| abstract | - Download TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 1 TRIPLEA MAP GENERATO R MANUAL The TripleA Map Generator is a free, open source tool to generate hexagon-based, random maps for the free, open source game platform TripleA. It was designed and tested on a Win7 x64 machine using TripleA version 1.6.1.4. It is written using C# and .NET 3.5. INSTALLATION TripleA should be installed first. Unzip the TripleAMapGeneratorBundle file to a temporary folder. Copy the Random_Campaign folder to your TripleA maps folder. Copy the TripleAMapGenerator folder to your Program Files folder. Create a desktop shortcut to TripleAMapGenerator.exe. QUICK START Launch TripleAMapGenerator. Click "Browse". Navigate to and select the "Random_Campaign\games" folder under your TripleA maps folder. Click "OK". Click "Generate Map". Launch TripleA. Under "Choose Game", select the newly generated map. Click "OK". Click "Start Local Game". Change all but one of the dropdowns to the AI of your choosing (leaving one "Human"). Click "Play". TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 2 USER INTERFACE A screenshot of the UI with the default settings: TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 3 SETTINGS Setting Description XML Folder Location The location of the "Random_Campaign\games" folder. Use the "Browse" button to find it. This is where the game XML file will be written. Game Type Either Free for All (FFA) or Teams (Alliances) Width The map width in hexagons (5 - 20) Height The map height in hexagons (5 - 20) Map Name The default name starts with "RC_" so all will be grouped together within TripleA. The middle part is a time stamp to prevent overwriting previously generated games. Number of Players The number of players (2 - 8) Number of Teams If the Game Type is "Teams", enter the number of teams (2 - 4) Percent Water Determines the number of water hexagons (0 - 90) Percent Impassable Determines the number of impassable hexagons (0 - 50) Capital Size A Capital Size greater than one adds additional player owned hexagons adjacent to the capital. Each player capital is automatically a VC. (1 - 7) Capital Distance The minimum number of hexagons between player capitals (1 -19) Resources Given The initial resources given to each player (0 - 99) Per Player Boost If this amount is greater than zero, then each player, in turn order, gets this number of additional PUs, the last player getting the most resources. This only affects the initial round of play. (0 - 25) Random Seed The seed used for the pseudo random number generator. Click "New" to create a new seed. Percent Neutral Extras After capital, water, and impassable hexagons are added, any remaining hexagons are considered neutral. By default they get 1 PU and 1 infantry. A number in this text box will change a percentage of them to higher PU territories with additional units. (0 - 99) Percent Victory Cities After capital, water, impassable, and neutral extra hexagons, this number represents the percent of remaining neutral hexagons to designate as VC with 5 PU and 5 units. (1 - 10) Include Additional Units Adds a few additional units such as a 2-hit big armour and air transport. Default Tech Development to true If checked, the game generated will have Tech checked on the Game Options screen in TripleA. This may be changed after choosing the game in TripleA by clicking "Game Options" before starting the game. Default Bid The game generated will have each player's opening bid set to this value. This may be changed after choosing the game in TripleA by clicking "Game Options" before starting the game. TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 4 USAGE The TripleA Map Generator creates a TripleA game XML file which can be loaded and played in TripleA. The Random_Campaign folder contains all the resources necessary to play the game: Resource Description baseTiles The PNG image broken into 256 X 256 tiles by the Tile Image Breaker included with TripleA. flags Images borrowed from TripleA and the Tactics Campaign games This is where the XML output is written. It includes two example games. misc The VC marker image from TripleA. units Unit images for each player borrowed from TripleA, Pact of Steel, and the Tactics Campaign. centers.txt The file created using TripleA's Center Picker map.properties The file containing various map properties, such as player colors place.txt The file created using TripleA's Automatic Placement Finder polygons.txt The file created using TripleA's Polygon Grabber Random_Campaign.png The game's image file. It was created using the free, 3 rd -party MkHexGrid tool. smallMap.jpeg Image created using TripleA's Image Shrinker. Two example games are included. You may play them after copying the Random_Campaign folder to the TripleA maps folder. You do not need to run the map generator to play them. They are representative of the type of games that may be generated. When you run the map generator, only the XML file in the games folder is generated. All other resources are shared by the generated games. Since the games share the same 20 X 20 map, if a smaller width and height is chosen, the extra columns to the right and rows at the bottom will appear to be water hexagons. No connections will be generated for them, so