MP: Power Beyond Comprehension aka "My power is still raising!" newbie game - Running

[krpeters]

I don't know if we're still debating the score graphs, but I prefer to leave them on -- they warn me who I need to gang up on.

[jimbojones1971]

Well, my previous EA Ermor pretender is named the Trouser Snake, so I think it may be time to introduce the Passion Python this time!

When can I unleash Passion Python upon an unwitting world?

[megawidget]

Seconding (thirding? fourthing?) Glory of the Gods MP!

I hope we can restart though if either I or R'lyeh end up in the lakes -- it would be vastly unfair since the other would have uncontested claims to so many water provinces. Unless, of course, R'lyeh is happy to go for early land conquest!

[jimbojones1971]

Originally Posted by megawidget

Seconding (thirding? fourthing?) Glory of the Gods MP!

I hope we can restart though if either I or R'lyeh end up in the lakes -- it would be vastly unfair since the other would have uncontested claims to so many water provinces. Unless, of course, R'lyeh is happy to go for early land conquest!

If it is not too late, its fairly simple to edit the map to designate the lakes as being out of bounds for starting locations.

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

Originally Posted by jimbojones1971

If it is not too late, its fairly simple to edit the map to designate the lakes as being out of bounds for starting locations.

Yes, I second that, please no lakes!

[Lung Drago]

Actually, I did some testing now and we apparently need to change the map anyway. Glory of the Gods is too small.
While number of provinces would be kinda fine, the real problem is that a good chunk of it is "unusable" - swamps and wastelands. I attempted to do a fixed start position version of the map for us, ran a web script I found on the net and got all provinces with <5 neighbours flagged nostart. Then I did some debugging and noticed some spawns are simply too close to each other. So, I sat down to it and went for it manually.

I tried my best, but the highest number of players you can cramp on this map is 15, with 2 being water. Adding any more would be too insane and balance would go instantly off the charts.(Even now some are somewhat too close, with mere 3 province space between them). It could go to 16 if we had another water nation, since the map actually looks useable by 3 sea nations. But some spawns still invoke a feeling of claustrophobia.

So, I highly suggest switching the map. Since choosing a useable map turned out to be a complex alchemy, and since I have nothing better to do today anyway, I will inspect several maps and attempt to come up with a new list. There is still an option of generating a map for us, aswell

[Vanguard X]

Originally Posted by Lung Drago

Actually, I did some testing now and we apparently need to change the map anyway. Glory of the Gods is too small.

Whew, thanks. I never played that map either but after looking at it I agree that it is way too small. Personally I like the idea of something that would average 20-25 lands per player.

[Lung Drago]

It turned out many of the maps with fixed starts have 3 province gap between capitols. So, it's propably just me thinking it's too close, lol. Well, absolutely no experience with dom3 map designs, really.

Originally Posted by megawidget

Also, how are wastes and swamps "useless"? They have the most sites!

That's true, but they still make very poor starting provinces. It simply isn't good when your capitol is on or neighbors many of these

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ultiplayer.jpg

Here is an example of a lineup. I tried to make it so there at least 2 land neighbors for each, one 3 provinces away and one 4 provinces away. Looks good for the most part, but since it is not a wraparound, some players are still somewhat lonely out there. Especially position number 11 and 2 alarm me. That frickin stupid island in the sea between them makes a logical another spawn point, but since it's an island, it's not an option as start. All spawns have 4 to 5 neighbors. No idea if this would actually work out.

An alternative could be "Alexandria" or "Asia Twist" maps. These have fixed starts already available, they are a little bit bigger though (made for 2 more land nations mostly). Orania ends up on ~17 provinces too.

[parone]

i don't think im gonna end up in this game, but i do think it is awesome that lung changed my handle from parone to parole. one letter can mean so much...

[jimbojones1971]

Twelve to fifteen provinces per player works out pretty well. Starting with only a few provinces between you and your neighbors is ugly, but this *is* a game about horribly murdering each other after all :-)

If we can't agree on a good "set" map, maybe we could consider picking one of the random maps from here:

http://www.dom3minions.com/RandomizedMaps.htm

Either way, I vote LD makes a call and we run with it :-)