New balanced random map

[Feldfeld]

Hi guys, I had the idea of making a new random map with multiple purposes :
- To adapt a skirmish map from Delenda Est mod and making a random map compatile with it (so, notably to have farmland)
- To have randomized but still balanced additionnal ressources near players. They will have the same amount of nearby food (+/- 200) and it can be of same or different types (hunt or berries).

So I decided to adapt "Britannic Road" from Delenda Est by @wowgetoffyourcellphone.

Thanks to @nani, @badosu and @elexis for answering all my questions on map making

 

Version for vanilla :

feldmap.zip

 

Version for Delenda Est :

delenda_rm.zip

Version for github DE (A24) :

delenda_rm_a24.zip

Edited May 4, 2020 by Feldfeld

[Feldfeld]

Update : reduced density of oak forests

Spoiler

in a very hacky way

 

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

Nice. Maybe try to replicate the lighting effects of the Britannic Road skirmish map? Also if you make one for DE, perhaps add the merc camps too?  

[badosu]

I just looked at the code for generating food and I am amazed, that's exactly what I wanted to do but wasn't aware how.

In particular the use of `BorderTileClassConstraint`. To do something similar I created an `arcPlacing` function that's overly complex for similar functionality. It will still be useful for some of the current maps on `balanced-maps` but I'll definitely steal your food generator and perhaps even extend it to stone.

Edited April 21, 2020 by badosu

[Feldfeld]

Update :

- Changed lighting effects
- Changed ground textures
- There is now fewer but thicker woodlines (in smaller map sizes specially) in an attempt to balance wood and to also leave space for DE farmlands.
- Wood can still be imbalanced, I will probably look into guarranteeing a forest to players
- I am still not satisfied with how i deal with trees and leaves around the road

[Feldfeld]

An attempt at farmlands :

 

 

[Feldfeld]

I just made a *sort of* working version for DE. Things to note:

- I made it on a released version of delenda est, if you find that dependencies are not met, try modifying the mod.json file to change them.
- If you play it on a later version of DE compared to the one i modded on, some files may be overwritten.
- Added farmlands, i'll look to improve the way they look later if i'm able to. For now there is also a bug where if they spawn on the edges of the map there may be some areas not covered by the gathering bonus aura.
- Added mercenary camps. As of now I didn't make the number of additionnal farmlands / mercenary camps scale with map size or player numbers yet.
- Added unique starting buildings. In the future i will probably change the way base spawn to meet the looks of skirmish maps (ie. ressources further from CC). The way I added starting buildings may make base spawning bug in other random maps
-The spawn of guarranteed farmland areas / mercenary camps has only be finetuned for settings 1v1 medium size. In other map settings they will work most of the time but i should fix that later.

[Stan`]

Great work man!

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

8 hours ago, Feldfeld said:

An attempt at farmlands :

 

 

That's awesome. Finally a random map with real DE features. Stoked.  

I don't know if you want to develop with the github version of the mod, but here it is: https://github.com/JustusAvramenko/delenda_est

Edited April 22, 2020 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 hour ago, Feldfeld said:

In the future i will probably change the way base spawn to meet the looks of skirmish maps (ie. ressources further from CC).

Frankly, I think core game should just adopt DE's resource placement style so you won't have to worry about it.

[Feldfeld]

34 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I don't know if you want to develop with the github version of the mod, but here it is: https://github.com/JustusAvramenko/delenda_est

Well, the only files i think that enter in conflict are the civ files in simulation/data/civs (I used them to specify the unique building for each civ). I'll probably just update them when the next DE release comes.

[Feldfeld]

New version for vanilla :

- Food generator is now smarter by using areas.
- Players now start with a guarranteed forest near their base

[Feldfeld]

New version for vanilla :

- Added mineral balancing
- Changed a bit how the map looks

[Feldfeld]

New version for DE :

- Ported most of the new features from the vanilla version of the map
- Improved farmland placement a bit

[Feldfeld]

Added version for github DE (A24)

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

6 hours ago, Feldfeld said:

Added version for github DE (A24)

So awesome seeing DE features in a random map!  

If you don't mind, here are my observations:

Native merc camps can be "merc_camp_brythonic" for that extra authenticity. 

A few map creeps would add some life to the map (like in the original skirmish map).

Maybe a couple of "trading_post_celtic" along the road that players can capture.

A couple of ponds would be nice aesthetically. 

Maybe throw a random Stonehenge or Uffington White Horse in there? Randomly placed, aka might show up, might not. Just an idea.

I'm sure some of these are already on your radar. I'm enjoying this already!

Edited May 4, 2020 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

A few more things about DE's "standard" map theory:

Every player should have 1 Factional merc camp near it's starting territory. The rest are native merc camps based on the map.

Stone is now more important than Metal, so there should probably be a couple more stone mines laying around the map than currently (number of metal mines are fine). 

Players start each match with 4 free defense towers.

Edited May 6, 2020 by wowgetoffyourcellphone

[Feldfeld]

On 5/4/2020 at 4:48 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

So awesome seeing DE features in a random map!  

If you don't mind, here are my observations:

Native merc camps can be "merc_camp_brythonic" for that extra authenticity. 

A few map creeps would add some life to the map (like in the original skirmish map).

Maybe a couple of "trading_post_celtic" along the road that players can capture.

A couple of ponds would be nice aesthetically. 

Maybe throw a random Stonehenge or Uffington White Horse in there? Randomly placed, aka might show up, might not. Just an idea.

I'm sure some of these are already on your radar. I'm enjoying this already!

The issue with some of these suggestions is that they take space on the map (so less areas for ressources). Now it wouldn't be a problem if the map is played at a size similar to those of skirmish maps (so i guess normal size for 1v1 for example) but i'm not sure if it will be the case.

On 5/6/2020 at 12:01 AM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

A few more things about DE's "standard" map theory:

Every player should have 1 Factional merc camp near it's starting territory. The rest are native merc camps based on the map.

Stone is now more important than Metal, so there should probably be a couple more stone mines laying around the map than currently (number of metal mines are fine). 

Players start each match with 4 free defense towers.

Yeah i'll consider adding those when i have time. I did give each player a guarranteed mercenary camp near their base but didn't make the distinction factionnal/native.
For now I'm a bit busy so there won't be updates soon i think.
On another note my version for github can become obsolete in the future (if the simulation/data/civs files are updated)

[badosu]

By the way, the latest release of balanced-maps (0.18.0) includes the vanilla version and is available to install via 0ad.