they cannot be entered, even by sea units. The "Surprise Me" button randomizes the UI settings, and then generates a random game based on them. If there are too many players on too small a map size, then you may get a message indicating certain types of hexagons could not be created. In particular, each player must have a capital for a playable map. If you get such a message, either keep clicking the "Surprise Me" button until you get a message indicating that map generation completed, or adjust one or more of the settings and click "Generate Map". You may have to click "Surprise Me" three or four times in a row to get a completed map. TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 5 Sometimes just creating a new random seed will allow map generation to complete. Most of the time you will need to increase the map size or reduce one or more of the other settings. For example, if a 10 X 10 map is specified with a Capital Distance of 19, then the generator will not be able to find hexagon locations for each player's capital that meet the criteria. Increase the map size or reduce the Capital Distance. If Percent Water plus Percent Impassable is greater than 100, then the generator will not be able to add enough impassable territories. If Percent Impassable is set too high, then the generator may be able to complete a map, but one player may be completely isolated in TripleA. The "Teams" option tries to create the number of teams specified with each having the same number of players. If, however, the number of players is not evenly divisible by the number of teams, then as many teams as can be created will be, but any leftover players will only be allied with themselves. For example, 7 players and 3 teams will create 3 teams of 2 players each. The seventh player will be an odd man out, allied only with itself. If the number of players is less than the number of teams, then you will end up with teams of one player each, essentiall y FFA with duplicate Stats. If you generate a map while TripleA is loaded, the game will not appear on TripleA's "Choose Game" list. Quit and restart TripleA to see the game in the list. After using the map generator for a while, the TripleA "Choose Game" list will start to become cluttered with randomly generated maps. Delete any maps you no longer wish to replay using Windows Explorer. If there are games you wish to keep and replay, rename the map XML file using Windows Explorer. The new name may be any allowable name for the operating system and TripleA, but it is recommend that you keep the "RC_" prefix and avoid special characters. You should also open the XML file in a text editor and change the "name" property (on the fourth line) to match. For this version, the main window is just a shell that can bring up the map generator form (File New) or display this documentation (Help Contents). The map generator is displayed by default when the main window loads and is the only functionality currently available. TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 6 RULE SETS This section covers some assumptions made while generating certain TripleA features. INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY Industrial Production tech is loosely based on house rules. Units with an original cost of 6 to 15 get a cost reduction of 1. Unit costs over 15 are reduced by 2. Units with an original cost of 5 or less get no reduction. Reducing unit costs in this low range would represent a 20 - 50% reduction for land units, which would be un-balanced. VICTORY CONDITIONS There are no victory conditions specified in this version of the map generator. You can play until no other player has any TUV on the Stats tab, or you can assume the AI players resign once you have some overwhelming TUV ratio. You might, also, claim victory if you own all VCs at the beginning of your turn. The choice is yours. Do not expect a message stating, "Congratulations! You are the winner!" On the other hand, if you are wiped off the map, game play will continue without you. Choose menu option "File" "Leave Game" to play again, or "File" "Quit" to exit TripleA. PROPERTIES The following TripleA engine property settings are hard coded into the XML file as un-editable in this version of the map generator. WW2V2: true Roll AA Individually: true Choose AA Casualties: false Allied Air Dependents: true Submersible Subs: true Two hit battleship: true Produce fighters on carriers: true Move existing fighters to new carriers: true maxFactoriesPerTerritory: 1 TripleA Map Generator Documentation Copyright © 2013 David Neal Parsons Page 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TripleA - a free, turn-based strategy game platform TripleA Map Creator - a free tool for TripleA map creation MkHexGrid - a free tool to generate hexagon-based grids ADDITIONAL MAP DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES Pact of Steel 2 - the game XML file included with TripleA is heavily commented for developers and includes comments on the most recent TripleA engine features. Tactics Campaign - a downloadable game of particular interest to modders. There are some strange connections in the bottom half of the map. It does not appear to have been updated since 2010.
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