New Map: Sha Bay v1.2 FINAL (well semi-final)

[DakaSha]

updated to v1.2

* all starting positions are "fairly" balanced. all i mean by that is that they all border a minimum of 4 land provinces and a max of 5.

* Volcano province received its volcano this time ^^. It has also received custom defense

* The bad *** province "University of Quantum Mechanics" has received a lab but also custom defense. this will be tougher to take over now but its surrounded by 9 friggen provinces ^^

* The central province of Baalz has also received custom defense (it has increased likelihood of magic sites)

* The eastern and western provinces bordering Baalz have received (fairly easy) custom defense and it is always possible to recruit sea dwellers there for easy water access.

* Played with the zoom feature and think i got it pretty much right

I did not change province sizes as im to inexperienced and dont want to mess things up. the only large province is the university.


This is basically the final product and ill be moving on to my next map which i hope will be much better due to the experience ive accumulated doing this one ^^

but i will update this map according to ideas by players. are the custom defenses to strong or weak? certain provinces over or under balanced as starting positions? please let me know about anything that comes to mind. Its pretty much impossible to test my own maps as a game takes to long and as i said im pretty inexperienced and things will not be perfect.

------

updated to v1.1

* south east forest has been made into 2 provinces
* couple of province pixels slightly moved
* couple more provinces marked as no start
* volcano added

next update will prob get the map to allow only balanced starting locations and ill add the sea dweller sites. I will make a couple provinces large (mabye a couple small) and make the university/city province larger through scripting. if all else is well then thatll prob be the final product

------

Here is my very first dominions map. due to my inexperience its sure to be an unbalanced piece of crap but i learned alot and am pretty confident in creating much better maps in the future ^^ (if i get over the stress this one has caused and even start new ones http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif )

this is version 1.00 and the map will likely be updated a couple times (any bugs like provinces incorrectly linked and so on will be fixed no matter what and smaller things like more fixed province naming might happen. also see below). im just fed up with it right now so i thought id release it to the forum. if anybody wants to try it and finds any errors or really stupid crap let me know.

i want to make the volcano province have a fixed volcano site but im not exactly sure how. do i just add:

#setland 72
#knownfeature �volcano�

?


anyways as i said im sure some things arnt perfect so just let me know. constructive criticism is welcomed although it doesnt mean im going to agree or have the drive to change some big graphical aspect of the map ^^

thanks for trying if u do

edit: oh and i want to add guarantied sea dweller sites to the coast but thats basically the same thing as the volcano site

[DakaSha]

Map:

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7788/shabaydq5.th.jpg (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shabaydq5.jpg)

[Ballbarian]

Beautiful map!

I hope that you regain your energies soon so that you can continue making maps like this in the near future. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif


i want to make the volcano province have a fixed volcano site but im not exactly sure how. do i just add:

#setland 72
#knownfeature “volcano”

?



You also might want to use the #killfeatures command to insure that there is room for the Volcano site. Otherwise the random sites might fill the province's four slots and block it from being placed.

#setland 72
#killfeatures
#knownfeature "Volcano"

[DakaSha]

and i just set that anywhere after all the other things right? (province names and stuff)

thanks alot ill add that once i or anybody else spots any errors that need to be fixed. if im lucky and the map functions as intended ill add it sometimes later anyways.

edit: another possible pain in the butt are the way i placed some province pixels. armys might overlap into the other provinces. i put alot of work into this but as i said its a first and i prob made some mistakes or just guessed wrong

[Ballbarian]

and i just set that anywhere after all the other things right? (province names and stuff)



Yes.


another possible pain in the butt are the way i placed some province pixels. armys might overlap into the other provinces.



The command you need is:
#defaultmapzoom <value>

Place it anywhere in the file (after the heading stuff) and play around with <value>. Probably start with 1.00 and then increase or decrease it as needed. I would recommend exiting dominions between changes to insure that changes made to the map file are accurately reflected in the game.

[Edratman]

Nice looking map. All your efforts are appreciated.

[Foodstamp]

Is this hand drawn? Your very talented!

[Gandalf Parker]

Excellent work. Especially for a first effort.

[DakaSha]

thanks ballbarian ill try that. one more thing i want to make the bottom right forest province into 2 separate provinces... of course that messes up all my province settings. ive messed arounf with the insert province command but that doesnt help much. any ideas on what to do?

thanks for the kind words @ everybody else it makes me want to make more once i have this one perfected http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

@edratman
its done with the mouse

[Ballbarian]

I have written a small yabasic program for inserting and removing provinces, but it is not user friendly. If you would post the X,Y coordinates of the added pixel I could generate a corrected map file for you when I get home from work.

-Edit:
I will also need the coordinates of the 2nd pixel (assuming you are erasing the current center of the province and creating 2 new ones).

[DakaSha]

this is the new TGA im planning on using. it also has some updates to the way some province pixels are placed

[Ballbarian]

I see no attachment.
(I will be heading back to work in a few moments. Will check back tonight.)

[DakaSha]

yeah sorry tried to upload the tga which isnt possible. the attachment is there now

the old province is at:
1083, 1188

the 2 new ones are:
1042, 1170

and

1152, 1171


thanks for taking the time to help me get this sorted out

[PashaDawg]

Excellent job! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Ballbarian]

I will attach the fixed map to this post:

"sha bay fixed.txt"

(Change the extension .txt to .map)

[DakaSha]

wow thanks a lot. tried it, works perfect ^^
now uploading new map

[DakaSha]

oh ballbarian there might be a bug in ur program. all border mountain provinces were changed to sea provinces. got it fixed though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Ballbarian]

Well that's odd. When I checked it in the map editor initially it checked out, but just now when I reloaded it I was seeing the corrupted terrain as you described. It looks like the large border mountain values were changed from values like "4194304" to "4.1943e+006".

That never happened before. Come to think of it, I haven't run that code since changing over to Vista.

Sorry for the extra work on your part DakaSha and thanks for the heads up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[DakaSha]

no prob it still made the extra province possible ^^

[DakaSha]

ok ive been trying to script in som stuff but its not working.

if i write:

#setland 36
#killfeatures
#knownfeature "469"
#poptype 65

i want land 36 to kill all features to free up the space then set feature 469 which is a shambler reef and then also make the poptype 65 which are the itchytids.

it doesnt work. which means the volcano also isnt up most likly (from last update).

if i use just the #lab command i will get a lab in the province though.

what am i doing wrong?

i hate being a newb ^^

edit: well if i do

#land
#poptype

it will allow me to recruit the poptype but the province will be empty of defence

[Ballbarian]

#setland = Adds to the province.
#land = Kills everyone for a clean slate.

You can set the poptype while using either command, but #setland will retain it's original defenders. You might end up with a barbarian province defended by lizards. If you used #land it would kill the lizards but you have to manually add barbarian defenders or it will be undefended as you have found.

#knownfeature

If you use the numeric index you do not want it enclosed in quotes. Quotes are only necessary when using the name of the site. (Rusty memory: Wasn't there a time when we could not place magic sites by their index? Is that still the case? Or am I thinking of items?)

[DakaSha]

thanks alot ballbarian i got things working how i want them (and better... the map scripting is fun ^^)

ok uploaded the final map (according to my plans)

let me know what u think

[QXel]

Very beautifull map, DakaSha :up::up::up:

I've donwloaded it just now, and I'll try to find time to test. I'm a bit 'off game' theses times.

I really like the look & fell of your job :clap:.
I am really interested by the tools & the method of the map drawing. I'm planning to draw maps for a long time, but never be able to manage time to do it.

If you can answer my ask, I will be very glad. Maybe in private message, but it could interested some other people :confused:.

[DakaSha]

glad you like it ^^

i just used the freeware GIMP and drew it with the mouse. added the canvas filter when it was finished.

i am going to start my new maps with PS though due to some limitations within GIMP. Still gimp is fine ;)

[Beorne]

Error in provinces 20, 21, 29, 30: are marked as sea.

