RanDom - SemiRandomizer and Dom3 random map gen...

[Ballbarian]

RanDom is a simple program written in visual basic which serves two purposes:

1. It can be used to tweak the various settings for random map generation via the command line options provided by Dominions3, generate the map, and then save those settings for future use, or to load settings from previous sessions.

2. It can also be used to tweak the settings for and run the SemiRandomizer on the specified map.

There are several features I would still like to add, and changes I would like to make, but it can be quite entertaining in it's current state. I have included a few sample saved settings (.stg files) and hope to see some interesting setting files from others.

Since it is a VB program, it will require the VB runtime dll which you probably already have on your system. If not, it is widely availble on the net.

Following are scaled down examples of small 500x500 maps generated with the included 'settings':
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_cot_thmb.JPG http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_greenland_thmb.JPG http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_northernskrags_thmb.JPG http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_rediculous_thmb.JPG http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_swampyredsea_thmb.JPG

From top left to bottom right they are:
COT_colorscheme
Greenland
NortherSkrags
Rediculous
SwampyRedSea

These settings are rather extreme and just the result of playing around with settings in a very short time. COT colorscheme was just an effort to emulate the crisp colors of Targa's Clash of the Titans Dom2 map. And yes I know that Rediculous is misspelled. It was intentional. That is my story and I am sticking to it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Feel free to share your favorite settings here if you would like. The stg files can be opened with any text editor. Just copy the contents and paste them here along with a title for the file and maybe a small sample thumbnail image if you are so inclined.

[Ballbarian]

Below is a screen shot of the RanDom interface:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/uploads/496178-RanDom.JPG

From the simple readme:


To install, place unzipped contents into your dominions3 directory.

[Execute] to run the Dominions3 random map generator with the settings that you have specified.

[Semi Randomize] to run the SemiRandomizer. The modified map file will have '_SR' appended to the file name and can be found in your dominions3\SemiRandom directory. Just copy/paste this '.map' file into your dominions3\maps directory to make it available for play. (In the future I hope to fix this so that it will be moved automatically.)

[Save Settings] to save your favorite map settings for future use, or to share with others.

[Load Settings] to load map settings from previous sessions, or those of other users.

[Gandalf Parker]

Very very nice.
This just passes to the dom3 generator?
It doesnt do any tweaking of the .map file afterward? Its fine if its true, it just defines what suggestions I can make.

[Ballbarian]

Yes, it just generates a command string and passes it to the dom3 generator. Any map file tweaking only takes place via the external SemiRandom executable.

[Ballbarian]

Edited the topic and added some sample images of the included 'settings' files.

[Ballbarian]

Whipped up 3 more stg files earlier tonight. If I get time tomorrow, I will try to post sample thumbs.

Here are the stg's:
Savannah.stg
0,20,20,20,20,10,10,#FALSE#,1000,1000,150,#FALSE#, 199,193,163,255,56,56,178,255,184,133,91,170,112,2 09,209,67,10,70

BluewaterBay.stg
100,30,20,20,20,10,10,#FALSE#,1000,1000,150,#FALSE #,160,186,156,255,54,84,170,255,160,130,130,255,80 ,120,160,255,15,80

RuggedShores.stg
0,30,40,40,15,15,15,#FALSE#,1000,1000,150,#FALSE#, 188,152,91,255,54,84,170,255,160,130,130,255,80,12 0,160,255,0,70

[Ballbarian]

Savannah:
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_savannah.JPG

BluewaterBay:
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_bluewaterbay.JPG

RuggedShores:
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_ruggedshores.JPG

[Edi]

Just a question: If you use this program to set border width to 0, does the map appear without any apparent borders? Because if it does, this thing could be an instant RPG campaign mapmaking hit. I know I could certainly use something like that...

Edi

[Ballbarian]

Yes. Set the width to 0 and borders vanish.
http://www.dom3minions.com/~semirand/creepycellar/AUTOMAP_noborders.JPG

[Edi]

You're a genius! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm lazy as all hell drawing maps and this things is precisely what I need, making Dom3 just that much more worth it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Edi

[Ballbarian]

lol, Thanks for the positive feedback Edi, but the guys at Illwinter are the geniuses. This is just an interface to their powerful tools. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

If you come up with some creative settings, be sure to come back here and share them with the rest of us. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Wauthan]

Heh, those are pretty nice looking maps. With a bit of photoshopping and they could be really interesting. Thanks for sharing this Ballbarian.

[murteas]

Quick question: What does Normal Mount do?

[Ballbarian]

By checking the Normal Mount checkbox, the random map will be generated with the old style mountain provinces instead of the impassable border mountain terrain that is used by default.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ive gotten some pretty different results playing with ground and water color, noise level, and border colors. Im playing with width and transparency to try and get barely visible borders since I feel that makes it more of an RPG type map.

I love having a server. That way I can generate 20 maps at a time then view them with my browser.

[MadFrancis]

Every time I try and randomize a map (using the semirandomizer in the RanDom GUI) I get this message:

---Error in main, line 1692: index 1 (=-1) out of range
---Error: Program stopped due to an error
---Program done, press RETURN---

Any advice?

[Ballbarian]

The version in this thread is really old. :)
For the latest version, see the link in my sig.

[MadFrancis]

The version in this thread is really old. :)
For the latest version, see the link in my sig.

Thanks. Works like a charm now.

[Bomshanka]

Hello Ballbarian and others who might answer this

Whenever I try to make a map of relatively large size (+1000) I always end up with a map where the forest is missing on the upper half like in the image below...
What am i doing wrong? - my settings are as below:

Edit: and btw my experience is that it doesn't matter if the terrain adds up to 100% or exceeds it...


Thanks -
/Bomshanka

[Gandalf Parker]

Looks like it might be a problem with lack of computer memory.

And yes, good point. The percentages can exceed 100%. Thats because Dom3 can mix terrains within a province. So if you said that you wanted 60% forest and 60% mountain then you would end up getting many provinces that are both forest and mountain.

[Bomshanka]

Hi Gandalf

Thanks for your swift reply :) - I played around with it for a bit and i seems that if I keep below a total of around 90% it looks fine with these sizes
- and maybe it is true that memory could be an issue, though i've had a look at consumption and RanDom uses about 560.000KB at peak which is alot but I have 2 GB on this machine so it should not be a problem - what i found out also is that the mess-up is more significant if I minimize the program while generating...
Im not sure - but i managed to make a nice looking map after a couple of hours :D

/Bomshanka

[lch]

I wouldn't be amazed if there are limits to the number of sprites that are drawn during random map generation.

Im not sure - but i managed to make a nice looking map after a couple of hours :D
You're crazy. The random map generator is known to be quite inefficient in places, I hope somebody comes up with something better soon. Would already help if you could decouple the separate phases from each other, but I guess that isn't really possible.