Map Auto-Scripting - is it a good thing or usable?

[cmfrip]

After playing Thermo today, which was ended in the enemy team nuking each other, I was wonderintg what the status was for scripting maps(I do not know the process for creating or maintaing maps - sry in advance).

A couple years ago there was a scripting system running on thermo that automatically set Thermo to it's most basic restrictions (as a standard thermo game requires that) and allowed you to add other restricitons to it afterwards - from what I remember.

Is that possible, or a good idea now? Or is it even possible, given there have been changes to 'game'.

I suggest this as the host 'appeared to be' wet behind the ears' in disabling all aa and not drones and was quite ignorant of anyone mentioning of this fact; In game however they were very vocal and against a person building on the hills and pushing with Drone pd creeping at the back of bases.

Thermo is a good example as most games do not allow players to build on hills, use air , drone attack or teleport - or that is the ideal rule list anways, yet not always true.

A side note, alot ofthe issues in this game were not solvable in this scenario; however, having a host who is a not aware of what is expected of them could fall back on default restrictions.

[PhilipJFry]

I'm neither a coder nor a map maker but afaik you can set unit restrictions in the map files (that's basically what the campaign does)
But to be honest we already have a unit restriction system that has a lot of categories to choose from so for now you should just take a look at what is enabled and what is not. Unless you can convince a map maker to create a map variant for thermo that suits you/do it yourself.

[Farmsletje]

thermo maps are the only maps were such things happen. Aside from that (or noob games with a lot of random settings and mods) i've never seen them anywhere else. All thermo hosts/games have every air thing disabled because... well... only bad players play thermo and apparently they dont like air.

[CookieNoob]

xD when I read the title I thought you wanted some automatic map generator (which does exist, there are some computer generated maps in the vault that were created for galactic war).

To answer your question: yes, it is possible and no, it's a bad idea. I totally agree with PhilipJFry, there is a restriction system in place and adding more restrictions after the game is started has several disadvantages:
1) it is not obvious that anything is restricted by the map when hosting a normal game
2) it is not obvious to everyone what exactly is restricted before the game is launched
3) it is not possible to purposely not-restrict the restricted units (need a different map version for that)

The unit-manager is a much better approach as it shows explicitly that there are restrictions and what is restricted.

[cmfrip]

@PhilipJFry
"But to be honest we already have a unit restriction system that has a lot of categories to choose from so for now you should just take a look at what is enabled and what is not. Unless you can convince a map maker to create a map variant for thermo that suits you/do it yourself."

Your're right, and i think that system is great; its very powerful, incomparision to what I was suggesting where very little can be altered. However, that sceen I think requires getting used to, as its so detailed, which is why I suggest some kind of fall back for noobs.

I will consider getting my hands dirty and making something like this , although I was going to suggest, (as at one point there would be an 'official' version like the other thermo map of the same name( I have no idea whether that is a gimik to make pre-trust)) that a moderator could say " yea this is good for what thermo is" and circulate and encourage that (which helped differentiate from maps like thermopolaye v3 which had the reclaim on the other side ).

Dont get me wrong, this is not really a massive issue, I was just thinking it would cure *some issues* where *some* people just 'want to play' and are lazy, and are not flexible or responsive in the lobby.

[cmfrip]

xD when I read the title I thought you wanted some automatic map generator (which does exist, there are some computer generated maps in the vault that were created for galactic war).

To answer your question: yes, it is possible and no, it's a bad idea. I totally agree with PhilipJFry, there is a restriction system in place and adding more restrictions after the game is started has several disadvantages:
1) it is not obvious that anything is restricted by the map when hosting a normal game
2) it is not obvious to everyone what exactly is restricted before the game is launched
3) it is not possible to purposely not-restrict the restricted units (need a different map version for that)

The unit-manager is a much better approach as it shows explicitly that there are restrictions and what is restricted.

Ah, sry cookie, I did give a disclaimer, but yea, I think I have got that wrong; not the best given the focus on recent scripting incidents ...

Yea I was suggesting some way to reduce ambiguity on the lobby so people KNOW what they are gettin before they join. I am certain alot of people dont even look at unit restrictions in the lobby...

And I say this as I notice there is alot more variation in thermopylae game setup than there was.
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thermo maps are the only maps were such things happen. Aside from that (or noob games with a lot of random settings and mods) i've never seen them anywhere else. All thermo hosts/games have every air thing disabled because... well... only bad players play thermo and apparently they dont like air.

I'm sure even you could learn something from Thermo Farmsletje. You should host a month worth of games; we would easily nominate you noob counciler then! Think about it!