abian

Picking up on the comments, and especially alre's, my current suggestion would be for the player to choose between the “Load (an) Official/Default Map” and “Generate (a) Random Map” actions (or similar).

I've always found the "Random" option for "Map Type" in the Match Setup a bit confusing (it could mean choosing randomly, with or without filtering criteria, among the manually generated maps). I wonder if this could happen to more people and if you would consider another name better. Some names that come to mind: Procedural Map(s) Dynamic Map(s) Scripted Map(s) Algorithmic Map(s) Randomly Generated Map(s) Randomized Map(s) Auto-Generated Map(s) Generative Map(s) Ever-Changing Map(s) Unique Map(s) Infinite Map(s) Unrepeatable Map(s) Unpredictable Map(s) ... (I don't have a clear preference, but maybe Auto-Generated?)

It took me a while to see it, yes. xD g_SimState.players[...].phase should be "empire", which should be listed that way in simulation/components/GuiInterface.js' GetSimulationState... if (cmpTechnologyManager) { if (cmpTechnologyManager.IsTechnologyResearched("phase_city")) phase = "city"; else if (cmpTechnologyManager.IsTechnologyResearched("phase_town")) phase = "town"; else if (cmpTechnologyManager.IsTechnologyResearched("phase_village")) phase = "village"; }

I lean a bit towards the idea that these kinds of uncertainties make the game (and the exploration of the territory) more interesting.

Good to know! The grace period should be easy to implement if probabilistic (there's no need to keep track and wait exactly w seconds for every entity, it may be sufficient that the average wait is w seconds), which would also be a more realistic effect. I also agree that, with the changes you mention, and even though this erosion would be really slow, repairing many ships would be a pain. What about buildings?

For now I'm afraid I haven't come up with anything easy to introduce that is interesting, meets certain standards, and is culture agnostic. If dreaming is free, I think it would be great if the appearance and height (not width or depth) of all buildings evolved with the phase, so that the complexity or modernity of their appearance and their great height would be associated with an advanced phase, and their poor/simple appearance and minimum height, with an early phase.

I propose that buildings and ships can very slowly deteriorate naturally due to lack of attention at a rate of 1 HP every s seconds, but only after about w seconds after being built or repaired. For example, s=4 and w=120. This erosion should not be relevant in short games.

Would you like to have this? https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/6849