Utility: RanDom v2.03 - Map gen & Semirandomizer... Updated

[Ballbarian]

If you name a file Endo2_A_U_.gan, then SemiRandom will see it internally as Endo2_U_A_N_PLN_.gan because it is actually converting the file name tags into a terrain value. Normal (N) and Plain (PLN) have a value of 0 in Dominions maps so they are implicit.

I will look again at a workaround for this tonight and will consider using the numeric portion of the file name. Haven't thought it through yet and I have to get to work.

[Endoperez]

Okay. That's a bit of a bummer, but I guess it can't be helped. Any way, I'll get you a bunch of provinces today, and tomorrow I'm back with the green garb. This time I'll have a laptop with me, but I'm not sure if I'm even going to take Dom with me. It's more for LAN fun than Dom work.

[Ballbarian]

Will be trying out a few ideas tonight.
How about if I added an "_OR_" tag that when present would have SemiRandom look for a province with any of the included terrain flags? I think this is in line with what you were suggesting.

So:
Endo2_U_A_OR_N_L_S_WST_SWP_FST_.gan
Could only be placed once (Unique) in Normal, Large, or Small provinces which include the terrain type of Waste, Swamp, or Forest.

Need to get some coffee in me and then I will dig into the code and see what I can do.

[Gandalf Parker]

maybe use another character. Such as a dash.
No the dash should be not such as -SWP.
Maybe plus could be OR.

[Ballbarian]

Sorry Gandalf, already implemented and appears to be working fine.
If changing it to a "_+_" is preferred for a sense of clarity, I can easily change the tag.

The following test file...
hdENDO2_A_U_OR_S_L_N_FST_WST_SWP_

...was successfully placed in a province of terrain type forest and size large. Will need to do more testing, but it could have been placed in any size province that contained any of the three tagged terrain types (forest, waste or swamp).

After I have had a chance to further stress test this, I will release the next update which will also include another serious bug fix involving pattern recognition and province placement. As with all things random, they can be some of the hardest critters to stumble upon. Illwinter certainly has my sympathies. I can't imagine trying to pinpoint things that can creep up in a piece of programming with the size and complexity of Dom3.

[Stryke11]

Ok...

Generated a map using Gandalf's settings. (I clicked the Load Settings button and chose the GandalfPlains one). The map was generated without a hitch.

Then, I clicked the SemiRandomize button, and some stuff happened which I assume was going along the right track until I got this:

---Error in main, line 1516: index 1 <=-1> out of range
---Error: Program stopped due to an error
---Program done, press RETURN---

So...no SemiRandom fun for me just yet. I just used what came with the program, I didn't add any .gan's.

Also, I'm not 100% on the auto add gods thing...will it allow you to still pick any nation you want with just typical settings, or do I need to change anything before I generate the map? Can the feature be disabled just to create a nice map that you can add the gods/nations on later when you set up the game?

Thanks! Once I get it working, and the community builds up a huge database of provinces, this is going to be awesome.

I would be happy to make provinces, I just need some time to familiarize myself with the controls. I don't think I have the programming know how to make them from scratch, but I can use your ProvinceEdit tool.

[Stryke11]

I created and SemiRandomized a different map and this one worked. When I created the map I left everything alone except I moved the slider of Eriu from AI to Human.

When I loaded up the map in the game all was going well. Only the middle age was selectable just like this forum said, and some nations were blacked out. I changed the human nation to Eriu and just clicked "n" until no more random AI's could be selected.

I designed my god, named him, and then clicked ready, where I abruptly got a nagot glik fel or something like that and it said "#god - this nation is not in play" and then crashed. Maybe this just wasn't meant to be for me

[Ballbarian]

Thanks for trying it out Stryke11.

It would be a great help if you could send me the file "TESTDUMP.txt" located in your SemiRandom directory to semirand-AT-dom3minions.com. This only records data from the last run of SemiRandom, so if you have run subsequent maps through it without an error, it won't do any good to send it.

To let Dom3 handle start locations and AI gods:
1. Go to the 'Starts' tab
2. Uncheck 'Lock Player Counts to Nat Cfg'
3. Set 'Desired Num Players' to 0 (zero)

To use the custom start placements without using the custom AI gods:
1. Go to the 'Starts' tab
2. Uncheck 'Lock Player Counts to Nat Cfg'
3. Set 'Desired Num Players' to your desired number of players.
4. Go to the 'AI Gods' tab
5. Set 'AI Land Players' & 'AI Sea Players' to 0 (zero)


Looking forward to seeing some of your province contributions.