report from Dom2Minions.com

[Gandalf Parker]

OK things seem quiet and altho its no longer my job I guess I will toss in a generator message.

A quick grep-and-count from the apache logs at www.Dom2Minions.com (by the way, I already have Dom3minions.com registered altho Im not sure if there will be anything "random" to go there. I will post the numbers then another post with my impressions from the numbers. If anyone else who is on the Dom2Minions server who wishes a report on their file traffic just let me know.

Code:

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zip-report (excluding TodayMaps) 800+ downloads

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allUnits_64x64.zip	40

BigFun.zip		4

DomMap(xxX).zip		73

dommap_windows.zip	11

Faerun.zip		476

GoAround.zip		2

Indeps.zip		10

MazeMons.zip		60

miirunst.zip		1

MiniMap.zip		38

Poke_Eye.zip		26

seasky.zip		2

seaskysmall.zip		1

starter0.zip		30

starter1.zip		24

theater.zip		2

WEvsTHEM.zip		12



TodayMap-report (daily random generated) 900+ downloads

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E	223

H	116

L	143

M	136

S	160

T	120

thank you Bryon Daly



00-09	213

10-20	226

21-30	459



thank you Esko Halttunen

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[Gandalf Parker]

OK so obviously Faerun is a popular map. Of course Im not one of the real map sites so one of the others can give a better comparison there. But it sounds like anyone wanting to make a map would be well off looking at Faerun.

All_Units is popular. The macro-generated screen-grab of each unit in the game which can be used to speed up MODding. And Ive been told that its not even done in the most prefered version. So if anyone wishes to redo it, feel free to do so.

DomMap in various versions is still going strong. Thats the random generator which creates the TodayMap files. (thank you Bryon Daly for the latest batch of changes in the prgoram). It has a TON of switches so anyone who wants to change the settings or colors just grab the program. Apparently the devs have heard us since there is to be a random map generator in Dom3.

Of my own modified maps it appears that "Mazes and Monsters" is the winner. So I might need to re-visit that one to see what might be improved. Now that someone is working on a "logical placement of independents" database it would be easy to include that. Maybe I will also include a map with high "impassable borders" setting from DomMap so that its more mazed.

Im abit surprised at the starter project getting so much attention. I would finish that but again it appears that the devs have heard us, and plan to address that problem in Dom3.

I should probably redo mini map. The others it looks like I can continue thinking of them as "lack of interest" projects.

[Gandalf Parker]

The Today Map numbers. Mostly this held up my predictions. Tiny, Small, Medium maps are covered by people who wish to manually create maps with artwork added. Large and Huge about the same. The maximum sized Epic maps are unlikely to ever see an artwork version. So the randomly generated TodayMaps fill the greatest need for those who want really REALLY big playing fields.

The 3 color styles; original 00-09, Parker 10-19, and Esko Halttunen 21-30; seem to hold up that Esko had the right idea. I will bow to it. I will leave his color set in place and consider playing with the other 2 abit. Maybe something halfway between mine and his.

side note. the Targa files (maps with no colors and just borders) which were meant as blank starting images for map builders doesnt seem to be getting much traffic. I might drop those

[Oversway]

Thanks for hosting and generating all these map files!

[Gandalf Parker]

Oversway said:
Thanks for hosting and generating all these map files!

Its always nice when someone remembers how to pay for free stuff.

[silhouette]

Gandalf,

Happy Birthday (belated ).

I have downloaded and used several of your scenarios and random maps, and I appreciate the work to set them up and keep them available. Mostly I use the random maps for SP play, and sometimes DomMap new ones of my own.

I think we have similar opinions on how the random map generator weaknesses expose themselves. The assignment of poptypes from a standard (smart?) list would be a great addition. The visual map creation code has improved nicely for just a fractal/displacement terrain generator, but it does lack in some areas:
* there seems to be still a lot of large blocky areas of the same terrain type -- this makes about half of the maps visually undesirable for me, and unfair I think also
* the "scale" of the map to be generated does seem to matter during the terrain generation step, and I think it should. You should be able to look at the map texture alone without province boundaries, and be able to tell if it is small or epic (more ruggedness the larger the map, 25000 ft view vs 5000 ft view level of detail)
* lots of more/different gimp "Prettifying" options which could be scripted optionally (despeckle instead of gaussian blur to cleanup, canvas texture depth 2 is good for a Aran/DesetEye look, self-bump map for a 3-d look, script-fu fuzzy border, etc)
* Changing the color schemes can add a lot to changing the feel of a map, but I find that trying to stamp on visual addition details like mountains, forest trees, etc, just emphasizes the problem that the terrain doesn't make sense geologically. There are no mountain _ranges_ just blobs, forests only seem to exist between mountains and plains, wastes are as likely next to swamp as farmland, etc. There are other applications that generate random terrain on geological basis, but that may be moving too far from the fun parts.

What do we know about what Dom3 will have for pre-defined Gods/nations? Do you think there is much value at this point in packaging your starter gods, maybe with Zen's mods, for new players at all?

Sill

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmm there is alot there. OH thanks on the birthday wish. Yeah it was yesterday. Im telling everyone not to sweat it. Its next year on my demi-centennial that I want alot of do about it. Everyone can give me my mid-life crisis presents then.


Logical independent positioning is is definately possible. So is logical assignment of names of provinces (the Dark Woods, Shambler Lake, Rigid Mountains) or logical placement of magic sites. The .map file has info on terrain and neighbors which can be read and interpretted, then add commands for logical assignment of those things instead of random each time the map is played on.

The large blocky areas can be broken up more by switches to dommap but the results are always a range. Improving the settings I use would at this point have to get into seperate settings for each of the 6 map sizes I run.

GIMP effects are good. Unfortunately I run the maps on a linux with no Xwin gui environment. Getting a gimp script to run non-interactively is supposed to be possible but I never got it to work. So at the moment Im limited to command-line options. Ones that are in dommap such as the blur, or ones made available with ImageMagick, things like that.

I might add back the option for "blank" maps (no terrain except just brown land or blue water) so more people can build on them by pasting in terrain icons.

Gandalf Parker

[Psitticine]

Happy (belated) birthday, GP!!!