Random World Generator? Random characters?

[unmerged(896)]

Being a history major , I am rather familiar with world history... I have an idea of which countries were powerful in 1492 and which were powerful by 1792... I also know that the americas are 'some where out there' to the west.. I'm wondering if there are plans to be able to randomly generate a world so that everything isn't as obvious... Sid Myer's Colonization come to mind as a great game that randomized the world... so does Imperialism...

this game sounds alot like imperialism, but with a much more robust diplomatic engine and much more detail along with the detailed historical events...

Also, it would be nice to be able to randomize the abilities of historical leaders...just to keep people guessing in a multiplayer game...

If these things are already implemented, well sorry for the posting... but I haven't seen any mention of them...

 

[Syt]

No, those feature aren't implemented as of yet. However, the game has enough replay value already, as you can (with some very, very basic ASCII-editing) choose from the 70 something countries in the game.

Yes, the game reminded me of Imperialism first, too. However, the economic model is more abstract, but the political model with all those minors is much more realistic than in Imperialism. Also, colonization and discovery are vital parts of the game, but how vital depends on which country oyu play. Or do you remember any Polish colonies in the Americas, or in Africa?

Randomized may sound good at first, but the historic leaders add a great deal to balnce of gameplay. Without apt leaders weaker countries are easily wiped off the maps, a large country might get good leaders, while inferior countries getting terrible leaders, making it much harder for underdogs to be successful.

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Attrition is not a strategy. Attrition is the apparent lack of strategy. (Sun Tzu)

 

[unmerged(896)]

i can understand the point that a small nation will need better rulers to survive the onslaughts of greater nations, but isn't alot of that balanced by stability anyhow? I dunno since I haven't played the game..

If you play poland well enough, you should have the opportunity to create polish colonies... there were spanish, english, french, swedish, danish, french, and russian colonies in the americas.... they all had significant navies and a window to the atlantic... poland should have an option to do that too... if you can prevent from being devoured by prussia, Austria, and Russia...

 

[unmerged(181)]

Those two features are not yet implemented. HOWEVER, a great deal of game settings can be modified by changing the text files. With a little programming, these settings could be randomized.

The way I understand it, random geography is impossible (the map is a graphic, the AI couldn't handle it, etc.). However, the commodities, habitability and other values of various provinces could be altered. Therefore, you could still know where the New World is but you wouldn't know where the best provinces are or even if the New World is a better place to colonize than Africa or Asia. Perhaps colonization will prove less useful than focusing on Europe? That could simulate the uncertainty of colonization.

The skills of the various leaders and monarchs could also be altered. Again, you won't know if the next king will be a genius, simply competent or an idiot. You will not be able to tell ahead of time when the good generals will appear so military manuevers cannot be coordinated with their pre-ordained appearance.

I am thinking about creating a randomizer to go along with an editor. However, there will have to be testing to see if (a) the game does not crash and (b) the AI can handle the changes. We'll see.

 

[unmerged(703)]

I believe that if we just got the whole mape available (no permanent Terra) and we could use random country placing (and the countries individual property random as well), this would be more than enough....

For a real successful multiplayer game we need to make countries somewhat 'equal' to make it interesting.
For example one advantage should be compensated with a weakness.....

Multiplayer game balancing is difficult and hard, especially if you have to make it historically accurate.

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bmolsson
*Just passing by*

 

[unmerged(258)]

Originally posted by Pole:
I am thinking about creating a randomizer to go along with an editor. However, there will have to be testing to see if (a) the game does not crash and (b) the AI can handle the changes. We'll see.

Pole,

I think that as long as the proper format/syntax is followed, there should not be a problem with crashing. People have edited just about everything that could be edited, and it seems to be playable. The key is preserving the correct syntax of the text files. I'd be happy to see a randomizer that does what you mention.

 

[Viking]

Instead of random maps we could have 20 or 30 pre made maps. If in addition to that you assemble the maps from 'puzzle' pieces you can have 6-7 north america maps, 6-7 south america, 6-7 africa (with possible inland provinces maps..ect..ect.. which make it impossible to sent J.Cabot to newfoundland and S.Cabot to the carribean every time.

You might be sending the poor person into blue water every time. We might even add atlantis.. or a flat world.. go explore that seazone.. whoops your fleet dissapeared.. go off the edge..

 

[unmerged(896)]

Bmollson hit the topic that I really was thinking about in regards to Randomization...

in Multplayer, if you're going for VPs from my understanding, Spain has a big advantage over the other GCs... the other GCs would have to gang up on spain ... and take Mexico/Peru... the other Catholic contries like Austria have colonization hobbled by the Popish Treaty of Tortillas etc... Maybe it will be a EU2 thing, but it'd be nice for a world builder just for multi- and replay value.

 

[unmerged(485)]

ewoku & Olsson have the right idea. I know that there is a lot of replay value by being able to play 70 countries, but the element of discovery is lacking if everything is in the same place for each game. I continue to play Imperialism II (random world generation) because each game is different. You have to discover the potential of your home country as well as the new world. You never know where the gold/silver/tobacco etc. are until you have gotten an explorer in there and looked.

I know EU is more of an historical simulation than just a random strategy game and from what I've read here there are many many hours of enjoyment to be had with the game as is, but still some randomization might just show you some 'what if' scenarios - if Spain had not discoverd gold in South America, but the English had discovered it in Massachussetts etc.

 

[Berkut]

If the map cannot be randomized, maybe it would be possible to generate alternate maps?

Probably take a lot of work on the part of someone, but in my experience their is rarel a lack of people with more time than they know what to do with who would love nothing more than to spend every waking moment desigining interesting multiplayer maps for EU.

Berkut