Camelot – complete new map available 30/11/12

[cr1x]

Well I am pleased to announce that after many months of tinkering my map 'Camelot' is almost ready to be released to the COCONET community. At this point it is 98% complete and plays, I think, really well. The reason for setting myself a release date rather then releasing the files now is to set myself a definite deadline, without which my tinkering/play balancing may go on forever and i'll never get around to releasing it.

The attached image is an example of the base map, I'll post more images of the map being played later.

The scenario background is as follows:
The year is 460AD. The Romans have abandoned Britain leaving it to its own fate. Chaos reigns as the island is invaded by armies from overseas seeking to take advantage of this moment of weakness.

There are six majors available, they are:
Saxons
Scots
Celts
Britons
Angles
Vikings

My main aim behind creating this map/scenario was to create a game that could be played in one short sitting (an evening). War starts very quickly and it is pretty brutal. Great fun though. Each major will start with a single castle and they are pretty difficult to conquer.

I'll post more later.
Crix

[mael15]

looking forward to it!
but 6 players with these few territories?! hmmm, could be really brutal like you said.

[cr1x]

Hi mael15 and thanks for the reply.

You have to take my word for it but the overall number of areas, in my opinion, is just right (it includes eight islands, which increases the overall total). Plus the vikings are not based on the mainland so their attacks all come from the sea. In most games I control around seven areas before it all kicks off, then it is a case of trying to hold on to what I have before trying to expand further. I havn't had a bad game yet!

Crix

[cr1x]

Well, I have been working hard to try and get this map/scenario ready for release. In the last few days, I have introduced some changes to some of the starting locations and reduced the number of regions in the game. These changes have resulted in a significant improvement in how the computer plays and made them much more unpredictable.

The knock on effect is that the play balancing of the overall game has been affected and this will need to be sorted before release.

I hope to post some pictures in the next few days.

[cr1x]

OK, so I missed my deadline....but I'm nearly there

The attached image shows the map/scenario in an early stage of the game (after six turns). I am playing as the Saxons (yellow) but have already run in to trouble after the Vikings successfully stormed ashore on the land below my capital. This will need to be resolved before I can expand elsewhere. As you can no doubt guess, war comes very quickly in this game and is a real challenge but games are, as a result, quick and brutal – which was my main aim.

Game balancing between the different nations (after lots of tweaking) feels about right, I just need to do the final testing before release.

[cr1x]

OK, my final tweaks are just about done and i'm very happy

Game is as balanced as I can make it, but I would love to see how it would play with more human players.

Release of version 1.00 will be this Friday 21 December; ready for the Christmas holiday period. Between now and then I will continue to playtest, but I am pretty sure it will remain as it is.

Crix

[TCMgenX]

Hi cr1x,

I'm looking very forward to your map. As soon as it's ready i'll play and let you know. Do your best

TCMgenX

[HolySpirit]

How is the AI-implemented and to which winning score have you been playing?

Looking forward to this map!

[cr1x]

I'm looking very forward to your map. As soon as it's ready i'll play and let you know. Do your best

TCMgenX

Thanks for the support TCMgen, I would appreciate it if, once you have had a chance to play the map, you could provide me with as much feedback as possible.

How is the AI-implemented and to which winning score have you been playing?

Looking forward to this map!

The winnning score has been set to 400 which typically equates to occupying around 45% of the map. You can of course continue beyond this point if you wish, or alter the winning score at the beginning.

The computer players offer, in my opinion, a good challenging game and I havn't seen any odd behaviour in any of my test games. There is a variety of variables that can be set in the main map.xml file which affects how the AI plays and I have played with these extensibly to find the right balance. The biggest impact on how the computer plays appears to be connected with regions. Originally, I set the number of regions in the map to seven, but I found that this caused the computer players to play in a rigid and predictable way, due to the size of the map. Eventually, following experimentation, I reduced the number of regions to one and this has resulted in much more variety/challenge to their play. When adding the computer players during set-up, I would recommend only using the Atari ST AI.

Crix

[HolySpirit]

Thanks

When do you expect the map to be released to the community?

[Kroah]

Congratulation cr1x,

Your map seems good and solid.

Surprisingly, i did a custom map for the next release which is from the same era and location than yours.
Both will be interesting though.

Looking forward to your map !

[cr1x]

Map is now released, as promised – Simply copy the zip file into the Custom Maps folder....Please don't forget to post your feedback.

Kroah, thanks for your support and for making the tools available for creating the custom content. Looking forward to the next release.

Crix





Version 1.1 uploaded 31/12/12

[CivLord]

I was waiting in anticipation of your new map. When I saw you had posted it, I immediately downloaded it and tried to play it.

Loading the map in CoCoNet takes a lot of time (more than the loading of the Elora map, which is much bigger). And every following step to set-up the game (starting server, choosing factions, adding computer players) takes a lot of time, while it takes no time at all in other maps I have played, including Struggle for Elora.
All the while, the map view is just a rectangle in one colour, with the flags on it. No countries and no outlines. That's the same map as I get when I can finally start the game: all the play-field is one colour (red, green, blue, etc., the colour of the last faction chosen bij de game for a computer player).

Enabling or disabling Direct 3D doesn't make any difference and I don't get any errors from CoCoNet.
I can start the game and I can make moves, but it's on a blank map.

I'm afraid you posted the wrong version of your map, or made a fatal last-minute adjustment.

PLEASE!!! Correct it. I want to play!!!

[cr1x]

Hi CivLord, I have just downloaded the files I posted yesterday and placed them in the Custom Maps folder and it worked absolutely fine for me. I am not sure what could be causing the problems you are having.

What we need is someone else to try it out and see if they are have the same problem.

Very puzzled

Crix

[cr1x]

CivLord, I have a second computer which has never had CoCoNet installed on it before. As a test I have installed CoCoNet from scratch onto that PC, downloaded the files for Camelot dropped them into Custom Maps folder and it worked first time.

Perhaps you could try re-installing CoCoNet.

Things should become clearer as more people download the map and give it a try.

Crix