Revised Map -- Playtesting

[cherryfunk]

I just sent dvk the revised map files, so hopefully he'll be uploading them soon.

The changes to the map are extensive, and we need to make sure it plays properly before releasing it. So if everyone could play on it for a couple hours we should be able to iron out any bugs pretty quickly.

Thing to look for:

Clear routes -- Make sure rivers have fords in the right places and the fords are accessible. Make sure mountain passes aren't blocked by the odd clump of trees.

Steep Slopes -- Get into some battles in mountainous or rough terrain and make sure the slopes in the battle map aren't ridiculous.

Playability/Balance -- Consider the terrain in the context of faction balance -- should a terrain 'block' be added to block access and make a faction 'safer'? Should one be removed to increase competition?

Quirks -- Note anything that looks odd or out of place; snow in the wrong place, a resource in a strange location, a mountain that looks funny, etc. -- these things are easy to fix, but hard to find. If you see one make note of it.

Post your feedback here and I'll fix things as you find them. We should make every effort to have this ready soon, the fans are getting hungry!

[Squid]

One other thing to look for:

Region Borders -- Any region that has part of it's territory only accessible by traversing through another region or regions. The usual culprits for this behaviour are rivers and mountains though any intraversible terrain can cause the problem. Removing these improves AI gameplay on the campaign map, so if we find any we definitely want to remove them.

For those that were following Braxton's texture thread, I pointed out a couple of problems of this nature in spain for the RS2 map.

[dvk901]

One other thing we're going to have to emphasize is that RS1.5 needs to be installed over the 'Main Installer 1.10b'. I just had a bit of misery trying to test install this, so I installed RS1.10b....but I stopped the extraction, thinking it would be unnecessary since the UI is included in RS1.5 extracted already.
BIG MISTAKE. The pack extractor immediately moves 'pack0.pak' out of the 'pack' folder before you can stop it, and the game goes BOOM when you try to start it...because it's 'missing'.

So this must be installed over a completely 'finished' 1.10b install. Hotfix1.10c isn't necessary. I suppose a whole new installer could be built, but I haven't gotten that far.

[Squid]

I was going to build a totally new installer for 1.5, it's just easier that way.

[dvk901]

I was going to build a totally new installer for 1.5, it's just easier that way.

Ok, that's good. I guess. Some people might be upset about having to download the whole thing again...but oh well.

It'll probably be this Saturday before I can upload it though.

[icydawgfish]

I think a block should be made between armenia and the steppes to force Armenia to go south.

[Drtad]

I think a block should be made between armenia and the steppes to force Armenia to go south.

What should be done is the creation of some passes in that monster fictional mountain range between Armenia and Big Grey. That should fix that problem, Armenia taking Iberia, Colchis, and Albania seems okay to me, and the Caucasus block Armenia from Sarmatia pretty nicely.

[cherryfunk]

We might take the roads out, that should help. But I'm reluctant to use a land block, that would be extremely unrealistic.

[cherryfunk]

Can you be more specific? Passes near which cities?

[Drtad]

Can you be more specific? Passes near which cities?

Well, the whole mountain range there is completely fictional, so take your pick of wherever you think will work. Personally I'd think somewhere on the northern border of Sophene.

[cherryfunk]

Well, the whole mountain range there is completely fictional, so take your pick of wherever you think will work. Personally I'd think somewhere on the northern border of Sophene.

You mean something like this?

[Drtad]

Yes, that's perfect.

[cherryfunk]

I think we should have a landbridge across the Bosporus... thoughts? Any other landbridges we should have, maybe Italy/Sicily or Gibraltar?

[dvk901]

Gibraltar, but I don't want one between Sicily and Italy.

[cherryfunk]

Okay, I'll put in the landbridges and send along to dvk. I've also removed all roads that cross the Caucasus, to hopefully put more of a barrier between Armenia and the Sarmatians. With any luck, along with the new pass in Sophene, this will 'nudge' Armenia south instead of north and result in more historical expansion.

[Northern Ranger]

I would like a landbridge across the Bosporus, and I think there's one on the RS2 map.
Also I'm sure there was a landbridge at Gibraltar, unless I'm mixing this up with the RS2 map.

[dvk901]

I don't think there was on the RS1 map....never saw the AI use it.

[cherryfunk]

There was on the Mundus but not on the Big Map, but I think we should add it. For one thing, it really sucks to be sending out spies and diplomats and have to walk them all the way around the Black Sea... especially considering the Bosporus was probably the most heavily trafficked waterway in Europe...

[cherryfunk]

I'm making a few final adjustments to the map before sending to dvk:

-- The landbridges are in at Gibraltar and Asia Minor. (Also added the Rock of Gibraltar, because it's cool )

-- I removed all roads connecting the steppes north of the Caucasus Mountains and the valley to the south -- there are still 3 open routes, but no roads. This should reduce the likelihood of Armenia heading north.

-- Also put 2 passes in the mountains between Armenia and the Seleucid regions of Sophene and Commagene to the south, which should further nudge Armenia south.

-- Reduced the amount of sparse forests across the entire map by 30% or so -- dvk reminded me that while they look neat on the campaign map, forests are a huge pain on the battle map. However, Germany is still very heavily forested, as it was historically.

-- Put the Hungarian plain in -- this was missing from the map entirely. Now it's a big open plain, which provides some nice contrast with the Dacian mountains to the east, the Alps to the west, and the rough central European forests/hills to the north.

-- I removed the land block at Cyrene, but crafted the terrain in such a way that there are no roads and it's a confusing maze of hills -- so the player could, if he wanted, launch an invasion across Libya, but hopefully the AI won't get into the infamous desert wars. We'll have to keep an eye on this and see if it works, but XGM did this and it worked for them.

I'm now checking each city on the map to make sure they are open on all sides, in hopes of reducing that nasty siege CTD.

[cherryfunk]

I just sent the updated map to dvk so hopefully he can upload it today. It's looking pretty good. One thing I've discovered is that it's possible to control where roads are generated by carefully placing terrain, so I've eliminated some roads that were connecting the steppes with the lands to the south. So for example in this pic you can see the woods north of Olbia and Istros -- these are patches of dense woods, but with passages that units can move through. But the passages are too convoluted for roads, so the engine doesn't generate any roads there. Hopefully this will help to 'isolate' the steppes a bit more.



Likewise here is the long coast of Colchis, which connects the Cimmerian Bosporus with Armenia to the south -- by carefully placing dense woods, the route is still passable, but no roads will generate. This is actually very accurate historically, because this stretch of coast was notoriously hard to travel across: