Post
by cothyso » Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:11 am
Because..
Right now the problem is with having to pick a map from a different list of maps for each of one of the 5 terrain types. The pick would be as good, or as bad, as those lists and maps are made.
But..
The maps are few, and after a few tens of matches, you'll have them picked up again, and again and yet again. e, you'd give your right hand for a terrain generator. Custom made maps allowed is not a solution, as they can be made biased. By then, you'd kill for a map surprise.
Now..
A terrain generator for a hexagonal tiled map is not a so complicated thing to do. Yes, it can still get bad maps as output, but only if the programmers put together an terrain generation algorithm in a couple of days, and without testing it at all.
As for player interaction regarding the pre-generation phase, I can't see how it could be that difficult or complicated, as it can be done in only 1.5 turns:
a) player A posts the challenge
i) he picks his type of map choice
b) player B accepts the challenge
i) picks his own type of map choice
ii) the initiative dice is thrown: if 1st player won, his type of map choice will be used to generate the terrain, if he lose, the 2nd player's type of map choice is used (of course, you need a rule for this, maybe one player gain the initiative, as the other player gain the terrain; you may want to consider ambushes, defences, forced battles, etc; all of them can be solved by dices thrown in this sub-step)
iii) the player B asks for one feature in terrain (from a list of the already decided terrain type): none (ie let terrain generator do whatever it randoms to), a hill in center, a river on left, negate the other player's choice (only the winning dicer of a sort of rule may get this option, and maybe only if it has a 3 flags commander), no valleys, no woods, etc
c) player A
i) gets his own terrain feature choice
ii) map is generated using all of the above info
d) game begins
If you don't want players to pick some terrain features for the map, then you can skip b) iii) and c) i) (c) i) actually becoming b) iii) and d) becoming c) or even b) iv)). You can also let the side with a 3 flags commander has 2 terrain features choices, or access a larger lists of terrain features, and have the side with only 1 flag commanders have no terrain feature choice at all.
Anyway, this is the map picking system I intend to include in the computer wargame I am working on my free time.
Doesn't look too long, or too complicated to me, don't you agree?
