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[Blitz]

Im kindof surprised no one has created a "good" one (manual, artistic) yet.

When I want to test stuff I usally use Clash of the Titans. Pretty small.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Psitticine:
Poke in the Eye has been around a bit longer too. Maybe the lower hits are an indication of that more than overall interest? People already have it, etc.?

Ooh but its no fun to play over and over. The .map part of it is re-randomized every day at the site. Its a fast download. I would hope they would pick up a fresh one once in awhile.

Im to the point now that I could actually write a tiny program they could download and re-randomize it on their machine but I was trying to get an idea of where the interests were.

[PvK]

I've got a Poke In The Eye game going. It has been very fun and interesting, though there are some silly things, but that's ok. I got stuck in a very long Man vs. Soul Gate war of attrition. I have two independent castles which I have not been able to spare the forces to capture, so they just contribute half taxes while their forts remain full of scary random units. Some invading AI armies have also come and tried to siege them, but failed. That's actually rather amusing. Also amusing is I started with a cadre of undead units that Man usually wouldn't have. Some vampires which only my Pretender (druid) is capable of leading around, and some mummies which I got to learn the hard way would disease my own troops in battle (so I had some commanders with regeration items waiting around for me to research Gift of Health, which is always amusing in an SP game ). I think it adds some spice, and not too much nonsense. The starting magic items were amusing too.

Room for improvement would be if you can limit it so that random forts don't appear in the wrong type for their terrain (land forts underwater), and it might be a good idea not to overwrite the nation's capital fort, though I guess that might be ok. My Man started out with something that looks and acts like an Emorian citadel, but has no name.

In general though, I'd recommend giving Poke a try. It's interesting and provides some unusual combinations and circumstances, and some tough independents.

I too didn't realize that more random Versions were available all the time.

A variant of Poke where the changes weren't entirely random, could be good, too. Something with random placement and specifics, but with more controlled and perhaps thematic units and items instead of pure random. "Dragon Sprinkle", for example. Or how about "After the Vampire Wars" (All the provinces start out with bunches of extra priests, friars, Just Man's Crosses, Herald Lances, enchanted swords, Flambeaux, Angels, lifeless constructs... remainders of a need for everyone do develop anti-vampire equipment. Of course, it would have the amusing side-effect of discouraging people from taking undead nations and pretenders... might be popular amongst MP folks wanting to avoid having to deal with VQ's. ).

PvK

[ May 07, 2004, 20:25: Message edited by: PvK ]

[Gandalf Parker]

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THANKS for the great comments.

Originally posted by PvK:
Room for improvement would be if you can limit it so that random forts don't appear in the wrong type for their terrain (land forts underwater), and it might be a good idea not to overwrite the nation's capital fort, though I guess that might be ok.

Im getting capable of that now. I had to relearn "bit math" to translate that terrain command. I guess I could do it now since castles would be a fairly small table. I was thinking mostly of the units. You might not have seen it but in the first round of the game (did it seem to think a really long time) many units drowned. Water units on land, and land units in water. But then thats also why some of the provinces seemed to have no special troops, maybe thats a "feature" instead of a bug.

My Man started out with something that looks and acts like an Emorian citadel, but has no name.

Is that an old download? I thought I fixed that. It was much worse. I had started some games where I didnt even own my starting province. I would be under seige right away, or sometimes I was the seiger of someone elses castle. That was a strange game, starting right away with someone elses gem income instea of mine.

A variant of Poke where the changes weren't entirely random, could be good, too. Something with random placement and specifics, but with more controlled and perhaps thematic units and items instead of pure random.

I had a concept for a Semi-Random game but no one showed an interest in helping.
http://www.dom2minions.com/SemiRandom.shtml

"Dragon Sprinkle", for example. Or how about "After the Vampire Wars" (All the provinces start out with bunches of extra priests, friars, Just Man's Crosses, Herald Lances, enchanted swords, Flambeaux, Angels, lifeless constructs... remainders of a need for everyone do develop anti-vampire equipment.

Sounds like Leif's random generator would be good for that. He has one that uses theme files to set alot of variables.

[ May 07, 2004, 20:44: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[PvK]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
... You might not have seen it but in the first round of the game (did it seem to think a really long time) many units drowned. Water units on land, and land units in water. But then thats also why some of the provinces seemed to have no special troops, maybe thats a "feature" instead of a bug.

I did notice that. I started out with an acquatic commander, which is how I started with a Sceptre of Authority, which I stole from him immediately, and game in handy against the Soul Gate forces later. I started out in a costal province and ordered him to sea on turn one, but IIRC although he took the order, he didn't make it even to go die against the independent forces there.

Still, I think it's actually a feature as you said, even if it is weird.

... Is that an old download? I thought I fixed that. It was much worse. I had started some games where I didnt even own my starting province. I would be under seige right away, or sometimes I was the seiger of someone elses castle. That was a strange game, starting right away with someone elses gem income instea of mine.

It was 2-4 months old. I think I have the right gem income for Man (air, nature, whatever...) but a funky unnamed death castle. Maybe my castle was stomped by a random castle, but it wouldn't always happen?

I had a concept for a Semi-Random game but no one showed an interest in helping.
http://www.dom2minions.com/SemiRandom.shtml

Ya that's exactly what I had in mind. What kind of help were you looking for?

... Sounds like Leif's random generator would be good for that. He has one that uses theme files to set alot of variables.

Again, sounds like the same sort of thing. Now, if I just had a pile of free time...

PvK

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by PvK:
Ya that's exactly what I had in mind. What kind of help were you looking for?

Well I keep starting it and going nowhere. I started going thru all the monsters and grouping them into lots of categories. Mountains, water, plains, dragons, flyers, undead, devils. Doing that started the creative juices going for special provinces. I never did finish that part, nor did I get into the sites, populations, castles, and equipment.

The actual code for it wouldnt be hard but some kindof sorting system needs to be decided on. Once a few get started I was thinking of using it as a "starting point" for new mappers. Getting them interested in using the map commands to fuly design just one province at a time and adding it to the pile for random placements.

[PvK]

Ok. Perhaps it could start with a list of the things that are found on most maps - the flags like terrain types, large, magic rich, etc. Each special would have a set of those as a prerequisite, and a rarity or commonness factor.

The program could take two input files:

* One input file would be the map file from a typical non-special map. This would allow any map file to be embellished with semi-randoms. Ideally, any provinces already given special items would not be modified.

* The other input file would be a list of special types of site with any special names, starting units, or sites to add. This would allow different files to be generated for different kinds of effects.

The output file would be a map file with a different name from the original.

I don't know if writing this is helpful, or if you had already figured out a (possibly different) scheme. Just trying to help.

PvK