A new spectacular multi-layer map!! Wanna try??

[Juzza]

oooh! also! there were two underground ones like that too! on the first level.

heh sorry if I seem kinda negative of your work, I just noticed the bugs, its a great map! I loooove lots of choke points!

[Aezeal]

hey don't hold back that is what this thread is for to test it so I can improve it.
I'll change them later if I get more thingies to change and feed back on the question below.

a question: I've never played with caves yet is it annoying for a random race (no darkvision) to start in the caves what I read just now somewhere in the forum made me think pplz like that would be seriously screwed

If so I'd change the map a bit with the centre most provinces in the caves not marked as cave but just as terrain type, the outermost ones on the edges I'd keep marked as cave but as nostart site too. It would also mean I wouldn't put Niefelheim all the way down in the caves (guess I'd settle for abyssia as badguys then.)

[Juzza]

Until the next patch comes out cave provinces do not have darkness as an effect.

However I'd put my vote to leave the giant cavern as caves.

But what'd be reeeally cool is to have unique provinces with like special monsters and commanders rather than the normal dribble that defends provinces, but I have no idea how complex that is to do.

[Aezeal]

Well this is my first map, the special monsters I'm trying out on another one atm. My plans for the map include such stuff (mostly 2 AI players which get quite some advantage as you could read above) AND on the chokepoints between planes I want to place "guardians"

so I guess that is what you want.. but I'm still learning how to do that.
i asked if there where pplz who wanted to team up with me (e.a. I'd let them do that part) but no one is really interested atm (which I can understand) so I'm trying to learn it myself. I'm currently awaiting an answet in another thread that might help me along a lot.

[Juzza]

I'd help! but I can only do nation modding and unit modding, I haven't attempted map yet, if you want a custom made guardien thing I might be able to help. but you can probably just put some big strong units in there from the vanilla game anyway.

[Endoperez]

Map commands can do amazing things, as long as you know what exists. A Niefelheim/cold based province, as an example, could have Mount Frost site (increases cold scale, water mage may enter to summon winter wolves), or a Fire/Abysia themed province could have Volcano (heat and fire gems).

[Aezeal]

Yeah I personally think the Vanilla game comes with so much (except a "good"ish race in LA) that I don't want to bother pplz to much with mod thugs since everything you want you can easily get the same result with something out of vanilla game.

THe placing of monsters is pretty easy though I did it on the other map and I'll do it here too.

The other thing, making a nicer looking higher resolution map of this map is not a thing I can really do I think.. well I have a few simple idea's for improvements and I'll implement those IF I made enough layers while making this map

more layers = better if you want to be able to change stuff.. I'm learning

[jutetrea]

If you want some themed provinces, try ballbarian's semirandomizer and ask if you can use some of the GANs (stuff like crom's mountain might work, I think there are about 40+ of them)

Or you could just use it to create your own special provinces, themed or otherwise (If you think they're worth it, submit them to the overall GAN list) (GAN=just a name for specialized provinces, I believe coming from GANdalf Parker)

Are you uploading the newest version to the first post?

[Aezeal]

Yeah I could just place the monsters I want myself.. in the end I would only need a few of those anyway to guard the chockepoints between layers. To prevent to easy travelling between them in the early game. This would mostly be to prevent rushing those 2 races I want to give an advantage.

On the other hand rushing races that start with an advantage might not happen anyway and the guard might only hinder them.. but if they are much stronger then protecting the players against them wouldn't hurt either ..

and it would be somewhat balanced anyway cus even though you might loose some troops there you'd gain some sites and items for it either the AI or a player

There would be no need for specific magic sites on those specific places.. I like randomness a lot and just checking many sites appeals more to me.

Now my wrap around water map is done and I got the placing troop thingie under control (somewhat) I should be able to update this map again with the new learned skills

A question for those who have done a bit on this map:
1. I think this map is nice for about 7-10 players now. do you agree?

2. Wouldn't it be nicer to have the option to play ALL race on this map (which would mean MORE provinces)?

3. IF I would split all or most existing provinces to create a map with more provinces would the provinces be to small then? or do you think it would still be playable?

4. Would it annoy people if certain races (not those which would be AI only but those who would be AI OR player) would start in a specific place (I'm mostly thinking Caelum on one of the mountains) I can see that player might not like the fact that everyone know where they'll be while most other races would just get a random start location... but having Cealum start on earth or even worse in the caves totally makes no sense to me.

5. Does anybody know a sort of pattern database? As you can see in my wrap aroudn water map (other thread) Working in GIMP with patterns works very well and a nice "earth" pattern, fields pattern, grass pattern, hills pattern etc etc might improve the graphics of the map A LOT.

and no offence meant the standard in game hills/forest/mountains I copy pasted aren't all that in graphics too. I'm not much of an artist myself but if anyone knows BETTER LOOKING hills/trees/mountains to cut n paste (or even better on a transparant background already ready to paste ) I'd be happy to use it to improve the map.

[Juzza]

sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I found another bad province!

I'll just list the bad provinces that haven't been fixed yet.

Underground, first level, there are two water provinces that are not actually water provinces, only cave.

Main Land, big eastern island, one of the mountains is labeled as a sea province.

You may just wanna check some of the more important provinces yourself, and by more important I mean the transition provinces.

Ah, to answer your questions in my opinion!!

1. It's nice, personally I prefer smaller maps, if I had my way, I'd crop the clouds off, but lots more people than me like bigger maps.

2.No, I prefer to keep the game in the proper ages.

3.I don't like that idea, if ya do it, you should release or at least keep the map with bigger provinces. So have them separately named and such.

4.I like that idea, agartha in the caves, cealum in the sky, other nations that need somewhat less specific thing, like say abysia, should start in a waste, Machacka, in a mountain or forest, or both, Man in a Forest, and so on, dependent on the nation.

5.Yes *shifty eyes* ... no ...