[request for help] unique provinces ideas

[Agrajag]

Land Name: Mountains of Magic
Terrain: Mountain
Commanders: Fire Elemental, Water Elemental, Air Elemental, Earth Elemental (all huge), Tarrasque, Abomination, Wraith Lord [Boots of Quickness], Succubus [Jade Armor, Lucky Charm, Anti-Magic Charm]
Poptype: Hoburg
Magic Sites [known]: Ten Thousand Things (important), Gem Deposits (less important)


And with these words I go to sleep. Good night.

[Jack_Trowell]

Just a quick message to make a status update :

tonight I plan to finish changing the way the get_special_province() function works so I can use "lake" (sea with only land neighbours), "island" (land with only sea neighbours) and "hidden" provinces (no neighbours at all), and add the last suggested provinces (thanks to Teraswaerto and Agrajag).

With luck, I should have tonight, or by tomorrow evening, an updated version using the special provinces for the "greater manysites" option at http://dominions.realites.org

When it's done, I will of course post an announce here, and provinces suggestion don't have to stop, I could still use a few hundred more

[Jack_Trowell]

New version at http://dominions.realites.org

- "greater manysites" now use list of pre-set provinces.
- map file upload instead of text area : the application now doesn't hang anymore with large map files

You can list all available special provinces at
http://dominions.realites.org/?actio...cial_provinces

This will list them all, and give the same map code that will be used by the script when editing map files. (yes, you can also copy/past the code in a map file manually if you want to test a province, and of course there might still be some errors, don't hesitate to post when you find one)

And of course the online tool will use those provinces (with full credit for the authors in the resulting map code) when you check the "greater manysites" option.

The list is *far* for complete, so I still take suggestions for new provinces, as well as suggestion or request for new features.

Currently on my immediate TODO list :

- a pre-set province with a name should be unique in the final map
- add more pre set provinces so that each terrain type as at least some
- maybe making two versions of the random province function, one for land provinces and one for sea provinces (need list of IDs of units with ampibious or aquatic, even a partial list would be better than nothing). At worst I might just ignore random sea provinces and use instead preset ones (since very few units are aquatic in proportion to the huge number that exist, random units on land provinces usually don't drown, the reverse being false)


Your suggestions ?

[Jack_Trowell]

Small update to the map randomizer:

- Fixed a bug in "#units" command in ouput map code (missing closing quote)
- Mine of superior iron in "Duncorum" preset province changed to "knownfeature"
- Succubus in preset province "Mountains of Magic" could not equip the Jade Armor (no body slot) => armor switched with boots of quickness of the Wraith Lord in same province

[Ragnarok-X]

Can you write a short summary of what your tools do ?

I see you can submit one of your own maps into the randomizer and i think what it will do is randomly add in "unique" indi's and sites, is that right ?

[Jack_Trowell]

Yes exactly, you go to http://dominions.realites.org/map_randomizer/ , upload your map file, change the options if needed, and submit.
The script will then output a cleaned and modified map file, with some provinces randomly modified, eitheir by adding random commanders and units, with the occasionnal lab or fort, or by using a predefined province from the list available.

If you uncheck all options, the script will only check the map file syntax and output a cleaned version, adding comments about provinces terrains types and neighbours but no other change, so this can also be usefull to check a freshly edited map file for syntax errors.

The other tool is a map editor, it is functionnal and almost complete (except for some specific settings such as victory points), but currently only works with a set of predefined maps (the program doesn't allows yet to upload your own map files), and there isn't currently much info on units/sites except for their names (this project was started before Edi made his wonderful DB available).

I had stopped working on both projects a long time ago after a hard drive failure, but I have since installed a new server and restored both applications from my backups.

With the new dom3 patch my motivation have somewhat came back and I might start working again, depending on my free time.

Meanwhile, if you have provinces ideas for the randomizer (see http://dominions.realites.org/map_ra...cial_provinces for current list), of if you want a specific map to be added to the editor I am open to suggestions.

[Jack_Trowell]

- New predefined provinces added : "Land of the Cyclops King", "Trollheim", "Land of the Asmegs" and "Peaceful Valley"
- "Castle Marko" upgraded with Longbowmen + Knight poptype

[Ragnarok-X]

How likely is it that your tool will replace a stock province with a "unique" one ? In percentage ?

[Jack_Trowell]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok-X

How likely is it that your tool will replace a stock province with a "unique" one ? In percentage ?

With default settings, 100% of provinces with the "manysites" flag will be replaced with a preset province (if one available for the province terrain type, else it will just be some random commanders/units), with other provinces having 5% of the same, and you can change both % if you wish before submitting, it's all in the main page at http://dominions.realites.org/map_randomizer/ (scroll down and read the "Greater Manysites" description, this is were the preset provinces settings are defined, see http://dominions.realites.org/map_ra...cial_provinces for the unique provinces list)

[Jack_Trowell]

Note : "manysites" is a dom3 terrain flag, same as "mountain" or "farm", you can see and change it when you use the official map editor ingame (or my own map editor). This flag increase the default chance of having a site in each slot of the province, and is often used in custom maps to give more value to a province without setting anything in stone.

For those that don't already know, each province has only 4 slots for sites, and each slot has on average 35-45% chance of having something (default settings depending on Era, plus small mod for some terrains types, such as farms having slightly less sites that default for exemple)

According to this, the "manysites" flag is supposed to increase those chances, probably doubling them of giving a fixed bonus like +25%, but even then you're never sure that all slots will be used.