Generating A Random Map

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Woodruff
Posts: 57
Joined: May 24th, 2012, 12:01 am

Generating A Random Map

Post by Woodruff »

In long-ago versions (back when I played a lot), I could create randomly-generated maps that were actually playable. It was my favorite way to play, by creating very large random maps and then playing against other people.

I'm back to the game now, but this seems to no longer be the case. Even when I select it to be an "inland" map, it creates it as a hundred tiny islands (for a very large map). There doesn't appear to be a mostly-land map creation possibility any longer.

Another alternative is that I'm doing something wrong, but I've tried every variable I can think of. And I haven't been able to find anyone talking about it here in the forums.

I am playing version 1.12.6 on a Windows 10 machine. As such, there is no "error message" or anything of the sort.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks.
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vultraz
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by vultraz »

I can't really answer for 1.12, since we're not really supporting it anymore. I have tested on the latest 1.13+git version and map generation seems to work fine. Perhaps there's some bug in 1.12, but it wouldn't be very simple to go back and fix it now.
Creator of Shadows of Deception (for 1.12) and co-creator of the Era of Chaos (for 1.12/1.13).
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zookeeper
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by zookeeper »

vultraz wrote:I can't really answer for 1.12, since we're not really supporting it anymore.
Just in case someone would otherwise take the above at face value: no, we're definitely supporting 1.12 in the form of helping people with it.
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vultraz
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by vultraz »

Ah, yes, I can see how that remark could be taken out of context. Thanks for clarifying. :)
Creator of Shadows of Deception (for 1.12) and co-creator of the Era of Chaos (for 1.12/1.13).
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doofus-01
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by doofus-01 »

So all that said, I'd like to ask Woodruff what settings he used? I tried starting a (local) MP game in BfW 1.12.6 with a random map: 4p, 80x80, "inland". I did occasionally get a map that had too much water, but most of the time it was pretty much "inland", as advertised. Can you describe what you are doing that causes bad maps (with specific numbers, wherever possible)?
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Woodruff
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by Woodruff »

doofus-01 wrote:So all that said, I'd like to ask Woodruff what settings he used? I tried starting a (local) MP game in BfW 1.12.6 with a random map: 4p, 80x80, "inland". I did occasionally get a map that had too much water, but most of the time it was pretty much "inland", as advertised. Can you describe what you are doing that causes bad maps (with specific numbers, wherever possible)?
Ok, so I bring up the map editor and select "Generate Map". From there, I select Map > Generate Map > Settings

In the settings, I select:

Players: 9
Width: 100
Height: 100
# of hills: Anything but the zero setting, which fails for "not enough mountains"
Max Hill Size: Anything
Villages: 10/1000
Castle Size 6
Land Form: Inland

Interestingly, these exact settings work perfectly fine to create an inland map for Desert, Marsh, and Winter selections (#2, #3, and #4), but not for the initial setting.

UPDATE: My last statement is incorrect. I didn't realize until now that the settings don't carry over between the four styles of random map generation. All four selection types
create the same "100s of islands" message that the original does. So as you can probably glean from that mistake, the default settings for a tiny 2-player map work just fine
for all types.

By the way, didn't the older versions of the random map generators have options for how much snow/marsh/dirt/etc...just like are there for mountains only now?
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doofus-01
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by doofus-01 »

Woodruff wrote: I didn't realize until now that the settings don't carry over between the four styles of random map generation.
Yeah, it's annoying that those parameters don't get saved. But otherwise, I try 100x100 with 9players and landform:'inland'; and the map is pretty reasonable, no 100 islands...
EDIT: gnombat's right, small values for the hill/mountains setting can lead to little islands. To get around it is easy, just raise those slider values, but it does look like a bug.
Last edited by doofus-01 on February 26th, 2017, 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Abandoned: Tales of the Setting Sun
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gnombat
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by gnombat »

Woodruff wrote: # of hills: Anything but the zero setting, which fails for "not enough mountains"
Max Hill Size: Anything
In my tests it seems to depend heavily on these values - if they are both set to a low (but not the lowest) setting, I get a bunch of islands. (This happens in both version 1.12.6 and 1.13.6.)
Woodruff
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Re: Generating A Random Map

Post by Woodruff »

You are both exactly correct. There isn't a numerical value for me to pinpoint, but it appears to be at about the 1/7th size of the slider is when the problem presents itself. I guess I never troubleshot anything higher than that, so that's my bad.

Thanks for the help - is this the sort of thing I should submit a formal bug report for?
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