The Multiplayer Map Reader's Digest

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 2nd, 2006, 9:43 pm

I've just finished some very big changes to Blitz. When next I have time, I'll post up a screenshot, link to the map, and discuss it.

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 16th, 2006, 10:07 pm

Alright then. Many, many modifications to the official map pack. I don't have the time right now to post up screenshots and discuss the changes, but most of them will be self-explanatory. Blitz has been dramatically changed, and, in an effort to deemphasise the mobility of flying units, a long diagonal island has been added to the central lake, allowing land units to cross the center. In testing, this change has appeared to be a good thing, and most importantly, Blitz games seem (at least to myself and others I've spoken with) to be more interesting and enjoyable. Another village has been removed from each side, further reducing the "build up" effect that's plagued this map since its creation in the primordial soup of Ancient Wesnoth.

Blitz

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewblitz

Triple Blitz

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... eblitz.txt
(Made this one much more like Modern Blitz, much less like Ancient Blitz. Removed sand banks, did away with uniform terrain clumping, etc.)

Smallolof

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewsmallolof
(Added a few shallow water hexes, removed/rearranged mountains adjacent to villages.)

Silverhead Crossing

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... adcrossing
(A good many changes- Took some of the pressure off of player 2 in the center and rearranged player 2's defensive cavewall. I'll likely do a writeup on this one if I find the time.)

Morituri 3p

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewmorituri3p
Moved some mountains around and made other minor terrain changes, including snow-hill and snow-forest aliasing, in the interest of distinguishing this Morituri from Morituri 4p.)

Lagoon
http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewlagoon
(Attempted to power up the role of water units, and increase the general mobility of land units, by replacing some of the deep water {particularly that which had outlined the land areas} with shallow water. A few other very minor changes.)

Den of Onis

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewdenofonis
(Made it more difficult for player 1 to take and occupy both central mountains. Also reduced the lava, downsizing the flying unit advantage of passing around the inner sides. Other minor changes. Due to the inclusion of a new village, this version of the map only functions in 1.1. I'll soon be making a version that will run in both.)

Cynsaun Battlefield

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... attlefield
(Redid the entire northwestern area and made a number of other changes to the general terrain.)

Clash

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewclash
(Rearranged the terrain so that there are no longer any mountains adjacent to villages. Minor changes to the overall terrain.)

Charge

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewcharge
(In this version, I think I've finally solved the centuries old problem of balancing this map for all players and factions. Provided that no player is asleep at the wheel, they will each be able to take exactly 9 villages.)

Post by **Noy** » January 16th, 2006, 10:43 pm

I've got a request for ya... How about balancing our old favorite, morturi 8?

Pretty please?

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 16th, 2006, 10:52 pm

Noy wrote:I've got a request for ya... How about balancing our old favorite, morturi 8?

Pretty please?

Not a bad idea.

Let me see if I have it.....

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 23rd, 2006, 9:35 pm

So, Forest of Fear has been rebalanced. It's never going to be perfect, given the nature of the original map, but I think it's as close to balanced as it really needs to be.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... restoffear

Also, here's that Stable-Den of Onis that I promised.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... onisstable

Post by **Becephalus** » January 23rd, 2006, 11:21 pm

EDITTED, I meant 7,2 and Den of Onis

Does it fix the problem with player 2 having little to no shot stopping player 1 from taking 7,2 and thus having a large village advantage?

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 24th, 2006, 12:10 am

Becephalus wrote:Does it fix the problem with player 2 having little to no shot stopping player 1 from taking 7,6 and thus having a large village advantage?

I'm not sure what you mean really, as neither of those maps have a village at 7,6.

Were you talking about Forest or Den?

WildPenguin · Post by **WildPenguin** » January 24th, 2006, 12:56 am

I believe Becephalus is referring to 7,2 on Den of Onis.

I have seen this tactic used twice (once with a Wolf Rider and again with a Cavalryman), where the unit captures the hills at 4,5 at the beginning of the third turn - hindering the second player's opportunity for capturing the village.

Post by **Becephalus** » January 24th, 2006, 1:02 am

yeah sorry i got my info confused. but yes as best i could tell there was no way to stop it.

WildPenguin · Post by **WildPenguin** » January 24th, 2006, 1:26 am

It can be prevented only if it is expected. Moving a scout to 3,5 or beyond on the second turn, or via the use of a skirmishing unit.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that a number of leaders can not reach 6,3 on the first turn, making this an obvious stop for a scout (especially as no lvl 1 unit can reach 7,2. on the second turn). The scout can then be "expected" to move to 7,2 during the third turn - which is where the problem lies.

Factions without a skirmishing unit may well be forced to sacrifice efficient village collection due to the chance that their opponent attempts this.

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 24th, 2006, 2:29 pm

WildPenguin wrote:It can be prevented only if it is expected. Moving a scout to 3,5 or beyond on the second turn, or via the use of a skirmishing unit.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that a number of leaders can not reach 6,3 on the first turn, making this an obvious stop for a scout (especially as no lvl 1 unit can reach 7,2. on the second turn). The scout can then be "expected" to move to 7,2 during the third turn - which is where the problem lies.

Factions without a skirmishing unit may well be forced to sacrifice efficient village collection due to the chance that their opponent attempts this.

First of all, you guys are talking about the old OLD version of the map (like 2-3 versions ago), and even then, what you suggest is easily countered. Any scout that comes near 6, 3 should be easily dealt with by your leader (every faction has a good leader-option for this sort of thing), allowing you to take 7,2 with any unit of movement 6 or higher (again, every faction has good options for this). Also, keep in mind that for a few versions now, the village that was 6,3 has been 5 hexes from your leader. In the old version (3 updates ago), yes, it was 6 away.

A lot of the changes that took place since that old version have been in response to that issue- Player 2 never had any guaranteed stolen villages, but they could put more pressure on Player 2 than I was comfortable with. Bear in mind also that the map is not symetrical, and there are quite a lot of subtle differences between the two sides, designed to lessen any player 1 advantage.

As always, if anyone would like me to demonstrate these points, I'll try to find you on the server and play a few turns as player 2.

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 24th, 2006, 2:38 pm

At any rate, just take a look at the current version.

I wouldn't rule out taking even more pressure off of P2, but I've never experienced much of a problem when an opponent has tried to do what Penguin described (and they'd certainly have a much much harder time trying to do that on the current version).

Post by **Doc Paterson** » January 28th, 2006, 10:21 pm

Could it be? Another update to Charge? Oh, yes.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thenewestcharge

and, The Den. Where Onis live.

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/ ... tdenofonis

Post by **Doc Paterson** » February 2nd, 2006, 9:43 pm

Onis don't take kindly to elves being all up in their business.

The newest and true-est:

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/paterson/thebestdenofonis

(I realised that in taking anti-saurian measures, I may have gone a little too far, to the point that the Drakes and to some extent, Knalgans suffered. Elf power-level became a bit higher than it ought to be as well. <These problems weren't massive, but they definitely needed some mending.> )

Shadowdweller · Post by **Shadowdweller** » February 15th, 2006, 1:23 am

Just downloaded 1.1.1 a few days ago and noticed something about Charge:

The villages have been moved to the point that the nearest is now six spaces away from the castle of side 1. A few leader types can make this after turn one recruiting (i.e. Elvish Archers, Drakes, Orcish Slayers) but most cannot. While it probably only amounts to a few gold, still seems a bit unbalanced, or at the very least annoying...particularly if one likes to play random and/or slow moving factions.

Edit: Or, I should say the easiest village to get to. There is a closer one, but costs more movement for nearly every leader owing to it's being on the other side of a swamp.