Age of Strategy Forums

When you design a map that is a random map (not a campaign map) than the following rules are need to be kept in mind.

topics:
- I. Auto Swamping positions, TC generation and territories
- II. Manual Player TC SPAWN positions
- III. Manual Neutral TC SPAWN positions
- IV. The forbidden "units" layer
- V. Terrain

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I. Swamping positions, TC generation and territories

1. player "swamping" position on game start:
The map generation logic places the playing players when the user starts the rangom or multiplayer game.
These are the locations where the players are randomly put (1..6):
when:
- in a max. 4 player game: only the four corners used to spawn players
- in 5,6 player games the internal "5","6" sections are also used to spawn.

2. initial TC counts in each "corner":
You need to have at least 4 tiles in each section where a TC can be built (where there are no hills or water there)
These places will hold the extra "neutral" TC-s to occupy (the amount of extra TC is determined by the "number of towns" setting few/normal/many)

3. the corner sizes 1..4:
each corner is calculated like this:
See an example the top left corner corner "1":
- calculate the round(1/3) of the map height it will be "h"
- calculate the round(1/3) of the map width it will be "w"
- now draw a line from h,0 to 0,w
this will be the line that cuts out the "corner"

4. the corner sizes 5 and 6:
this is a bit complicated, so i will not write that down here, but you can guess it from the image above (and it is generally no problem on any maps since in these sections there are usually enough ground tile to put TC on)

5. New logic on placing the neutral TC:
the territories showed on this image is not changed:
- in the colored sections the player gets the starting TC and depending on TC counts 1, 2, or 3 extra TC very near to the starting TC
- EARLIER LOGIC: all other TC are placed random OUTSIDE the occupied (colored) territories
- CURRENT LOGIC: all other TCs are place EQUAL distances to player TC-s (so the tile distance is the same)
- eg: 2 players and putting 14 extra TC-s (above the "near" TC-s)
- first TC to 6* tile distance to player A
- 2nd TC to 6 tile distance to player B
- 3rd TC to 8 tile distance to player A
- 4th TC to 8 tile distance to player B
- 5rd TC to 5 tile distance to player A
- 6th TC to 5 tile distance to player B
- 7rd TC to 10 tile distance to player A
- 8th TC to 10 tile distance to player B
...
*: the distance is depending on map size, and it is randomly choosed which distances to put.


II. Manual Player TC SPAWN positions
We have spawn point designator "TCunits".
You can put them in designing a random map and you can tell the engine not to automatically chose poistions for players but put them exactly on these spawners.
they are looking like this in AOF/AOS in AOW The "2" means first and second player will spawn on these.
The "4" means 3rd and 4th will spawn on these.
The "6" means 5rd and 6th will spawn on these.


III. Manual Neutral TC SPAWN positions
From now TC-s are placeable on random maps, and if you do no automatic neutral TC spawning will occur
(if on map there is at least 1 tc placed, no automatism will fire to place neutral TCs)


IV. The forbidden "units" layer

Generally you MUST not put anything on the units layer if you build a RANDOM map, you fill only the terrain layer (since everything will be generated by the engine (TC-s, player spawning positions and so on)
The only exceptions are
a) animals and other emerging neutral objects (see in the AOF version (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=553) there you see the design pack updated with the animals - on AOS all are available too)
b) Player TC spawners (see above)
c) Neutral TC-s (for manual neutral tc placement - see above)

V. Terrain
In a random map try making totally natural appearance, so use eall decorations and terrain elements possible to make it look real
- however do not OVERDECORATE the map that is also not good
- avoid making symmetrical maps, as those are not natural (in nature it is rare to have symmetrical aligment)

Do these rules change with the new tc generation we have? (or if we change it again?)

How do you determine spaces for players 5-6?

the territories showed on this image is not changed:
- in the colored sections the player gets the starting TC and depending on TC counts 1, 2, or 3 extra TC very near to the starting TC
- EARLIER LOGIC: all other TC are placed random OUTSIDE the occupied (colored) territories
- CURRENT LOGIC: all other TCs are place EQUAL distances to player TC-s (so the tile distance is the same)
- eg: 2 players and putting 14 extra TC-s (above the "near" TC-s)
- first TC to 6* tile distance to player A
- 2nd TC to 6 tile distance to player B
- 3rd TC to 8 tile distance to player A
- 4th TC to 8 tile distance to player B
- 5rd TC to 5 tile distance to player A
- 6th TC to 5 tile distance to player B
- 7rd TC to 10 tile distance to player A
- 8th TC to 10 tile distance to player B
...
*: the distance is depending on map size, and it is randomly choosed which distances to put.

Yeah man look I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I just can't seem to understand cause no matter what I do it doesn't work and it's frustrating.

post here screenshot of the whole map.

Alright my apologies I stayed up all night that evening designing a map and I just couldn't figure it out. I'll post what I have but I'll be back at it soon. Thanks

Just a question. I've just made a random map and it is now active among my maps when creating a random game. will now that map be available to anyone or just me and the games i create?

Only you.

How can i make you see my map to make it in the game for everyone?

Once you finish a random map you must send to dev through email, also send a screenshot of the map in the email so he can easily look it over.

Also, speaking of random maps, did you see the canyon map I sent you a while back Daniel?

yes, sorry for not answering but i hate telling someone that is not good to hear

i wrote you that it is nice but please make smaller maps because i dont want make multiplayer games too long and maybe boring also it increases skippers.

so lets make max 30x30 or similar size maps (or 25x35 and so on) so about max 900 tiles.

thanks!

Yeah, I made it bigger than what I usually do (35x35) because almost 60-70% of the map was rocks, but I will try to make a smaller version and see how it turns out.

EDIT: I sent you a similar 35x35 map. Again, it is mostly rocks, so its really more like a 20x20 map lol.

descrption updated:
II. Manual Player TC SPAWN positions
III. Manual Neutral TC SPAWN positions

Great. Better random gen.

Couple of quick question please Mr @Stratego (dev)

Could you elaborate on the formula that gives zones 5 and 6 their vertical placement? (Even if that does mean copy-and-pasting a large chunk of gnarly mathematics) - I would like to know how a map with y axis > x axis would distribute the extra space.

What is the distance of the gap between 5 and 6 relative to map height?

Is it possible to mix and match player TC spawn? eg, allow 4 players to automatically spawn in each corner, but using 2x spawn point 6 only, would that fix the middle two players points exactly? I am thinking of a landscape map here where x>y, or is it best to go fully manual if map shape is straying much beyond square?