Starting locations

[MaxWilson]

Is everyone already aware of this tool by DireAussie (David Fidge)?

http://users.on.net/~dfidge/dom3/mods.html

"Description: this program allows you to modify a map's possible starting locations so that you are guaranteed a minimum number of neighbouring provinces in each starting spot. You choose a map file on your computer, set the minimum number of neighbours on the web page and click on submit. The program will then modify the map file and mark all provinces with less than the specified minimum number of neighbours as 'no start'. You will be prompted to save a file - overwrite the old .map file. All done! Your map is ready to play with better starting spots."

Looks useful.

-Max

[ano]

Nice tool, however from me experience it is better to preset starting locations manually to make the nation distribution more fair than it is done by default.
I'm quite satisfied with the results and graphs we are having in the ongoing Stasis game.

[MaxWilson]

I just remember Xietor remarking on how much work it was to set starting locations manually in one of the megagames.

-Max

[JimMorrison]

Well, doing 60 starting positions on a 1000 province map, is a bit different than 12 in 200, I'd suppose.

I never minded random starts myself, but there's a relationship between provinces/player, and relative fairness. The less provinces you have, the choosier you have to be about it, whereas when you get up to 18+ the odds are great that everyone will have a decent start.

[ano]

MaxWilson said:
I just remember Xietor remarking on how much work it was to set starting locations manually in one of the megagames.

-Max

The script doesn't solve this problem really, because in megagame fairness (taking on account the map size) is of utmost importance.