Posts from Mirror Jebus for SOD! (and other new and upcoming templates)

I believe that in the future, a software mechanism will be implemented for mirror images to prevent them from entering the opponent's plane before turn 121...

:smile54:

Mt_teamwork (truncated) with cross connections:
Truncated cross-connected teamwork

Today, we played this template. It turned out to be quite interesting. It's a shame that it doesn't always generate beautifully, and the sizes of the zones don't end up in the proportions that were intended. But this is a problem with the generator in the editor; there's nothing to be done about it...

Mt_teamwork (full) with cross connections:
Full cross-connected teamwork

To be honest, I don't understand the point of making such a "full" version. What's the use of it? The point is to preserve the structure and gameplay of the familiar template, so that everyone has their own starting area, a common zone, and a center in the sands. But here, you end up with a bunch of additional neutral spawns, which means it becomes a completely different template, without any real idea :confused:

The same goes for Jebus. What's the point of overlapping a full Jebus with itself? You end up with a template with 8 spawns. Ideally, a mirrored Jebus, to preserve the structure, should have only one with 3 zones on the same plane: a starting spawn, a neutral spawn, and a center.

Well, as you once said, "you can't please everyone." So, let's take Jebus as an example. If we take the trimmed version, I personally like it, but others don't like the unevenness of the zones. But at least there's nothing лишнее (superfluous). For them (those who don't like the unevenness), there's the full version – if you want the zones to be beautiful, please, go ahead and play it. On each plane, everyone has their own unlocked spawn point and one of the neutral ones; the rest are under the control of the AI with 120k gold. As a result, we get 2 playable zones and a center on each plane, just like on the real Jebus. Visually, there are more zones, but in practice, there aren't more playable ones. You have to choose what suits you best. It's like arena maps where they've thrown in a bunch of decorations that aren't playable – just for atmosphere. For example, Nicostar liked the full version of Jebus. If I were to create only what I consider to be the best, there would be some extremely fast-paced templates (whether regular or mirrored). I'm looking for formats that speed up the process, but within reasonable limits, to 2-4 or at least 3-5 hours without dragging things out. And I test these unexplored aspects with the guys in tournaments on VK and YouTube, so as not to waste the time of experienced players on nonsense. For example, in the last tournament, we tested a timer for the entire game, similar to what's done in Warlords, and then 2 minutes per turn. When both players run out of time in succession, they can request a final match. I was following your 2v2 game, but I was busy with work at times. Both streams were open. I heard from Reddit at the beginning that they didn't like the direct connection of portals, so I quickly made a cross-connection. I need to rewatch the game to see what the gameplay was like.

One of the templates we tested in last year's subscriber tournament. A number of players liked it, so I'm posting it here as well:

Derzhava template



We played it with strong monsters on a Large map without an underground. But it's also possible to play with other settings. Each player has 6 paths to treasure locations, with paths leading from these to the computer castles and further to the treasure locations of their opponents and to the opponent's zone. Beginners learned how to work with chains and manage their tempo. We also allowed flying between zones to speed up the game. And thanks to all the castles with forts, there were opportunities to switch to other castles or build several at once. But then the rewards were smaller, and it was more difficult.

Added 6 minutes later
Another template with computer castles, which we also tested in that tournament. In this one, the computer castles often interfere with the players' development. We played on Large-Large map sizes without an underground.

Sorokonozhka template

The faction looks "a bit" like Diamond. Are relics still scattered on the ground in the dungeons?

The Stronghold "somewhat" resembles Diamond) In treasures, are relics still lying on the ground?

Artifacts do spawn, yes. Usually in treasure caches there are 1-2 Dragon Fly Hives, Pandora's Boxes appear, and a couple of artifacts +/-. Also, traditionally, a couple of treasure zones are blocked by obstacles along the path. And often, zones with the opponent are adjacent and can be seen through lookout towers. Although changes have been made multiple times during the tournament — everything could be different by now.

Regarding the Dominion – it has 20 zones, which is more suitable for an XL+U layout; on smaller sizes, the zones will be too small. On the Diamond, there are 16 zones, and it fits snugly on an L+U layout. However, XL-U has a smaller area than L+U. Similarly, for the Centipede – it has 13 zones, which is optimal for L+U/XL-U, but in my opinion, it's not very good for L-U.

Good point. The zones on the map were small – that’s true. But the game still took 3-4 weeks to complete. However, the zones were less resource-rich back then, so perhaps development will be faster now.

These templates are somewhat reminiscent of the first and tenth anarchy schemes.

These templates are somewhat reminiscent of the first and tenth anarchic schemes.

Yes, there are partial repetitions)) But if you dig through all existing templates, they all resemble each other in some way))) The main thing is that they differ in content, and the schemes themselves are similar, but not identical)

From that tournament, there is also the Triplex template, which is essentially the same Jebus Cross, but with more frequent Dragon Fly Hive spawns, 4 castles in addition to the starting one at respawn, and besides the 2 passages to the center (for each player), there is also a direct passage to the opponent with enhanced guards (this was most often used in the tournament). But I'm not satisfied with it yet — it's still very raw. Two variants were tested there. In the second variant, you started with three castles at once, which allowed for quicker restart decisions — since the distribution is better and faster, you get three times more starting army, increasing breakthrough power, and due to splitting, the respawn is cleared faster. But the distribution there and the zone sizes are exactly what require more work on it.

New regular templates:
1. BUTTERFLY
2. CHEST
3. KOROB
4. SPEEDY (MODIFIED SPEED TEMPLATE)

New mirrored templates:
1. MT_DOM
2. MT-JEB (ADAPTED FOR L SIZE)
3. MT_SKIRMISH (SLIGHTLY MODIFIED)

Here's my version of mt_Jebus.


Desert is divided by two to reduce the chance of monoliths entrances and exits generating too close to each other. (This means that desert can have two alignments.)
Zones 4-5 are empty snow terrain, added to reduce playable size and control positioning of playable zones.(there is an alternate template for Tower where empty zones are dirt terrain.)
Nominal 3k guards separating zones 2-3 to reduce chances of bugged generations.(per Wicc)

Here are some sample minimaps:


There is maybe 5-10% chance of bugged generations. Mostly roads going through empty zones. Rarely, one of the monolith is generated in an inaccessible area within the mountains, but map should still be playable. Happened once where desert guard was through a monolith instead of a ground connection.

With default treasure values, starting zones are often too poor, so I increased mid-range treasure (5000-16000) from density 6 to 8. Low-range treasure (300-3000) increased from 14 to 15. It can still occasionally be too poor.
Bad blocks along the roads seems to be the most common problem.

In desert, low-range treasure(10000-25000) is increased from 10 to 15. Even with such an increase, sometimes desert zone can still be a little sparse. Monoliths and towns are not as well spread out as Hota, but in general they still look ok.

Suggested rules:
Allowed to bypass 3k guards between desert zones.
Not allowed to enter empty zones except to reach map objects belonging to current zone.
Not allowed to visit quest huts in empty zones.

New set of templates:
Mirror Smoka - mt_2sm4d(3)
Mirror House - mt_Dom
Dom
Korob
speedy
Chest
butterfly