because of the Liberal sprinkling of Terrain the flags for population were set very low. It was rare to have a high income game which put the focus on Gem Finding/usage and non-gold troops. While this in and of itself was fine, it also limited Blood Nations because of the ability to convert from Gold to Blood economy or having an equal share of both. This limited the nation selection or put at a disadvantage most blood nations or nations that relied on blood to suppliment their nation. Also the low population gave very real supply issues thus allowing Undead (already favorably placed) a more significant advantage than it had previously.

Very few terrains now have under 5k population thus giving more overall gold and supply. Also there are more equally spaced 'large province sections' to provide a core of gold in 8 sections of the map.

3.) Water Nations were at a substancial disadvantage on this map because of both the number of water provinces but also because of the population and placement of the water provinces. While only 1 water nation *should* be allowed the shipyard function (Anchors being able to travel to Anchor) made the seas less of a focal or barrier point.

I have connected the waterways (rivers to Sea) and given more population to the sea provinces. While not an incredible change it should allow a water nation more breathing room than it had previously due to every water province being connected to a coastline thus being able to be sieged in their capital at the very early game. This also allows the Underwater Nation to grab additional "Many Site" provinces.

If you have any questions, comments, feedback or rants please use this thread to do so to me, Jason Lutes had nothing to do with this except for giving his permission to have it butchered by me . Also, please note, if you feel the Cradle map was fine and suited to your playstyle, you are perfectly inclined to that position and playstyle, and this .map in no way circumvents the intention of the original map.

[ July 02, 2004, 22:17: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Norfleet]

Well, the first thing that I noticed was that the Ahktala Wastes(#39?) are no longer a waste. Wastes weren't really the worst problem in the game, since at least wastes have no movement penalties.

Wastes prevent high population. I will change the name to Plains as I did with others.

Newest Version of the Cradle of Zen is up at the same link. For MP compatibility the name of the newest .map file is:

zencradlev11.map

I have changed all erroneous names to reflect their new plain status as opposed to wastes or deserts, non-obvious names were not changed.

[Cainehill]

One bug - 109 (Ivalos) and 99 (Amnor Forest) should be connected / neighbors, and aren't.

Just went through the map, clicking on almost every province, and the rest look like they're correct - I might've missed one here or there.

The 109/99 was very obvious to me, given that I just had a game with my capitol in 99. "Why can't I see the forces in my neighbor?"

Edit : Next game, I see that at least some of the provinces aren't set as #nostart. This one is too hard to visually / manually verify, but for instance, Scythewater (150) with only 1 neighbor, is currently a possible starting position.

(This is why I feel using #nostart is better than tweaking the terrain value - you can simply cut-and-paste the #nostart lines when editting a map, whereas the bit-flag method means that modifying terrains as you've done is hazardous. )

[ July 03, 2004, 04:14: Message edited by: Cainehill ]

Version 1.2 is up, same link. For Multiplayer Continuity use the same Versions (I'd get the latest Version).

Fixed Total Nostart List (If there is one that is under 3 Provinces let me know and I'll revise it. But I'm pretty sure I got them all).

Fixed a few neighbors. In the swamp area as well.

[Arralen]

Hey, Zen, maybe you wanna look HERE?

I must admit, I didn't ask for permission to mod the map, mostly because it started out as a "private" project. I was in the middle of a SP game when I realized that the AI still doesn't build castle, so I put some onto the map to conquer. And while I was at it, i started to "fix the shortcomings" of the cradle map as well.
It wasn't until I had put some hours into the scenario/mod that I realized someone else could have some use for it as well.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Zen:
Version 1.2 is up, same link. For Multiplayer Continuity use the same Versions (I'd get the latest Version).

Multiplayer continuity is unaffected by the overwriting or deletion of the .map file. The Version on the server is the one used, and clients do not need to have the .map at all. Even if the server overwrites or deletes the .map used in the game, the game is not affected.

To avoid confusion, I'd advise not keeping the old Version around so people don't get a choice.

[ July 03, 2004, 08:12: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Demosthenes]

Been really enjoying a game as Abysia on this map. Thanks Zen and Jason.

One bad connection so far:

Province 6 and Province 4 should not be neighbors.

The Last Version has been made and updated. I've caught all of the neighbor issues (there were more!) and nostarted a few more provinces.

I was also considering placing marked indi's but the map with it's variety of terrain values seems to get a very good mix of them.

Anyone's opinion on having the special site icons placed with fixed independants? I don't want to ruin too much of the randomosity so that the map is replayable with a variety of variables and not "Go to x abo****ely first no matter nation/game/tactic".

Link for those who missed it:

www.techno-mage.com/~zen/zencradle.zip