[DakaSha]

Error in provinces 20, 21, 29, 30: are marked as sea.

huh? not in my version :P

[vfb]

Hi, nice map! I've just started playing a game on it, so no feedback yet.

[DakaSha]

hey thanks for trying it. i made it a while ago but if any issues arise ill make some changes so let me know :)

[vfb]

I'm not sure why the game is always making the water nation start in 51. There don't seem to be any "start" or "nostart" restrictions on the provinces in the .map file. 51 only has two water neighbors, so it's not a great place to start IMO.

I tried adding "#nostart 51", but the game bails with a "no valid starting location" message if you try to start a water nation.

It looks like 66, 46, 58, 70, 78 are all nicer than 51, because they have 3 water neighbors. Is there something in the .map that I'm not seeing, that restricts the water starting location to 51?

[DakaSha]

i remember thinking about the water nation placement but its been awhile and i cannot remember my rationalization :(

it can always be changed though. i just hope it doesnt screw up our current game :P

MAYBE (i dont know) i put the water nation there because i wanted them to have a disadvantage for some reason.

[Ballbarian]

vfb,
Subtract 512 from the terrain value for the province that you want to allow as a starting province. For example, province 66's terrain value is 516 (SEA + NOSTART). Change it to 4. Any changes you make to the .map file will only affect new games.

(Thanks again for this great map DakaSha! :) )

[vfb]

Thanks Ballbarian!

I didn't know "nostart" was part of the terrain bitmask.

[vfb]

It looks like a connection is missing between provinces #40 and #48.

[DakaSha]

wow your right. a whole game was played on this without anybody noticing (or telling me?)

hmm dont like that at all :(

[Frozen Lama]

Not sure if this happens every time, or if its just a fluke, but at one point when i attacked the volcano, several of the burning ones were starving, and some diseased. also, the burning one's slaves burned, and he cast useless holy spells. not sure if any of these are fixable, but just thought i'd mention it.

[DakaSha]

oh maybe not enough supplies. i didnt think it would matter though. ballbarian? ^^

[DakaSha]

also whats a good item to give the commander to raise the supplies up?

at least this is being tested now :P

[Ballbarian]

Starvation is an issue for independents.
An easy fix is to use the #additem command to give Endless Bag of Wine and/or Enormous Cauldron of Broth to commanders.

Examples:
#additem "Endless Bag of Wine"
#additem "Enormous Cauldron of Broth"

I think the Summer Sword gives a supply bonus as well and might be more thematic in this situation.

[Edi]

I'm not sure why the game is always making the water nation start in 51. There don't seem to be any "start" or "nostart" restrictions on the provinces in the .map file. 51 only has two water neighbors, so it's not a great place to start IMO.

I tried adding "#nostart 51", but the game bails with a "no valid starting location" message if you try to start a water nation.

It looks like 66, 46, 58, 70, 78 are all nicer than 51, because they have 3 water neighbors. Is there something in the .map that I'm not seeing, that restricts the water starting location to 51?
Have you checked the map in the map editor? Nostart can be set with the command #nostart, but it can also be set in the terrain mask, 512 is nostart, so a province with a terrain mask of 512 is nostart plains while 1536 is nostart manysites etc. In the map editor you can see if the seas have nostarts checked, which would add the 512 mask to the terrain.

[DakaSha]

Starvation is an issue for independents.
An easy fix is to use the #additem command to give Endless Bag of Wine and/or Enormous Cauldron of Broth to commanders.

Examples:
#additem "Endless Bag of Wine"
#additem "Enormous Cauldron of Broth"

I think the Summer Sword gives a supply bonus as well and might be more thematic in this situation.

thank you.

i will adress all the issues (and any more we find) after out MP game.

i also need to change some starting positions

[Frozen Lama]

21 and 30.

they are connected but appear to have a mountain range in the way?

[DakaSha]

if thats the one with the "path" drawn in its meant to be that way :P