Random map

posted on October 24th, 2010, 3:35 am

I was just thinking; Wouldn't it be cool if you could choose a random map option?  Just have it auto select a map so you don't have to worry about voting or preference.  It would make FFA's really fun because every aspect could have the possibility of being random.  Race, starting place, and now map.

It would obviously have to select a map that at least had enough players as there were playing, maybe a map that had exactly the same amount of players, that way, if there are 2 players, you don't end up with a 8 player map.  You would really only have to limit within reason, but I think it could still work.

posted on October 24th, 2010, 9:58 am

ewww no. there are some horrible maps provided with fleetops. boggz's duel and star traffic are just horrible, nobody ever plays them cos they are so ridiculously unbalanced

but there are some real bad unbalanced maps. like swings and roundabouts, i think thats the name, its the one with the moons in the blue nebs. borg are invincible on that map

posted on October 24th, 2010, 10:07 am

Haha, Swings & Roundabouts was one of my very early ones .

posted on October 24th, 2010, 10:07 am

Haha, Swings & Roundabouts was one of my very early ones .

is that the map i described? the one with the hideous moons in the blue neb.

posted on October 24th, 2010, 7:25 pm

I suppose it would only work for balenced maps.  I actually was thinking with AI in mind, but I guess I didn't realize maps were that un-balenced.

posted on October 24th, 2010, 7:33 pm

i didnt realise how unbalanced it was until i realised how much it lets borg pwnroll.

posted on October 24th, 2010, 10:14 pm

Blue Amber (the map I play on the most) isn't balanced either.  In fact, there's two start points in it that are basically death sentances out the gate, because you're sitting in the crossroads between 3 other people right out the gate.

Then toss in differing access to moons and chokepoints and it gets worse.  Bottom left is the strongest startpoint on that map by far.  Easy access to two moonpairs, along with easy access to two more dilithium moons, chokepointed on two side with no other approaches.  There's another two startpoints nearby.  One a fair distance off, one near your expansion point...but they are in a crossroads so it's easy enough to dispose of them.

That's just one little example of unbalanced.  I like the map purely for it's combination of unbalanced startpoints, number of startpoints, and size.  I always play it random race, random startpoints, FFA.  Only gripe is that I know it's layout too well now, and only have to scout for intel, not location.  Makes me feel like the cheating AI, knowing where everything is all the time.

posted on October 24th, 2010, 10:26 pm

Except that the AI has to scout 

posted on October 25th, 2010, 1:16 am

Not entirely sure about that.  I learned that against the AI, if I place a sensor turret anywhere on the map, no matter how early, the fleet will come for it.  So I stopped putting them near expansions, and suddenly the AI left the expansions alone until it stumbled upon them.

So maybe it really just knows where every sensor turret is.

posted on October 25th, 2010, 5:43 pm

is that the map i described? the one with the hideous moons in the blue neb.

Aye, that's the one . I'd like to think I got a bit better at map making since then though

posted on October 25th, 2010, 6:33 pm

If it wernt for the Borg not having sheilds TO loose, as well as the way the AI is expert at hunting ships in nebulas down at times......  I'd say the forced nebula play is cool, as its differnt and can really turn the tide.

But yeah Pheonix deffinitly keep making your 'unbalanced' maps, I like assymitry.

posted on October 25th, 2010, 7:15 pm

If it wernt for the Borg not having sheilds TO loose, as well as the way the AI is expert at hunting ships in nebulas down at times......  I'd say the forced nebula play is cool, as its differnt and can really turn the tide.

if it werent for a hugely imbalanced and annoying problem which allows human borg players to completely rape you...

turn the tide is wrong, there is no tide to turn, any barely competent borg player would beat a good player on that map.

thats the problem with fun gimmicks, they change balance. balancing 5 races is bloody hard, wait til its more.

Aye, that's the one .

Shame on you!

posted on October 25th, 2010, 11:01 pm

By turn the tide, I meant non-borg matches.

Ive gotten lucky in the past and beaten fleats when I was out matched by using nebulas.

posted on October 26th, 2010, 4:03 pm

yup map makers really need to watch where they place nebs, a bunch of greens near an exp makes it hard to defend against fed harassment.

Purples and blues help borg.

Greens also help rom/klink/dom, just not as much as feds.

posted on October 26th, 2010, 4:59 pm

I'm waiting for the time the nebula effects are tuned, in line with FO, because they're essentially the same as stock! They just look prettier.

Actually, it's perhaps the one big reason as to why I am releasing maps rarely (other than not having my pc atm!). There's only so much you can do when every addition severely aids or nerf certain factions . It would be awesome if nebula effects were much more subtle. Hint hint dev team